Home Again

We're back in Olympia. We have some recommendations to make:

· If you need to go to Los Angeles, fly, don’t drive. It’s a honkin’ long drive! Two days at 9 or 10 hours a day.

· If you have to drive, drive something comfortable. You’ll be sitting for a long time.

· And drive with someone you love: you’ll be spending a long time with them.

· If you have to tow something, use a truck with a diesel engine if you can. We’ve been so impressed with this truck (my dad’s) on this trip.

· Time your drive to miss the Portland rush hour. Dang! They know how to have traffic jams!

· Redding is a great place to stop as a halfway point. It’s almost exactly halfway between Olympia and LA, and there’s a wonderful church there.

· There’s a coffee shop in the church’s lobby that makes great coffee. They have this five-shot thing called Nancy Cobb’s Barnburner or something. That’ll put hair on your chest. You probably want to make sure you want hair on your chest first.

· It’s wonderful to travel with the grace of God. His presence is really cool, and all kinds of problems almost happen instead of actually happen.

So we’re home. We have missed our kids, and we’ve already had several sock fights. My son was remarkably eager to install the larger TV into the living room with the video games and the DVD player. My daughter the craftsperson is excited about the tools and supplies we brought home – and almost went into apoplexy over the gold leaf!

We have a lot of work to do with the things from the estate. We have even more to do to help Sue’s mom deal with her finances. She really has spent all she has on staying in her home, and we’re working on other options now, mostly other options for her to stay at home, not a group home of some sort. She’s definitely getting stronger, but – contrary to her own perceptions – she is not getting strong enough to be on her own again. That could be an interesting conversation when she thinks she’s strong enough to be on her own, and nobody else sees it that way. . .

She’s also recovering from another infection, a doozie that’s resistant to all oral antibiotics, so she’s going to the hospital every day for a week to get her antibiotics intravenously.

We’re also praying for more people to help with the care-giving so Sue doesn’t have to respond to every little thing every time something is out of the normal. She’s pretty worn out.

It seems that FeedBurner isn’t sending out my updates recently, and hasn’t been for a little while. You might visit the website for the last few posts. I’ll send these out manually until I have a chance to figure that beastie out.

You’re a wonderful blessing!

David

Finishing up in Los Angeles

We’ve just finished a couple of very challenging days in Pasadena. We’ve been down here going through Charlie’s things. He was 70 years old, a very gifted interior decorator, and rather a tormented man.

We’ve been going through his possessions, throwing away some things, taking a whole lot of things to Goodwill (three truckloads), and packing up the rest. We’re hauling his damaged car home, and both the car and the pickup are full of stuff.

It’s been really emotional for Sue: “Oh! I remember that!” Much crying. Much weariness working many many hours.

And much grace from God. Rather like walking in warm footsteps: every step we took had had God’s foot there seconds before.

We’re learning so much about trusting God. It’s really cool. Stuff goes wrong, yes, but He’s quick to point out the “way of escape.” After one load-up place today, I noted we had more extra space than I expected. I thought it odd: God’s more efficient than that. The next stop had quite a lot more stuff we needed to load (two table saws! Bunches of tools). It fit perfectly. Freakily perfectly.

And something weird had happened with our cell phone account: we have a couple hundred extra minutes, so we can keep in touch with our family. Cool.

Much visiting with people remembering Charlie (or, as he was known here, “Chuck”). Many tears.Good tears of remembrance.

We're leaving very early tomorrow morning, provided we wake up in time, to head north. Hoping to beat the crowds out of town.

Thanks for your prayers!

Greetings from California

Did you know that California has weird freeways?

We’ve made it to Los Angeles. It’s already been an adventure, and we’re tired, but we’re glad to be here. We ended up driving my father’s diesel truck, and we’re towing Rick Thale’s car dolly. That’s been interesting; more in a minute.

