Rain, Rain Go Away

Kaleb’s last day of school is tomorrow and then he is off to a church retreat for the whole weekend with some of his best friends. He’s like a stranger in our home as we haven’t seen him much this week, or since we got here, for that matter. Lord only knows what he’s being exposed to. He now knows all the Norwegian swear words, but fortunately, has the good sense not to use them. I think he knows the American ones now, too, as they are used quiet often around here. Uff da.




I picked him up from a friend’s house around dinnertime tonight so we could take the ferry across the fjord and have dinner with another relative that has a granddaughter three months younger than Kaleb. It’s so nice they can now communicate. They were sharing a crib the first time we were here visiting with Kaleb when he was five months old and they’ve been together every year since then, but this was really the first time they’ve played so well together. Kaleb’s Norwegian is very good and I finally got to hear him speak it. He won’t talk Norwegian around us at home, so it was fun to eavesdrop.



I went to my last prayer meeting this morning with The Praying Women. I’ll be back in the loop next April when we return, but it’s always sad to say goodbye. They are a good bunch of women who really do love God and want to be closer and closer to Him. We spent a half hour in soaking prayer. I fell asleep for a few minutes as I was so tired, but it still felt good. When I woke up I got a picture in my mind of all the books stacked around my desk containing all the family history for my friend Stuart. I thought how nice it was it was all written down, just there for the taking. Then I thought of the Bible verse that says God has written all our days on earth down and before one of them comes to be, he knows which one is our last. It was then I got the idea/picture of a book with several blank pages and I thought how sad it would be if I came to the part of the farm history book that contained information I needed, and the page was blank. I felt it was the same with my life, and my relationship with God. When I DON’T spend time in prayer or Bible reading or just being quiet and listening to God, it’s like that day passes and there was nothing written in the book – it was just left blank. I got very convicted of that thought because I’ve spent so much time reading the farm history books, that the last few days, I’ve neglected my Bible reading time. Oops. It was a swift correction and a good image for me to think about so I’m glad I took the time to listen to God today. I don’t want any pages missing from my book, that’s for sure. As much as I love journaling, I imagine God does too, so I need to give him something to write about.



I found out today that all the security personnel are on strike right now in Norway. I had no clue how that would impact me, other than some of the airports have shut down because there are no security workers. I also discovered later that all the cash machines are out of cash as there are no security people to bring more cash to them, so the whole country is feeling the impact. Maybe by Monday we can’t fly home, who knows. But these strikes tend to be over fairly quickly, so I’m not too worried. I’m just glad I have some extra cash right now, or I’d really be hurting, not being able to use our cash card from America to take out money. Ouch.



Cousin Odd’s daughter, Hege, was in the newspaper a few days ago because she was the first student in the history of her junior high school to EVER get “straight As.” They have a different grading system here, it’s from 1-6 (so it was all 6s). Most everyone is quite satisfied to be a 3 or 4, as that is average and what is expected. It’s rare to get a 5 and if that ever happens, a party usually ensues, but a 6 is almost unheard of – even in just one subject. It’s so opposite from America where everyone is expected to get straight As if they want to do anything with their life. Norway doesn’t have a prestigious university system, so there is no motivation to work hard to get into a good school. But Hege, she is driven by a force unknown. She loves to study and she is very smart. Last year she got nearly all 6s so this year she set her mind to trying to accomplish the ultimate goal, and she did. Everyone was astounded. The headline read, “The Queen of Sixes,” (she got 14 of them) and there was a photo with her smiling face holding up her report card. But the funny thing is, as we have been bragging about her to everyone we’ve talked to lately, they are all very concerned that she’s not well rounded enough, not social enough, not spending enough time with other kids her age, if her grades could possibly be so good. She spends too much time studying, in their opinion, and that’s not good for a happy life here in Norway. Socializing is everything. And now, our socializing is soon over. Sniff, sniff.