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ZumwaltOhana - The Suburban Years

So it turns out we had to move!  When the Navy moved us into our Multnomah University campus house in the Summer of 2008, we hoped that the Navy would move us out a couple years later after I (Zak) finished my degree and went back into active duty.  It was a long shot, but a possibility, that we wouldn't have to pay or go through the hassle of moving ourselves during the time that I was out of the military.  Unfortunately that's not going to happen since we received notice at the end of May that we had to be moved out of our house by July 1st!

When we had our meeting with the university's housing office, they informed us that they would be demolishing our house, as well as 5 other houses on our street, so they could begin construction on new campus townhouses due to be open next year.  As compensation for being inconvenienced on such short notice (5 weeks), they offered us a 3 bedroom unit in their existing campus townhouses.  However, it is smaller than our 4 bedroom house, does not have a yard or garage, does not have washer/dryer hook-ups (there's a community laundry room), and most importantly, is part of a claustrophobic Christian commune with no non-Christian interaction.  And the rent is higher!  So we said "no thanks" and began looking for a place to live off-campus.

Leaving has proven to be difficult for us.  Kathy had just planted her garden a couple weeks before we found out we had to leave.  We had become really good friends with some of our neighbors on the other side of the street.  Our house has been a food co-op drop for the past 2 years.  We've thrown 2 block parties on our street and for a while even discussed starting a community garden!  We had already toured the local school, talked with the principle and Koa's kindergarten teachers, and registered him for the Fall.  We're close to our doctor/mid-wife, Wes & Jessi, and other long-time friends.  So it's not easy to be leaving even though we've only been here for 3 years.  More than the house, we'll miss the relationships we've intentionally been developing in that part of Portland.

What we discovered as soon as we began looking for a new place to live was that our rent would be doubling, regardless of whether we stayed somewhere in Portland or moved down to Sherwood to be a part of our church's community.  If we stayed in Portland our new house would have to be within a 10 minute bike-ride of the campus so we wouldn't have to drive to both school and Sherwood throughout the week.  If we moved to Sherwood we wanted to be within walking distance of a park/playground since there's no way we could afford a single-family home with a yard down there.  So the search was on for a new place!

I think we looked at a total of 10-12 houses, evenly divided between Portland and Sherwood.  Generally the places in Portland were single-family homes with yards, but were just as old/inefficient as our campus house (80 years) and in less than desirable neighborhoods with less than desirable schools.  The places down in Sherwood were mostly townhouses, but newer/efficient and in well-groomed suburbia with spectacular schools.  We had our likes and dislikes in both cities, but weren't going to submit an application anywhere until God told us where to go.  So we filled out multiple applications and then waited to see which one to submit.

Our closest friends know the amount of anguish that Kathy and I experienced trying to decide where to move.  We spent 3 weeks not waiting for a house per se, but waiting for God to tell us whether to stay in Portland or move to Sherwood.  The house would come later; of greatest importance was where God was sending us.  Why might we be getting removed from our house at this particular time?  What opportunities does God have laid out for us that we shouldn't miss?  Where can we take the greatest step of faith?  Are we willing to make the hard decision of living where we don't really want to live?  How can we be of greatest impact for God?  So we prayed and waited.  Waited and prayed.  Prayed and waited.  Until we only had 2 weeks to move and the newer listings began to not be available until after July 1st.  Our deadline had arrived.  And no booming voice from above.

It was frustrating not being directly told where to live by God.  Abraham was told where to go.  Paul was told where to go.  Where was our direction?  We've no doubt God spoke to us through our friends' counsel, but we would have preferred a neon arrow floating in the sky!   So our conclusion was that God didn't really care which city we ended up living in - both were equally in need of His presence.  He was giving us the freedom to do His work in whatever city we preferred to live.

We picked Sherwood.  Honestly, we would have preferred to stay in Portland (who would pass up an opportunity to live in Portland!?), but ultimately felt that it is too important to be a member of the community that you're trying to reach.  Scripture is full of men and women, who in an effort to be a light to a people, actually become one of them, culminating obviously in God Himself coming down and becoming one of us so that He could perfectly relate to us.   It was unauthentic for Kathy and I to intentionally meet and develop personal relationships with people down in Sherwood, but then each evening drive back up to Portland!  The closer we got to people, the harder it became to develop those relationships long distance.  So we submitted one of the applications we had already filled out for a townhouse in Sherwood, and began concluding the urban chapter of our lives.  Now we're suburban-ites!

