Won't You Be My Neighbor?

This weekend we got to spend some time with a couple that will be foster parents and our neighbors starting this June. It was amazing how much we had in common. They even grew up in a church with Brethren roots. They were passionate about serving the kids here. They had a lot of great ideas for our foster community, some of which Jen and I have been thinking and praying about for a while. We are excited to have them here. I brought them around to meet a couple of the other foster parents. We went from house to house and heard a lot of stories and advice. I remember the first time that Jen made the same trek a couple of months ago. It was pretty overwhelming. But it seemed like the new couple enjoyed it. I did too. I had heard some of what was said but there was a lot that I hadn't heard. Even after the many days that I have been working here (less than a month) apparently I still have a thing or two to learn.
One thing I heard about was that we live right near where "Last of the Mohicans" was filmed. The fort scenes were filmed on Lake James just a few minutes from our campus. Some later scenes were filmed on Table Rock nearby.
We also went with our two foster kids and the new couple to one of the local state parks. It was a much longer drive than had been expected so we didn't get to actually hike as much as we would have liked but it was still beautiful. We got to see one of the lower falls and the water was freezing into these amazing icicles. Since there was freezing you can probably guess that it was a very cold hike. The younger of our foster kids had a red little nose and rosy cheeks and it was one of the most adorable things I have ever seen. I look forward to going back when we get our dog and hiking those trails some more. It was an amazing weekend. We feel very blessed to be here. It is a great community with many unique and caring people, soon to blessed by two more in June. We look forward to seeing what God has for us next.

God is Good

I began this blog unsure of what I was going to write about. I started thinking about what God has been doing through us in just this short time. We have had a couple of kids for the past two weeks. It has been an adjustment, but a good one. I am learning how to be a mom; how to plan meals, make one trip to town for everything rather than 20 (I am so used to having a grocery store across the street), be a taxi cab, and be firm (my biggest struggle). I love it though. I feel like God has truly blessed Michael and I during our time here. My greatest fear in moving was that I would miss my family so much that I wouldn't be able to fully function and be present. However, the Lord has carried me through the struggles with homesickness (although I really haven't had many). As I have gotten to know the kids in our house, almost daily I hear one say that they can't wait to go home. I understand that desire. I felt it many times growing up. Last night one of our kids became extremely upset and frustrated about some of our rules. I tried to keep my cool but felt frustrated and just wanted to make her understand why this rule is important. After a frustrating conversation, she went to her room and I let her cool off for a bit. After praying with Michael and discussing what had happened, I went into her room to tell her that we loved her. When I entered the room, she apologized for her attitude and shared her struggles and anxieties. It was amazing how the Lord worked. I was able ot pray with her and cry with her. It is amazing when you are able to talk with someone and feel such a connection. I felt like God was in the room. When I left the room, I gave her a hug and told her we loved her and her response was "I love you too. Thank you for making me laugh and taking my mind off of what is going on." It was such an amazing blessing to see how God worked through such a difficult situation and to hear words of appreciation. I feel like God blessed me so much in that short half hour. God is so good! I know that this may not be a common response with all of our kids and I have a feeling that this was probably a very rare case, however, I am praising God for showing me that He is working through us. My prayer is that we will continue to bring our kids before Him on a daily basis and that we will see even the smallest of successes. I feel so blessed to be here and see Him working in me as well as in those around us. I feel that this is exactly where God wants us right now and that our strength and patience come from Him alone. "Always rejoice, constantly pray, in everything give thanks. For this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus." 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18

