So Long Ordinary

About a week and a half ago, we should have been on a jet plane, headed back to our home, life, and ministry in Indonesia.  Um.  We didn't go. No visas. Visa purgatory. At the same time, this delay has been just what we needed.  It has given us a few days to rest, to recover from all the craziness of our furlough travels.  It has provided us with extra time to deal with a medical issue (more on that later).  It has freed up a weekend for camping with my family and for being able to see my niece off to college. It provided us a chance to see our friends and mentors whose influence brought us to MAF as they prepare to head back out on a new assignment themselves.  It has given us a little more time so we could go visit Sean's cousin, finally visit the Denver museum of Natural History, and see Sean's sister and our brother-in-law again.  It gave us a weekend to drive out to eastern Kansas to see my Grandma Jean (a precious weekend with her, by the way) an...

Sean's been gone to Spokane for training in the Kodiak for almost two weeks and we're missing him something terrible!  Praise the Lord, we are DONE with our homeschool year and the girls and I are hitting the road this weekend to head up to Nampa where we'll meet up with Sean at MAF headquarters.  It'll be fun to hang out at the MAF apartments until Sean finishes up some more training and then as a family we will drive back to Colorado by way of Yellowstone, the Tetons, and maybe a few more National Parks if we can. More nature, more camping!  Hooray! These are the last of my favorite family pictures from our camping trip in Moab.  Ahhh...such great memories to treasure.  Sean also has some awesome scenery shots but I'll let him share them on his own blog.   Landscape Arch Pine Tree Arch Love thems.... Her joy is pretty contagious! Running down a steep hill of sand...can you think of anything more fun for kids?   See?  Contagious Joy.

We did a little more exploring this time in Moab.  Our girls are able to do a lot more climbing and they were far more excited about things like petroglyphs and dinosaur footprints than they were last time we camped in Moab.  Family trips keep getting more and more fun with these three! Okay, so we found these petroglyphs because we accidently veered off the trail to see the dino prints.  But, look what we got to see up close!  Awesome! They really are as tough as they look.  ;-) Strong in pink. Aha!  There are the dino prints! We also found Onion Creek - this was off the beaten path, outside of Arches and by far our favorite place.  We followed this creek for quite a ways through the rocks.  Stunningly beautiful. I told you these girls are tough.  Look at them holding this rock up!

Found these older photos from about a month ago of the girls riding horses.  This is getting to be a fairly regular occurrence around here and the girls are loving it.  Especially Brooklyn, who is a down-home country cowgirl of the first order.  She's in her element here....though, with a lot yet to learn!  She may or may not have fallen off a mule the other day.  At first she was really upset that it happened (no physical hurt other than a little stiffness the next day) but when I informed her of the fact that ALL cowgirls have to have their first rodeo at some point...and also related several of my own experiences on horses when I was a child, she was just plain proud of her (mis)adventure.  I'm just proud of her tenacity and cowgirl-ness.   I'm proud of all my little cowgirls!  And thankful for a Daddy/Grandpa so willing to share this incredible family legacy.

After Easter, we took off on a camping trip to celebrate Sean's birthday...and just to enjoy some real nature and fun outdoors as a family for pretty much the first time in 4 years.   We've been re-discovering our love of nature and outdoor activity on this furlough and it has been so rejuvenating.  Ironically, we don't get to enjoy much nature in Borneo, other than the occasional boat ride to see orangutans or taking a dip in the swamp or river.  We just can't spend this kind of time outdoors in Indonesia because a)it's Asia, there are people everywhere, b) most "National Parks" in Indonesia are pretty inaccessible to a family like ours, c) it's too hot and humid to really enjoy ourselves camping, and d) we couldn't get the ingredients for s'mores anyway, so what's the point? All joking aside, we really have been LOVING America's National Parks and wildlife areas.  Our time at Arches National Park in Moab, Utah was just what we needed....

