The End of our Journey

We are back in Wisconsin hardly able to believe that our time in South Carolina is over. Life has essentially picked up where we left off, which is why it has taken me nearly two months to close out this blog. Here is a brief summary of our transition back home.

We had a whirlwind final week in Columbia with school programs, packing and getting together one last time with friends. Chip and Beth Edgar hosted a farewell party in our honor which included most of our dearest friends in SC. It was an evening to remember, complete with a buffet of southern dishes to enjoy. On May 28th, Jacob and I joined a team of seven others from Columbia on a missions trip to Rwanda. It was a trip of a life time! We will be sending out DVD's to all our supporters summarizing our trip soon, so be on the lookout if that was you!

While Jacob and I flew across the world, Rob and the rest of the kids loaded up the U-Haul (with a gang of SC friends) and traveled back to Three Lakes with the assistance of Jackson Edwards from Columbia. He will be attending Wheaton in the fall and is working at HoneyRock for the summer, so it worked out perfectly for him to drive our Suburban while Rob drove the U-Haul. They were all able to stay with the Carlson's in Kentucky, enjoying an afternoon of waterskiing on the river. After a long trek home, the gang was greeted by friends from HoneyRock who helped to unload, unpack and get them settled back into 1543 Dam Road. Jacob and I returned on June 14th and our family was together once again (if only for a short time as camp sessions began the next week!).

While staying healthy on our African trip, I did come home very exhausted and picked up a cold bug that kept me down for a week. I did however manage to unpack the remaining boxes and put our house back to order again.

We thank God for the experience of a life time that South Carolina was. In fact, it will be regarded as the "best time our family every had"! Thank you to everyone who invested in us in South Carolina, and those back home who supported and encouraged us while we were gone. We are truly humbled and overwhelmed to have such amazing friends. While we are glad to be home as we are true "Wisconsinites" at the core, we will always hold a special place for South Carolina in our hearts!

Weekend Getaway!

Who would have predicted that a weekend to Chicago would prove to be so eventful? After arranging all the logistics for four children to stay with different friends for the weekend, including getting to soccer games and other events, I was relieved to finally get myself on the airplane to Chicago. In just seven hours I would be with my husband for a romantic weekend in Chicago, including attending the wedding festivities for our dear friends. But storms in Dallas (in which my round-about ticket took me) caused delays and eventually a cancellation of my flight from Dallas to Chicago until the morning! I spent my first night ever alone in a hotel! It wasn't so bad after I adjusted my expectations and knew I could still get to the wedding in time the next day. As a matter of fact, I quite enjoyed the evening to myself which included room service dinner, a king sized bed, and a good "chick flick".

Once I made it to Chicago, Rob and I had so much fun! Bonnie & Jason's wedding felt like a reunion of all the friends I had to leave the past ten months! We stayed in a beautiful room on the 21st floor of a hotel downtown, and spent most of Sunday enjoying the city and exploring Navy Pier. My departure came too soon, but this time I only had to say goodbye to Rob for five more days as he is back in SC tomorrow. One more week and we leave SC.....hard to believe!

May is a very busy month!

May tends to be the time when many things are wrapping up for the school year. We can attest to this as our calendar has been full for the last week, with no break in sight until June!

Some of the highlights include: a wonderful Mother's Day celebration by Eli's fourth grade class (I teared up several times during the program!), Hand Middle School band concert (Ben's beginning band group really showed great improvement since Sept. and Jacob's Advanced band was stellar), kayaking with friends/neighbors Matt & Maureen Petkewich (while all the kids were in school!), a fun day at Carowinds amusement park in North Carolina (Jacob and Ben went with the band, Rob, Grace & I drove up separately, and Eli chose to go to a friends for the day since he doesn't like rollercoasters!), many lunch and dinner dates with friends (Kanefts, Goddards, Browders, Edgar, & Shannon Walker!), Rosewood Elementary School picnic and Friendship Festival, USC baseball game, climbing at Stronghold gym, & lots of soccer games!

Lowlight was of course taking Rob to the airport again on Sunday! He will be back in two weeks, but this time I get to see him halfway as we are attending Bonnie Evon & Jason Larusso's wedding in Chicago this weekend!! Thanks to Lambersons, Petkewichs and Edgars for keeping the kids!

