"We are flying as fast as we can..."

Howdy Friends and Family! These two days run together because we left Nebraska on Tuesday morning, the USA on Tuesday night and landed Wednesday morning. This year we promised ourselves that we wouldn't make the mistake we made last year. We would go to bed the night before. Of course, that didn't happen. We were so excited and of course hadn’t even thought of packing yet. We packed and

stayed up and left for grand Island at 330 in the morning! A quick stop at McDonald's for breakfast and we left for another once in a lifetime opportunity! Grand Island to Dallas and then off to Chicago. Our plane out of Grand Island was delayed. So once we got up in the air the pilot said we have reached our cruising altitude and we are flying as fast as we can to make sure you make your connection.
Dallas to Chicago was uneventful. After a 4 hour layover in Chicago we border out plane to Dublin. Thinking of Dave’s legs in the seats, I tried to be helpful and got us exit row seats which were great but for some reason sitting by that door was so cold! We both had on summer type of clothes so when the plane landed, we were ever so happy to get off. After making our way through Customs, we met our missionary hosts Blake and Katy Edgmon. We went out and did a little exploring including eating at Gourmet Burger

Kitchen. Dave’s lunch was humongous. So big that he ended up eating it with a fork! It included a burger, egg, lettuce, mushroom, tomatoes, onions, and cheese. Quite delicious though!
Blake and Katy took us all around the area and stopped at the fist Assembly of God church in Ireland. We stopped at a coffee shop with some very unique furniture and ordered some lattes. Back home and a spaghetti supper and relaxation—and early to bed at 8 p.m. From our very tired, yet very excited picture window to yours, have a great day!

Howdy Family and Friends! It’s day 3—yippee! For me (Jen) this day was spent on the road to South Dakota to visit two of my foreign exchange students that I have placed there! 127 miles one way! Luckily, Jalise slept the entire trip both going and coming home! Unfortunately, coming home, my body was ready for a nap too! Little sleep last night and an early morning don’t make for an awake Jen! But, we made it home—before the boys got home from church and enjoyed a quiet evening!

From Dave: This was day three of the ride. We started in Bingham and were en-route to Thedford. The conditions were much more favorable. It was 54 degrees this morning and this afternoon it reached around the mid 80's. Overall it was a pleasant ride with no major mishaps. I took the morning easy and was just seeing if my episode yesterday was just a fluke or was I really in trouble. We had some big hills and even bigger downhills which was nice. The downside is that there was a lot of road construction that wasn't there when we drove out. The decided to surface 7 miles of road and there was no smooth spot to ride. Either you road a shoulder that had a lot of loose rock and was rough or ride the new gravel and hope you didn't crash. What a choice.

After the construction I came up on a van that had pulled over with a flat tire. I asked him if he needed help and he responded, "I think that would be a good idea." He was a senior from Ord and it was fun to be able to help him. I needed something to put under the jack because it was sinking in the sand and he brought me his English Literature book. I opted not to use his book and used a mat from the back of his van. We stopped for lunch in Mullen and I made my mind up that I wanted to be the first rider in to Thedford and nobody was going beat me. When we left Mullen I kicked it into high gear! Side note: this is my nickname too, and I didn't look back. 10 miles in I stopped at the trailer, grabbed a snack, and took off. I was going fast enough that I beat the bus to the next stop. I arrived in Thedford 10 minutes before any other riders. I achieved my goal of leading an entire section and it felt great. At the end of the day I road 84 miles and averaged 17.8 miles an hour. Thanks for all your prayers. Tomorrow we have a short day and we ride 67 miles to Broken Bow and I get to sleep in a real bed at my inlaws home instead of a motel. Wahoo!!!

From our speedy (both driving and riding) picture window to yours, have a great night!

Day Two, What Shall I do?