We’ve seen:

• Sue starting our trip with the flu. We considered changing the schedule, but decided not to (with her blessing!)
• An overturned logging truck (yesterday) that blocked all northbound lanes of I-5. I was stunned at the percentage of trucks to cars (about 80% trucks!)
• An extended time in the Alabaster house in Redding (oooh, we liked that!)
• Sue & I have had a wonderful time together, talking and laughing and listening to interesting things. We’ve listened to several sermons, to Abbott & Costello’s “Who’s on First” sketch, to several science fiction short stories (from Escape Pod; I recommend "Squonk the Dragon" and "Nightfall")
• A wonderful visit with friends in Redding, where we borrowed a guest room for the night. I got sick in the night and couldn’t enjoy any of Sherry’s spectacular coffee this morning. Darn it!
• The truck has driven wonderfully, but for about an hour this morning, the cruise control wasn’t working. We prayed for it, and filled the gas tanks (yet again!), and since then, it’s worked perfectly. Thanks, folks, for letting us use it!
• The car dolly wobbles quite a lot. At one point – driving 65 mph through central California – one of the taillights rattled off, and apparently hit a car’s windshield. An uninsured car’s windshield. Sigh. Now we get to deal with insurance issues. (A good place to pray, eh?)
• Since the taillight was gone, the dolly was illegal to drive. So we stopped at an auto parts store in Woodland, CA (where the heck is that?) and worked on replacing the light for a couple of hours, but we couldn’t make it work.
• Since we needed to get magnetic towing lights to pull the car, we went looking for a U-Haul place. But first for lunch, and when we were checking out, the lady asked, “Did you find everything?” and Sue pops out with “No, we need a U-haul place!” and she gave us directions to the biggest and the best U-Haul place I’ve ever seen. They sold us the lights for what I was expecting to pay for renting them, and helped us get them connected. Then he went above and beyond, and found the problem (a blown fuse in a weird place), and gave us a replacement fuse, and everything works again.
• The freeways in California in the night are full of trucks in a hurry. Dang!

It is certainly being an adventure. I was just thinking that in the days of covered wagons, this trip would have taken three months. No wonder I’m tired, and I’m going to bed. Tomorrow, we start meeting people. Yikes. There are a lot of folks we need favor with, and a whole lot of decisions to make.

And we’ve got a lot of packing to do. The goal is to head out early Sunday, heading for points north. We'll see how that goes.

More news as we get the chance. Thanks for your prayers!

Heading to California

It's been kind of the opposite of "Hurry up and wait!" as we've been waiting, trying to figure out the details, and it seems that they've all of a sudden come together.

There are still some details to come together, but it appears that we're heading to California on Wednesday (tomorrow, as I write this). It turns out that it's considerably less costly for us to drive down and back, perhaps half the cost, and at least twice the flexibility.

We're still praying for the details to come together regarding access to the storage facility, connections with several of his friends, and little details like a place to stay while we're there. And we're praying for a safe, smooth drive, for our kids while we're gone, and for Sue's nerves about the trip.

At this point, it looks like we'll be gone most of a week; we'll stay with friends in Redding, which happens to be the mid-point of the trip. Cool. Two days driving, two days in LA, two days driving back.

We're also praying for the myriad of decisions we'll need to make while we're down there. There's a whole lot of information that we don't have, that will affect our actions.

In one sense, there's a fair bit of conflicted emotion: this is a great deal of hassle (the unknowns, the work, the time away, how many other things?) for a beloved brother who's gone. In another sense, there's a fair bit of a sense of adventure as the trip will certainly be an exercise in trusting God rather than trusting ourselves. I guess we aren't as adventurous as we were when we were younger. Good thing God is every bit as faithful as He was when we followed Him to Hawaii, the Philippines, Canada, Germany!

November Begins

Well, this week has certainly been interesting. Uh... that's both positive and negative.

On the negative side are only the practical details of our lives and the responsibilities there. Yeah, there's a whole lot going on, and so what if it's overwhelming. Yep, it's true.

But on the positive side: we're getting to watch God's hand at work; we're privileged to rely on His strength. We have the honor of saying with the Apostle: "When I am weak, then I am strong!"

Do you know, the Bible is actually true! That is so wonderful!

So the situation is still odd: Sue's mom is at home with in-home caregivers and we need to figure out a way to pay for that. (Do you know anyone who wants to buy a 1973 Cutlass Supreme with low miles?). The more urgent issue is that her in-home care – which she desperately needs – has eliminated any solitude she had, and she had gotten very used to solitude.

We’re still trying to figure things out regarding Charlie’s estate in California. We can’t get the car shipped up her for technical reasons, so we have to fly down there, but now the storage unit people are getting weird. Please pray for a smooth path there. We really want to meet his friends and finish the details of his life and death.

