Such Heart!

As we wait for the Olympic closing ceremonies, I thought I would just take a minute to say "Way to go Canada!  You got some heart!"  I am equally so proud of our US Olympic team - as usual, they gave their all and have again made us proud of our Olympic representatives.  Our US Olympians always make us proud an dshow the world the greatness of our American heart. But I must admit that it has been the Canadians that are bringing tears to my eyes and a lump in my throat.  

Some of our favorite Olympians:

Jon Montgomery, the skeleton-er hailing from Calgary.

On the US side, who can't love watching Apolo Ohno.  Ugghh, that last race! But Jason was going for Canadian Charles Hamlin anyway.

And both the Canadian and US Hockey Teams - wow!  What a fight to the bitter end! (Truth be told I didn't watch, but I heard the whooping and hollering from the basement, and then I got the run-down, so I speak for the family.)

We also really enjoyed the snowboarding - I was so amazed at what these people can do with a big board attached to their feet!  The Moguls and Arial skiing was fun.  What am I doing - it was all fun!  I had forgotten how much fun the Olympics were and Canada did an excellent job hosting the world.

Also unforgettable was the perseverance of athletes under difficulty - the Georgia Team, Joannie Rochette still skating after hearing her mother had died unexpectedly, the Chilean Team, and I am sure there are more stories.  Such heart. 

But the most amazing performance in my opinion was the Gold-medal skating by Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir .  Unbelievably beautiful.

So Canada, even though we are Americans, and we love our team and are so proud of them - we celebrate also with you.  It was great games and great heart. Thanks.

Snowed in

You ain't even seen snow...

It's official. We're snowed in. John tried to drive the block down the street to the community center where we hold worship services, and couldn't even get out of the cul-de-sac. A kind neighbor came out and helped him PUSH the van back the two house distance he did manage to go, to our driveway.

We did try to get snow tires this week, but Costco was sold out. We need snow tires. Bad.

And on another note, we will be having worship services, but since we are snowed in, we will be picked up by friends who do have their snow tires.

Here are some quick pics for perspective.

Kevin dives in.

Jason attempting to shovel snow that is higher than his shovel. We got help from taller people.
The big blob in front is a bush - just in case one couldn't tell.

To all of my friends and family livin' it up in Texas...

WELCOME TO WINTER!!!!!!

I have seen pictures and we are sharing the love with you.

Although I must say our love has been coming down all day and we are slugging through about a foot of snow some places in the yard.

I feel so close to all of you right now.
Long distance bonding.
It's beautiful.

photo by Justin

Fall Break in the Fergie house

We are kickin' it back this week after pushing hard for 10. All of our little brains need a break, especially mom's which is hanging on by a thread.

So what are the plans? Well, we were going to head up to Edmonton for a day - there is an old fort and the world's biggest mall. I'm not sure if we still will make the trip since it is supposed to snow and rain for most of the week. Not the best travel weather I would think - I mean, I don't know I am new here - it's just a guess. So we shall see.

But other plans include lazin' around, lazin' around and lazin' around, re-watching all three Lord of the Rings movies, and reading of course, with a never-ending glass of Coke Zero at my side...of course.

So, I better get busy. Time's a tickin' away...

BIG Snow

For us Texans, we had what I like to call, BIG SNOW this week - probably around 4 inches - certainly enough to cover everything with a pristine whiteness and enough to where you couldn't tell where the driveway or yard ended and the street began. It's actually pretty early for this much snow, so I think it is safe to say that we were the only happy family in all of Calgary. The natives were just lamenting the fact that winter is in fact here. Here are more than few pics involving snowmen, sledding, and yes, the dog. She actually liked the snow. Surprising, seeing as she is a fellow southerner hailing from Arkansas.









Looking into our Cul-de-sac

Jason found the snow quite "comfy"





Say hello to Jason's snowmwmen, Frosty and Snowy in the front, and Kevin's snowguy in the back.

Colton's snow-bug. Cute, eh?

A Reminder

I was out Thursday afternoon and overheard this conversation between a man and a receptionist:

Recptionist: Thanks a lot. Have a great weekend.

Man: I think I will. I am going to a workshop on Shamanism.

Recep.: Oh really?

Man: Yeah, it should be really good. I have been to one before where we were to figure out what our "Power Animal" was.

Recep.: Your Power Animal? So what was yours?

Man: Well, I thought it was going to be a racoon, but it turned out to be a tiger. I was really surprised.

Recep.: Really?

Man: Yeah, I named him Jordie (laughing).

Recep.: Ok, well I hope you have a good time. Tell Jordie hello. (laughing)

Man: I will. (laughs and leaves)

After hearing that, I thought, "And that is why we are here."

