Waiting, Anticipating

My oldest daughter and I are waiting on the same thing; the return of our men.

She is counting the days, hours, minutes! To her, the waiting is awful! The moments she gets to spend on the phone with him only make her more depressed when the conversation is over. She is "eagerly anticipating" his return. In fact, she's made plans, booked a hotel, and reserved a car (mine) to actually drive the 8 hours to go get him and bring him back!

I'm also waiting for my man to come home. He's on a journey that many people dream about. He flew to California, bought a motorcycle, and is cruising across the country, seeing America, talking with Jesus. I don't know the day, or hour of his return. I text him, run to the phone when it rings in case it's him. I read his emails and blog posts over several times. I share his posts with friends and family. I am preparing our home for when he returns. Making sure it's clean, in order, stocked with food!

In my time with Jesus this morning (I can't call it "quiet time," because with my Buster, there IS NO quiet time) I thought about how I could tweak these things into an excellent teaching!

I don't know the time or date of my Jesus' return. I know he's coming, but not when. I prepare the home of my heart for him, every day. I tell my friends and family that he's coming. I want to be like the parable of the virgins who had oil in their lamp, ready when the day arrives.

Jesus is really looking forward to his arrival. He is making a place for us to stay, "booking a room at a 5 star" so to speak. He's got the car ready. His Father knows the time: day, hour, minute! They are both anticipating the reunion with the Bride!

That gives me chills!

o.k. more later- I have a house to clean and a Welcome Home party to prepare for!!!

Cat's Cradle

My daughter was out of town last week. I missed her most when I tried to do things, like band practice, and she wasn't around to babysit the 6 year old noise factory. But, I should have missed her more.

Mike's been gone on this road trip, seeing fantastic things: Yosemite, Death Valley, Vegas, Hoover Dam, The Hopi Rez, the Grand Canyon! And I've been at home, doing the same old same old. I've missed him. But I should miss him more.

God showed me today that I don't take care of my time well.

Sure, I need to take care of responsibilities; the house and family stuff, church stuff, Tres Dias stuff, kids' school stuff. And I need to have "me" time: tv, books, movies. But, I also need to make time for the really important things- which aren't really things, but people. I need to actually be with my family, and with my Jesus.

This is not a shocking new revelation. We all know this. But today, I was convicted. It's a little different. Today, God kind of snapped his fingers in my face and said, "child, listen. Do you hear what I'm saying? Your kids are going away to school in 5 weeks. Your husband may not always be around. Not only are you missing out on opportunities to have memories of them, but you're stealing memories of yourself from them."

I've been chewing on that most of the day. While waiting at the orthodontist office, the oldies station played, "Cat's Cradle." "When you coming home son? I don't know when, but we'll have a good time then." Ow!

My challenge for this week: make time to spend with people first (this includes both family, and Jesus). Then fill in the gaps with house work and the volunteer stuff. I may find I don't need as much "me time" if I use this planning routine. And I may not get bored or burned out as often either.

The Road Trip, Mike's Chapter 1

Follow the title link to Mike's blog where I've posted his first chapter of the saga. Mine tells what I saw happen. His tells what he is feeling.

You should hear him, LIVE!

Mike's Bike Trip Day 1 (My p.o.v.)

Hopefully, when MTM gets settled someplace for dinner tonight, he will pull out the (cheap) Toshiba (Yes, we agreed that he should leave the Mac-Baby at home.... I might be seen chilling in a Starbuck's with it to up my cool-factor) and he might send me an email which I will post to his blog, so we get the wandering poet's p.o.v. . . . but until then . . . (evil grin)

Today was - I don't know a good adjective - surreal? yeah, not quite real.

I got up and got out the door by 4 a.m. (pretty amazing right there. I'm NOT a morning person.)

He drove, so we made it to the Airport in record time. (read, nothing legal about it, baby)

You know how some people are just able to decide to do a thing, and they just do it, and everything kind of falls into place? My life is like that. I don't usually run into snags or pitfalls. I plan a road trip, and just hop in the car and drive there. My Mom and I drive up to her chemo treatments 3 hours away, all the time. Just get in and go. Turn around come home.

Mike's luck is NOT that kind of luck. In fact, it's the opposite.

I used to tease him about his "paranoia" over trips and things. Packing a survival kit for an 8 hour trip, really? It seemed like such overkill to me. He would never stand in the check out line with me at the grocery store. He said he would jinx it. What?

Yeah- he does.

A simple road trip for him is NEVER simple.

At the grocery store, he DOES jinx the line.

True story: once, after ringing up 3 items, he handed the cashier a $100, as he let go, in the split second before she grabbed it, the doors opened, the wind from outside blew in, and the bill flew gracefully onto the conveyor belt and got sucked under... yeah.