We officially had the house on Saturday, June 26th, but we didn't move in until Monday the 28th.  That way we had a couple days overlap to carry down some of our fragile stuff in our car instead of loading them on the huge truck.  We were also able to take some measurements (OK, all measurements!) of the new house and make a plan for where everything was going to go on moving day.  The nice thing about Multnomah tearing down our campus house was that we didn't have to clean up after ourselves, so moving out and doing the final walk-through was (relatively) easy, and our security deposit is guaranteed.  I rented the biggest truck U-Haul had - a 26 footer I think - at 7:00am on Monday and it had to be back by 7:00pm that evening, so we had to hustle.  Thankfully we have wonderful friends who, like everyone else in Portland, don't actually work, thus were free to help us move out on Monday!  Later in the evening when our friends in Sherwood (who actually do work) got home, they also came over and helped us unpack the truck.  About halfway through unloading in Sherwood it became apparent that we were not going to get the truck back in time, so we frantically unloaded the rest into the garage and Wes and I raced off to get the truck back in time.  We had to get through rush-hour traffic, and refill the truck with gas, but we made it with a whole 15 minutes to spare!  

Our new (as-yet-to-be-named) place is a 4 bedroom, 2.5 bathroom, 1500 square feet, 1 car garage townhouse in the middle of Sherwood.  It's biggest selling point for us was that it's squeezed into a small townhouse neighborhood, so it'll be easy to get to know our neighbors.  We also love how open the kitchen/living room is - it'll be great for having guests over.  The place is within walking distance of a park (Stella Olsen Memorial Park), and if we're serious, walking distance to Koa's elementary school (Hopkins Elementary School).  On Mondays and Tuesdays when I have classes at Multnomah, I can take an express bus that runs between Pioneer Square in Portland and a Park-n-Ride here in Sherwood, then take the MAX from downtown out to 82nd where the school is located.  It looks like my commute will take a little over an hour each way, but that'll give me time to do some school work and get to know my fellow Sherwood commuters.  Not only is taking public transportation cheaper, but this way Kathy and the kiddos won't be without the car all day.

So we've now been living here for a week.  Until 2 days ago there were still piles of boxes all over the house.  Now there's just piles and piles and stuff out of boxes everywhere!  We're hoping to be settled in by the end of this week, but i'm sure that's wishful thinking!  You can see pictures of our new house, and how our unpacking is coming along, in the Sherwood Townhouse photo album, or go on a video tour of the place before we moved in.  We're also taking suggestions for the name for our new house!

One More Anniversary

I'm (Zak) embarassed I missed an anniversary a couple days ago.  I have been planning on marking Monday, May 4th for quite a while, and then the day came and went and I totally forgot about it until now.  Two days ago was supposed to be my last day in the Navy!  Back in 1999 I enlisted for 6 years, and then in year 5 of that original enlistment I reenlisted for 4 more years.  May 4th was intended to be my last day.  That's the date on all my paperwork, our base stickers, and the expiration date on our military IDs.  From July of last to year until Monday I should have still been wearing my uniform, saluting, shaving, and dealing with sailors.

I wanted to mark May 4th so I could look back at everything that's happened from the time I really did get out of the Navy to the time I should have gotten out.  It's been an amazing 10 months!  During all this time that I should have still be in, we have moved to Portland (as non-military a place as you can find!), became ministers at a church, had another kid, finished almost an entire year of grad school (just 3 days shy), and even got commissioned as an officer back into the Navy!  What a huge difference this time has been.

I can't help but wonder how many things would be different if I hadn't been released early and I did just get out of the Navy on Monday.  Would everthing happen exactly the same way as it has, just 10 months later?  Or would things be totally different?  Obviously it's impossible to know, but we do know that God has been doing some amazing things in our lives these past 10 months.  What an interesting journey.

So, so long (again) Navy!  See you in a couple years.

It's Slobbery Season--For Caspian and the Rest of Portland

On Sunday as we were getting ready to leave the house Koa realized it was raining outside.  He said, "Is it slobbering?" 

Yes, yes it is.  Both indoors and out!

In addition to slobbering, Caspian is picking up some new skills--like sitting on his own.  He's not stable, yet, but he likes to try.  He got to try out a high chair for the first time one evening when we tried a Hawai'ian restaurant called the Ohana Hawai'ian Cafe.  We have been planning to try it every since before I gave birth and we just recently hooked up with Wes and Jessi and gave it a whirl.  It was nice to be surrounded by all things Hawai'ian.  But it was funny because it was L & L food with a bit higher price tag.  I will admit that the ingredients were probably a little higher quality and the ambiance was definitely nicer!

