Melting
Isn’t it strange how things melt? They get to a certain
temperature and suddenly can’t take it anymore and their entire composition
changes. Have you ever seen butter melt
on a pile of mashed potatoes? Or ironed Crayola crayon shavings into some
useless decoration before? The colors mesh with each other, becoming one.
Life can melt, too.
Today, my life is melting from one solid into the next. Today, my life will change composition, never
to look the same again. Today, I become
different. We will be different. My husband Jordan and I, that is.
Today we said goodbye to our dear friends, a town we love,
mountains that will always put us in awe, traffic that we fondly hated,
restaurants we blew a lot of money at, trails we conquered, a church we adored,
record breaking sunny days… one after another after another…the land of the
midnight sun and Moose’s Tooth pizza, a place we grew to love each other even
more than we thought possible, and most importantly, a place where we
experienced faith that could move mountains…
My heart went from solid to liquid today as I hugged my last
hug and cried more tears than I knew were in me.
I’ve been planning and looking forward to writing blog
entries for this trip for months now. I
love documenting my life in writing.
Recently, I traveled back to my parents in MA and discovered journals
I’ve kept dating back to first grade (1992!). I seriously have every year of my
life documented from age 6.
We now embark on a five-week road trip, A-Liner in tow, cute
puppy panting in the back, and all the snack food we could desire. We have roughly 15 states, two countries, 5
national parks, and 7000+ miles of time to melt one life in Alaska into a new
life in Virginia, where I am most certain we will literally melt.
I hope you all enjoy taking this journey with us. We know many of you are praying for us and we
are so incredibly grateful and humbled. Thank you!
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| Moving day! We got 8,000 lbs of stuff into 16 ft of trailer. The guys were super heroes that day figuring out how to make everything fit efficiently! |
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| Saying goodbye to Mindy and her boys... her and Mike have been the best neighbors ever! |
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| Me and JuJu. May the laughs keep on comin' dear friend!
Day 2: Tok, AK to Whitehorse, Yukon Territory, Canada
Today’s drive has been very
rough. I’m thankful for the sunny skies
so we can see scenery we didn’t have a chance to see last time. I think it rained our entire way through
Canada two years ago. But I do not remember the roads to be this bumpy. Maybe it’s because we are also towing a
camper now and traveling with the Whitney family who is towing their camper. It
took us a painful 4 hours to drive 120 miles today.
Our stay in Tok was brief as we hit the road again to
continue our journey. We stopped at the
Alaska state sign to take pictures. It was nice having someone else with us to
take our family picture! Thankfully we
won’t have as many “selfies” this trip.
Layla has been great… riding in the back like it’s her home. She has her bed back there, and just curls
right up and enjoys the ride.
No wildlife yet on the roads today. I texted my mother-in-law, Helen, this
morning to ask for prayer in that area.
Moose crossing the road is a scary reality and one we don’t want to
encounter! Thank you if you took the
time to pray for that specific request today!
I still feel like I’m on a vacation and it hasn’t sunk in
yet that I’m not returning to Alaska at the end of this trip. I think I’ve read each card given to me
before we left about three times. The
thought of not seeing my sweet friends breaks my heart. May this road be one of healing as we prepare
to open our hearts to new relationships in Virginia.
Later on…
It’s been 9 hours and time to stop for dinner. Sandra and I got to work in her camper while
Clint wasted no time pulling out his fly-fishing rod and Layla ran the kids
ragged chasing after them. Jordan took
pictures of it allJ
Sandra heated up her sloppy-Joe meat and I fried up some pork chops in the
skillet with some broccoli-cheese rice on the side and apple sauce for dipping,
just the way my mama taught me! We
enjoyed our dinner with the beautiful Kluane Lake as our backdrop. Then we quickly washed up and got back on the
road to finish our trek to Whitehorse.
One of the most fun parts about the trip so far has been our
walkie-talkie communication between our two vehicles. Today, Jordan decided to play a game with
everyone. We all had to guess what time
we’d arrive in Whitehorse, including the kids.
The winner was the one with the closest time without going over. Sandra, Clint, and Noah were out pretty fast
with their optimistic hopes of a pre-10 o’clock arrival. Jenna was the proud winner with a time of
10:30 p.m. and she will be awarded with the last slice of Jordan’s birthday
chocolate cake his boss gave him before he left Anchorage! Since we arrived so late tonight, she’ll get
to enjoy it tomorrow… after she “kisses it and kisses it”, as she so eloquently
stated. I hear ya kid. Chocolate cake on
the Alaska Highway is like gold!
Nothing much to report except that it’s late and time to
shut ‘er down so we can get some shut-eye!
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| Noah and Layla chasing stretching their legs at Kluane Lake. There's more to come, but we gotta get going on the road, so I'll post more the next time we have wi-fi! |
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