A Tour of "For Now" Home

I love handing Colton, our six year old, the camera and asking hime to document events for me because it is always interesting and entertaining to get his perspective.  I asked him to take a couple pictures of our drive out to Idaho from Camas, he took roughly 150 pictures.  I just posted 3, don't worry.

That's me driving down I-84.  Mike's Uncle Mark drove his car out to Idaho for us full of our stuff, and Mike hitched a ride with him.  We had a mini caravan driving down the road.  In our car it was just me, Colton, Macie, and our trusty Dashboard Ninjas.

Colton decided to take a picture of his eyeball...

I love this picture of Macie's little foot, she's just kicked back looking out the window trying to spot windmills in the Columbia River Gorge.  (Yes those stickers are little brains.  She decorated her window all by herself.)

We are currently living in a house that a local family bought solely for the purpose of letting MAF missionaries stay in it when needed.  It is such a blessing to be able to live in this cute little house.  The house is located about a 10 1/2 mile bike ride away from MAF headquarters.  Now that we are a one car family Mike rotates between commuting to work on his bike, and the kids and I driving him to work in the morning.

This house has 3 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms, it feels like a mansion to us right now.  After living in a 1 bedroom apartment for 4 months, and living with friends for the last 3, it feels a bit weird to have this much space to ourselves.

The house even came with a giant book full of pictures of fighter airplanes!  Colton is often found flipping through the pages of this treasure.

The kid's room has bunk beds, which is very exciting.

Colton was very fascinated by the concept of rabbit ears on our tv set.

For all of the "Napoleon Dynamite" fans out there.  "I want that boat."

This is the first time our car has gotten the chance to live in a garage, it's great.  Colton loves to push the button on the remote and is the "official" opener of the garage door.  We do need to be careful when we pull in and remember to take Mike's bike off the top of the car!

Of course, home wouldn't be complete without our Indonesia pile of stuff waiting for us.

The house comes with a nice sized, fenced backyard that is big enough to kick a soccer ball around.  However, we have found that it is easy to loose an airplane over the fence.  The kids have decided that lunch taste better outside in the sun, I agree.

 Thanks for stopping by for our quick tour.

Move Again Friend

When Mike and I joined MAF (Mission Aviation Fellowship), we were jokingly told that MAF also stands for "Move Again Friend".  I laughed and thought it was a funny joke.  I also thought to myself, "Maybe it is like that for others, but surely not for me and my family."  

Boy was I wrong!  Our family hasn't even reached the field yet and I can safely say that my clothes have probably been in a suitcase more often this year than a dresser drawer.  So far we have moved from Washington to Idaho, back to Washington, back to Idaho, back to Washington, and back to Idaho...see a trend here?  In between our moves we have also traveled to Alaska, Oregon, California, Minnesota, and Arizona.  The goal of course is to eventually live in Tarakan, Indonesia; but first we will move to Salatiga, Indonesia for one year before our final move to Tarakan.

It isn't a joke.  :)

If you have been following our journey with MAF, you are aware of the fact that the original plan was to move to Indonesia directly from our hometown in Washington.  The plan has changed because of the visa delays we have been experiencing trying to reach Indonesia.  This past week we moved out to Idaho to be near MAF headquarters so that Mike can help out in the hanger doing maintenance on the aircraft.  

We said our final goodbyes to our friends and family before we left home because as soon as our visas clear we will move to Indonesia directly from Idaho.  I knew deep down inside that it would be hard to say goodbye to everybody, but it was much harder than I thought it would be.  The reason it ended up being much harder (I am speaking for myself right now) is because I realized as we were saying our goodbyes is the sacrifice we are forcing our friends and family to make.  It is one thing for me to decide to make myself sacrifice, but it is entirely different to make somebody else share in the pain of sacrifice with me.  God called me to sacrifice and move to Indonesia, but by doing that is causes all my friends and family to say goodbye.  It doesn't feel good to make others hurt.  The whole reason we are moving to Indonesia is to share love, God's love, not the pain of loss.  

I guess the reason I am writing this is to tell everybody we are leaving behind, "We love you guys!  We don't leave easily.  Thank you for standing behind us.  Thank you for praying for us.  Thank you for supporting us.  We can't do this without you.  We understand that this whole process isn't easy for any of us."

Now I am starting to get choked up, so I will stop typing and just hit "publish".  :)