Oh, right, we were talking about Caspian, not food.  Caspian and food...now there's a topic.  This child has had more weird little quirks about eating than you would think is possible for an infant.  He had a bit of a Goldilocks complex for a while.  He didn't like the milk to come to fast, but he also didn't like it to come too slow or that would make him mad.  My breasts apparently have their own quirks and so Caspian would have to choose each time which side he would be satisfied with.  Sometimes he wanted it a little quicker with the right side, but occasionally that was just too much and so he would get mad and absolutely would refuse to eat until I switched sides.  Other times he would not be happy with the much pokier left side and would protest that side.  It really was a crap shoot as to which side would satisfy his pickiness. 

Then he went through a stage where he wouldn't eat if he had been awake for any time at all preceding the feeding.  I would basically just have to wake him up a little early from his nap and feed him right away and we would have no issues at all, but if I waited for any length of time at all or let him wake himself it was all over.  He would just refuse to eat until after the next nap--three to four hours later!

Of course I already blogged about his refusal to eat altogether for 12 hours at a time!  Look at those cheeks!  Can you even believe this child has ever refused an ounce of milk in his short little life?

Anyway, it seems that all of those little quirks are behind us.  Now he pretty much just eats.  Oh, unless someone is around or I am talking or there is any noise at all.  Now he is just easily distracted.  But I think that is a normal quirk for this age.  At the end of each feeding he looks up at me and gives me the biggest grin as if to say, "Thanks for putting up with all of my quirks, Mom.  You have no idea what you have ahead of you!"

Koa has a new fascination with food from the kitchen to the table.  He and Zak have both been helping cook more often and I think that has sparked the interest.  Now when we sit down to eat he will ask me, "What's in this?" or , "I think it tastes like graham crackers."  For a while he would say about many different things, "I can taste the pumpkin."  At any rate, I love that he is interested in his food.  I am excited to plant the garden this summer and let him see where all of this food really comes from (you can see pictures of our garden in the new Gardens at Mult-Home-Ah photo album).  We have mustard seeds growing on our table right now following a couple of Bible lessons on faith and the kingdom of God.  It's a nice little reminder of the lesson that we can keep referring to each time we talk about our plants.  Mustard really does sprout promptly, so it was a great seed to use for immediate gratification (well, almost immediate). 

Next step--chickens.  I wonder if Multnomah would allow us to have live chickens.  Now there's a great lesson in where your food comes from!

Holy Moly (Part 4)

This has been an especially exciting (and humbling) last couple days filled with all sorts of big news items.  First of all, on August 29th we sold our house in Hawaii!

Aloha Halekohana.

We've been in escrow for the past month, which is always an anxious couple weeks, but we made it all the way through and closed on Friday, the 29th.  It was a bit of a pain constantly being emailed paperwork to sign, printing it out, signing it, scanning it, then emailing it back, but that's what we get for doing it long distance I guess!  A couple things to praise God for: Zak read somewhere that the average length of time a house is on the market in Hawaii is 163.7 days (about 5.5 months).  Ours was on the market for around 60 days (and 30 of that was in escrow!).  We sold it at full asking price ($295,000) which is pretty amazing in today's buyer's market.  We sold it at literally the perfect time - if we closed less than a month earlier we would have been charged a $3000 pre-payment penalty, and if we closed 2 weeks later our ARM would have adjusted and increased our mortgage by $400 a month (from $1550 to $1950)!  Finally, we actually made money on the house (a whopping $580)!  This is significant because we were only trying to break even considering how far home prices have fallen nationally.  The fact that we bought a house 3 years ago when prices were crazy high and sold it last week after values have plummeted but still came out in the black is a miracle!  Right up until the last minute we thought we were going to have to write a $1000 check to make up the difference in escrow.  Praise God that we don't have to make those mortgage payments anymore.  This is just one of many examples of the signs we've seen over the past month or two that God wants us to be here in the Northwest.

