Monday, August 6, 2018

The Road "Home"


Greetings from aboard Thomas Cook Airlines (or Condor or AirTanker or one of several other names that appeared in our discount booking confirmations. It was surprisingly difficult to determine exactly what airline we were going to be flying with from the documentation, though we managed to work it out by the time we dropped off our rental car at the Belfast City Airport) somewhere above Greenland!

We are finally on the last stage of our family multi-continent adventure, having been treated to some truly wonderful hospitality along the way. Our first stop was to visit a good friend from Joe’s graduate days at Cambridge. It was high time for a visit, especially considering Ulrich’s recent engagement, and though the greatest highlight of the stopover was getting to meet Theresia and spend some time with the two of them as a couple, we enjoyed getting to see the sights of Cambridge again after a long absence.
Our last visit to the city was in 2012 for the London Olympics, and the once small college town has definitely expanded a bit in the last six years. A couple pub meals, long run visiting Joe’s typical hangouts (the Cavendish Laboratory, Wolfson College, Addenbrooke’s Hospital, Parker’s Piece, Jesus Green, etc.), many restful moments in the back garden of Ulrich’s place and several wonderful home cooked meals made the time a restful place for us to decompress from our African adventure for a few days. Having the two girls playing around the old colleges was pretty surreal and reminded us of how much our lives have changed in a relatively short amount of time.
We were also lucky enough to be able to take a day trip up to a small village outside of Peterborough to visit Carol’s friend Emily, who has taken ownership of a castle in recent years. After our modest but overly confident cab driver got us lost a couple times, we finally turned in through the gates getting our first glimpse of Woodcroft Castle while crossing over the moat and trying hard not to be too distracted by the flocks of peacocks! Emily gave us a grand tour of the castle (complete with defense tower, chapel, guard house, etc.) and grounds, and the girls loved the opportunity to run around in a bit more free space than they had been accustomed to with all the travel.
Another highlight was traveling around Cambridge by car thanks to Ulrich (affectionately known as Uncle Ulrich for his patience, playfulness and creativity with the girls!) tracking down two carseats. We were also so grateful for the ride he gave us to Stanstead Airport on our way to Ireland for our last stop before heading home.
We were headed for Belfast, which was the home of Dave and Ruth. Dave was another B42 comrade from Cambridge days of yore, and we had last seen him in Australia in 2016 for another B42 wedding which unfortunately was not recorded in The Adventures of Joe & Carol. Petra was just over a year old at the time and we have some amazing photos of her paddling around on the Great Barrier Reef among other thing (we realized that with this trip Petra become a five continent traveler which we think is pretty grand for someone three years old). Narrowly avoiding an excessively long tangential story, this was the first time that we had been able to see Ruth in person since the combined wedding/graduation festivities of 2011 and even more excitingly our first opportunity to meet their twin children who are coming up on two years of age!
The twins were amazing, and very graciously shared a lot of toys and food with Petra and Matea who made themselves right at home. Ruth’s cooking and baking skills are truly inspiring and any weight loss which we might have possibly incurred during our time in Kenya was undoubtedly reversed with interest in just three days. In addition to fattening us up for our trip home, Dave and Ruth showed us some of the many beautiful sights around the greater Belfast area, including a very scenic seaside park complete with miniature railway at Carnfunnock and the Castle Ward now recognized by the world as Winterfell since the filming of Game of Thrones. Also particularly memorable were a few minutes strolling about at some wonderfully isolated remains of a Celtic monastery dated back to around 700 AD.
Our best memories from this phase of our journey are of course just sitting around the table or living room getting to reconnect with our friends and hearing about their own adventures since were all students and chasing around with the kids almost like we all lived much closer together on the planet.
And now we are headed home… almost. This flight will take us to Washington State, USA, where we have the honor of attending Joe’s younger sister’s wedding this upcoming weekend. After the festivities we will hit the road heading South to spend just a few short weeks packing up our belongings before making our official move out of Southern California to start a new chapter in our lives up in the Pacific Northwest. We’re not sure when the next instalment of our blog will appear, but perhaps once we’re settled in our new home the story of our transition will be worth documenting for posterity. Irrespective of that particular story, we will endeavor to not wait another four years before posting an update on this crazy pilgrimage we call ‘life’. Many blessings to you all.

Joe & Carol (& Petra & Matea)

Tuesday, July 31, 2018

Greetings From Cambridge

Dear Friends,

After another pair of marathon flights for the kids and a very long night in the Abu Dhabi airport (our eternal thanks to the individual who decided to install play structures in the waiting areas), we successfully arrived at Heathrow with Mike and Shawna who were also headed to the UK before making their way home. A tube ride, train ride and cab ride later we were at Ulrich's place and so tired we could barely see straight, but extremely thankful to have survived yet another journey across continents with the kids. We realized with some surprise that it has been six years since we have been back to Cambridge (the 2012 Olympic Games were our last excuse to visit), and the town has definitely grown up a bit in that short amount of time.




We've already spent time with Carol's friend who has moved into a castle near Peterborough, and enjoyed a massive pub lunch down by the riverside in central Cambridge, strolled through the market square, as well as hit up a few parks and playgrounds nearby to exercise the kids after such long and cramped travels.
It has been a blast to see Ulrich again and be reminded of the wonderful years Joe spent studying here before getting married. As always, there is limited time to spend typing on the computer, but we wanted to give a quick notice regarding our current location. Next stop... Ireland!

Wednesday, July 25, 2018

Eight Days Later...

Never mind.

It is now 8 days later and we are now making our way back to Nairobi by way of Lake Nakuru! I was pulled away from that last entry in the middle of a sentence, and with the very slow mobile data connection speeds and absolutely no time to spend just typing on the computer or uploading photos, my good intentions of keeping a regular journal for you have been crushed (but for very good reasons like trying to wrangle two highly energetic children while being exposed to some of the most amazing life-transforming work that I have ever seen).
Unfortunately, I still do not have the time or energy to put into words everything that has transpired since Carol and I sat awake that night in Ilula, but I have selected a few photos to try and help convey a little of our journey. Briefly, after arriving at ELI we were immediately welcomed into a wide variety of opportunities to both experience and share God's reckless love, acceptance, humility, forgiveness, and open invitation to experience true LIFE through song, prayer, testimony, fellowship,  exchange of ideas, games, meals, training, laughter, and shared physical challenges. We'll try to fill in the gaps with specific stories one way or another, in the future, but for the moment we wanted to let everyone know that the whole family is still safe and sound, and post at least a few photos for the folks back home.