Long Overdue Update!

Well, we've been living in Georgia with Jonathan's parents for six months now. (Has it really been that long!?) Once he was set up with a doctor down here, Jonathan was quickly referred to a neurologist who proceeded to methodically work her way through every test on her list. Every one came back as normal as you could hope for. Hooray! - No brain tumor. No apparent Lyme's or MS. No vasculitis. No aneurysm. But now what?

Over New Years, Jonathan's chest pain and heart palpitations went from fairly annoying, to increasingly alarming. So he was referred to a cardiologist who also ordered a battery of tests and voila! One came back slightly abnormal. Jonathan was diagnosed with a "right bundle branch block" which the doctor explained as caused by the steroids/virus and told us should go away within a year or so. That was a huge relief! But we still had many more symptoms to find answers for.

Most recently, Jonathan has been seeing a GI doctor for a bunch of issues and going through all of their testing. So far nothing significant has shown up, but we're still working with them. We're also trying to work with his neurologist to find the cause of his persistent and often severe headaches. These are his main complaints at present.

Apart from the physical aspect, we've had a lot of emotions to deal with as we made the decision in March not to return to Alaska this summer. Jonathan's health has simply not improved enough to work on a regular basis, let alone live hours away from any type of medical care.

We had planned to fly up and pack up our house/say goodbye to friends at the end of April, but Jonathan caught a cold the week before we were leaving which brought a lot of symptoms back, making us uneasy about traveling and spending time away from medical care. So, we accepted the offer of Jonathan's brother in PTA and some wonderful friends to go through everything we own and sell, pack or toss it for us. Once everything is packed up, they'll mail the totes down to us.

I'll take a moment to admit - as matter-of-factly as I can type it or even say it to friends, that was an enormously painful decision to make. We don't know if this decision means that we simply will miss the busy season this year, or if the Alaska chapter in our lives is completely finished. And while life in Port Alsworth has its challenges, we love it there. We love our cozy blue house. Jonathan has his dream job - flying in bush Alaska. We really love our friends there. Port Alsworth is the place we made our first home together. Facing a future with so many unknowns and the inability to plan is uncomfortable and scary.

But God has made it faithfully clear to us that we are where we are supposed to be, even if it is a painful place. He has purposes for us here. We are learning and growing in our dependence on Him. and that is what counts. That is what matters. That is what we try (and often fail) to focus on every day.

As far as what's ahead: Jonathan scheduled an appointment at the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, FL. That is coming up at the end of this month and we would appreciate your prayers as we prepare for it.

If you would:
Pray for the doctors to be granted wisdom.
Pray for us to recall everything accurately and communicate clearly.
Pray for peace in knowing we are in God's hands,
Also, for us to have wisdom and patience in our parenting (as well as our marriage :)) and not to let stress influence our interactions.

And finally, a quick update on our little man, our bundle of sunshine and snuggles and fun!

Ethan had his first birthday in February! It was so wonderful to be able to celebrate it with family. :)

 He is walking and talking - learning all kinds of boy-words like "car" "dog" and "stick". He loves games like peek-a-boo and wrestling with Daddy. He also loves to help with the laundry or cooking.

He is a super-affectionate little boy, smothering us with hugs and kisses every day. We love every one!

Worth a Thousand Words...

(click on picture to view full-screen)

 

Home in Alaska!

Here we are, we finally made it to Port Alsworth! We didn't fall of the face of the earth...just the part that has easily accessibly internet. ;D

So, what is Port Alsworth like? What have we been doing here? How is our apartment? Who have we met?

Port Alsworth is absolutely lovely! The views are simply gorgeous, even better than the ones on the way up! (Probably because they stay the same each day which is a nice change for us.) The town seemed really remote and rugged on Tuesday, the day I arrived; stepping off the plane onto a dirt runway, everything seemed dusty, but since then I've gotten used to it, and even appreciate the absence of rough cement or harsh asphalt roads. Of course, the rocky shores and roads are harder on my shoes, but it's refreshing to my spirit. :)

Our apartment became liveable a few hours after I arrived. They finished putting the carpet in, and set a bed on the floor for us. All we had at that point was our sleeping bag and our clothes. No sheets, or anything to eat or cook with, in fact we had to leave our groceries in storage because we didn't have a freezer or frig. But at least we were finally both home together.

 For the first few days we ate at the Farm Lodge. Jonathan was in pilot training and I sat nearby, trying to keep busy. They were still putting some finishing touches on our apartment, so I couldn't be there. Finally, on Thursday all of our belongings arrived in one big shipment. It felt like all of the Christmases of my life, plus our wedding and my bridal shower all over again! We had so much fun unpacking, organizing and cramming every spare inch of our apartment. (Which, by the way, is a tad bigger than the 200-sq-feet we expected.)

