A Friend Filled Day

FINALLY I was able to have a little social time today. Kory continued the division of his Aunt Ruth’s property with her two sisters that live in the same building as us, so he was pretty much wiped out by day’s end. I didn’t want to be anywhere near that event as it exhausts me and there wasn’t much Aunt Ruth owns that impresses me more than the treasures I find in the second-hand stores. Kory feels a little differently about it all, of course, as there are several things that have meaning and bring back good memories for him, so it all worked out as it should.



I got a message from My Pal Vestina yesterday, asking me if I would volunteer to be her “model” today. She is still in hair styling school and she had yet to cut long, curly hair. I trusted her completely and I needed something done with this mop on my head, so I drove into the city first thing this morning to be her guinea pig. It was so GREAT to see her again! It wasn’t like being in Norwegian class or anything, as she was all professional and had to be on her best behavior with her boss standing over her most of the time, but still, we got in a few giggles. She took my coat and hung it in a closet, offered me a cappuccino, and while I was sipping it, she began discussing the plan for my hair with her boss (see “before” photo). She moved me to the “wash” room, where I sat in a massage chair with my head leaning back into the sink. My back was getting the royal treatment all the while Vestina was running her fingers through my hair. It felt luxurious, but not so much so that I would have paid $110 for the experience, which is what everyone else pays for a basic cut that is not a model for Vestina. Boy did I make out on that deal, and my hair now looks great. She thinned it quite a bit and used some expensive product on it so I no longer look like Bozo the Clown.


Vestina was the top student in her class. Twenty women began the classroom portion of this training last Fall. Only six made it to the “hands-on” portion of learning how to cut and style hair. Of those six, only one landed this intern job, and it was My Pal Vestina. She’s a clever one, that girl. I’m so proud of her.


I would have liked to stay on in downtown Aalesund until Vestina took her lunch break so we could have chatted a bit more, but I got text message from Sandra, another friend from Norwegian class, and she was heading to Moa (where we live) and wanted to stop by. I had to hurry back home to meet her and she showed up just as I walked in the door. She brought along her little miracle baby, Karl Alexander, who has got to be one of the cutest babies I’ve ever seen (and I’m not a baby person.) I prayed for that baby more than any other, so I’m particularly fond of him anyway, but in no way prejudice.


Sandra tried earnestly to have a baby for over ten years. The last several years she’s flown many times a year to Latvia to have in-vitro fertilization, because Norway considers anyone over 40 to be too old to be a mother and they won’t pay for the procedure here. Many of the procedures didn’t “take” or if they did, she miscarried in the first few months. But then, after I and some of my friends in America began to pray for her, she got pregnant. When she was two month’s along she started bleeding and they told her she lost the baby, but miraculously, she had twins, and she only lost one. I prayed the other baby would hold on, and he did. Her water broke 13 weeks before her due date, and I prayed again every day that the baby would hang on and be fully developed. She was in the hospital for three weeks until they finally decided to give her a c-section. Karl Alexander was born ten weeks premature, but it was as if he were full term. The nurses said they’d never seen anything like it. And now, being the cutest little nine month old, he’s right on schedule with what other nine month old babies do and his mom (now age 46) and dad, couldn’t be more pleased. Sandra was surprised with how well he reacted to me – not fussing a bit when I held him or she left the room and left me with him. I was so pleased he’s comfortable with me. It’s as if he knows…. Sandra said he won’t be left alone for a minute with her mother-in-law, and he never stops fussing when she’s around – so I even trumped the grandma. Ha!


While Sandra was still here, Kory got a call from our ex-neighbor Tone, and she was at the mall and heard we were in town, so she wanted to come up and see us. Sandra left as Tone came in, so then we sat and drank tea with her and caught up on all that’s new in her life. It was great to see her again, too. So now the word is out we are back, and just as I got the house totally looking good and all boxes out of here, Kory came home tonight with boxes and boxes of junk he got in the final division of Aunt Ruth’s property and now I have to figure out what to do with all of that. It feels like I took two steps back in the process of being settled, but it hopefully won’t be for long.


Kaleb was able to spend the afternoon with his buddies after he completed his school work this morning so we didn’t see much of him today, and THAT he says, is why he likes living here so much. I didn’t want to ask if it was the part that he gets to spend so much time with his friends, or the part that he gets to be away from us. Better not to know.