Hello, Norway!

It’s good to be home! (Our condo is above - on the top floor.)  It seems we have split personalities as it feels so good when we are home in Skagit Valley but then when we are in Ålesund, it feels great here, too.  The saying, “Home is where the heart is” is very applicable to us.

I felt so blessed Sunday and Monday as we journeyed to our home across the sea. 

Sunday morning, our church, Bethany Covenant, usually calls the 4-7 year olds forward during the service and prays for them before they get dismissed out to activity time.  But this Sunday, they called them forward and then called us forward, and had them pray for us! They prayed that God would bless our time here in Norway and we’d have safe travels.  It brought me to tears.   It so took away the anxiety I was feeling about going this year and the uncertainties about what to do with this whole fat-free vegan diet we are on.  Kale has become Kory’s main food source and that’s not even available in Norway, so I’ve been more than a little stressed about what to feed him for three months.  But after that prayer, I felt peaceful and all my worries vanished.  God has a plan and I’ll be taking it just one day at a time.

After church we stopped off at Grammy J’s house so she could also pray for us.  We also got in a quick visit before we drove our van down to our apartment building in Seattle where our manager, once again, graciously offered to take us to the airport.  We left the van in the garage down there, hooked up to electricity so the battery doesn’t die on it while we are gone so long. 

When we got to the airport, my step-mom, Jan, was there waiting to see us off!  It was another sweet moment in the day, to spend some time with her before we left.  We never get enough time with her as she lives so far away, but I’ll take whatever time I can get.

One thing I always stress about when making this journey, is how much our luggage will weigh and if we go over the allowed 50 pounds per.  I weighed and repacked our luggage half a dozen times and got every piece as close to 50 as I could.  Once they got weighed in and all were fine, I could cross that worry off my list.  But as an added bonus, and I believe an answer to the prayers for traveling mercies, the woman behind the counter asked if she could check our luggage all the way through the Ålesund!  That’s never happened before. (Photo below is view from our condo about 11pm Tuesday night.)

Normally we have to pick-up our luggage in Oslo, then re-check it in to a different airline to get to Aalesund, as Iceland Air only goes to Oslo so we have to use another carrier to fly within Norway.  This is why my stress levels go up because international flights allow each person to have two 50 pound pieces of luggage, but domestic flights, which the one is from Oslo to Ålesund only allow one 40 pound bag.  I was fully expecting to pay “excess baggage fees,” which I have in the past, in order to get all our luggage on the last leg of our journey.  But this very kind woman at Iceland Air said she could check it all the way through - which saved us nearly $100 - so woo-hoo for that!  I later found out it was because our last flight was with SAS, and Iceland Air now has an “agreement” with them, so they could tap into their computer system and even issue us boarding cards for that flight.  I guess from now on I’ll be using SAS.

So I was feeling pretty good when we got on the airplane that God loves me that much.  It blows me away that the God of the universe treats me like I’m the only one in it sometimes.  I am a blessed woman.

Our flight was on-time and without difficulties.  We all watched a few movies and and next thing we knew we were landing in Iceland.  We had about 20 minutes there before we caught our next flight to Oslo.  All of us took a short nap on that flight, and then during the four hour layover in Oslo we all caught a few more zzzz’s (above) so by the time our flight to Ålesund came about, we were doing OK with the time difference and jet lag. 

We left at 4:30 Sunday afternoon from Seattle and landed in Ålesund about 9:30 in the morning on Monday – as our body clock goes – so we all kinda skipped a night’s sleep, but that was OK because it was 6:30pm Monday night, Norway time, so we just had to stay awake long enough to unpack a few things, make a quick stop at the grocery store, eat some dinner and go to bed. (Photo below is the view of our deck from Tante Aslaug's deck next door.)

As it was, Cousin Turid offered to come get us at the airport but we insisted she didn’t as the bus goes right to our condo and there was no need to put anyone out.  As the bus was pulling up to the terminal near our condo, I got a call from my friend Tina, who was just visiting us in America, and she wondered where we were.  She was standing outside our building, ringing our doorbell and we weren’t answering.   I told her we just pulled up in the bus, so she, her husband and son, all walked down the sidewalk and met us as we got off the bus and helped us get our luggage home.  Even that was a huge blessing as we had six pieces of luggage, we each had a backpack and a carry on bag so it would have been awkward to manage all that for the block we had to walk, but as it turned out, it was great fun chatting with them as we arrived.

Tina, Are and Daniel visited with us for a few minutes as I went through our luggage trying to find the things we brought for them.  It was sure fun to see them again on this side of the planet. (Photo below is of our Home Sweet Home.)

I’d packed some fat-free vegan cup-a-soups we ate on the airplane, but Kory was still starving, so after the Johansen’s left we ran over to the grocery store to get some food for dinner.   Kory nearly left the store crying as he spied all the foods he’d love to be eating right now and couldn’t.  He’s been crabby ever since he went vegan, but he’s kicked the crabbiness up a notch now that we are in Norway and he’s vegan. 

I bought some pasta, taco sauce and tomato sauce to make a quick fat-free sauce, as all the pasta sauces had oil in them.  What a pain this diet is, but I’m not sure what else we are supposed to do.  We had salad and the pasta, which wasn’t too bad once I threw in a few more spices and a can of corn.  Norwegians add corn to everything so it worked with pasta, too.

After dinner we went down to see Tante Kari about 10pm. (Photo above is yhe view from our condo on the entry side on our way to Kari's condo below.)  She gave us the usual squeal of delight that we were back and her smiling face was a welcoming as it gets, and a great way to end the day, or days, as it were, since they kind of blurred together there.

Tuesday morning I had to start “resettling” our condo as the family that stayed here for five months this winter put a lot of things away so their kids wouldn’t break stuff.  It’s going to take awhile before everything is back in it’s place but at least I got the kitchen and living room mostly reorganized.

The sun hasn’t been shining much in Ålesund this summer, but today it was hot and as sunny as it can get, thank you Lord!  Kory and I took a long walk down to the car registration place to order up new plates for our van, so hopefully we can drive it soon.  We also did a little more grocery shopping along the way.  Kaleb took his bike up to Skaathaugen where all his friends live, to see who was home.  He only found one friend in all his searching, but at least he got a little time with Henrik before the day was done.

Tante Aslaug dropped by this morning to welcome us back (she was gone all day yesterday). Cousin Kari came by also to greet us, but it was a quick visit because she’s busy now with Kory’s brother, Gunnar, who is staying with her for a few weeks. Kaleb’s third cousin, Beate, came by with some roses to thank us for bringing some things to her from America, and to invite us over for dinner soon.  And cousin Odd and Turid came by to greet us and also to invite us over soon.  This is how it goes.  We rarely get drop-in company in America, but here, it’s a revolving door and that’s partly why we love it here so much.  Life is just so social.

We all walked over to the mall tonight (which is attached to our condo building) to see about getting the internet hooked up, buy some light bulbs and a few other things for the condo.  Kaleb ran into three girls that were his classmates when we lived here in 2008.  One of the girls said, “You’re in Norway?” and Kaleb thought that was a pretty funny comment considering she was staring right at him, so he laughed for way too long over that one.  He later thought of several funny responses he could have given her, so I guess he’ll be prepared for the next time. 

No one felt the need for a nap today so the jet lag seems to be a non-issue.  We went next door to visit with Tante Aslaug about 9:30pm just to keep us all awake a little longer, and that worked great.  There is still much to do to get settled, but it sure wasn’t a bad way to spend our first day back in our Home Sweet Home across the sea.  Hallelujah!