As we drove out of Fort Collins we were all ready and anxious to be moving on. Somewhere in Wyoming I think the stress of the summer began to subside a little. There were many things that God did in our hearts, in our lives and things that I’m so grateful for and which I hope to blog about soon, but there were more challenges than we were hoping for along the way. As if you hope for challenges but you know what I mean. The fact that we shared an apartment with another family of 4 for 6 1/2 weeks (no matter how great they were) it was pretty much death to our introverted souls in many ways. Matt and I both left feeling tired, weary, and completely run down.
The past 8 days we have been blessed beyond measure. We were able to visit Bozeman for 3 full days. We did a lot of sleeping, staring at the mountains and visiting with dear friends. The hardest part of being somewhere that you called home for 10 years is that there are too many friends to see, not enough time and we can’t do it all. Especially this time. Our extrovert tank was on zero so we had many people we didn’t get to hug and catch up with. As we drove away I probably cried for the first 40 miles. It’s hard to leave those that you count as family. I had also put Jenna to bed the night before sobbing because she didn’t want to leave her friends. It’s heartbreaking to be the reason that your child is sad. (Although I can blame God, He asked us to move.) Bozeman is the only place that Jenna has cried while leaving (besides her papa and grammie’s of course), it’s apparently etched in her heart forever along with our dear friends there. (This morning she did wake up and beg to go home though so I know that she’s excited to get back to her life there thankfully.)
On the loooooong drive to Idaho we had some excitement that you never want on a long hot drive, throw up. Isaac hadn’t been feeling well that day and proceeded to follow through on his cries of misery with vomit. What vacation isn’t complete without a little throw up? Thankfully it was short lived but a day later Jenna also had the weird 16 hour virus and also got sick. That’s two times in two weeks for her to have a stomach bug. Life just isn’t fair. That’s one thing about our kids being in kids camp at CSU that I hate. The cru flu just is the gift that keeps on giving.
We didn’t let that sickness slow us down though. We have some generous ministry partners that let us stay in their beautiful home on the lake for 4 nights and it was truly a blessing. With each sunrise and sunset it was like the Lord was refreshing our souls. It’s been a quiet 4 days for the most part with just our family. We have swam, jumped off the dock together, rode jet skis, laid in the sun, played in the sand, and allowed the sound of the lapping waves on the shore to soothe our weary souls. We even got to go to some hot springs near by with some of our dearest friends from Portland and go swimming with other staff friends at the lake. So crazy we were in the same place at the same time. Our time in Idaho has been just what we needed in order to head back to life in Portland and another year of ministry. We had no idea when we planned this vacation just how needed it would be. Thankfully the Lord did and He blessed us being measure. It’s been a vacation our family won’t forget.
Yes this is my back side and I may regret showing it to the world. But this week was fun, refreshing and like jumping into freedom. And well, maybe when you hit your mid 30’s you just don’t care as much if people think your hiney is big or not.
We drove away sad to leave such an amazing place but we also had full hearts and were all very excited to get home. We have missed Portland and all our friends and neighbors so much. We can’t wait to enjoy the last little bit of summer we have left here.
This was the note Jenna wrote as we were leaving. I love that girl.