The tree is almost gone from our yard. We’re hoping to finish it off this weekend between the rain showers. The insurance company is being nice so far, but then they haven’t written a check yet either. We’re looking forward to a peaceful and equitable resolution; if they pay for our time as they said they would, it may cover the trip to California.

Sue & I are withdrawing from just about everything we’ve been doing; we’re being husband/wife, we’re being parents, we’re worshipping regularly, and we’re maintaining a few friendships, and everything else has pretty much gone by the wayside. It’s so odd not being responsible for this and that in the worship services we attend. Our marriage relationship, for example, is growing in new ways, and our relationship with our teenagers is actually pretty good! They’re wonderful people, you know!

Thanks so much for your prayers! You’re keeping us alive, and on task.

The End of October

We've come to the end of October. Thanks for your prayers this month!

Our family celebrated Christmas this last weekend, and it was wonderful! We actually took the top of the tree that fell on our house the week before, and used it for our Christmas Tree. Josiah had to work that morning, so we had "Christmas Morning" in the afternoon, and it was a wonderful family time. Then we had The Big Breakfast, which is part of our tradition, and we invited teenage friends with us to go play Frisbee Golf at the Highways Department buildings near the capitol building. And rather than having a big turkey dinner, we had a Mediterranean Pizza for dinner.

Corrie leaves for Germany on Monday. Yikes. And it's on a one-way ticket. Yikes again! She believes that Germany is where God is calling her, and she's holding out for a job (and a work visa) over there; please pray to that end: we don't want her to be gone, but if she's hearing God say this, we want to support her in it! If you'd like to be on her monthly mailing list, you can email her at angelschild77@hotmail.com.

I need to either fly to California and drive a vehicle back, or pay to have it delivered. Looking for wisdom here. This would not replace another trip later, of course. Sigh. I'm getting to meet (by phone) some of Charlie's ("Chuck" as he was known in California) friends in California. Neat folks.

Sue's mom is back home; I said that last time, didn't I? She has 24/7 in-home care, which means we're facing some substantial financial mountains, though we have confidence that God has a plan for that. There are regular visits to the doctors, of course. Please pray for relationships: between Sue, her mother, and the caregivers. As you might imagine, the issues there are significant enough that tension wants to creep in.

We finally got the tree cut off the stump: it's bigger than my dad's pro-grade chainsaw. We're still cutting it up. We need folks to help work on the tree, and we need the use of a pretty hefty chipper for the limbs. We think we have a home for the firewood, but if you know someone who may want some of the compost from the chipper, please let us know.

Sue & I are stretched pretty thin. Frankly, we have a lot to cope with. We're trying to let go of most everything else and focus on our family right now: that and work, and not much else. Your prayers are the difference between coping and not coping. Thank you!

The pace is picking up again

The pace is picking up again, which stretches us again.

Sue’s mom improved enough in the past week that the doctor released her to go home. So she’s at home now, with 24-hour a day in-home care. It’s costly, but a long-term care facility isn’t really an option in her mind. It seems that the move has stirred up a fair bit of gossip, most of which targets Sue. That’s hard, so we pray for Sue’s strength and for the end of the gossip.

Regarding Charlie’s estate, things are coming to a head. We’ve been counting on help from his friends in California, which isn’t working out nearly as well as we wanted. One or both of us will probably have to travel to LA shortly; since I have the vacation time, it’ll probably be me. We’re finding the Pasadena police to be very helpful, though there are some other organizations to be far less helpful. We’re praying for advocates at the mini-storage and at the impound lot where his car is. Please also pray for our finances: this is cleaning us out fast!

The tree in our back yard is on the ground; we’re putting in what time we can every day to cut it into firewood lengths (that seems the best way to dispose of it: give away the firewood), and pile up the branches. We’ve put in about 50 hours (we’re keeping track) and I’m thinking we’re halfway done. The (small) hole in the roof is fixed; we’re working on fence and gutters. And we have yet to finalize arrangements with the insurance company.

Overall, our spirits are doing well, though things go up and down in waves. Right now, TJ is feeling the heat the most; we’re praying for strength in her.

We’re celebrating Christmas early this year: this weekend. Corrie will be heading back to Germany (on a one-way ticket L) shortly, and we wanted to share the holiday with her. So we took a piece of the tree from the roof, mounted it in a chunk of firewood, and we’re calling it our “Christmas tree”. I refer to it also as our “Lemonade tree” (“When life gives you lemons…”).

Thanks for your prayers!