Howdy Family and Friends! Day 2, what to do? For me (Jen) today was exactly that…where oh where do I start…laundry, dishes, floors, oh wait! I know! How about Happy 13 Anniversary to my husband! To celebrate, I went out for coffee with the ladies from the church! Dave gave me a gift certificate to the Hub (for coffee) an Angry birds stress ball, and a sling shot from the Angry Birds game…not exactly romantic you say!? I agree, but it was from him!

From Dave: Today was the first full day of the ride. What a day! We rode 40 miles before lunch and it was an interesting ride. It was 42 degrees when we left. If only it would have stayed cool all day. That first section had a lot of down hills, but there were three major uphills that challenged us right away. Over all it was an uneventful day. There was one flat tire, but everybody seemed to be doing well.

As we pulled into Alliance for lunch, the wind shifted to the west and we were very excited to have a major tail wind for the last half of the ride. I choose to start in the back today and took my time riding to the front so I could visit with all the riders along the way. After 14 miles, I had had enough and it was time to go. The wind was picking up and we motored. We ended riding an extra 18 miles more than we had planned because the wind was so favorable. All together we road 83 miles and stopped in Bingham. I was totally wasted the last two miles. I didn't have anything left in the tank. The front group got there really early so after resting for a while waiting for the bus I decided to ride down into Bigham and take the royal tour of the town. There isn't much there, but I have to say the streets are very well marked. Every street had a sign. It was a fun adventure. When I returned to the highway everybody else had arrived and the bus was almost there. Wahoo!

Remember I said we wished it stayed cool. It was 105 along side the road. Not fun. Tonight I was given the "forget me not" award. Before I left Burwell I was fixing some seams on top of the bus to stop some leaks and I thought I had taken care of everything. At Arby’s today I was looking at the bus and I couldn't figure out what was laying on top of the bus. I thought I might have damaged something with a low tree branch or something. So I walked out and look and found the caulking gun that I had used the other day. It rode all the way to Chadron and back to Alliance without falling off. Pretty impressive! Summary of the day I rode 84 miles and averaged 19.2 miles an hour. Good day over all!

From our loving, speedy anniversary window to yours, have a great night!

Day 1, the fun has just begun!

Day 1--The fun has just begun!
Howdy friends and family! As you can tell by the title, today is the first day of the Missions Bike ride for Dave and being a bachelorette/single Mom for the week!
We stayed the night in Broken Bow until Dave and Jon met up with the rest of the crew to head west! Pretty uneventful on our end! Dave on the other hand had a great day! The riders saw the destruction from the fires and the smoke in the air was there, but luckily not too heavy. The group also started riding tonight.
Dave and his riding partner Dale Ackermann, beat their personal record for going 20 miles! They accomplished this goal in 53 minutes.

On the way home, Cecilie gave me a note from Dave telling me to look in the visor of the pickup. There I found his old IPod. Cecilie loaded a message from Dave! It was rather cute and I will try to include it on here. The message was a song titled, “Call Me Maybe!” and while it was rather cute, he holds up a sign with a number…which was supposed to be his—well, it wasn’t. It was a land line in Burwell. OOPS! Still cute and rather funny!

From our smoky and speedy wrong number picture window to yours, have a great night!

What Faith Can Do...

Howdy friends and family. The lyrics to the song "What Faith Can Do" are so fitting for the blog I am writing tonight. The song says,

"Anyone can feel the ache
You think it's more than you can take..."

That has been my day in a nutshell. To start from the beginning, last Wed. morning I woke up very dizzy. It was so bad that I couldn't get out of the bed without falling down. I was extremely nauseous and burning up! My first thought was, "Oh no, I slept wrong and a nerve in my neck is getting pinched!"

I tried to make my way to the bathroom--but without much success. Jacob caught me in the hallway. He asked if I was ok and of course Mom mode kicked in and I said yes-- just a little dizzy. In his 11 year old most compassionate voice he said, "Uh Mom, I don't think so." I told him that I thought he better get on his bike and go get Dad from work. He was gone before I could even make it to the couch.

Dave came home and helped finish getting the boys off to school and then stayed with me. We were both not sure what was going on so we called our faithful chiropractor, and got in right away. The drive alone was enough to make me want to throw up.

