Yard life

We have spent time lately out on our little deck by a big juniper tree. The songbirds here are all over the place, so we've been watching them. (and they watch us) So one day Charles got out his iphone and opened an application from Audubon Guides called Birds.

He started trying to figure out what kinds of birds we had in the trees around us by finding their calls. He would play the call and soon we noticed the calls around us were closer and closer. We were being closely monitored with fly-by agents and reconnaissance spies in the branches around us. It was hilarious, but I had to be quiet because it was so much fun.

The Mountain Chickadee answers back when you imitate and the Juniper Titmouse came right up to us, within 3 feet of our chairs to investigate, a look of shock to see what weird birds we were. I was holding Maisy in my lap and she just trembled with anticipation of what that bird would do as they locked eyes with each other. Then he abruptly flew off. Maisy just sighed. No one wants to be her friend. ;)

And that's the news from the animal kingdom here.

P.S.
Charles did find a snake in the front yard yesterday. It was shortish and brown but had no rattle, so he let it slither off to eat gophers.
(I am shamelessly cheering him on in that)

Divine encounter

About 6 years ago my husband, Charles, flew to Oklahoma City to pick up a car his brother wanted our daughter Bethany to have. He visited for a day or two and then started the drive back. And around Albuquerque he began to realize this car was not going to make it back to Phoenix. In fact, it died....cracked head gasket (whatever that is, I don't usually ask). He called home to tell me he was spending the night in Albuquerque with a friend of a friend. He just happened to make the connection because he called our friend Dave to ask car advice. Dave called his friend in that city and the friend dropped everything to come and rescue my husband.

He not only gave him a ride. He arranged for towing, invited Charles back to stay at his family home for the night and fed him dinner. I remember Charles saying they were people you felt like you've always known, so friendly, hospitable and kind. The next morning Dave came from Arizona to help Charles tow the car back home but he always remembered this friend of Dave's who had come to his rescue. He said he wanted to find him and invite him to dinner and to visit our new church once we moved here to Albuquerque.

You never know Who is listening when you say things like that.... ;)

The other day we went to switch to New Mexico driver's licenses. We thought it would be quick and easy, but they require you bring documents to prove your residency and also your social security cards. As we headed away from the window, the woman helping us happened to mention that if our social security cards were laminated, they would not accept them. Ehnn, yeah, about that. Years ago we did laminate them before seeing the instructions not to on the back side. So she said we had to go to the social security office and get new ones. Sssssigh...

This was our mission this morning. We headed out with our passports, old social security cards, birth certificates, etc. We did not want to be turned away because we didn't have the right documents. I had no idea this was such a big deal. As we headed in to the office, there was a security check point, metal detector and 4 police officers checking us out. Then we entered a room of about 50 people sitting in plastic chairs, waiting for their number to be called to talk to someone about their social security needs. It did not look like fun. Drat those laminating machines!

We waited to be checked in and given a number so that we could wait some more. But when we got to the front of the line, Charles beamed and called out his old friend of a friend's name. He was the one checking people in! We were all just smiling and thinking it was an amazing chance meeting. He and Charles had a wonderful few moments of connecting again. Then, just as amazing, he said he would get us to a window right away so we wouldn't have to wait in those plastic chairs with those 50 other people and then shuttled us to the next window.

I usually don't like to take cuts, but boy oh boy....that was meant to be and we appreciated it so much. The woman helping us had us out of there in about 5 minutes. And the old friend assured us he would come visit the church in a week and come to dinner with us afterwards.

Maybe....instead of that friend being there to cut us a break, we were probably the ones who he needed to connect with. I hope he comes to our little church and finds out what God is doing in his life.

Very cool morning. You never know what a day will hold, do you?

Moving Day

Well...I had a few What. Are. We. Doing!? moments this morning but once we rolled out of the driveway I was fine. Leaving our kids behind was a strange moment. Leaving didn't feel real until we were in the highway and a certain John Denver song came on. (When driving Charles' truck you have to listen to his CDs) He was singing,

Friends, I will remember you
Think of you
Pray for you
And when another day is through
I'll still be friends with you.

I started thinking about our time here and realized we have invested more of our hearts here than anywhere else. There has been flooooods of water under this bridge, folks. So many things we got to do, things we got to witness in people's lives, and best of all, so many dear, dear friends we've collected here. It's a beautiful collection. I could barely stop hugging some of them this morning when we were trying to leave.

Charles said this past week that part of leaving well is saying good-bye well. I hope we did. We love our friends and family here.

I will try to update after we arrive in our new location, but we won't have  Internet until at least Thursday and trying to type well on Charles' iPhone is making me nutsy!

On to new things...

One more week

Since Easter we have been in full on packing, sorting and pitching out mode.

We've also been to a different person's home or taken out to eat each day since then.

We have one more week in Phoenix before moving to Albuquerque.

It is getting sad to think of leaving our dear family and friends here, so I probably won't be posting much unless there is something encouraging to share. I mean, it's all been encouraging, just hard....kind of the same processing, over and over, with each group or family. And that's okay, this is part of it and we want to do it well.

Tonight we went to our future son in law's parents' home. They had family in from out of town and one of their daughters is expecting a baby, so it was a fun, happy night. They are Romanian and it's a very family upon family affectionate and close bond when they all get together. We were blessed to be a part of it.