Confirmation Day

5 May 2013

It just so happens that three kids we know pretty well were all confirmed today in the same church at the same time.  Considering there are confirmations going on each and every hour throughout the weekends of May and June, those odds were pretty amazing.  Of course, Philadelphia Church is a Pentecostal church and there are only two of those in our area so they only perform one confirmation per year, so it wasn’t really all that incredible, but still… the rest of the kids get confirmed at the state churches or in the “humanist” non-church groups.  What the humanists are confirming is beyond me, since the idea is that you are confirming your faith in God so the humanists are confirming they don’t believe in God, I guess.  They just want the money, as that’s really what confirmation is all about these days.  It’s a “coming of age” party now where everyone gives cash – most get at least four grand, and getting upwards of eight to ten grand is not unheard of.  Turning 15 year old kids loose with that kind of money just seems silly to me, but some of them do save it until they are 18, as getting a license to drive a car costs between 2-3 thousand dollars.  Oi.

So we attended the Confirmation service at Philly (above), and that place was jam packed, as there were 28 kids being confirmed and there were just not enough seats for the families and friends.  We went an hour early just to be sure we could sit down.  It’s a good thing they don’t have fire code restrictions here, as every wall was lined with people, the balcony had people sitting on every step going up it and folks were crowded in every aisle and standing in the lobby.  It was an insane amount of folks, all dressed in their finest suits, or bunads (below).  Formal and very fancy parties followed afterwards.

The ceremony at Philadelphia itself was much more entertaining than the ones we’ve attended at the state church where it’s just a formula and with no personality to it whatsoever.  This group of kids today formed a band so many of them were playing musical instruments and some of the girls sang along.  A couple other kids read scripture, and an entire group of them put on a dramatic skit that actually brought tears to my eyes.  Our old neighbor girl, Sabina, played the part of God, and she did a fantastic job.  It was all without words, but the message was quite clear. 

So Sabina, Kaleb’s good friend Daniel (top photo), and the foster son of a cousin, Benjamin, were all confirmed, prayed for and sent on their way into adulthood today.  We ended up being invited to all of their “reste selskap” (the “leftover party”) for tomorrow, but they are all happening at the same time so we are going to Daniel’s because his mom (above) asked us first.  They make so much food and so many cakes, it’s not possible to eat it all at the first party, and the size of refrigerators and freezers here makes it impossible to bring that food home, so it all has to be eaten up somehow… which works out well because then there’s the B list folks that also get to participate a little in the celebration, the day after. (The pattern of the bunad from our area of Norway is seen below.)

We hung out and visited quite after confirmation with the pastor of the church so Kory could find out details about helping him with a remodel project going on in the city on a house that was donated to the church.  I want Kaleb and I to help also, so maybe we’ll be starting this week.

I sat at my computer for about four hours this afternoon, trying to plan out the road trip we’ll take when the next batch of Norwegians come visit us this summer.  I checked and rechecked camping places and just sat, in tears, so frustrated that I couldn’t find a thing that would work out.  More advanced planning would have helped, and we made it extra challenging because we need a tent site along with the RV, since there will be 8 of us and our motorhome can only sleep 6.  Ugh.  I took a break, prayed, and just asked God to help me because I was about to lose my mind.  My patience had already gone out the window.

I tried again, looking at different camping spots, different areas, figuring how where we could stay each day that kept driving to no more than four hours a day… and finally, things clicked – including getting reservations on the Port Townsend ferry for the return trip home from Olympic National Park.  Whew.  Then I had to sit for another hour or so and make all the reservations and double check I had my facts straight.  Normally I like to plan trips, but this one was quite the challenge.  At least now I know where we are going and what we are doing and that takes a lot of stress out of having company.  Planning is the key.  My next step is meal planning the 10 days they are with us, then I just work the plan and don’t have to think about a thing.

After all that drama was over, we called up Odd and Turid to see if they were home, so we drove on over there for a visit.  They were having coffee with Turid’s daughter, Sara (above) and her family, and Odd’s son and his new wife.  We arrived just in time, since they left shortly thereafter to go move furniture from Sara’s house back to our condo building.  We helped with the moving as Haavard needed a couch and Sara had an extra one.  It also allowed us to get a tour of Sara’s beautiful house they bought last year and remodeled.  It’s very “modern” Norwegian style with everything white, sleek and no nick-nacks (her kitchen is above).  The minimalist movement is all the rage here, but would make me very nervous as I need a bit more visual stimulation, and after renting for 24 years and only seeing white walls, I so need more color in my life.  But all this is why thrift stores are full of lovely things from Norway’s past – because no one wants them sitting around, except me!

We had a quiet night in as the rain continued to fall… family game night is not just once a week like at home, it’s every night as there are no other distractions or projects for us to do here.  It’s one thing Kory says he likes about being here –the extra family time we have.  But then Kaleb skyped Daniel at 11:30 tonight, asking him how his confirmation party was, and I finally had to kick him off the computer at 12:15 so we could all go to bed.  It gets harder and harder to get to sleep when the days last longer and longer.