Less than a month to go!!

It is wild to think that we have lived in Columbia for nine months and our time here is dwindling down!! Jacob and I leave for Rwanda on May 28th, and Rob and the rest of the kids will begin the U-Haul journey home on May 30th! All of this comes with mixed emotions...excitement to get back to our friends in Wisconsin, our home, our cat, and our washer and dryer (okay that's me). But there is great sadness to end this chapter of our lives which has been filled with some of the most significant life moments and friendships we've ever experienced! What a testimony to the people and to God's amazing goodness!

The most exciting news this week is that Rob has finished what we came to South Carolina for in the first place....the main part of his dissertation. He sent out four copies of a 230 page "master piece" to his dissertation committee in California, and will give his proposal defense next week! Basically they will drill him to make sure he knows what he is talking about, and then give the go ahead to conduct his research this summer. We are all so proud of Rob. The morning after he finished the paper, all of the kids wanted to see the final results! It is what they sacrificed for this year, and they were proud!!! We celebrated with a night out for pizza! Now Rob is enjoying a lighter schedule until he returns to HoneyRock this Sunday.

As our time winds down, we have been brought back to the "must do" list our family created when we first arrived. It is with great thanksgiving to see that we had done everything on our list except to canoe a river in SC. So, last Sunday, Matthew Fletcher a friend from our church took, us kayaking down part of the Saluda river. We went through three sets of fun rapids and throughly enjoyed our afternoon. It was crazy to see the city of Columia as we paddled down river!

Sabbatical is over!

On Saturday we had to say goodbye to Rob, as his six month sabbatical is over (we drowned our sorrows in Krispy Kreme donuts!). It is hard to believe, but he is now back at HoneyRock teaching a grad class and then beginning to assimilate back into his role as Director. Fortunately, he will be able to return to SC next Friday and stay for two weeks. Then he will go back to Wisconsin for two weeks and return to Columbia for a week followed by moving the family back home! We are thankful for the friends we have made here who are making our time without Rob a little more bearable!!

Spring Break 2010

I have waited to write about our spring break trip hoping that each person in our family would document his/her favorite part of the adventure. But let's be honest...if it's going to be entered before we leave SC, then I guess I'll go ahead and give my version and any entries by other people will be a bonus!

The Monday following Easter, we packed up the trusty old Suburban and headed to Washington D.C. Being only an 8 hr drive from Columbia, it seemed to be the perfect Spring Break destination...and it was! The expected 8 hour trip took more like 10-11 hours because of BAD traffic along 95, especially an hour or so outside of D.C. We arrived at the Bader's home (HoneyRock camper parents, Wheaton grads AND Cynthia and I attended girls camp together in the U.P. of Michigan in the late 70's early 80's) which is just inside the Beltline, and made that our homebase for three days. They graciously hosted us and gave us all the ins and outs of the D.C. tourist thing.

Highlights included, riding the Metro subway, Capital building tour, National Archives, Museum of American History, Lincoln Memorial and snow cones! The most favorite spot was the Holocast Museum in which we spent 3 sombering hours. The weather was perfect and our feet were very sore by the end of each day. We certainly learned a lot about our country and left feeling proud to be Americans (mostly!).

We were able to share a few meals with Bader's and also past HR Counselor Daniel Ball who teaches in D.C. Many fun times around the table. Lawson and Cynthia were generous and fabulous hosts, inspiring me to be a better hostess to our future guests!

We ended our trip with a visit to Wilmington, NC to the new home of friends John & Lauren Welsh and their son Cohen. A brief trip to the beach and just catching up with friends was great! What fun and memorable trip!

Grace's Baptisam

On Esater Sunday Grace got baptized at Church of the Aposles. Now I can take camunion. I got a bible with a pretty dimond dizine on it. (mom takes over typing while Grace dictates!) My mom and dad came up to the front with me. I had to stand on the stage when I got baptized. There were two babies getting baptized too. Mr. Edgar baptized me. He also took oil and made a cross on my forehead. My sponsors are my brother Jacob and Mrs. Pulver. They promise to pray for me as I grow.