A day trip from Colorado Springs to Cripple Creek got us stuck in snow, in a 4WD Scout, with an infant... stuff like that.

So this morning, when he saw that his flight was scheduled to depart at 8 am (local airport time), he insisted on being there to check in almost 90 minutes early. Now, I've never checked in more that 30 minutes before the flight leaves. I hate having to hang around so long. I hate long goodbyes. But of course, he was right.

I dropped him and his stuff at the ticketing/baggage check area outside. He went in to check the bags. He wanted me to drive around, park the car, and come inside, in case his bag was too heavy and he had to remove some things. I'm thinking, I've seem some of the stuff people have taken on planes, it won't be too heavy. (riiiight)

By the time I circled the terminal, parked, put my little boy's shoes on him, and we walked to the ticket counter, Mike had made it to the agent. "Checking these bags through to Phoenix? Have you paid for two?"

Mike: "Yes, I've paid for two, to San Jose?"

Agent lady: "oh, that flight's cancelled. Didn't you get a phone call?"

Mike: "Nooooo, I got a text, 30 minutes ago, saying the flight was on time, as scheduled."

Agent: (checking the computer) "Well, yes, it was, 30 minutes ago, but it's cancelled now." (smiles)

Mike: "Sooooo, what? um . .. what now?" (remember, my p.o.v. here, He was panicking. )

Agent: "Would you like me to re-book you on another flight? There's one . . . here, there's one at 8:15, with Delta, it goes through Salt Lake City. Would that be alright?"

Mike: muttering "wish I had that page printed confirming my shuttle ride, should have, how can I, well, (to the agent) yes, 8:15 will be fine, thanks. Can you do that here? Now?"

Agent: smiling again, "Just a moment." (several moments pass. Many keystrokes, the tap-tapping of the keys rattling his nerves, constricting the blood flow to his brain.)

Me: "Come on Buster, lets go look over here."

My little guy and I amble around, very slowly. He is whispering to me because he is just waking up, and is a little nervous about the new place with all the strange people. And he's very cuddly, because he's nervous, and cold. We check out the shoe shine chairs, like black thrones, where, for $10 an man can be a king for 10 minutes, having a servant bowing before him.

Finally, Mike comes around the corner, behind us. He tells us he needs to go through the Food Court and on to the Delta counter. "Where's the Food Court," he asks. Not enough blood to his brain. He's scanning the area around us, I'm looking at "Houlihan's Grill" closed at 7am. I see "Atlanta Bread," "Starbuck's" and "Seattle's Best." Since we didn't have the Mac-Baby with us, he couldn't sense the Starbuck's, so I pointed the other way, towards the Atrium, and the "Wendy's- open 24/7". He asked permission to hurry on ahead. I smiled at him to go on.

Buster and I went to "Seattle's Best" and got a chocolate milk, and a plain coffee. He was amazed at the size of the cinnamon rolls. "Yeah," I said as he pointed, "Those are as big as your head!" He's 6, so of course, he copied me, loudly, "Yeah! that's as big as my HEAD!" Which the cashier heard. It made her snicker. :)

Sipping our drinks, we slowly made our way towards the Delta counter. It took us quite a while, due to the dinosaur. Yep, there's a dino fossil skeleton in the Atrium. We admired it, talked about the number of toes on the front legs, inspected the teeth and decided it was a carnivore. Then, admitting that, no, we shouldn't touch it, we decided to finally move on towards the Delta counter.

Have you SEEN the Delta counters? It's seriously next-gen.

They totally make the other whole terminal look like a lot of Hardee's employees with steno pads and ball point pens...

Anyway, we waited to see if we would have to take any of Dad's stuff back home with us. Which would be bad, because he only packed what he thought he would need. It turned out, the big bag was 5 pounds too heavy, but he transferred his spare boots to the carry on, and everything was cool.

After that, we went back to the other airline agent, trying to get money issues worked out. Buster and I took a picture of the fascinatingly creepy giant fire ants sculptures. We said our goodbyes.

Buster and I were back on the highway by 7 am (our time). And I realized, as I posted a quick Facebook status, that I had done all that, before I normally wake up! Actually, I would be back at home around the time I normally get out of bed. Crazy.

So- for Mike, we plan for the worst, and are pleasantly surprised if my luck ever wins out. As he put it, "that's the luck of the Irish for you."

Update: he texted me a while ago. He made it to San Jose, and Santa Cruz. I din't hear whether the duffle bag did too.

The Adventure Begins...

With packing!

And leaving the packing until midnight the night before your flight,

when you plan on getting up at 4 am,

yes-

that is our adventure.

And we are not organized and neat people, so we can't find half the things we want.

