Monday, Monday

Pretty quiet day today in these parts.  Kory’s cousin’s daughter spent the afternoon with us, which was a real treat.  She’s otherwise estranged from the rest of the family, so it’s nice she talks to us.  She’s a single mom of two young kids.  Norway provides a lot of support for single moms so she has a pretty good life.  She just finished up her high school diploma and now has a year off because she had surgery for carpel tunnel.  She gets a lot of time to herself since one kid is in school and the other is in daycare.  Next fall she hopes to start college (she’s 28), which the government will also pay for.   It’s incredible the quality of life people have here.  I’m not sure they realize just how lucky they are.  We always count on “our God” to “supply all our needs” but in Norway, the government has taken over God’s job and gives everyone whatever they need – except dental care for adults.

Tonight at the Bible study I attend, much discussion was around what country provides the best dental care, since Norwegians refuse to pay the outlandish costs charged here in Norway (which happens to be cheaper than America.)  One woman in our Bible study just got back from Spain where she had a cap put on a tooth for half the cost of Norway so it more than paid for her trip, plus she got a few days in the sun to dry out.  The cost for a cap in Norway is about $800, so it was about $400 in Spain.  Last I checked, caps were well over a thousand dollars in America.  Go figure.

Today I started reading the book that Kaleb is writing.  He swore me to secrecy about anything it contains, but I will say, I was more than impressed with his writing style.  I guess all the reading he’s done over the years has imprinted something in his brain, as it reads like a best seller, which of course, he’s hoping it will be.  It’s a good first draft, so I’m anxious to see how it turns out.  It’s a Sci-Fi book which incorporates a lot of his own life experiences, so it’s funny to see that in print.  I’m pretty proud, as he’s a much better writer than I am.

We are now tying up loose ends and the days will be fairly boring this week, I’m afraid.  Kory called to cancel our internet connection today and he told them the wrong date so I’m not sure how we will all handle our last day here with no wi-fi. He’s still working on the to do list and started to install an electrical plug-in our bathroom, which surprisingly, doesn’t have one, so this should be interesting.

No new photos today as I didn’t leave the house except tonight to attend the Bible study and it was already dark by then.  The Northern Lights were supposed to be visible but we had cloud cover so that killed that chance. (The above photo is of a poisonous mushroom - below is of frozen leaves... brrrr.)

I’m so ready to go home.  Even if it’s finally raining when I get there, I’ll still be glad to be back.  These past few months have been tough, but God is working on me through it all.