Doc adjusted me but said, "I think you better make an appointment to see Hugh. (Hugh is our regular physician--Dr. Holmquist.) We did and I told him my symptoms. He took my Blood Pressure, checked my ears...everything was fine. He then suggested we do some blood work. No problem! The nurse came in and took some blood and we returned home to wait for results--which should have come in on Friday.

Well, Friday came and no phone call so I called in to see if they had anything. The answer--"No, sorry. Nothing yet." Saturday came and went, Sunday spun through...nothing, Monday whirled around me-still no phone call with results. Today, woke up at 5:50 burning up, head pounding, room spinning like I had just gotten off the merry go round and extremely nauseous. I immediately woke up Dave and he got me some Motrin and water and a cracker. The cracker still lays on the headboard. I couldn't chew it to save my life. I thought for sure that it must be a flu bug that is going around. I laid there for the next hour unable to get off the dizzy kick. As Dave was preparing to leave for work at 7, I told him he better stick around and make sure the kids got to school ok. He did and I stayed in bed. At 9:20 I got up to make my way to the kitchen to take more medicine and about 20 minutes later the dizziness subsided. I continued on with my day plans which included heading to Broken Bow to meet a prospective host family and have lunch with my Mom.

On the way there, Dave called me as I was about to drive out of service and told me the dr. office called and needed to speak with me. When I was finally able to get back into service, I immediately called them back. The nurse gave me the test results. Mono test came back negative, CBC was fine, some other test was fine, but there was one test that came back not so good...the Thyroid test. I was diagnosed with hypothyroidism.

"It doesn't matter what you've heard
Impossible is not a word
It's just a reason
For someone not to try

Everybody's scared to death..."

Ya, that's me. Scared to death. What did I do to cause this? How did it happen? Why me? Well, to answer one question: its hereditary. There is nothing I could have done to cause it.

To say the least, today was overwhelming...

"But you're stronger
Stronger than you know"

There were other factors that played into today--finding out that I was housing a family of mice in my dryer hose, Caleb's spacer cutting his tongue open because it broke off, remembering 12 years ago that today was the day I buried my daughter, but to say the least, I was heart broken--felt like the sky was falling down around me.

"Don't you give up now
The sun will soon be shining"

That's what I am holding on to. The sun will be shining tomorrow.

"I've seen dreams that move the mountains
Hope that doesn't ever end
Even when the sky is falling
And I've seen miracles just happen
Silent prayers get answered
Broken hearts become brand new
That's what faith can do
That's what faith can do"

I have had other serious conditions that were going to require major surgery happen to me and I have seen miracles just happen in my own life that doctors could not answer for. So for now, this mountain is hard to face. But I will climb this mountain. I will come out on top. Tomorrow will be better.

"You gotta face the clouds
To find the silver lining..

Even if you fall sometimes
You will have the strength to rise

I will get through this new journey that I am travelling down. But please, be in prayer for me. I am believing for a complete miracle. From my 'underactive' picture window to yours, have a great day.

RFKC--Day 2/3 A week that will change my life!

