I wrote the following on my way to Atlanta yesterday:
I can’t wipe the smile off my face. My world has changed so drastically, so wonderfully in the past four months. In January I sat in my beautiful home in beautiful Colorado with my beautiful children. I didn’t know I wanted a change. I didn’t know any change could be this good. Homeschooling had become such a struggle. I wasn’t sure I was really the best answer to my children’s educational needs. I wondered if I was failing them, if our life choices were not as perfect as we had thought they would be for the children. They had no friends where we lived. My husband was not happy in his job. We lived way below the poverty level. We had to choose between driving in to town to go to church and being able to buy things like food or medicine. It was the best of times and the worst of times, as the famous saying goes.
Today I live in one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever lived (Colorado was beautiful too). We have the ocean within 10 miles of our front door. An amazing volcano that looks different every time we see it can be seen on our way to and from my job. There are white gorgeous mountains on three sides of us. This morning Tim and I saw several moose on our way to the airport, and a few caribou too. Eagles are a dime a dozen, but they never seem to lose their majestic awesomeness.
My work is more fulfilling now than it has ever been. I think I can even say that I have traveled more in the last four months than I have in the last 4.5 years doing mission work. That is not what I expected. I do admit that most of that traveling has been back and forth between Colorado and Alaska (3 times), but right now I’m sitting on a huge plane that is carrying me to Atlanta, Georgia for a week of medical educational conferences. I love to travel. I love to help people. I love my family. Life is good.
It is so cool that I am loving what I am doing, and I am at peace with what is happening with my children too. We’ve found a great Christian school where the girls are going to start their new educational journeys in the fall. Ciara (Mountain Princess) will be in 7th grade. The second week of school, I will get to go with her and the 7th and 8th graders of her school, along with some other staff and parents, on a week journey up north. We will be visiting some of Alaska’s historical sites, and finish off the week with a couple of days on the Yukon in canoes. I can hardly believe it. The kids have already made several friends each, and have been able to hang out with their friends at least once a week.
Spiritually, our lives are good. It isn’t the same as it was in YWAM. We don’t get the blessing of a new speaker bringing the Word to us each week half of the year at least, but the Lord has brought us to a place of fellowship with several families who believe very similarly to the way I do. I can’t believe it!
Socially life is better than ever. I've got great coworkers. Before we came, I had met one woman online in a forum who I knew was from Alaska. I never dreamed that one day we would be friends in the same local area. This woman and her family have opened their arms to us and welcomed us to this place with a hospitality I’ve never seen anywhere before. She brought us food when we first arrived. We were so broke…there was no way should could have known…yet she brought us enough food to get us through to our first paycheck. Good food too that met our special dietary needs. She invited us to the park to meet other homeschooling families, and helped Tim and the kids get plugged in to a group of homeschoolers right away. She and her husband invited us to the beach for our first Shavuot (Passover) celebration. She introduced us to other likeminded families there too. She and her husband have invited Tim and the kids into their home on several occasions, and Tim is feeling like he and her husband have a lot in common. I am so happy for this too. Although I work 40-50 hours a week, and although I don’t get to hang out with them as much, this woman is regularly sending me private messages to include me and make me feel special and my friendship needed and wanted. I am amazed and so pleased.
I know many people thought we were crazy to go after a vague dream of living in Alaska on the final frontier. The adventure allured us most, probably, but never in my wildest dreams would I have realized how God-prepared this place is for us, and how special and wonderful it would be.