The next big news is that Zak has finally started seminary.  He had orientation on August 22nd where he registered for his classes, bought his textbooks, got his ID and intranet access, and took a pre-seminary Bible exam to be compared to another exam he takes 3 years from now to see how much he learned while at Multnomah.  Last Tuesday (August 26th) was his first day of classes.  Zak is taking 5 classes (totaling 16 credit hours) this semester.  On Tuesdays and Thursdays he has "Genesis through Song of Solomon" and "Acts & the Pauline Epistles."  On Wednesdays and Fridays he has "Christian Theology 1," "Principles of Spiritual Formation," and "Principles of Inductive Bible Study."  Yikes!  He didn't do much in class the first week other than introductions and going over all the syllabi, but he says after seeing all his assignments he's going to be very busy for the next couple months (and probably years).  Fortunately all of his professors stressed the importance not of getting straight A's, but of growing spiritually and deepening relationships with God and each other.  To that end, we've already been to a professor's house 3 times and to 5 different student functions - just in the first 2 weeks!  We find it comforting to know that grades are Multnomah's #2 priority after our spiritual well-being.

Still on the topic of Multnomah Biblical Seminary, on Thursday (September 4th) Zak became his graduate class' Student Body President!  What a shock that was to all of us!  During orientation a sign-up sheet was posted where students could volunteer for any of the 10 positions on this year's Student Body Cabinet.  Zak eventually signed up to be considered for the position of Married Students Representative since no one else had volunteered for it after a couple days.  Imagine his (and then my) surprise when a couple days later one of his professors came up to him before class and asked that he consider and pray about being this year's President, even though others had actually signed up for it!  So we took some time, prayed about it, talked it over with some people, tried to figure out why God would bring this opportunity along, and in the end decided that any chance to grow through serving others is a good one (it certainly won't hurt his resume and Commissioning Application either!).  So, all day last Saturday (September 6th) he and the rest of the cabinet went on a retreat (that Zak had to put together) to build relationships and to create goals, a mission statement, and a verse for the class.  One of Zak's "relationship building exercises" was the game Lap Stack.  I guess there's no better way to get to know a stranger than by sitting on his/her lap for a while!  Zak's secondary duties as President will be to facilitate weekly cabinet meetings, meet weekly with the Dean of Students (the same professor who asked him to be on the cabinet), ensure the rest of the cabinet members are doing their jobs, and represent his class when all the class Presidents from the college and seminary get together to organize Multnomah University activities.  However, Zak's primary responsibility will be to serve and care for the other members of the cabinet as they serve and care for the class.  It's another Small Group ministry!  Our minds are boggled by how every little experience seems to prepare us for the next step in God's plan!  Who would have thought it!

But the story of God's provision in our lives these past couple months doesn't end there!  Three days ago during our Sunday morning worship services Zak (and family) were brought to the front and blessed as the new Recovery Groups Minister for the Agape Church of Christ.  Yep, Agape hired Zak to be a part-time minister while we're here attending MBS!  He will be responsible for (get this!) overseeing all of Agape's forthcoming Recovery Groups.  Isn't it amazing how God prepares us with past experiences for future ministry!?  Our church is going to launch groups which provide safe places for people to support each other as they experience problems with different kinds of abuse, addiction, depression, and infidelity.  From now until January leaders will be trained to facilitate each of the different kinds of Recovery Groups, and then next year the ministry will launch.  Please thank God for giving Zak a job with a church family that we love, and ask Him to bless our future endeavors in Agape's Recovery Groups Ministry.

A Fun Story

I know most of you read this blog for information on the under-aged in our household, so I figured I should give you a little update and one fun story just to keep you interested!

When we got our first small shipment it was partially ours and partially the Couser's, so there were a few things here and there that were starting to look familiar.  When Koa went in to use the potty one time he noticed that he recognized the bath mat.  He looked at me and said, "Is this ours?"  I said, "Yes."   He asked, "From our green house?"  I affirmed that and added, "This is our new house and soon we will have all of our stuff here."  He said, "This is our new house?  CONGRATULATIONS!"

As you can see from that little story, his vocabulary is really exploding and he says all kinds of interesting things now!  He is quite the little evangelist, too.  He will sing or talk or shout about Jesus whenever he gets a chance!  Sometimes he will be out on our front steps all by himself just telling anyone who will listen about Jesus.  Yesterday we were at Ikea rummaging through the scratch and dent section and the whole time we were there he had a lamp he was using as a microphone and he was singing/yelling, "Run to Jesus!  Run to Jesus!" the whole time!  I kept asking him to lower his voice and he would for a time, but the message just could not be suppressed and in very little time he would be yelling it again.  Can you really discipline for that?

