Now their arms are full as well.
Cathy and Jim have their little girl.
Take a look at Cathy’s blog for a picture and update.
So, this last week we made a quick run to Minnesota to get the our stuff that was residing in a room in my folks basement.
As we drive a small minivan, have a huge dog, and those pesky kids that take up so much room, we knew another vehicle would be needed to bring the stuff back to Madison so it can all be shipped together.
We looked into U-Haul, but it seemed kind of expensive, and the gas mileage is dismal on those things. So we asked my folks if we could use “the Lord’s van”. They said yes.
Now let me explain why the van has that heavenly title.
This van is a 1986 Chevy Astro van with either 243,000, or 343,000 miles on it. Nobody seems to know. My dad bought it long ago from one of those “donate your old vehicle and we will keep troubled youths off the streets by having them rehab it” organizations. I think he paid about $1000 for it. It’s a special van. The door handle on both the driver’s side and the back door are broken off and it takes pretty fancy finger work to reach in and find the little thingy that you need to pull down and out to open the door. The fan only works on high, so you get really hot in the winter and really cold in the summer. The paint is peeling, there is a bit of rust, the seats are threadbare. But the stereo is great.
One day, a couple of my aunts used the van to bring a load of furniture and other items to a home for women leaving abusive relationships. When they pulled up to the home, a gentleman came out to help unload and he said:
“I see you are driving the Lord’s van.”
My aunts said: “what?”
and he replied: “because God is the only reason that van is still running.”
So, since that day, we have called the van “the Lord’s van”.
But believe me, this is not done irreverantly. Oh no, we say this because it is true. This van defies all reason, it just keeps running and running. And I do think that perhaps this van has it’s very own group of angels assigned to it. To help it along, and protect those in it. Because God is good, and takes care of us all in ways we can’t even understand, and in ways we often fail to recognize. I am convinced that this van, in all it’s non-glory, is truly a testament to His goodness.
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That is how much time we have before the move to Alaska. It is not enough, and it seems like forever. The flight is scheduled, the tickets are paid for and we have our seat assignments. Buying one way tickets was so strange.
The kids and I will leave Minneapolis July 31st at 9:20am, arriving in Alaska 12:09pm. (Dave will leave for Alaska July 15th and will join us in Anchorage August 5th). Crazy.
The movers will come July 15/16 to pack our stuff and ship our car.
This move is so different than any other move I have ever done.
Every move I have been a part of has been on the cheap, usually really cheap. In all our previous moves, we have sold, or more likely given away, everything we didn’t feel like we NEEDED or LOVED. Furniture etc, we have never taken that, never had anything worth paying the shipping on, never had furniture that we couldn’t replace at Goodwill for $20 at our next destination.
Every other move I have ever been a part of has involved loads and loads of driving. Whether it was to nothern Minnesota to attend college, or when my in-laws drove all our stuff to Alaska after our wedding, to the different houses we lived in while in Alaska(all over Anchorage, and then the Valley), then the move back to Minnesota (7 days in a 1986 Volvo wagon, 2 dogs, 2 kids, 2 car top carriers, 10 weeks pregnant and wretchedly morning sick), the move to Madison, and then across Madison (just over a mile, but at least 40 trips in our little van).
Now, after nearly 16 years of marriage and collecting, our household possessions look a little different. We still don’t have much: a couch, a kitchen table and chairs, 9 bookcases, a big Persian rug, a couple of harps, a piano, and the most amazing computer desk. Oh, and mattresses. But not real bed-frames. That story is long and involved, I will tell you all about it some other time.
And books, we left Alaska with 53 boxes of books. Now we have more. 5 years of graduate school and 3 kids who love to read has meant that our collection has increased.
This time the move is paid for. We have what seems like an unlimited number of pounds we can move. And I keep getting told NOT to pack. The movers will come, pack up our stuff, put it in a container, ship it to Seattle where it will get placed on a barge and sailed to Anchorage. There the moving company will bring it to our new home, unload and UNPACK.
I feel a bit like Cinderella at the ball, a bit out of my league here. And loving it. This is our 4th move in 6 years. I am SO happy not to do the heavy lifting this time. Don’t wake me up from this dream.
and I jumped out of bed. Truthfully, I was already wide awake. This is not normal for me. After 5 years of night shift, I have come to appreciate a full night’s sleep more than I ever thought possible. I really LOVE a good night’s sleep.
But last night/this morning, all I wanted to do was get up and get going.