We both started work on Thursday, the 23rd. Jonathan in the hangar and me in the dispatch office.

Working in dispatch has been a huge learning curve for me, but I'm starting to feel like I'm getting the hang of it. It's a lot of responsibilities to remember during training but, once I started working, I only had to deal with about two at a time. ;)

So, what have we been doing besides work? Well the sun doesn't set until after 11PM here so, there's plenty of daylight after we get off of work. A lot of times Jonathan works later and we're too tired to do much walking (Which is our only mode of transportation here), so we'll watch a movie or just go straight to bed after dinner. Occasionally somebody will have a bonfire down by the lake or a game night and those are lots of fun!

One night we went fishing, (or Jonathan fished and I photographed) and boy, was the fishing good! Jonathan was reeling in pike almost as fast as he could cast and he even caught a nice-sized rainbow trout! (Unfortunately, the mosquitoes were biting just as bad...)We stayed out late enough to see the sunset that night and it was spectacular. (I can't wait to post pics!) The mountains looked like they were on fire!

The people here in Port Alsworth are very friendly and helpful. We've met so many people that I often have trouble remembering who goes where and with whom! We've been to church two Sundays now and have been impressed with their good teaching and hospitality.

The reason we haven't been in contact for a while is because we've been having trouble getting our internet set up. We do have a phone (refer to our parents for the number), but it's a landline hat we share with two other apartments. We're hoping to have everything straightened out pretty soon, but we'll have to see. Until then, no FB or pictures. :(

Well, I think that brings you up to date, except for the Sourdough Fly-In which deserves it's own post with pictures. :)

We miss you all!

May Snowfall

Well, we've survived our first ten days and our first snow in Alaska!

We've settled into work at the Anchorage office alright, but it looks like pretty soon we'll finally be able to move out to Port Alsworth! Jonathan and his co-worker Steve, finished the work on the Bonanza late last night, and we've been told that our apartment is very close to being move-in ready!

We love the place that we're staying now, King Ranch; the views are absolutely breathtaking and we'll miss the friends we've made here.

King Mountain: the view from King Ranch.

Still, we're ready to be done with our hour-and-a-half commute each way, have water to shower and wash clothes with again, and settle into one place for a while. :)

This is the office I work in all day.

This is the office I work in all day. This job has been a pretty big learning curve, but I have really great people helping me out.

Last Friday we had our first, real Alaska snow! Nobody around here has ever seen snow on May 16th before. Alaska broke a lot of records this year, 232 days between the first and last snowfall (so far), 133.6 inches.of snowfall this winter/

I'd never seen such large flakes before, it was more like clumps of snow falling! The next morning, everything was white, but it melted off by lunchtime.

Today we had the first sunny day I can remember having up here. Jonathan says it was sunny the first few days we were here, but I honestly don't remember it. It feels like forever since we've seen the sun. I was ecstatic to see the beautiful blue sky contrasting with the white-topped mountains on the way to church this morning.

 When we first arrived here, every time I looked at the mountains all I could see was their enormity instead of their beauty. They looked so intimidating and harsh with their jagged edges. Sunshine helps them to look a lot friendlier and today I am basking in the knowledge that the great God who formed these mountains has taken personal responsibility for my care.

Somebody very special sent me this verse this week.

 "I lift up my eyes to the hills - where does my help come from?

 My help comes form the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth. 

Psalm 121:1

First Days of Work

The ground was crunchy and slightly less soggy when I walked across the yard at 6AM this morning. It was cooooold!!

The water supply up here is still frozen up so we have to trek past the cafeteria to the hangar to use the bathroom, shower or get a drink. Usually we're only in our cabin at night anyway, since the stove is also not working and we just use a space heater in our bedroom for warmth.

Today we managed to get up on time and so we were able to get in showers before leaving for work. Yesterday was a different story. Somehow our alarm didn't go off and we woke up at 6:25. We flew to get ready and made it out the door at an amazing 6:33.

We feel so blessed to make our hour-and-a-half commute through scenery like this every day!

Even more, we are so grateful to be making the trip twice a day together. Once we get to the office, we don't usually see each other until lunch, and then not again until it's time to go home. That's a whole lot more than most couples, but still less than we've been used to, so we're extra-glad to see each other at the end of the day. :)

We get into Anchorage at 8AM and Jonathan heads into the shop while I hang out in the office. This is my very first job and pretty much the only thing I remember about my first day is a general feeling of being overwhelmed. Today was much more successful. :) I answered phones, took reservations, accepted payments, weighed and labeled freight, counted passenger lists, and other miscellaneous tasks. There is no way I can explain how complicated organizing and keeping track of everything is because I barely understand it enough to function there now. I'm learning it all very fast though.

