Celebration Park

Lately I've (Angie) been tired, not just physically tired, but emotionally tired as well.  The roller coaster that has been the "normal" for our lives this past year has taken a toll.  When I get tired like this I don't need to veg out in front of the tv or read a book, I need to get outside and enjoy God's creation.  Luckily Mike understands this about me and after he came home from work last night suggested driving out to Celebration Park for a hike.

Celebration Park sits right on the Snake River.  When we told the kids the name of the river, Macie's eyes got very big.  We explained to her that the river wasn't called the "Snake River" because it's full of snakes.

Boise is only about an hour drive this side of the time zone line, so the sun stays up super late this time of year.  We were still hiking past nine o' clock and it was still bright (yes we are a family of night owls).

There was most definitely a hatch going on and the fish were rising to the surface of the water like crazy.  I could tell Mike wanted his fly rod so bad!  Of course it in storage back home in Washington.

Here are a bunch of pictures.  It is so pretty out here!

Macie is really into bouldering (climbing rocks) right now. 

This is a converted railway bridge which is a walking path now.

When you are a mom you get the chance to suck up your pride and carry around princess lunch boxes your little girl "promised" she would carry on the hike.

Colton is pretending to sleep in this picture.

So tired.

We are Batting One Thousand

Thursday morning Mike and I carried out our daily morning ritual by checking our email inbox to see if we had any news from the travel department at MAF, and we finally read the words we have been waiting for since we turned in our paperwork last June.  All four of our visas are here!  We were thrilled to get such good news. 

Then our day took a turn for the worse.  

Ever have one of those days where you feel you just need to go to bed so that you can put an end to it so bad things stop happening?  It started out with small problems.  Colton started to feel crummy and ended up with a fever by the end of the day.  On the way to our celebratory dinner at Chick-fil-A his flip-flop blew out (minor  I know, but still unfortunate).  On the way home the clutch went out on our car.  To top it off when Mike turned on our iMac to research how to fix the clutch he got the "beach ball of death".  Our hard drive crashed.  Apples are not supposed to die!  This is the point of the day where I wanted to throw in the towel and just go to bed. 

It is sometimes easy to focus on the negative and feel let down after a day like we had, but if you examine it closer you can see the hand of God at work in the midst of it.  I didn't mention it earlier, but our car broke down 1/2 a block away from home.  Isn't that a miracle?  I thought of all the places I had driven the car earlier in the day, and counted the amount of times I shifted gears.  The fact that the clutch broke so close to home is a miracle.  

Mike was able to tow the car with a tow dolly and truck MAF owns to a hanger full of tools and aircraft mechanics.  What a perfect place to fix a car.  Now we can sell the car with a nice new clutch in it.  The clutch was starting to take a bit of "finesse" to down shift, not the best selling point.

Is it a bummer our computer hard drive crashed?  Yes it is, but we had it properly backed up and there is an Apple store in the Boise Mall.  We took it in to the Apple "geeks" (or are they called "geniuses") and they are installing a new hard drive for us, no big deal after all.  Imagine if the computer crashed one month from now in Indonesia?!  What a headache that would have been.  

As for Colton he woke up the next day feeling better, nothing a day of laying on the couch watching cartoons couldn't fix.  He is also rocking a brand new pair of red flip-flops, his favorite color (his old flip-flops were blue).    
  

      

Three Out of Four Ain't Bad

Three out of four...the amount of visas in our possession at the moment.  Mike and the kids have their visas, yay!  My visa has a minor typo and will be issued soon we are told.  This is great news for us!  Visas are moving in Indonesia, our friends, another MAF couple also awaiting their visas received their's this week.

Our family has most definitely missed the May language class in Salatiga. We don't have exact dates or plane tickets yet; the next language class start date is July 5th which means a departure date of June 18th (ish).  We will let you know when we find out our exact departure date.

Are we disappointed that we missed the May class?  

Not really...and this is why:

Mike and I have been praying for God's timing awaiting our visas and moving to Indonesia in June will actually work out quite well for our housing situation.  All of the MAF housing is currently full in Salatiga at the moment and if we were to move to Salatiga this May we would have to stay in an apartment until the end of the month.  Which basically would mean one more move, and one more transition for our family.  God knows what is best for our family and I am grateful he is relieving us from an extra move!

In the meantime we will continue to live in Idaho, while Mike works at MAF headquarters.  

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".  :)

Colton Turns Six

We celebrated Colton's birthday a couple days early this year to fit it in between all of the packing, sorting, and goodbyes.  It was important to us to hit pause for a day, even though we are super stressed out and busy getting ready for the move back to Idaho, to make Colton feel special for a day.

Mike asked Colton what he wanted for his birthday dinner and Colton requested fried chicken, mashed potatoes, cherry tomatoes, and juice.

You'll never guess what type of cake he requested.  Yes, he wanted an aircraft carrier birthday cake again, making this the 4th runway-themed cake in a row.  He placed a fleet of aircraft on it all by himself.

Colton is growing up so fast, he was actually able to read his birthday cards by himself (not the fancy cursive writing though, he skipped over that).

Colton added some more Legos and airplanes to his collection.  Everybody did a very good job buying SMALL presents for him so that they will fit in his suitcase.

Cousins hanging out one last time, oh how we will miss cousin Riley!  One of the hardest goodbyes is going to be with our dear, sweet cousin Riley.

Gateway Church Sendoff

This coming Sunday March 30th is the last weekend we will be attending Gateway, our home church in Washougal, WA before we move.  Mike will be sharing for a few minutes during each of the three services (Sat 6:00 Sun 9:15, 11:00).  The church is hosting a potluck to send us off on Sunday after the second service.  Please stop by between 12:30 and 2:00 to see us one last time before we move on Monday.  We would LOVE to see you!  It is a potluck so bring a tasty dish along if you are able.

Here is the address to Gateway: 
1235 E street Washougal WA 98671