WHY?
Because this morning I got to drive my friends Cathy and Jim Stanley-Erickson to the airport, so they could catch a plane to China, where they will finally, finally, finally meet their little girl.
So join me, blog readers, in prayer:
for safe travels, all through China and home to Madison.
for good sleep for Jim and Cathy, that they might have all the energy they need.
for good health while they are there, and in the busy first days/weeks back home.
for, Kajsa (their daughter), that she may, somehow, feel the love they have for her from the first moment she sees them. And that there will be no issues relating to parent/child bonding. That she will understand, in her not-quite-one-year-old way, Cathy and Jim are Mom and Dad. That she will feel safe, not scared, despite all the changes that will be taking place in her little life.
And finally, a prayer of Thanks, God is good.
I read a lovely article this morning on a website I sometimes peruse. Much of the time I am put off by the content of this particular website, well, not so much the website, it is nicely designed and all that, but by the “blog” that is written there. A series of articles by women(mostly), some fairly prominent, within the evangelical community. Sometimes the articles seem so self-righteous, or whiny, or something I can’t quite put my finger on. But, once in a while, there is something that really hits me. And that makes the other stuff worth wading through.
I need to be honest, I read the content with a biased eye. Long, long ago, I knew one of the women who is now involved in this website/ministry, and she hurt me. Badly. A sucker punch to the gut, totally unexpected and incredibly damaging.
I haven’t seen her in a long time, we both moved away from the scene of the crime many years ago. But we have kept in touch with her husband, and he alerted me to this new venture of hers. So I started reading, hoping to soften the scar a bit. Well, that hasn’t happened. I think the scar tissue around that part of my heart is pretty thick, it was once a very big wound, and I can still feel it tug on occasion.
Back to the content of the website.
So I read this blog-thing, and sometimes find a nugget I can take with me. And today, I found not just a nugget, but a whole big rock!
A really long and rambling, and totally ridiculous introduction to a topic close to my heart.
enjoy, reflect, let me know what you think.
March 11, 2008 |
Sometimes I am reticent to invite people over for dinner. I wish I weren’t, but I am. This is why: I am tired of people talking about their personal food preferences. Any given day, I can easily list off several friends or acquaintances who are following some sort of individualized diet—weight loss or not. There’s the standard vegetarians, vegans, all types of intolerances, simple likes and dislikes, and now, the winner of the Oxford University Press Word of the Year 2007, “Localvore.” Localvores are people who eat only food produced within a hundred-mile radius of their home.
Funny thing: I’m kind of a localvore. My husband and I own a share in a CSA (community supported agriculture) farm, own another share of a dairy herd, and purchase meat from local farmers. But when I go out, I keep my localvore locked in my house.
Why? Because I love communion.
In my church, we take communion every Sunday, standing in a circle, passing the bread and the cup to one another, saying, “Christ’s body, broken for you,” and “Christ’s blood, shed for you.” I love communion. I love that we share ubiquitous foodstuffs, bread and wine. It’s nothing fancy—caviar, say, or imported limoncello.
In the New Testament, communion was utterly counter-cultural because Jews and Gentiles would sit and eat together. And they would eat the same food. These shared meals became quite controversial, too, as the early church navigated issues of eating food sacrificed to idols and whether or not Gentiles should become circumcised.
But communion, or a sort of communion at least, depending on your tradition’s theology, can happen at more places than just church. Anytime we share a meal with others is communing. We commune with our brothers and sisters in the presence of the Holy Spirit.
And as important as I believe food is—and I believe it’s very important and very socially and spiritually significant—I believe relationships with others are more important. I believe God has called us first to love others. Our preferences or ideals—even those made with sound Christian ethics or concern for environmental and physical health—should take a distant second to the first. Why? Because relationships matter and truly sharing a meal means sharing a meal—not just sitting together picking at individual plates of food, but passing a dish, and enjoying the same fruits of creation.
I lock my localvore in the house because I am not, really, a localvore. I am a Christian. My identity in Christ far exceeds my ideas and ideals about food.
So I challenge you to eat well and healthfully, but moreover, to show that you love others more than you love your ideas about food. Start by receiving any type of hospitality with open arms and an open mouth, if applicable.
Will you? What do you think?
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So was our weekend.
For months we had been planning a camping trip with our friends Hans and Lili. A state park had been picked out, campsites reserved, meals planned… And then came the rains.
It has rained and rained and rained here the last couple of weeks. Flooding all over the state, some of it quite severe.