On our way home today we ran into some very unexpected weather. Snow! A lot of it too! By the time we got back to the ranch it was coming down in flakes so big they reminded me of cotton candy. I'd never seen anything like it...especially in May! We're beginning to wonder if there is more than one season up here in Alaska. :)

Changing Plans

"So, have y'all made it to Port Alsworth yet?" Is a question we've been hearing a lot over the last three days. The short answer is, "Not quite yet."

We arrived in Anchorage late Friday morning to unload our truck at the Lake Clark Air office in Anchorage and do some important grocery shopping. Upon arriving we discovered that Jonathan's boss had been trying to get a hold of him for a few days, but couldn't since Jonathan's phone had died on the trip up. Once we were put in touch with him, we found out that our apartment is undergoing some improvements and will not be ready for us for another week or two.

Initially, we were pretty disappointed not to be able to move in our new home right away, but we have a wonderful place to stay and they have work for both of us to do in Anchorage so things are still working out for us pretty well.


So tomorrow will be the first day of work for the both of us. Jonathan is working on a plane they have in the shop there and I'll be working in the dispatch office.

We'll jump in the truck at 6:30 tomorrow morning for the hour-and-a-half commute to Anchorage and hopefully be back around 6:30PM.

Stay tuned to hear about my very first day of work! ;)

Alaska at Last! (Part 1)

We made it!!!

Our 10-day trip of a lifetime is finally complete(ish). We crossed into Alaska on Thursday!

We're not yet in Port Alsworth; we're staying about 1-1/2 hours outside of Anchorage at the King Ranch, home of Kingdom Air Corps, with Dwayne and Carolyn King. We met up with the Kings on Tuesday at Mile 0 of the Alaska Highway.

It was such a huge blessing to us to be able to travel with the Kings. Not only did they provide invaluable information about traveling this famously rugged road, they also let us sleep in their camper for those freezing two nights on the Alcan (we had been planning to tent-camp!), not to mention the wonderful company they provided on a lonely stretch of the trip. :)

 Plus, we finally had someone to take our picture!

Driving the Alcan proved to be a spectacular experience. We encountered some singularly interesting weather - highs in the 50s, and yet we were driving past lakes, rivers and streams that were solidly frozen over.

Apparently, last week they had quite the storm; one man who owned a gas-station that we stopped at for fuel told us they had been towing cars out for three days straight after the storm! For us, though the further north we've gone, the more snow we've found, the weather couldn't be better! The roads were dry the entire way and the sky was clear. Alaska, quite literally, has given us a warm welcome. :)

We've passed many landmarks, seen "exotic" wildlife and gaped at so much beautiful scenery along the way. I could never describe all of it to you, I only hope that you will be able to experience something like this someday, but for now I'll try to give you a taste of it through my pictures.

 In Watson Lake, Canada we stopped at Signpost Forest. I have no idea how it began, but it's a place where people traveling along the highway stop to hang up signs, usually from their hometown, but often just random road signs.

A beautiful sunset our first evening on the Alcan.

(The sun doesn't set here until about 10:30-11:00 at night...long days)

 We camped next to this mountain that same night.

 "Stone Sheep"

Buffalo by the roadside. Look at the little baby one!
(anyone know what a baby buffalo is called?)

Laird River Hotsprings

 

We actually stopped and swam here on Wednesday. I read that the water varies between 108-126 degrees. It felt marvelously refreshing!

Sunset, our second night on the Alcan. (This was taken at about 10:30pm.)

I divided this post into two parts for the sheer length of it!

Well, here we are, one month into a new marriage....what a big change! Jonathan and I keep commenting on things we find different: not needing to tell anyone where we're going when we leave the house, using all our own things, not having a curfew...the list goes on.

In the middle of processing all of this change, we're gearing up for another monumental one: moving to Alaska! In just about a week , Jonathan and I will hop in our loaded Ford Ranger and begin our ten-day journey up to Port Alsworth, Ak.

Right now, Jonathan is in the process of fixing up a little enclosed trailer for us to pull behind the truck. Our youth leaders from high school, the Vestals, have been beyond generous, giving us an apartment to stay in, rent free, as well as the trailer to take with us, not to mention the place we stayed in St. Petersburg, FL for our honeymoon. We owe them a lot!

While Jonathan has been busy with fixing up the trailer and getting the truck ready for travel, I've been having tons of fun taking care of our apartment. I feel a little bit like a girl playing house, only it's real! I'm going to miss this little place when we leave and move into our 200-sq-ft apartment in Alaska. It will, no doubt, be an adjustment, but once we're settled in, hopefully, we'll be spending most of our time outside in one of the most beautiful places on earth!

All-in-all, we know we're in for a lot more adjustments and changes, but we're looking forward to seeing what God has for us to learn and experience!