He is getting pretty good at using the potty all by himself.  When we are out somewhere he will insist that I carry on with whatever I am doing and he will do it by himself.  There is usually some part of it that he can't quite do completely by himself (sometimes it starts with getting the door open to get in the bathroom).  I can't really suppress myself from going in and keeping watch, but one day he went in the men's room and Zak was perfectly willing to let him try.  We were sitting where we could see the door and when Zak did go in, the only thing Koa couldn't do by himself was reach the paper towel.  However, you should have seen the look on the poor guy's face who walked in on the little two year old sitting on the potty!  That was priceless!  There have certainly been some adventures along the way as we make this transition to independence.  I will have to blog about some of them for posterity sake at some point--mostly to remind me to just wait until the next child is 18 before we embark on this milestone!

Koa is really loving the new way of dressing that the rest of us are hesitant to adapt.  He loves to wear long pants or "hot pants" as he likes to call them.  He reminds me to bring his jacket when we go out the door even though he doesn't wear it for long when we do put it on because he usually gets too hot.  We got Koa a pair of galoshes (Locals) before we moved to Portland and packed them with the rest of our belongings, but he did not forget in the month that he did not see them!  He asked for them multiple times and when he saw me putting on covered shoes one day he insisted that he needed his "bootses".  We got them out and he started wearing these bright blue boots everywhere we went!  To Zak's dismay he doesn't even want to wear slippers anymore!  So, I went to a second hand store the other day and bought him a couple of pairs of regular shoes and he danced around like a crazy man with only one shoe on while Zak was trying to see if they fit.  For the rest of the day we could hardly get him to take them off.  Surprisingly, he can put them on by himself and gets them on the right feet.  I thought that was just a product of wearing slippers all the time, but apparently not.  I can't tell you how grateful I am to not have to bend over and put them on him!  

Speaking of not being able to bend over for any length of time without almost passing out...I am certainly getting rounder!  I have had a bit of a cold for the past week which makes breathing even more of a challenge.  Other than that, I am still feeling pretty good.  My weird back issue rears its ugly head from time to time, but I cannot even begin to tell you how thankful I am that it hasn't been any worse during our move!  With all of the plane flights and different beds and moving things from place to place I know it could have been SO much worse, but I have really done very well.  I haven't been exercising as much as I would like, but I do some stretching every now and then and it seems to help keep everything working relatively well.  Praise God!

Little BZ2 is getting slightly less busy.  I don't feel him or her moving all day and all night anymore--there are occasional breaks is the action, but when he/she is moving it feels like there is furniture being re-arranged in there!  Sometimes I feel my entire upper body move in response.  I don't remember Koa ever keeping me awake at night with his movements either (there's isn't much that will keep me awake at night!), but this kid can definitely do so.  One night at like 3 AM it actually felt like my whole belly was vibrating and then the baby was running laps on the inside.  It was the weirdest thing I have ever felt--and I could NOT go to sleep!  Koa likes to tell me what the baby is doing in there--it's usually a sport.  "She's playing baseball!"  (Yes, he still insists the baby is a girl and she will have green eyes, green hair and a green shirt.)

We have chosen a doctor/midwife very close to us.  She does home births and birthing center births.  We haven't totally decided which we are going to do, but I think it will probably be at the birthing center.  We figure you kind of lose the "comfort of your own home" benefit when your own home still feels a little foreign.  We'll see.  We still have a couple of months...

We're still not certain on a first name for a girl or a middle name for a boy, so if you have any ideas we are still open to suggestions!

Fair Winds and Following Seas

It is now 0000 in Hawaii, which means I (Zak) am out of the Navy and officially a civilian.  Nine years is a long time, and now it's over.  My departure was certainly a little anti-climactic - I got out of the Navy while asleep in bed at 3:00am (Pacific time) so that I could get up and go to class with all my other campus mates this morning.  It's a weird feeling.

So now I leave the seas behind and operate on dry ground.  On to uncharted territory!

Holy Moly (Part 3)

I know this post is long over-due, but as you might imagine, these have been some very busy weeks!  When we arrived in Portland we stayed for a couple of weeks in Beaverton with our friends Clint and Marla, whom I have known since the day I moved to Portland the first time 13 years ago.  They were very generous to let us stay as long as we needed.  The first two Sundays we were here we went to church with them once out at the beach (coast!) and once in the building of the Southwest Church of Christ.  That is where I was a member when I lived here before and it was really neat to go back and see so many familiar faces.  What was even more incredible to me was that most people remembered me and a lot of folks knew where we had been and what we have been up to for the past eight years!  That was amazing to me!