And we are totally unsure about so many things: weather, stopping places, will there be water? will there be gas? will the State Troopers be understanding about the expired plates?

Ah yes, her we go adventuring.... well, there HE goes. I'm staying behind to watch the mayhem left in his wake.

Mike's Bike Trip the Pre-quel

Hey Friends

Mike & I have both prayed about this trip. We know it's kind of crazy. Both to take a bike across the country, (in July) and to be spending money right now. But we both feel like he should go.

Go where? Fly to Santa Cruz, CA, pick up a (beautiful) BMW bike, and ride her back to AL. Yep. Between 8-10 states, depending on the route. Off the main hi-ways, no cell coverage. Old school.

Why?

Let me share a paragraph that sums up the idea:

The seasons remind me that I must keep changing, and I want to change because it's God's way. All my life I have been changing. I changed from a baby to a child, from soft toys to play daggers. I changed into a teenager to drive a car, into a worker to spend some money. I will change into a husband to love a woman, into a father to love a child, change houses so we are near water, change again so we are near mountains, and again so we are near friends, keep changing with my wife, getting our love so it dies and gets born again and again, like a garden, fed by four seasons, a cycle of change. Everybody has to change, or they expire. Everybody has to leave, everybody has to leave their home and come back so they can love it again for all new reasons.

I want to keep my soul fertile for the changes, so things keep getting born in me, so things keep dying when it is time for things to die. I want to keep walking away from the person I was a moment ago, because the mind was made to figure things out, not read the same page recurrently.

~ Don Miller, from his author's preface to "Through Painted Deserts"

This book was given to me by my music friends (Ashley, Atlanta, and Katie, Tres Dias) the last time we served in T.D. together. But that's what it says. Don and his friend Paul traveled from Houston, TX to Oregon. They visited the Grand Canyon. They lived out of a VW camper van.

Thank you all for being so supportive of us during this. Mike has been living out a difficult couple of years, spiritually. This trip is also a spiritual journey for him to reconnect with God and hear His voice. So in your prayers for his safety, also ask God to speak to him clearly.

I thought you'd like to know some of the story from the CA side. It turns out, the bike is currently owned by a woman, who is very pregnant. She is about 5 weeks away from her due date. She put the bike out by the side of the road, several months ago. But no one was interested. Tina lowered the price, a few nibbles came around. She finally listed it on a bike buyers internet site. She began getting inquiries. One fellow said he would send his agent with a check. Tina was very happy to finally be selling the bike and getting some money for baby things. But when the agent arrived, she had a "bad feeling." She asked him to accompany her to the bank. At the bank, the check was proved to be fraudulent and the "agent" was escorted away. So, the poor mama-to-be was left holding the title to her bike. And she's moving.

Yep, turns out, she's moving to a different apartment, getting the baby's room ready, and the bike can't go to the new place. (Don't know why. Noise? she would have to buy a separate parking pass and then not use it after selling the bike?) Anyway, she needed to sell it, and needed to move on Friday. Mike has already bought a plane ticket to CA for Friday. So, whose prayers are being answered?

When Mike related his travel plans to her, Tina replied that she loves Yosemite and the Grand Canyon, and is so glad her Bike will get to visit there one more time before "her" adventure to "her" new home in the South.

I'll let you know what I find out when I hear from him. His phone he has now has a terrible battery, and there is very little coverage in the West once you get away from the Interstates.

Keep us in your prayers!! Thanks.

Season of Change

It's Summer.

Traditionally the time of change is in the Fall: starting a new school year, new lunch boxes, fresh stacks of paper, pencils, back-packs. We smell the crisp Fall leaves in the cooler air. The feeling of lethargy from the sultry summer begins to drop off.

But this Summer, we are experiencing change early.

Our Lead Pastor has officially left Alabama to settle his family at a church plant in Arkansas. We have a new pastor, who is just as amazing as a teacher and preacher. We have had a 90 day worship leader team, who stayed for a year and a half, finally hear from God that it's time for them to move on. We have some students hearing and heeding God's call on their lives to step into ministry leadership.

At home, MTM and I have finally (after 10 years) joined the governing board of the local Tres Dias chapter. We have finally, after home schooling for 12 years, decided to place our children in the hands of the local public school! (This brings me anxiety, but I will trust in God's omnipresence and omnipotence to keep and protect them both.) Also at home, I had reached a weight that was simply unacceptable. So I started a diet plan (hCG) and in the past 6 months, have lost 40 pounds. I'm almost to pre-baby weight from the last kid. Still 60 to go to make me happy.

So, do I like all this change? Not all, but I know I will like it. I will remind myself each day that, "This is the day the Lord has made. I WILL rejoice and be glad in it!"