So on Friday morning, Hans called to see if the state park we were planning to go to was open. It was. Dave sat down in front of his computer to see the roads to that state park were open. They weren’t.
Decisions had to be made. Do we try to find a new campground? Do we stay in town and have a campfire by the lake, and spend the weekend doing activities around here?
We decided to drive to Governor Dodge state park, about an hour from Madison, and take our chances. We got there, they had sites available and we set up camp. It is a beautiful state park. Loads and loads of room to roam and play. 2 lakes to swim and fish in. Big wooded campsites.
Friday night the guys went fishing, the girls went swimming. We all ate hotdogs and brats and smores. The kids were tired and went to bed early. The adults were tired and stayed up too late. Gotta make sure that campfire is all the way out.
Saturday was lovely. Fishing, swimming and a picnic lunch at the lake. And then the clouds rolled in. Big black nasty looking clouds. And the rain came down, and then the hail, then the sun came out and we decided to stick it out another night. We re-lit the fire, made “bush loaf”, some concoction of burger, onion, potato and a whole lot of garlic. Wrapped in a neat little foil bundles and thrown on the coals. Then more smores, and camp pies (chocolate/cherry/marshmallow). Yum. The kids stayed up too late, and the adults stayed up later.
The weather was beautiful until we were all tucked in our sleeping bags, and then came the rains, again. But, we have good tents and all woke up dry.
We awoke to slugs, pretty much everywhere. In shoes that had been left outside, on the coolers, and camps chairs, on the outside walls of the tents. All over the road. You could see the trails of slug slime. little journals of their travels. Yuck.
Sunday was perfect, a big camp breakfast of eggs and pancakes. And really strong coffee. A hike to a waterfall, and then through the woods. And another picnic lunch by the lake. 3pm found us packing up the car and heading home.
It was a great weekend. So fun to be with friends, and yes, a little sad as we all knew it was then last time we will be able to do this kind of thing together. We will be in Alaska this time next year, and soon Hans and Lili will be done with grad school, and who knows where they will be after that. But I can’t dwell on that, I have cried enough over this change in our lives, and now, I have to celebrate another set of wonderful memories.
Today my first baby becomes a middle-schooler.
They will have a little to do at school this afternoon, followed by a reception and then a pool party(if the thunderstorms hold off). It is not really a graduation, but what they have been calling a “moving on ceremony”. I love that title. I think it is such an accurate reflection of what is happening with Kjell right now.
Kjell is moving on:
from the little boy he was to the beginning of the man he will become. It is just the start of the process that will take a lifetime to complete, but we can already see the changes in him. In just the last few weeks he has begun to lose that little bit of softness his body was holding onto. His legs and arms and stomach are all starting to show definition, his face is less round. And that is just what it looks like on the outside.
The love and caring he displays for his siblings is wonderful. If Sunny isn’t awake when he leaves for school in the morning, he gives me 2 hugs and 2 kisses, and reminds me to pass them onto her when she rises. And for Broder, oh, that relationship is fun. Kjell works to make sure his friends include Broder in their play and conversations. It is a package deal. And Kjell never seems to resent that.
How he is handling this move is very different than just 2 years ago when we moved to Madison. He is calmer, more in control of his emotions, more concerned about how the news will affect his friends than just about his hurt. When he gets angry these days, he is much mroe likely to walk away, think about it, and then come back and discuss how he feels, rather than yell or stomp off in a huff. (I wish I could learn this skill).
His faith is strong and his knowledge of the Bible is incredible for a kid. He has probably read the Bible through more often than most adults, and he really thinks about it. Just last night, our dear friends, the Stanley-Ericksons, who also happen to be the pastors of the church we attend, were over. We had asked them to talk to the boys about Communion. We have left the decision on when to begin taking Communion up to the kids, and a few months ago had asked Kjell if he felt he was ready. His response was that he wanted to talk to Cathy and Jim, so he was sure he really knew what it meant, he did not want to take Communion just because everyone else did without knowing why and what is signified. So last night we talked about it, it was a group discussion, and it is clear that Kjell understands the sacrament and it’s importance. And he has made his decision, next time there is Communion at church, he will take part.
So…
Kjell has grown from a sweet baby, through to a shy little kid, and now to a confident, thoughtful boy moving on towards teen-hood.
Gracefully.
and almost out of control. I am sure you will have no doubt about the state of my chaotic head if you get through this whole thing.
