I had a chance to pray with one of my classmates today. Sandra is 44 and from England. Ten years ago she met a Norwegian working in England, fell in love with him, sold everything and moved here to be with him and she couldn’t be happier. She now wants to become a Norwegian citizen, but in all those ten years, never learned to speak Norwegian and she thought it was silly to try and get citizenship without knowing the language, so she’s paying to go to school to learn Norsk. Her and her husband have wanted a child for many years, but they have not been able to conceive. The Norwegian government believes she is too old now to be a mother so they won’t allow her to do any kind of artificial insemination here (it’s socialized medicine so the government picks up the tab for everything). So tomorrow Sandra is flying to Latvia for the procedure on her dime. I asked her if I could pray for her, that things would go well, and she’d get pregnant, and she said, “Of course.” So today during lunch we had a little prayer meeting and we are trusting God for the miracle of a baby for her. She’ll know in two weeks.
We woke up yesterday to the blackest skies I have ever seen. Just after I got on the bus, all the clouds broke loose and a torrential downpour ensued. All I could think about was that Kaleb only had on his rain jacket, and not his rain pants, and how wet he must be getting while riding his bike to school. Turns out he got completely drenched and he had to change into his gym clothes once he got there and wear them the entire day (his solution). So this morning, he made sure he had on all his rain gear before venturing out (see photo). He IS a quick learner (and we packed an extra set of clothes so he can leave them at school, just in case.) Aalesund is famous for “skifte vær” (shifting weather). By yesterday afternoon, I had to put on shorts and a short sleeved shirt as it was downright hot, but today it’s been solid rain. Kory’s boss stopped and bought him a complete set of Helly Hansen raingear after work yesterday, as they worked on the roof today. Poor Kory – he only wanted indoor finish carpentry work and he came home cold to the bone, dog tired, and not at all in a good mood.
Today was the day we went to the mall at Moa to sign up for a home phone and internet access! Hallelujah! It might take ten days, they said, but at least I know it’s coming. And they had a back-to-school special so they threw in a new laptop for free. Unbelievable. I’m not sure what all it can do, but we’re saving it for Kaleb’s birthday. It has a Norwegian keyboard so he’ll need it for school work as that was one thing they stressed at the parent’s meeting last night – kids need internet access – in 4th grade, no less. We left Kaleb at home and Kory and I went grocery shopping afterwards.
In grocery stores here you have to insert a ten kroner coin ($2) in the handle of the shopping cart to get it unlocked from the bin, but you get it back when you re-lock it (this keeps carts from wandering off). So we took our cart down to the underground parking garage and unloaded everything into the van. I walked up the ramp to return the cart, and just as I turned around to look for Kory, I saw the van driving away - out another exit. Kory left the garage without me! I waited awhile and when he didn’t come back I figured he was just super tired from work and forgot he was with me (it’s not beyond the realm of possibilities with him), so I walked over to his aunt’s condo (about 700 feet away) to use her phone and call him (I left my cell phone at home with Kaleb). Turns out he thought I said, “I’ll meet you upstairs,” but what I had said was, “Can you get me up there?” – where the carts were at the top of the ramp. So it was just a big comedy of errors (aka “communication problem”) but not so terribly funny when we were both so tired. It’s not like we were speaking Norwegian or anything and I just picked the wrong words like when the aunts were here on Sunday. I thought I said to them (in Norwegian) “You’re welcome to come back ANY time,” but what I said was, “You’re welcome to come back NEVER AGAIN.” I wondered what the puzzled look on their face was – but Kory quickly corrected my choice of words. Uff da.
We woke up yesterday to the blackest skies I have ever seen. Just after I got on the bus, all the clouds broke loose and a torrential downpour ensued. All I could think about was that Kaleb only had on his rain jacket, and not his rain pants, and how wet he must be getting while riding his bike to school. Turns out he got completely drenched and he had to change into his gym clothes once he got there and wear them the entire day (his solution). So this morning, he made sure he had on all his rain gear before venturing out (see photo). He IS a quick learner (and we packed an extra set of clothes so he can leave them at school, just in case.) Aalesund is famous for “skifte vær” (shifting weather). By yesterday afternoon, I had to put on shorts and a short sleeved shirt as it was downright hot, but today it’s been solid rain. Kory’s boss stopped and bought him a complete set of Helly Hansen raingear after work yesterday, as they worked on the roof today. Poor Kory – he only wanted indoor finish carpentry work and he came home cold to the bone, dog tired, and not at all in a good mood.
Today was the day we went to the mall at Moa to sign up for a home phone and internet access! Hallelujah! It might take ten days, they said, but at least I know it’s coming. And they had a back-to-school special so they threw in a new laptop for free. Unbelievable. I’m not sure what all it can do, but we’re saving it for Kaleb’s birthday. It has a Norwegian keyboard so he’ll need it for school work as that was one thing they stressed at the parent’s meeting last night – kids need internet access – in 4th grade, no less. We left Kaleb at home and Kory and I went grocery shopping afterwards.
In grocery stores here you have to insert a ten kroner coin ($2) in the handle of the shopping cart to get it unlocked from the bin, but you get it back when you re-lock it (this keeps carts from wandering off). So we took our cart down to the underground parking garage and unloaded everything into the van. I walked up the ramp to return the cart, and just as I turned around to look for Kory, I saw the van driving away - out another exit. Kory left the garage without me! I waited awhile and when he didn’t come back I figured he was just super tired from work and forgot he was with me (it’s not beyond the realm of possibilities with him), so I walked over to his aunt’s condo (about 700 feet away) to use her phone and call him (I left my cell phone at home with Kaleb). Turns out he thought I said, “I’ll meet you upstairs,” but what I had said was, “Can you get me up there?” – where the carts were at the top of the ramp. So it was just a big comedy of errors (aka “communication problem”) but not so terribly funny when we were both so tired. It’s not like we were speaking Norwegian or anything and I just picked the wrong words like when the aunts were here on Sunday. I thought I said to them (in Norwegian) “You’re welcome to come back ANY time,” but what I said was, “You’re welcome to come back NEVER AGAIN.” I wondered what the puzzled look on their face was – but Kory quickly corrected my choice of words. Uff da.
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