Summer's Here!

The last week and a half we were in Aalesund, it rained like the dickens. I think they had more rain in those ten days than we’d seen the entire year. Everyone began saying that Fall was in the air, but that is now a land far, far away and we have landed in the middle of summer here in the Pacific Northwest! It’s been hot since we got home but we live in the shade of some very tall evergreen trees so our house has been wonderfully cool and inviting. It’s been perfect for unpacking and putting things away but if I move around a bit too fast, I break a sweat. I hate to sweat so I’ve been moving pretty slowly.

Poor Kory, he has to just lie around on his back, all bundled up as he apparently has poor circulation compounded with no meat on his bones or fat to insulate him as he says the house has been too cold with all the windows wide open. He’s finding all kinds of things to be crabby about. The worst thing is that projects are calling his name and he can’t respond. He feels it’s his duty in life to fix everything that’s broken. Fixing them gives him a reason to live. He’s managed to fix a few of them already from the recliner chair but now I’ve suggested he needs to get a bigger project going, set the timer for one hour and get up and work on it in five minute increments every hour throughout the day. He needs to move every hour to keep from getting blood clots, so if he just focuses on little easy things, at least it will give him a sense of accomplishment while he’s healing. He liked my idea but realizes many things require lifting or bending and he’s not able to do either of those things just yet. He’ll find a balance somewhere, I’m sure.

Kaleb came home early today with his friend Tim, as another friend, Riley, wanted to see him before she left on vacation tomorrow. So the three of them hung out at our house today, keeping Kaleb well occupied and out from under my feet while I unpacked all our luggage and all the boxes I’d shipped home. Now I have to deal with the piles I’ve made as a result, but things are starting to get back to normal. (See photo of Kaleb with his pals from yesterday. Today I took no photos. I couldn’t find the camera in all the mess. Uff.)

I made a run into town and needed to stop every so often to absorb all the changes that have taken place since we’ve been gone. New houses popped up, old houses torn down, roads changes, stores closed – so much isn’t the same. But enough was that I didn’t get lost, and I completely enjoyed driving our very nice Honda Odyssey with automatic transmission, automatic steering, air conditioning and a backup camera – all things I sure would have enjoyed in our van in Norway. And I nearly cried when I pulled into a parking spot at Costco because they are so HUGE. It was just so easy. I used to have to jockey back and forth and back and forth to even get into one spot in Norway with our big Chrysler van, so indeed, everything is bigger in America. Hallelujah.

Both Kory and I have been touched by how many calls, messages and visits we’ve gotten from people welcoming us back home. I guess we can’t be missed if we don’t go away, but we sure weren’t expecting it to be like this. It’s nice. Very nice. Timothy’s mom, Cindy, stayed a while this morning and helped me with a few things while I cleaned out the refrigerator. It was nice to be distracted from the task. And all the prayers that got us home were so appreciated. Kory cut way back on the amount of pain medication he took today and will try just taking aspirin tomorrow to see how it goes. I do believe he’s healing quicker than expected as he’s sure come a long way in three weeks.

We haven’t spoken a word of Norwegian to each other since we’ve been back. I think many thoughts in Norwegian now and at the grocery store I kept saying, “Unnskyld” (excuse me) as I passed someone. I’m also not totally back up to my American English. The way I spoke English in Norway was very guarded with simple words, no slang, and easy concepts so I knew I’d be understood. I haven’t fully relaxed yet in just letting the words fly out of my mouth, but I’m sure that won’t take long to get back.

(A special thanks to everyone who has been reading the blog to keep up on what’s going on with us. I’m so thankful I won’t have to find all the words to describe to everyone what happened while we were gone. It was truly an incredible year and we are so thankful we had the opportunity to go. The blog helped me feel more connected.)

Everyone should dare to dream such dreams and then sit back and wait for God’s timing to make them come true! Hallelujah!!!

Our Ship Came In!

We got a call today from Oslo that our boxes made it safe and sound so hopefully they will clear customs tomorrow and be trucked to Aalesund Thursday. Hallelujah! It took me the better part of the day to fill out forms and FAX information to the shipper in Oslo to get everything approved. I went to the post office to see if they do FAXing because it was a lot closer than going to the library to send it. Up til now I’ve dealt with the woman at the post office speaking only Norwegian and managed fine, but today I had to speak English to her. “Do you FAX here?” I asked. “FAX?” she asked, “What’s FAX?” I tried to show her with hand signals what the paper looks like when it’s sliding through the machine and I just kept saying, “You know, FAX.” She shook her head and finally said, “No.” Then a woman standing in line said to the woman behind the counter, “Fox” and the postal worker said, “Oh yes, FOX – yes, we FOX!” and she saved the day. Such are the subtle differences in this language – it’s all in how you pronounce the vowels.

Kory went to work again this morning (see photo of him in his new work clothes heading out the door). Now he is home and lying on the living room floor with his feet up on our new couch trying to keep his back from going out. He bent over a bit more than he’s used to while he was laying hard wood floors so he’s taking it easy tonight. At least he has tomorrow off. (He won’t tell me how much money he’s making because he’s afraid I’ll start budgeting it out.)

Kaleb met his teacher today – Ragnild (they call them by their first names here). We went up to the school (everything is UP from here – we’re in a sink hole!) to see where he goes tomorrow and where his classroom is – if you can call it that. Each grade level has its own entrance to the building and the kids all enter into a changing room where they take off their outer wear and hang it up and put on their “indoor” shoes, then they sit on their bench until the teacher comes to get them to take them to a learning area. There are 90 kids in the 4th grade this year so they have four groups of kids. Kaleb has 28 kids in his class “4C”. They break into even smaller groups for different subjects. The teacher said she can give Kaleb an 8th grade math program and a 2nd grade Norske reading book, all of which is good news to me. At least they target individual learning at the level where the kids are at. Very cool.

I found out there is a before and after school program too so that solves my dilemma of what to do with Kaleb on the days that Kory goes to work. Hallelujah! It will aid in getting Kaleb socialized and speed up his Norwegian language skills. They do lots of fun stuff too but mainly they help the kids get their homework done (it’s a program similar to the one our church does for the migrant kids in Mount Vernon only this one is run by the Aalesund Kommune and it’s for all kids with working parents). If Kaleb goes three days a week it costs $250 a month, which seems like a bargain to me. I was so happy to hear about that option! And there were some boys there today (in that program) that will be in Kaleb’s class and they were thrilled to meet him. They were all chattering away, excited that Kaleb’s changing area was next to theirs and they got to meet him first. They were so cute and it pleased Kaleb to be so welcomed. I’m glad we put Kaleb in the 4th grade and not 5th (as the school had recommended) as those little 4th grade boys don’t quite have that “edge” that older boys have and Kaleb has been pretty protected -- so emotionally I think he would fit best with the younger boys.

The teacher asked him today if he is excited about coming to school. He said, “I’m excited about tomorrow and then we’ll see after that.” He’s practical, if nothing else. I start school tomorrow too so I’ll miss walking him to school on his first day as I have to take an early bus so I’m not late. So now both Kaleb and I will be experiencing the same thing at the same time – and Kory gets a little quiet time at home. Too bad we had to travel half way around the world for that to happen. I think he’ll be shouting HALLELUJAH a lot so maybe it won’t be so quiet after all.