On our first Sunday my friend, Kara, whom I haven't seen and have hardly talked to since I left, offered us the use of their extra car.  She said they just keep it around in case someone should need a car.  It's the same one she drove while we were in college.  What a blessing to get to catch up with Kara and her family.  We certainly have been well taken care of as far as having a place to stay and a car to drive, that's for sure!

On August 2nd, Zak celebrated his 27th birthday!  Woo Hoo!  The Honolulu Crew: Tracie, Jessi, Wes and the Zumwalts all went out to a Portland Beaver's game (a AAA farm-team that feeds the San Diego Padres) for the evening.  Since baseball is Zak's favorite sport and he has missed it so much while living in Hawaii, I think it was a fun and fitting way for him to spend his birthday.  He even got Koa a giant foam finger indicating that he's the Beaver's #1 fan (I'm not sure how they verified that). 

About two weeks after we got here we got the message that our first small shipment of air mattresses and kitchen items was here and that our MDX was in Tacoma ready to be picked up at about the same time.  We thought we would try to make the trip to pick up the car an adventure and visit our friends, the Lewises while up there.  So we were going to take Amtrak up and drive the car back, but since we needed to be here in Portland to receive our first shipment we had to make it a rush trip.  We signed the lease for our house and picked up the keys the night before and left at around 5AM in one car the next day and were back in Portland with 2 cars by noon!  The Cousers actually went and opened our house for us and met the movers when they came.  August 8th was our first night in our new house: Mult-Home-Ah.

Our yard was in desperate need of some aloha when we moved in so we borrowed some lawn equipment from the family the Cousers were staying with and started working on our lawn.  We discovered we have an apple tree and a cherry tree in our yard.  Zak and Wes spent a whole afternoon trimming the cherry tree so that hopefully it will produce next year.  It didn't do so well this year.  Since that day we have also discovered some blackberry bushes nearby!  I'm making a plan for my garden, too, but I haven't had a chance to get it started yet.  I can't wait to start growing things!

We were camping in our house for a few days before we got our second shipment containing the majority of our household goods.  It only took the movers a couple hours before we were totally surrounded up to our necks in boxes!  Only a day or two ago (some 2 weeks after the delivery) we finally sent off the last of those empty boxes (thanks to Craig's list!).  I'd say we still have more things to put away than not, and each day we get a little closer to being settled in, but it is going very slowly.  Probably the room we've gotten farthest along in is Zak's office.  He is very excited to have all the bookshelves in one room and have his own space in which to study over the next couple years.  Zak was given an old desk in Hawaii that fits perfectly in the closet, so that's where he set up our desktop computer and printer and wireless network to get them out of the way (he calls that closet his server room).  He also found a dark green leather couch on Craig's List for 50 bucks that goes great in the office.  He says all he needs now is a faux fireplace with a mantle and he'll be all set!

The other big news from a couple weeks ago is that we have a new church family!  It's the Agape Church of Christ.  It's a church plant that started about a year and a half ago and meets in a high school cafeteria in inner-city Portland.  There's about 60 of us on any given Sunday but if everyone showed up at the same time, there'd probably be over 100 people.  We really feel like God brought us to Agape to learn from some very genuine and service-oriented people - the church is very welcoming and evangelistic.  Most of our congregation's efforts are focused on the unchurched or those in need, so we open our doors (the school's doors!), set out some food and coffee, and invite in anyone who comes along.  We have quite a few homeless members, a couple people fresh out of prison, and quite a few folks who've been hurt by other churches in the area and have found acceptance with us.  There's no dress code so everyone just wears t-shirts and jeans to services and everyone is welcome to take communion.  Ron Clark, our minister and church-planter, and his wife, Lori,  are very passionate and professionally trained in dealing with social justice issues, so we do a lot of work with the homeless, the addicted and the abused.  Two weeks ago we were at a shelter serving dinner to the homeless and last Saturday we were at Dignity Village (read here and here) replacing some tent structures with little wooden buildings we made out of plywood.  Kathy and I have already grown spiritually and have seen what it takes to be a Christian in a whole new light just in the 3 weeks or so that we've been attending.  We are so blessed to have found Agape, and we pray that we can be used to serve the folks here in Portland.

We're almost caught up, so stay tuned!