Carolina Waits For Me

The song “Carolina” by Benjamin Gibbard played as we pulled the U-Haul away from our teary eyed family. We were a little bit teary eyed ourselves. “Carolina” is a song sung from the perspective of a guy who is packing light and heading to, you guessed it, Carolina. Music is of course a huge part of any road trip and this song was a more than obvious choice to start our journey. We weren’t exactly packing light. Although we got rid of a lot of stuff we were still in a big ol’ U-Haul dragging our Ford Focus on a trailer behind.
We headed out of town following a semi truck, the first of many that we would encounter on our cross-country trip. This one had “Be a flirt lift up your shirt” written in the dust on the back of the trailer. Nothing like stumbling onto fine poetry by aspiring scribes on the open road.
The mountains in southern Oregon were one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen. The tops just barely poked out of the heavy fog. It was otherworldly. I felt like we might just be stumbling into Middle Earth.
As soon as we got into California we sought out an In’n’Out Burger. We pulled into the wrong driveway. This was our first difficulty with turning around with a trailer. The trailer does not like to go the way you want it to go. You have to think opposite of how you naturally would with every turn. Jen got out and helped direct me and we made it into the right parking lot and had some tasty fast food.
Driving through the mountains of northern California we listened to the song “America” by Simon and Garfunkel. One of many excellent choices on a road trip mix tape created by our good friend Neal, much thanks to him for the tunes. As we were heading through mountains we realized we were running low on gas. We stopped in a nice little mountain town that we never would have guessed was even there. It had the most expensive gas on our trip. I guess when you are in the middle of nowhere you can charge pretty much whatever you want.
We had decided to head south through California to avoid some nasty weather in the north and to hopefully see some family before we headed to the east coast. We drove by Six Flags…who needs roller coasters when you have a U-Haul and California roads? I realized that we have been very blessed to live most of our lives with Oregon’s infrastructure. We drove through Los Angeles-and I mean through it, only stopping for gas yet again. We stopped for gas so many more times than I would have liked to. Who would have thought that a mondo huge U-haul packed to the gills dragging a trailer would be a gas-guzzler?
I wish we could have connected with some more family in Cali than we did, but we got to hang out with Jens cousin Adam in San Diego, that was nice. We met his girlfriend and she is awesome. We had dinner at a Mexican restaurant called “Gringos” which is rumored to be owned by Pauley Shore. Hhhheeeyyy bbbuuuuddddyyyy.
When heading through Arizona in late evening we were pulled over by a cop. Jen was driving and I was trying to sleep. I rarely got to sleep on the road without some type of big interruption. The lights on the trailer were out. The cop was actually the nicest cop I have ever had the pleasure of running into. He said that we were literally the fifth U-haul he had pulled over for this problem so we did not get a ticket. He gave us a notice that we could keep as a souvenir. We just put on the emergency lights on our car and headed off again. Since we had headed so far south I wanted to make up some time by basically pulling an all-nighter. I bought a five-hour energy drink and drove north toward Flagstaff and I-40 which would take us the rest of the trip. It was just me and a bunch of truckers driving through the Arizona mountains in the middle of the night. Apparently a couple of trucks didn’t like to be passed. One decided to speed up, honk his horn, blink his lights and swerve into our lane. This left me a tad bit shaky for the rest of the night. We pulled over once we had reached flagstaff for a couple of hours of sleep. It was 22 degrees so once the heat leaked out of the cab we did not get much shuteye. Jen drove the majority of the next day as we headed out on the most boring stretch of our trip. Driving the strip of I-40 through Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma and Arkansas is basically nonstop brown.
Everything is bigger in Texas including the $2000.00 fine for littering. I’m glad we didn’t get hit with that little fundraiser. We also saw the biggest cross on this hemisphere. It was advertised as “a spiritual experience you will never forget.” I may be wrong but the size of the cross doesn’t really determine the significance of it. It’s more what happened on the cross that makes it a big deal. That’s just me though.
In Oklahoma we almost bought a German Shepherd puppy at a truck stop. I have never wanted one before but a coworker at our foster care community has a couple of German Shepherds and Jen and I kind of fell hard for them. We’ve been kicking ourselves for passing up that puppy. We want a dog so bad.
In Little Rock, Arkansas we stayed at the grossest Motel 6 we have ever experienced. In the first room we found a mouse that had pooped all over. In the room that we ended up in I found a huge cockroach but killed it and hid it before Jen could see. In Little Rock we also blew a tire and had to pull over to a gas station to wait for U-Haul roadside service to come and replace it (again, Jen was driving). We were blessed that it happened in a city instead of on the open road. God kept us very safe.
Things got greener the farther east we headed. We drove through Tennessee and it was beautiful. We stopped in Memphis briefly so that I could see Sun Records where Johnny Cash, Elvis Presley, Ray Orbison and so many other greats recorded for the first time. It was pretty awesome to stand where the Man in Black stood. It was kind of depressing though to see that one of the most important places in music history had been turned into a gift shop.
We stopped in Jackson at a large country store and tried fried green tomatoes for the first time. They were very good. We then stopped in Nashville, planning to stay for a couple days to sightsee before heading for the homestretch to our Carolina home. We wanted to take our Ford off of the trailer and drive around but the battery had died. Then I locked our keys in the car. We had to call a locksmith to get them out. After we got our keys out of the car I tried to unlock the trunk and the key broke off in the hatch. The only sightseeing we did was at Waffle House (great), White Castle (gross), and Taco Bell. But it was nice to chill in our hotel room after so much driving. North Carolina is the most beautiful place I have been. I didn’t think I would ever find a place with more trees than Oregon. As soon as we pulled up to our house we were greeted by a ton of kids that helped us unload, thus ending our road trip as well as a rather lengthy blog. More updates will follow. Thanks so much to everyone who has kept us in your thoughts and prayers.