A sign at the Welcoming Place at MCC in Akron, PA
The last 3 weeks have been a bit of a whirlwind. I can say I'm glad to be home (though the kids are letting it loose after being on their best behaviour for the last few weeks, which I'm glad they were!)
We left Saturday, July 20th and started the long drive towards Denver, CO. It took 15.5 hours to make it to our hotel in Buhl, ID (near Twin Falls). It said 11.5 hours on Google maps. We pulled in very tired around midnight. Luckily the kids fell asleep in the car about an hour before we got in so it was easy to move them to bed and crash! The next day we thought it might take just as long (since we had picked the "halfway" mark). Luckily it was only about 11.5 hours - and that included an almost 2 hour stop at a McDonald's playplace in Rawlins, Wyoming.
We arrived into Denver and we crashed at my good friends' place: Rachel and Ted. (I felt like we used them as a hotel in Denver but we were very grateful for their hospitality! And so good to see them again - and meet their newest little, now 6 months old).
I quite enjoyed my Monday. Rachel had to nap (she's a nurse who works nights!) Andrew must have been watching the kids. Or Malachi was napping too. The kids played so nicely together with Rachel and Ted's oldest (she's a couple months older than Malachi). I spent the afternoon doing my favourite thing: reading a book (this one was a good one about an evolving faith journey - I don't usually enjoy non-fiction, but this was a pretty easy read - I finished it that same day)! The Dr. Pepper just made it that much sweeter!
On Tuesday morning we left really early for the Denver airport.
Above: Sleeping Beauty is still cute when we wake her up! :)
Below: The Denver skyline at sunrise (taken from the car speeding down the interstate!)
The airplane ride was delayed a bit but fairly uneventful. MCC (Mennonite Central Committee) sent a driver for us and others. We waited a bit in the airport but it was a good time to have our kids run around, eat some pizza, and take a break. Plus it was pouring outside at one point!
In Akron, PA we got to stay at the Welcoming Place in the ASIA house (each house was decorated in a theme). Each house had 12 rooms arranged in 3 wings. We had 2 rooms next to each other. Kate sure loved being here as we gave her more freedom. She loved sending me ahead to the dining room (a 2 minute walk) and coming by herself.
The ASIA house
General Orientation started at 8:30 on Wednesday morning and went until 5:00pm with an hour and a half-ish lunch break. Our kids did really well at the children't orientation and Malachi skipped his nap most days as they had fun events (swimming, park, etc.) By Friday Malachi was about done though! But we had a relaxing weekend (most everyone signed up to go to New York City on a day trip on Saturday but we had decided that was a bit crazy for us!) Instead we went to Lancaster City and had some ice cream and played some pianos (they have them around the downtown area so that everyone can have music!) Sunday we went to the park for a picnic and some frisbee. Then we started up orientation again from Monday - Wednesday.
Some of the topics that were covered in our orientation:
Theology of Peace and Theology of Service,
MCC's Program Overviews: Disaster Relief, Development and Peace,
Power and Privilege,
MCC's Advocacy work,
Trauma Aware and Taking Care,
Cultural Awareness,
and other day to day MCC stuff that we need to know: finances, HR, computer, etc. Some of the topics were deep and others were just things we needed to know.
We left tired and better informed about MCC and their work. (Interesting tidbit we found out: One service worker (me) costs MCC (on average) $21,000 a year to support. So three years plus a family.... I'll let you do the math!
Feel free to donate to MCC through our giving registry!
After orientation was over we left for the airport the next morning (even earlier than we left for the Denver airport!) We were picked up by our driver at 4am EST. We arrived in Denver and even got to meet my parents and brother at their gate as they flew into Denver about an hour after we arrived.
Back to Ted and Rachel's (with the whole family!) We introduced my parents to the pastry shop where I had yet another chocolate croissant! Yummy!
The next day we headed to Rocky Mountain Mennonite Camp, elevation 9620 ft. It was here we met up with friends from 20 years ago at a Mennonite Central Committee Nigeria reunion. (For those of you who don't know - my family served with MCC 20 years ago in Nigeria. I was middle school age).
It was a good time with great people, some currently serving with Mennonite Central Committee. There was a wealth of great wisdom, information and advice for us. With lots of stories thrown in!
Having my parents around gave us a bit of a break. My mom babysat for us a couple days so Andrew and I could go hiking. (I was already gasping for air without exercising at that elevation!) We went slow and quite enjoyed our time hiking. I ate a few (okay, lots) of wild strawberries and enjoyed the view as I stopped every 5 steps to breathe!
Here's a picture at the top of the second hike. (Photo by: Michael From)
Andrew even hiked up (and down) Pike's Peak (a 14,000 ft mountain); others took the train or drove up. My mom, the kids, and I went DOWN into Colorado Springs to the zoo (goodbye altitude headache!) There was a very cool giraffe exhibit with tons of up close and personal giraffes since people (including us!) were feeding them! The kids were unsure at first but it became a highlight of our time away for them. (They keep asking to go back!) I was too busy holding them up to the giraffes to take photos of the cool experience- so I'll have to grab a photo (or the video she took) from my mom! Here's a photo of the kids at the zoo at least!
We were at the camp just under a week and then we headed back to Denver for some time (that wasn't hotel time) with Rachel and Ted and their girls. We decided to head back on the road on Friday to give us a day of rest on Sunday before Andrew went back to work. The trip back went as smoothly as one can expect with young children. (Yeah for the iPhones!) We were tired the first day (and we made it 30 miles in 3 hours at one point.... sigh) so we stopped at a hotel in Ogden, UT (yeah priceline! Boo for a cockroach in the bathroom at a 3.5 star hotel! Preparing me for the one thing I strongly dislike about Africa). The next day was a long travel day and we arrived home around 1:30am PST. It sure was nice to have a day at home to sleep and relax (and do laundry!)
That's been the last 3 weeks! Hard to believe that we only have about 3 weeks left in Abbotsford. (No exact travel date yet - but we're hoping to finish packing the first week in September and then spend a week in Alberta and fly straight from there to Zambia). I'll let you know when dates are finalized and tickets bought!
Prayer requests in the next few weeks:
1) That our condo sells (we had no showings in the 3 weeks we were gone but we have one this Thursday evening!) You know - since we've messed it all up again!
2) Packing up the condo and packing up our stuff for Zambia (while having 2 littles around!)
3) Lots of appointments so we can switch over to MCC's medical plan. Thanks to all my friends who have been babysitting so I don't have to take the kids to my appointments!
4) Saying good-byes
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