Something's missing

I don't know about anyone else, but my absence of photos has been bugging me. Alas, there is not anything I can do about it right now. Soon, soon. And let me tell you, I have a ton! I had almost 200 just from saying goodbye to our dear ones in Trujillo. But since arriving and getting hold of my new Canon 450D camara which was waiting for me at my mother's, I have taken almost a thousand photos. I won't post all of those - don't worry. But it is going to be difficult figuring out which ones will make the cut.

But that is for another day...or month...or couple of months...

Speaking of cookbooks...

Peru Mission will soon have another cookbook available and as soon as I get the word that they are ready to order, I will have a link. I LOVE my cookbook and am so excited to get my hands on this updated version.

Say the word Allen!

Finding rest and peace in Colorado

We are currently in Colorado Springs visiting our dear, dear friends, Chris and Holly and their four children. We have fifteen years of friendship to go on and I tell you what, this gal is always a source of great encouragement to me. And Chris is ok too. :) Although he tends to bring out the base in me.

Since we arrived last night, I have been bombarded with much needed encouragement. I knew I was feeling empty and spent, but I had not realized just how much until today.

When we arrived, Holly all but met me at the door with a big smile on her face and said, "You are published. Come and see." A few months ago, Holly had called and told me that she was going to be putting together a cookbook in partnership with Beth Moore's Lifeway ministries and would I mind if she used some of my pictures. Well, the finished product is so great. So many women contributed to the book and Holly's efforts have created a culinary masterpiece with a heart, if you will. And to top it off, all of the proceeds go to Life Outreach International, working to provide clean drinking water for people without such a basic neccessity. I am so honered to have a part in this. The Siesta Fiesta Cookbook can be purchased from Holly. Go on and get you one right now!

And then we headed to church this morning. The music and worship was energetic and exuhberant. These people were loving the Lord with all their souls and it was beautiful. I was just enjoying the energy, and then, He got me. During the offering a gal sang a song - Painting Pictures of Egypt by Sara Groves.

I’ve been painting pictures of Egypt
Leaving out what it lacked
The future seems so hard
And I want to go back
But the places that used to fit me
Cannot hold the things I've learned
And those roads closed off to me
While my back was turned

My friend Rae had given me this song last year when I was really struggling with homesickness living in Peru. Hearing the song today, this side of Peru, where we are right now, hit me hard and before I knew it, tears were flowing. I think more of a catharsis of all the emotion I have been trying to deal with -saying goodbye, saying hello, moving, traveling - it all just came out and I felt...relief. Relief from stress, relief from self-induced pressure, relief from fear that things are not going to work out the way we would want. I felt the Lord remind me again that He is walking this journey with us and that no matter how it will go, He will be with us the entire way.

I love the line "the places that used to fit me cannot hold the things I've learned", and to be honest I really am still processing so much that I don't have much coherancy to my thoughts. I am still wrestling with what I am looking back for and what I am moving towards. But regardless, today, the Lord met me. He met me through song and he met me through my friends. He brought me much needed peace and I am grateful.

Surviving

Yes, we are still here.

No, we still don't have internet at the house.

Yes, we survived the hurricane and didn't even lose power.

Yes, my family in Houston survived the hurricane and they still don't have power.

No, I have no idea what is going on with anybody because I haven't read any blogs for a month.

For you friends in Peru, we are missing you terribly and hate feeling so disconnected from you. We shall be up and going soon but I will leave you with a little funny.

Jason woke up on Saturday, the day the hurricane blew through town. The days leading up had been full of anxiety for him - he was just afraid having never been through a hurricane before and seeing terms like "certain death" on the TV freaked him out a bit.
So he comes into the living room where John and I are watching the all-hurricane, all-the-time channels and says, "I had a dream last night that Isaac Ball (aka. Ike) was controlling the hurricane. I was in the center of it and I looked up and there was Isaac just kind of hovering with a big smile on his face. It was weird."

Yeah, that is weird, but funny.

No - we have not fallen off the face of the earth...

...although we do sort of feel like we have.

It's just amazing to me how dependent we are on technology these days, especially in terms of communication.

We are having a bit of a problem getting Internet set up at our new house - which, by the way, is very cute and will be filled to the gills with our stuff in about 2 hours. But, as usual, I digress....

After having left the South American continent and landed on the North American continent in the great state of Texas, we spent a few weeks traveling to show off the grandkids to the grandparents and aunts and uncles and cousins who had not laid their eyes on the precious dears in two years. That was fun.

