Getting Established

Our first week at Alconbury was a blur of activity, orientation, coping from jet lag, meeting new people, and diving straight into ministry.  Stephanie Hardy (pictured left) was the outgoing Community Director.  She did a great job of welcoming us and filling us in on everything we needed to know... sometimes to the point of information overload! 

She introduced us to the Bowling Center: not just a place to bowl, but a popular lunch hangout with a full menu.  (Our boys had to get in game too.)  In the weeks since, I've already been here several times to meet kids for lunch.  The high schoolers can leave school for their lunch break, and it's a short walk to the Bowling Center.

We have been housed on the base in the TLF (Temporary Living Facility), which is basically a hotel, each suite with a bedroom, small kitchen and a living room.  Cozy and liveable!  It's been especially nice because there are a couple other families with young boys that have become friends to Eli and Liam and a nice playground just outside!  We were also blessed by some beautiful weather our first few weeks in England.

Our first Club (pictured) was Tuesday, the day after we arrived!  It was cool to dive right in with meeting kids and leaders.  Tuesdays are full days: the middle school kids come over to the chapel annex right after school for snacks, then it's middle school Club, then high school dinner, then high school Club! The next night was my first Wednesday night Bible study with both the middle and high school kids.  I was encouraged by the small group that showed up and with their interest and questions.  We've started studying the book of Mark, but I anticipate a number of healthy "rabbit trails" of topics of discussion as we go week-to-week!

The hardest part of week one (as well as since then) has been adjusting to different life, and a different pace of life.  The slogan I often repeat is "Everything just takes longer here."  Sometimes it's due to the military culture.  Sometimes it's the British culture.  Sometimes it's just our own unfamiliarity or insecurity!  For instance, to do ANYTHING on base we needed an ID card, which I didn't get until then end of our first week.  Which meant we couldn't shop on base, start a bank account, get a cell phone, go on/off base by ourselves, buy groceries, get our PO box... You get the idea.

But we've learned a lot since then, and (sometimes) things are moving faster now.  We've met lots of great people at the chapel and feel well taken care of.  We're excited to see what God does in our lives and with kids on base as we go forward!

A Tale of the Travel Day (in photos)

  The adventure started in Grayson, GA, as Andrew and Hilary so generously offered to drive us to the International terminal at Hartsfield in Atlanta.  We left their house around 6:15pm.  About four minutes later, Liam was already out, and slept all the way to the airport.  (Note: This wasn't a good thing.)













After we got there, the slow meltdowns began.  Liam was grumpy about being woken up. Eli was tired. The British Airways check-in line was about 3.2 miles long.  We were SO thankful to have good friends who waited with us and helped with the kids!   We spent a while in line desperately trying to find the children's Benadryl we packed for the journey.  We searched every bag... but never found it.  You can see below how frazzled Ginger was, how unamused I was, how tired Eli was, and how patient Andrew (and Hilary) were!

 Once we got to check-in, everything improved.  Never-Shy Liam made a new friend, and we found out how accurate the Wii-Fit was to weigh all of our bags.  ALL of them were right on 23.0 kgs - the max allowed without overage charges! Whoop whoop!

We were a comical sight with our many bags, pregnant waddle, and sleepy boys; but we made it to the gate, got pajamas on, and life was good.  The boys were super excited about being on the plane and it wasn't long before they were asleep.

 BUT Liam didn't sleep super great.  So he was awake a lot (as was Ginger, who had to walk around often - y'know, being pregnant and all).  She watched two and a half movies, and Liam got to see most of Monsters U again.














Not surprisingly, Liam was tired through border crossing and customs, and kept wanting to lay down.  Eli was a trooper, and kept trying to help.  God was gracious to us through customs - the line was rather long, but after waiting only about 5 minutes, an agent approached me: "Are you with the pregnant lady?"  I am.  "Follow me."  She led us to the front of the line, and we were through pretty quickly.  Hooray!

Eli's picture to the right is his first official picture in England!  The picture at the bottom is the 4 metric kilotons of stuff we brought on the plane.
... And now the REAL adventure begins!

Figuring it out

One of the challenges in this move is helping the boys to understand not just where we're moving but WHY.  Though Eli wasn't initially too excited about the idea of selling our house, they've been excited for some time now about moving to the land of Mary Poppins, and where they can see "that big clock tower."

On our last night in our house, I opted to read them the first story of Abraham (or Abram at the time, for purists).  We talked about moving with your family to a country you've never seen, just because God wants you to.  We talked about how it's scary and exciting and hard, all at the same time.  But Abraham did it, and we're going to do it, because for some reason God chose him (and us) to do something that would help more people know about him.

So at the end, I asked them what they thought about us moving to England to "go tell military kids about Jesus"...  Liam said: "Hey Dad!  We could call England - Canaan!"   Well... that's not quite as figured out as I hoped, but close enough. 

