Where Do I Start?

For the last several weeks I’ve had it on my calendar to start cleaning out closets. For some reason I think this is the first step I need to take to prepare for our move. Getting rid of junk, making space for our housesitters, deciding what to bring and leave behind. But, as with all good intentions, life gets in the way. Last week my step-mom’s sister died and my two days off from schooling Kaleb were spent in Renton with my step-mom. The evenings of my days at home were spent preparing the funeral. Last week we had guests in our upstairs apartment – family of friends of ours in town for a big birthday celebration. All beds were full at the families homes so we provided for a lovely retired couple so they could spend time with their family in from Alaska. I couldn’t get to the closets that need my attention the most so I used the time to pay bills and take care of a million details life often provides (pricing new tires for our van, finding shipping companies, dog sitting the neighbors dog and feeding the goats…). This week we have a family of six living upstairs as they sold their house and aren’t ready to leave the area for a few weeks. We love this family though so we wish they would never leave, but still, no access to closets. At least I’ve made a list of things I think I need to do before we go and things to buy and stock up on for our year abroad. It’s a good thing we’ve gone to Norway as often as we have so we know what we can and can’t get there and how expensive everything is. I’ve purchased a year’s supply of clothes and shoes for Kaleb – the next size up – as one pair of jeans can cost over a hundred dollars in Norway.

The dollar is at the all time lowest it’s ever been against the kroner. I think we are nuts to go live there at this time with such a high cost of living. But one day when I was praying to God about it I felt him remind me of how scared we were when we bought our condo initially. We thought it was only going to cost $50,000 and it turns out, after it was too late to back out of the deal, we discovered the condo cost $150,000. We nearly cried. We panicked. We drank much wine and stayed up late talking about it with the cousins in Norway. But in the end, God provided every penny we needed, every time, and now the condo is paid for and God was asking me, “You’re worried about money?” I know it’s one of the easiest things he can do so I had to let it go and let him work out the details. And a part of me hopes the details include closing the door to Norway! The thought of spend $7 dollars on a head of lettuce or $12 on a gallon of gas goes against every fiber of my being… especially the fibers that like to get a bargain.

I got our first bid for moving the car and some boxes – around $3,000 – about what we expected. It will be so nice to have our own car over there and hopefully we can keep it there. We’ll see.