Thanks for the sweet comments on my last blog post.  Yes, if there is one thing this overseas life has taught me (but there are waaaaaayyy more than one) it is that "home" is not here on this earth.  And I am so glad! I came across this article full of quotes for third culture kids ...but it applies to all of us living overseas so well. There are many good quotes that struck a chord with me, but this one from C.S. Lewis hits the nail on the head: Image by RachelPiehJones {link to http://www.babble.com/contributor/rachelpiehjones} We had an awesome week last week and I'm still just trying to crawl out from under the laundry pile.  We took a family trip to Moab, Utah....but more on that later!  First, some pictures from our Easter!  We had a great Easter with my family and even got to go to our home church - an awesome treat.  The girls enjoyed having an Easter egg hunt with their cousin, Audrey.  We may or may not have enjoyed a tasty ham. Pork Pro...

You know it's bad when you see people you haven't seen in four years and all they have to say to you is, "You haven't blogged in a very long time!" Okay, yes, I've been a little quiet on this space these past few months. To tell the truth, furlough has been a bit of a roller coaster for me, and I'm still trying to find my bearings here in the land of plenty.  America, you are way too much for me.  Truly, I still have panic attacks every time I walk into a store.  I want it ALL - because it is there to buy.  And then, I realize, I don't need that - it doesn't fit into a suitcase...or, I'd be sweating buckets if I wore that in Indonesia....or, maybe bowls made out of bacon aren't exactly the best use of my money.  Or are they? Building a snow man with cousin Audrey (February 2014) Can I tell you how much I am loving waking up in my parents' house every morning, hearing my kids teasing my Dad or my Mom reading a book to them in her little ...

Last night was a night I won't soon forget.  It was special - a celebration of 47 years together for my parents.  These two.  They've been through an awful lot.  But here they stand, 47 years later, still in love - probably more in love than they were way back when, right before they moved to Savannah, not long before he headed out to war while Mom stayed back in Kansas and waited.   Last night, it was just the four of us, around a small table at a rickety steak house in a little mountain town up the road. With brief flurries of snow falling outside, warm, twinkly lights inside, and the constant flow of decaf coffee delivered by a slow and careful waitress, we laughed and joked and ate and remembered.    The four of us.  We've been through an awful lot.  We've added to our numbers - husbands and five little girls, each of them a treasure - but for just one night it was the four of us again, and I was taken back to when I was a kid, and we all...

Whew!  I can't believe we've been in the States for just over 3 weeks already.  We've been so busy catching up with loved ones; adjusting to colder temperatures, higher altitudes, and time differences; soaking in the peace and quiet; shopping, shopping, and shopping; savoring the farm life; and eating Mexican food! First of all.  I want to say, "Whoa, America, your stores are impressive!"  Oh. My. Word.  And your manners!  Your, um, clothing choices!  Your hairstyles!  Your really nice big wide roads!  And your dairy sections, America!  Your Delightful Dairy Departments.  Sigh.  So, as the reverse culture shock works it's magic on my senses, I'll just let you get a little glimpse of the things we have been doing and enjoying these past few weeks. (These are just a small sampling, we've been terrible at actually using the camera, even on our iPhones!) Traveling...I think this was in Tokyo.   We visited  Cabela's ...

The girls and Ester.  Ester is a sweet, shy, quiet little girl from next door.  She's also our helper's daughter, so she comes over almost everyday to play with the girls while her mom works.  On Friday, she just wanted so badly to spend as much time as possible with us, so we brought her with us to the MAF dock to say our good-byes.  All four girls spent the time at the dock playing around in the grass.  (Remember that post of the girls playing in the water a few weeks ago?  This is that same area, now bone-dry.) We're going to miss Ester...and so many other friends here. I'm not going to mention how very much we will miss our MAF family. (okay, guess I just did)   Sniff. Well, what a surreal feeling.  Our house is pretty echo-y.  Since we're having the interior painted while we're gone, I took down all of our pictures and wall hangings.  I also put away breakables and special items that might get damaged just sitting around the house f...