And I told Liam: "That's a great idea... but we're not really going to do that..."

Leaving

To pack up one's family for 3 (or more) years to head overseas, leaving a place you've been for a decade is quite the emotional process.  It's tough to know "how" to say goodbye to people.  Do I act like "Oh I'll see just see you soon"?  Or is it "I may never see you again"?  Or "Wow, we've shared a lot of life together"? Or... or... or...

Some farewells were more tearful than others.  Some we just pretended it was another day.   Some we didn't get to do at all.

We were blessed to be able to get to see almost everyone "one last time" over the course of July and August.  Our travels took us to Louisiana (above) to Tennessee and to as far as Columbia, Missouri to see all our our family members. Friends threw us get-togethers in Thomasville, at church, and even two in Atlanta the weekend we were leaving.  And we even got to eat our last meal in T-ville at our favorite place with some of our favorite people.



God has used this process to reveal to me how gracious he has been in our lives.  We have been blessed with countless dear friends and family members, about whom there isn't enough room on this blog to write about.  It's been humbling to hear from these folks how much they love us, appreciate us, and will miss us.  It's almost kinda shocking, actually.

It's a great picture of what the body of Christ is about.  He has showered his unconditional love and grace upon us, welcomed us in, and made us a part.  We don't deserve it, we can only be amazed at what we've received and live in thankfulness out of it.  In a similar way, we don't deserve the family and friends we've received, but as we go forward - even though we may not get to see them as often - we know we are a part of their lives and are thankful for them. 

Go Time

We're cleared to go!  We've bought our one-way tickets to England and leave September 15th!  The next two weeks will be busy with packing, sorting, getting an international moving company, saying goodbyes, and much more.  We will be in Thomasville until the 13th, then head to Atlanta for the weekend, and fly out Sunday night, arriving Monday morning....   Here we go!

August Happenings

Eli started kindergarten, and being the social kid he is, was pretty excited about it.  He'll only get about a month and a half of U.S. school before heading to England and being in "Year One" as they call it, but it's been great for him!   Liam is going to preschool at First Baptist during the mornings.  It's been a good window of time for Ginger to get things done for the move!

Our family made the week-long marathon trip from Georgia to Tennessee to Missouri and back to see (and say goodbye to) family!  We covered a lot of physical ground, but also got to see both my parents, both Ginger's parents, her sister & brother-in-law, ten aunts/uncles/cousins/grandma on her mom's side of the family, and almost everyone on her dad's side of the family!   It was great to see everyone, and we pretty much just tried not to think about "this is the last time we're going to see you for a looong time...".

I worked on wrapping up everything with Young Life in Thomasville, which was hard to do after a decade here!  But had some great moments too, include Nathan's farewell/graduation party (left) and continuing our Campaigners (Bible study) group with the high school guys.  My last official day as Area Director was Aug. 15, and I'm now on the international YL Military payroll!

  And in the "Is That Really You?" category, there's the picture to the right.  I was invited to come to the march last Sunday for the 50th anniversary of MLK's "I Have a Dream" speech  so Young Life was represented (which was an honor!)  The flyer said to wear a t-shirt of your representing organization, and I did.  What it *didn't* say is that all ministers and leaders would be coming up front to lead the march.  Can you spot me in the picture?...  (Hint: I'm wearing light blue).  Though I was quite under-dressed, the good news is that I was totally welcomed, and Jeremy (the minister in charge) insisted that it didn't matter what I was wearing.  It was great to be a part of supporting the community on that day.

Transitioning

One of the big things talked about in our cross-cultural training to get ready for the move is how difficult "transitioning" is.  This is the straight-forward term for the phase of physically and emotionally preparing to leave before moving and adjusting to your new culture.

Though we're still (probably) two months from leaving, I've discovered transitioning can indeed be challenging.  It's life filled with perpetual questions - sometimes easy, sometimes hard - that daily we're having to try to answer.  

How much smaller will our new house be? 
  Where do I get so many cardboard boxes? 
     Where should we store our stuff?  Who should I give this other stuff to? 
       When can we see all our family "one last time" before leaving?
How is there enough time to see friends "one last time" before leaving?
    How do I sort through "sad I'm leaving" with "happy about the new excitement ahead"?
       Am I going to ever see this person again?  How should I act about that?
           How do I answer all my kids' questions?
               How do I answer all MY questions?

You get the idea.  But as I was sorting through this the other day, praying about it all, trying to give it to God (and not take it back), I was struck with this question and realization: 

What if I had to do all of this every two or three years?...  
                                          That is exactly what military kids go through.

It really brought perspective on what we're going through, but more so, what we're going to go do.  Military kids don't think about transitioning as much, simply because it's a way of life for them.  These big questions and big emotions they just have to cope with.  Maybe someone will help them deal with it, maybe they won't.  

My prayer is that all that God teaches me through this process, he will use to help me empathize with these teenagers, and love them well through it.