Showers of Blessings

Kory is not doing so well. He has so much pain last night he was actually crying. I feel so helpless. I don’t know if it’s his back pain as much as it is other parts of his body reacting to all the laying around he’s been doing. His thighs and his butt are just killing him. His cousin Odd, the doctor, is worried he might have nerve damage. Turid, his wife, and also a physical therapy nurse, thinks it’s just muscular pain from lack of use. Who knows, but Kory sure is miserable. It’s so hard for me to be around him when he’s moaning so much as it affects my mood something terrible. But then I hate to leave him alone when he’s so bad also. There is no good situation right now. Odd is sure he won’t be able to travel on Monday, but we really need to get home as it seems he won’t get any better lying here. The flight is a bit worrisome for me as it’s a small plane and I’m praying it won’t be full so he’ll be able to lie down. I can’t think about it too much or it will stress me out, so I just have to trust God it will all work out fine. I did fill the prescription for pain pills today. Kory was hoping not to have to take them but at this point, he’s pretty desperate. He said they didn’t do much, but at least he’s not moaning like he was last night. I hate that he hurts so much.

We’ve had incredibly hard rain all day today. There have been a few sun breaks as the clouds move in off the ocean, but the downpours have been impressive. It makes it easy to be inside during such weather. At least Kory isn’t missing out on “summer.”

Kaleb was with his friend Toben all day and sure cried when I went to pick him up. He was hoping to have a sleepover with one of his friends tonight, but it didn’t work out for anyone so he was pretty upset. I hate to think about him having to say goodbye, but he has said himself that time goes by very quickly, so hopefully the eight months we will be gone from Norway will just seem like a few weeks.

I went to a prayer meeting this morning with The Praying Women. I’m so glad I went because they all prayed for me! I needed it. We “soaked” a little before we prayed and I got pictures in my mind of different shaped things and it sure seemed like God was telling me that help was coming, but it would take many forms. So I’m on the lookout for that! My friend Kristen read me a Bible verse from Isaiah that was rather appropriate: “Behold, the Lord GOD shall come with a strong hand,… He will gather the lambs with His arm, And carry them in His bosom… “ I needed to be reminded of that as all this stuff going on with our delayed return isn’t really my problem – it’s God’s. I felt so much better after that meeting.

I also had a farewell cup of coffee with The Good Teacher Inga today. I told her about our trip (in Norwegian) and she told me about her vacation to France. Things didn’t work out exactly as she had planned either and she said to me, “But now I’m thinking like you, and realize there must have been a reason for it all,” so I took that as a huge compliment coming from her. We had a great visit and she was so impressed that I spoke Norwegian “perfectly.” It wasn’t really perfect, but she understood what I was saying, so that was good. It was great to have a chance to see her again and say “Paa gensyn” (“see you later”), as “good-bye” is too hard to say right now.

Kristen, one of the praying ladies, is also involved in a Bible study I’ve gone to a few times so she invited me tonight, also. She was double dipping with me today. I didn’t know it, but it was a little farewell party for me. Kristen is quite the poet and she wrote me the sweetest poem to thank me for being here this year and Tina also wrote me a wonderful note of thanks. All the women I’ve met seem to like me, for some reason. I’m not used to that. Maybe the language barrier works in my favor. The women tonight were saying prayers of thanksgiving to God for sending me here as they all felt deeply impacted by the things I’ve said in the group. It was nice to hear. I felt I was being showered with prayers, blessings and scripture as they each gave me something special along those lines. I felt so honored, but it was pretty humbling at the same time. I guess God had a plan afterall.

Missing The Dogs

Kaleb came walking into the kitchen this morning with a red face, runny nose, tears in his eyes, asking if I could keep a box of Kleenex in his room. He had been sitting in there, clutching a picture of Duchess, his favorite neighbor dog back home, crying his little heart out. He misses her so. Even after he wiped his eyes, blew his nose and got a big hug from me, he went back in his room and cried some more, letting his tears drop on the glass of the picture frame as he stared into her eyes. He then sent her an e-mail that said how much he missed her. He was spiraling downwards into a dark pit when the neighbor girl Sabina showed up and some switch got flipped and he was out the door riding his bike up and down the streets of Myrland. He was gone all day and never even came home for lunch. I saw him through the window – flying by on his bike several times with Sabina and her friends. I tried to get a photo of all of them together but they were going too fast. I’m so thankful for Sabina!

We live on a dead end street so there is very little car traffic going by – just a few cars to the houses beyond us. After the houses is vacant land, and then past that – a cemetery – so it almost feels like home here. (Kory’s grandparents are buried in that cemetery.) The best thing about where we live is the whole front of our house is nearly floor to ceiling windows and we can sit all day and watch the foot traffic. Everyone walks their dog or rides their bike past our house. It’s part of a huge loop that people make a few times a day, either to get exercise or to walk the dog. Kaleb sat for a while yesterday and timed the dogs. On average, a dog walks by every seven minutes. It’s nice to see so many people outside! I guess they get cabin fever with the long dark winters. Turid told me in the summer, the outdoors becomes everyone’s living room. I guess that’s why they all have tables and chairs in both front and back of the house. Most people also have a roll out awning covering the back of the house so they can still be outdoors if it rains. And as Odd says, “If it’s summer, we eat outdoors.” (And they do – rain or shine!)

I think the loneliness set in this morning for Kaleb because he was with just us for the bulk of yesterday and never saw Sabina. She was off to a friend’s house for a sleepover and Kaleb couldn’t understand why she would do that on the day they had decided it was HIS day to pick what they would do. I’m sure she never understood that agreement, as her English is pretty limited, but he swears she did. At least all is right in his world now. I LOVE that he is getting this “kid” time… something he sorely lacked in our neighborhood at home.

Kaleb and I picked more blueberries today (free food – woo hoo!). We bought a berry picking tool so it went quickly (I got two cups in about 20 minutes and Kaleb got three cups in the same time frame). It took longer to clean them, than to pick them, but now I have some in the freezer to make Lemon Blueberry cake for when company comes over. This afternoon I went for a three hour walk around the neighborhood. I love looking at all the houses and immaculate yards (not ours, however). People paint their houses with high gloss paint so they all really do shine. I timed the walk to Kaleb’s school – 20 minutes from our house. Now he will have real stories to tell his grandchildren about walking a mile through the snow to get to school, and it’s won’t be an exaggeration. (They have no school buses here – everyone really does walk to school.) Kory spent the day driving rods into the ground and getting his measuring system on the buildings set up – waiting for the ground to move. Remember that Carole King song, “I feel the earth move, under my feet….?” Well, I hope I don’t need to start singing it anytime soon.