Things are happening so fast with this move. We have found a place to live, in Anchorage. It will be so strange to be back in Alaska, and not back in the Valley. So many of our friends are in Wasilla and Palmer. Our Alaska church home is there as well. An hour isn’t a long drive, but it isn’t just down the street either.
The good news is, we have another group of friends that live on the Kenai pennisula, and now we will be an hour closer to them. 3 hours vs 4 hours makes a difference when hauling 3 kids. And there is a Covenant church in Anchorage, not far from the home will we be renting.
I am confident that if our friendships have survived(in one form or another) the last 6 years, communicating via email, phone calls and the occasional letter (Thank you Margie, for your written word, I fear I have lost the art. So I have saved each one, to read again and again), then these friendships can withstand a little bit of a drive.
And my car gets great gas mileage.
Our decision to move in Anchorage was based on many factors.
After living in the suburbs of Minneapolis, we both got really tired of the car-culture. The time and money spent running to and fro, because NOTHING was close enough to walk to, took it’s toll on all of us. It was harder to establish friendships and even cordial relationships with the neighbors because everyone was always in the car, hitting the garage door opener, and slipping into their houses with a glance and a wave. Then it was off again, in the car, across town to soccer practice, or hockey, or whatever. I know of one family that put nearly 1000 miles a week on their car, just hustling to activities. No way. Not for me.
We have come to love living near the city center. Walking to and fro. The walk to the grocery store and back makes me really assess what I need to buy, after all, if I walkt there, I have to carry it back. The easy access of the libraries and museums. The fact that I start my car 3 times a week, not several times a day. I know Anchorage will be different than Madison, and by sheer virtue of weather, we will probably drive more than we do here, but less than if we had moved to Eagle River or Chugiak etc.
Living in the Valley would have been great, perhaps we could have found a place with a little acreage, a big yard for the kids, and the dog. Maybe we could have gotten a goat or some chickens. That would have been fun. But… we agreed that we would like to see Dave once in a while, and since he will be both on the slope some and in the office in Anchorage, and since(and truly the deciding factor) he is a bit(!) of a workaholic. We came to the conclusion that the extra 2 hours a day he would spend on the road commuting were more important to our family than a bigger house with more land.
After living in a 640 square foot, 2bedroom apartment for nearly 2 years while here in Madison, 1400 sq ft and a nice backyard will feel great. (we have been in our little house here 1200 sq ft since January, so the apartment is still fresh in our minds). And just 1.5 miles from Dave’s office. Perfect.
Another factor in the whole Anchorage decision was, if we lived near downtown, we could get by with 1 car. With Dave home just 1/2 the time it seems silly to purchase another car. The one we have runs well, is paid for, doesn’t even look too bad.(my dear Alaska friends, this car is only 12 years old, can you believe it?).
5 years of working full time, while trying my hardest to mother full time, has certainly taught me the value of simplicity. I want my life to be as simple as possible, so I can focus on those things that matter: family, friends, faith.
So that is the story. Our life in Alaska this time will be very different than it was 6 years ago. I suppose that is only right. We are different than when we left. We have added our daughter to the mix, lost a dog to old age, grown in our faith, etc.
One thing has not changed. We treasure our friends and family in Alaska, and are so excited to see you all again. And when you make the drive to the “city”, you will have a place to stop and let the kids run(or drop them off while you go to Costco), share a cup of coffee/tea.
There are some really exciting things about this move.
Dave has taken a new position and he is thrilled. It is fun to see my husband so happy and a little nervous about the new responsibility. He loves a challange, and this will be one.
We will be closer to my inlaws. Dave’s folks will only be 750 miles away, rather than 4000. We love Dave’s folks, and haven’t seen them enough the last 6 years.
We have wonderful, faithful friends in Alaska. It will be great to reconnect and get caught up. Several of these friends have kids I have only seen pictures of, it will be so much fun to meet these little ones.
There will be new friends to meet. New neighbors to suck into the vortex which any house we live in seems to become.
The mountains and the ocean. The LONG LONG LONG summer days. The LONG LONG LONG winter nights. These are things I am looking forward to, that I enjoyed before, and I know I will love again.
Humpy’s, and Gwennie’s Old Alaska restaurants, rest assured, when you come to visit us, we will take you to one or both of these.
So, start planning those trips. Whether you would be visiting from the MatSu Valley, Minnesota, Madison, or Mexico(that’s a hint for you Michelle!)
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