RFKC--Day 2/3
Howdy friends and family! The last two days have definitely been interesting! The campers are settling in well and starting to enjoy camp!
Some of these kids are so hungry for attention (and food) that they will go to extreme measures to get either of these! I got the privilege of experiencing that...
My job at this camp is to lifeguard and be a relief "big camper". While in the pool Tuesday, one of the girls was playing and swimming along happily and then she began to swim away from the others. I watched her carefully and she seemed to be ok. She was snorkeling but gradually her swimming became less active. I kept a close eye on her when her swimming just stopped. She was face down in the pool--and for any lifeguard, that is a heart stopping moment.
I quickly alerted another big camper who was near her in the water and she tapped her on the head thinking that she would pop up and respond. No luck. By now my heart started to pump a little quicker. The big camper tapped her again, only to be answered with no response again! I quickly threw off my glasses and shirt (yes, I had my suit on underneath) and jumped in. As I turned her over, she had a glazed look in her eyes and I was praying that everything would be ok. I very calmly called her by name (and for those of you who know me know that I can get very excited about certain things)and told her that she needed to respond and answer me. With the other girls watching, she looked up at me as I was swimming her to the side still 'dazed'. I quietly told her that she was ok and that she could stop acting at any moment. As I pulled her out of the water, she said to me, "I'm fine, what's the big deal?"
Talk about heart wrenching. This young girl was so hungry for attention that she went to drastic measures just for one on one time.
Over the course of the next 10 minutes I told her that she needed to sit with me on the side of the pool so that I could 'observe' her and make sure she was ok. (In other words, I gave her a time out!)I talked with her about why she did that and her response was simply, "I want attention!" I told her that there were so many other ways to get attention and that wasn't a good choice. As the day went on, I made sure to try to compliment her on the little things or just say hi to her when I saw her. My heart went out to this girl.
Wednesday brought new opportunities to get to know the kids. Funny thing is, the Lord brings these opportunities at the craziest times! For me, the opportunity was while driving go-karts with the shorter campers! I was driving around with a little girl and she wanted so badly to be able to drive--so I gave her that chance! I ran the gas pedal and she ran the wheel...talk about insane! That was my moment of insanity! She screamed and giggled while I held on for dear life! As we were finishing the last lap on the course, she let me take control of the wheel and laid her head on my shoulder and said, I don't get to live with my Mommy any more. I miss her. But you made my day really fun! As I pulled into our slot to park, she just continued to snuggle up to me...and once again, I had to hold back the tears. There were no words of advice to give, nothing to say, just a shoulder to provide and a side hug to give--nothing needed to be said. Today was about making moments matter--even if it was in the go-kart. The cool thing for this little girl is that the photographer captured that moment and she will have it in her scrapbook that we are making for her.
From my moment making opportunities to yours, have a great day!

A week that will change my life...Day 1 RFKC

Howdy friends and family! I am writing to you tonight from a 2012 Royal Family Kids Camp—This afternoon as we were wrapping up our afternoon activities, we asked one of the campers to pray over supper. A little boy volunteered. He did a typical prayer, “Lord, thank you for the food and the fun day we had and Lord, thank you for letting me survive my first birthday and keeping me alive during the surgeries I have had. Amen”
Talk about being caught off guard! I was sitting next to the director and the nurse and neither of us had dry eyes. It’s so hard to imagine what some of these kids have gone through. The director shared with me that the little boy had to have a plate put in his head before his first birthday because of what his Mom had done to him. My heart was truly broken.
This evening before bed, I had the privilege to pass out the blankets that Joyce donated and we tied. I went with the camp Grandpa and Grandma to hand them out. The look on one little girls face was priceless. She grabbed her blanket and asked, “Who gave this to me?” The camp Grandma looked at her and said, “Miss Jen made it for you with another lady from her church.” She hugged the blanket tightly to her chest and said, “No one has ever given me anything like this before! Thank you! I love it!”
As we passed out the blankets to the other kids, it was so hard to hold back the tears that were filling my eyes. For some of these kids, it was just like Christmas morning. They were so excited to get something that was all their own.
As I was wrapping up the night, one of the privileges that I have is to be relief for the big campers and spend time with the little campers. While we are in the room, we get to read them a story, tuck them in and play worship music for them to go to sleep on. The other leader in the room asked one of the little girls if she would like her to tuck her in. She said no and turned her back away from that leader. The leader tried several times to tuck her in and each time she was answered with “No.” A few minutes later, I came by and asked her if it would be ok if I tucked her in and she said “I guess so.” She was very quiet and shy and I told her that I was so excited to see her when she woke up in the morning. She turned over immediately asked me if I was serious and I told her that I was. A huge smile spread across her face and she said that she couldn’t wait either.
From my widened, emotional picture window to yours, have a great week!