Holy Moly! (Part 2)

When we left Hawaii we proceeded straight to Nashville, Tennessee (actually Paris, Tennessee)!  Yep, that's right.  We took the scenic route to Portland. We made some friends back in February, Jerry and Lynn Jones, when they came out to Hawaii to do a marriage seminar.  While they were with us they really encouraged us to come to a retreat they host each year for a group of friends whom they personally invite (this year there were 185 of us).  When they mentioned it, Zak and I were both very interested, but weren't sure it would ever be able to happen since we had no plans to return to the mainland at that time.  Then later when we started looking at the time-line for possibly starting school at Multnomah University we started to wonder again if the retreat might be something we could fit into the plan.  Jerry kept reminding us about it and we kept it in the back of our minds as a "pie in the sky" goal.

When Zak found out he would, in fact, be going to Multnomah this Fall, we only had a short time to get everything done.  For a little while we considered having Zak go to the retreat and Koa and I staying behind to finish everything.  We thought it would be a great way for him to begin this next phase of ministry.  We prayed a lot about it.  As the time approached and we made appointment after appointment to get everything done, things seemed to miraculously fall into place with just the right timing.  We were able to get everything done and moved off the island in just three weeks and three days!  So, we were able to leave Hawaii on July 20th and the retreat in Nashville started on July 21st - perfect timing.  For those of you who are not involved with the military, they say that getting out can take six months or more in most cases!

In addition to the perfect timing, the Navy agreed to pay for our trip to Nashville since they will pay for the whole family to go back to the service-member's home of origin when he/she gets out of the Navy.  Since Zak's home of origin was Virginia we could basically go anywhere in the US as long as it was cheaper than flying to Virginia.  On July 25th we used frequent flier miles to get us from Nashville to Portland, so it ended up being a pretty inexpensive trip (Koa didn't have enough miles so he had to pay $300) for us to go to the retreat.

While at the retreat we got to meet some amazing people and hear testimonies of God's love and grace that would soften the hardest heart!  We enjoyed some amazing times of worship and praise.  Keith Lancaster of Acapella and his family were there and all of Acapella sang for us on the last night.   The retreat was designed as a place of recovery for some folks when it was started 23 years ago.  Lynn described it as mature church members ministering to each other.  I didn't understand what that meant exactly until we got there.  It was a place where people were so focused on the commonality of being saved by the grace of God that differences just didn't seem to matter.  It was a wonderful, refreshing place to be. 

Koa got totally spoiled and gained many more aunties and uncles over the four days we were there!  Jerry had strongly encouraged us to find somewhere else for Koa to go but insisted that if we couldn't, that wouldn't keep us from coming.  We tried to come up with something else for him to do, but no one we knew would be available to be in Nashville that week.  So, he was one of two children there for the entire retreat.  The other little girl was almost three, so they had lots of fun together.  I was very sensitive to every little noise as we sat through classes, testimonies and different events.  Knowing that he was not really invited I really didn't want him to be a distraction for anyone or to be annoying to anyone!  However, everyone was SO encouraging.  Just when I would think he must be driving everyone crazy someone would comment on how good he was and that they didn't even know he was there!  Everyone was just so sweet and understanding about him being there!

Koa would take his naps in our hotel room each day (oh yeah, our retreat was in a conference center at a hotel) while we did other things and it never seemed to bother him at all to wake up in an unfamiliar place (the first nap he woke up from he said "What is this house?").  We kept him up too late every night and got him up too early every morning and he just rolled with the punches the whole time!  We left him with "Auntie Sandy" while we went golfing with some new friends one afternoon and he had a great time playing in the pool and generally getting spoiled.  He did have more ice cream in the week that we were there than he has ever had in his life and I have no idea what the ingredients are in soft serve ice cream, so I had to learn to let go just a little.  In fact, I have had to learn to relax just a little in general when it comes to our nutrition--not an easy thing for me to do, but it can be done.  Southern people have a special "need to feed" apparently.  We had very limited choices since we didn't have a car.  We were kind of destined to eat from the "all you can eat" buffet for several days in a row and the majority of the food was fried.  I finally talked someone into taking me to the Piggly Wiggly to get some fresh produce to have in the room.  You might be surprised to know that the Piggly Wiggly in Paris, Tennessee doesn't have a very extensive organic section!  On another occasion that we escaped the buffet for lunch we got to have some fine southern BBQ.  The restaurant's sign said they had BBQ as tender as a mother's love.  How can you pass up that kind of BBQ!?

All of my complaints are really in jest.  We had a good time laughing about how uptight I am and how bad catfish tastes after eight years of fresh mahi mahi and opakapaka and opa....  (Mmmm, it makes my mouth water just thinking about it.)  We realize we are richly blessed--sometimes to the point of being just plain spoiled!  It was a really fun week and a nice buffer between the madness of moving and the uncertainty of being homeless! 

