Oregon Dreaming: April 2009

We've been faced with a few challenges these past few weeks. The first major one was Justin's job. Right after we came back from vacation, he was told that he would be transferring to Palm Springs to open the big new store. This was a difficult transition for us. We have been rather spoiled having Justin work so close to home. We now see this as God making His leading more evident in our lives, although at first we were very uncertain of where His path was taking us. Please pray for Justin as he continues with his schooling, internship, work, and also his safety as he travels.
Another decision that has arisen is one that I thought we had pretty much settled. We decided to home-school Hero and leave Jericho at CCS for one more year. We have now been given the opportunity to leave both of the children at CCS for only a little bit more than it would have cost if we home-schooled Hero. While financial issues were not the main reason we were home-schooling, we are thinking of taking advantage of this opportunity. Other factors have arisen that are leading us to this decision. Please pray for us in this issue. Our decision needs to be made very soon and we are still weighing our options. We want to glorify God in all areas of our life including the way we educate our children.

Here is a recap of our trip to Oregon, along with the promised photos. We left for Oregon at 3 PM on Friday afternoon and made it to Salem before noon on Saturday. I drank a Monster coffee in the middle of the night and drove for six hours straight (not counting potty stops.) We were blessed with wonderful weather on the way up. We stayed in Salem with Justin's sister and family. The kids LOVED visiting with their cousins.

On Sunday, we went to Grandma Hilde's birthday party. All of her children were there, along with most of her grandchildren and great-grandchildren. It was great to see family we haven't seen in a while. We were also able to see our friends from Grace Baptist Church. I was so thankful that we were able to be up there for that weekend because it allowed me to attend the concert of a friend from my college years.

On Monday, I was able to visit with some of my college friends and their kids at Riverfront Park. It was a beautiful day and such a fun visit. The kids especially liked riding on the carousel.

Tuesday we left for Eastern Oregon. We had a nice visit in Hermiston with my Uncle Frank and Aunt Diana (and their horses.) They fed us a yummy lunch and let the kiddos each have a turn riding the horse. Of course, they spoiled us as well. We each left with a chocolate bunny!

From there it was on to La Grande to stay with my in-laws in their new home. We a great visit with them. Daddy had fun showing the kids the town where he grew up.

We left Oregon Friday afternoon and decided to take a new way home. We traveled down through Idaho, Utah, Arizona, and Nevada. It was faster than driving back the way we came, but it was definitely not as nice. We ran into thunder storms in Idaho. Then we ran into snow in Utah. It was the middle of the night and I was driving. It came down so bad that I couldn't see where I was going and Justin had to pull me over to the side of the road. Justin took over driving and stayed behind a semi going about 20 mph. God was good to us. We didn't have to stop (we were afraid we would get snowed in) and we made it safely out down the mountain. the last leg of our journey was difficult due to the fact that there are not any rest stops along the 15 in Arizona and Nevada. This is not a good thing when you have four kids and one is having major gastric-intestinal problems. I won't go into details in order to spare my son embarrassment. So that was our trip, and although I miss Oregon, it sure is good to be home.