We landed officially in College Station on Saturday, August 30 and began making the necessary arrangements to "get connected" that Monday. We had been with Verizon before we left for Peru, so I called and got us set up with them again. On Sept. 1, they were able to squeeze us in for a Sept. 11 install. Wow. I thought that was a long time to wait, but there were 40,000 college students moving back to town, so, we went with it.

Until the next day...

That's when I received a phone call from "the voice" saying that she was very sorry, but our install date had been pushed back to Sept. 24 - two weeks after the original, which was 10 days from when I called. (For those of you who know, I did start quoting Brian Regan at this point -"Can you see the switch? Can I come flip it??")

So, I called Verizon and of course no one knew why it was pushed back, but no one could do anything about it, so I canceled my order and went in search of someone local to hook us up.

I found a company who we had used waaaay back in the day -local - I had to go up to their office to fill out the paper work and then they would call in a few days with an install date. I was assured it would not be more than a week to get it installed. This was last Thursday.

Perfect. Great. We'll be connected soon enough. That is until their service truck was stolen later that day.

So, unknowledgeable about the loss of their vehicle, I called on Monday morning to see if they had processed the paperwork and had an install date for us. (Just flip the switch...please.)

Guy: "Well, mam', our service truck was stolen last Thursday, so we are having to buy a new truck and it's put us back a couple of days."
Me: "So do you think we can get hooked up this week?"

As soon as it came out of my mouth I was ashamed of myself - "Gee, I'm really sorry your truck with all of your expensive equipment got stolen, but we really need Internet out here pronto." Did I really get that shallow on the flight between the continents??? Uggghhh.

So anyway, I didn't bother them again until today when I called again to see where they were in their truck purchasing project and while expressing great sympathy over their difficult situation, looking for any info I could get on even a potential install date.

Guy:"Well, mam', we haven't found a truck yet."

So I hung up and began calling every Internet company in the phone book, including Verizon, again, which gave us an even later install date and finally ended up with Earthlink.

So, I called the local company back to cancel our order - having already committed to Earthlink.

Guy:"Um, may I ask why you are cancelling?"
Me: "Well, I know y'all have had your truck stolen and I am really sorry about that, but we really need to try to get something going and since you still don't have a truck..."
Guy: "We just got a truck and we are starting to do the installs again today."

Of course. Well, I hope Earthlink is good.

So that's our internet saga. Who says life in the states is boring? :)

We will still not be connected until sometime in October - I'm serious, but until then, we will be frequenting the local public library and Starbucks.

In the meantime, as I mentioned, our container arrives today and in about a week and a half, we head up to Calgary for a visit. So don't look for anything more until we get back, at which time I have scheduled for life to officially begin on this side of the world. Or something like it.

Better run - time is ticking away on the library computer...hasta luego.

Things I have been doing.

1. Cleaning out my closet.
2. Organizing my homeschool stuff.
3. Planning for the upcoming homeschool year.
4. Organizing the bookshelves.
5. Sitting for hours on hold with LAN airlines in order to book my cat.
6. Freting about whether the cat will actually get on the plane with me even though he is booked.
7. Telling myself all well be well with the cat and the dog.
8. Fretting some more.
9. Fretting over not having enough boxes.
10. Picking up two taxi loads of boxes from the dear Bolton's who are unpacking their container which they had been anticipating for over two months.
11. Finishing school with the kids.
12. Making dates with friends and enjoying the relationships I have here.
13. Spending the afternoons in the park with my friends, solving the problems of the world while the kids play in the dirt.

What is glaringly absent...PACKING!

But don't worry - we'll get to that in about a week. :)

Some news

I don't know if I have been obviously absent or if anybody really noticed my lack of posting.
I do tend to go for a stretch or so without posting, but this time, it was intentional.

We have had much to do and think about, not the least of which was a jaunt up to Calgary, Alberta, Canada, followed by Mission to North America Church-Planting Assessment Center in Atlanta, GA. Why in the world would we do this?
Because simply, our time is ending in Peru and John has now been called to help start a multi-site church planting movement out of a church in Calgary. We will leave Peru mid- August, plant ourselves back in Bryan/College Station (can I hear a whoop!)for about a year to raise support and will then head to Calgary when funds have been raised.

I have so many thoughts filling my head that I can hardly keep them straight. I think I will take several posts to get them all out, but in the meantime, enjoy some pictures of Banff, an hour into the mountains from Calgary, which sits right on the edge of the prairie and the mountain border.And for my geographically challenged friends, Alberta is the Canadian province that sits on top of Montana and is right next to British Colombia.


And yes, they do speak English there. And yes, there is a Chili's.:)