Another part of the trip that I considered a small miracle was the fact that on the way to Tennessee, with three lay-overs (none of them very long) we made all of our connections and not a single flight was delayed!  It was incredible!  We were not so lucky on the return flight.  We were delayed to the point that we didn't get into Portland until almost 2 AM on Saturday.  Since we were having friends pick us up from the airport I called them and told them not to worry about it and we would just get a hotel.  Of course, there was some conference or something in town and there was literally only one room available in all the hotels anywhere near the airport and their shuttle service had stopped running by the time we got there.  So, we got a taxi and upset the poor driver with the weight of our luggage, (to the point that he was cursing us in Russian all the way to the hotel) and eventually got to go to bed about 3:30 AM.  As we lay there trying to fall asleep in our very comfy bed we realized we had been in six cities in five days and wondered just how long it would take us to figure out which time zone we were in....

Good Bye, Babies!

We have had some of our plants since we first got married.  Even the summer when we were homeless before we bought our house I had them stored at the Walkers house until we had a new place to put them.  So, I have become kind of attached to them over the years.  Most of them started out as mere twigs and I could tell you exactly where I got each one and probably how much they cost or who gave each one to me.  We have a history.  So, it was kind of emotional following them down the highway with gale force winds beating them up as we tranferred them to their new home.  It took two full truck loads and I wish I had gotten a picture before we headed down the road because they looked a lot better before the journey beat some of the life out of them.  When we started the journey I could hardly see the truck!  I also only got a picture of the smaller plants.  Zak made the second trip without me moping along behind him.

I was excited to give them to our friends, the Fauths, who is also a Navy family.  Here in a few years they will have to move and hand the plants off to someone else (probably another military family), so hopefully they will get to brighten the homes of many families along the way.

Holy Moly! (Part 1)

We are SO far behind it's hard to figure out where to begin!   I'll have to make several posts just to get us caught up to today.

We packed out of our house on Wednesday, July 16 and life became a whirlwind of events as we got our car shipped, mailed some packages, packed our bags, moved in with the Rudders, bombarded Rebecca with left over pantry and refrigerator items, packed our bags, spent one more day at Bellows and ate one last time at Phuket Thai with favorite people, re-packed our bags, packed our bags some more,  found a new home for our plants, finished checking out of the Navy, thanked God that we would be allowed extra weight in our luggage since Zak would be traveling on military orders, re-packed our bags and finally flew out on Sunday, the 20th.

It was an emotional time leaving Mililani and then Hawaii altogether, but we took great comfort in knowing that we would be bringing some of our best friends with us!  And we are so excited about the adventures which lie ahead!  Of course it is all exciting because we know Who is in control and we take even more comfort in being in His care.

We weren't sure how Koa would take all the change and the packing up of all of our household goods.  He has become much more territorial lately, so I was a little concerned.  Of course, our fears were totally unfounded.  He has done the best of all of us with all of the change and up-rooting!  He knew we were going on a plane on Sunday and he kept reminding us of that fact.  He was just certain that it was a pink plane.  (I think that is because the Hawaiian Airlines planes have a pink flower on them and that is what you usually see when driving past the airport.)  He would even explain to me that we were going to Portland and we would have a new house and that Wes and Jessi and Tracie would be there, too.  He didn't seem to mind at all that the movers came and packed up all of his toys and furniture.  He was a little perplexed when Auntie Becca brought him a new book to read and the couch was gone when he went to the living room to have her read it to him.  He said, "Where's ma couch?" and started looking behind all of the boxes.

Koa got to spend his very first night away from mommy and daddy that night.  He stayed the afternoon with Grammy Booker the day the movers where there and when we went to Bible study that night I went to get his car seat out of Grammy's car and he asked if he could just go home with her.  I think maybe Grammy had been planting this idea for a while before this happened.  So, we asked Daddy and he agreed that if everyone was ok with it that would be fine.  The next day we had to go back to the house and do the final cleaning before the carpet guy got there, so it worked out well for him to still be at Grammy and Pappy's house.  By that afternoon his daddy was quite ready for him to come home, though.  It was kind of funny to see Zak be so opinionated about it.  I thought I would be the one to be anxious for him to come home.  Koa had no problem with staying the night away from us in a different house and talked about his time with Pappy and Grammy for days afterward.  In fact he wasn't ready to go when I went to get him.  But when we got in the car he told me they went to the playground to play and I wasn't there and he missed me.