Part 3
Chelsie has a friend who moved away just before school started this year. I will just refer to her as Sadie. She came back to Ephrata to visit us during winter break and stayed until we left. She’s 13. She was my biggest helper when it came to packing. She knew exactly what to do. She was very positive and kept encouraging me when things got overwhelming. I was so thankful she was there! Tim was often out of the house so I was doing as much as I could, alone. When winter break started, the kids were out of school all day and it felt like chaos had exploded. I took a short video of the evening we were supposed to be leaving. Pretty sure it’s going to show up sideways. (I will try to be careful when I video next time and see if I can get it to post straight) We still had furniture in the living room that was supposed to be put into storage before we left.
We didn’t have our plane tickets. We knew we were going to leave. But we had no set date. We didn’t just have the funds to buy 8 plane tickets, but we also knew that the Lord would provide the way if he wanted us to go. So we prayed, and we waited. And we waited some more. That wasn’t stressful one bit! Okay, yes… yes, it was. But through wise words of our pastor‘s sermon, God’s voice spoke to us. “God is never too late with too little.” We had experienced this over and over in our lives, yet when we are faced with an issue that is too big for us, we wonder, “Hey, God! What’s the deal? Have you forgotten us? We’re still in this mess, by the way, and have no way to get out without your help…Hello?”
There were times when I would look around at the mess in my house. Books, toys, laundry, dishes. A perfect tornado zone! All to be packed and stored away…I would be so overwhelmed and hear my own heart cry a little, “What am I doing?” Suddenly, my heart would be peaceful as I would focus my mind on trusting in The Great Unseen and his love. “He never sleeps. He sees me. He knows better than I do. This too shall pass and with God’s help, this time next month I’ll be relaxing in a cabin in Alaska.”
Our friends and family constantly asked when the big day would happen. We didn’t have a date to give them. Vaguely, I‘d respond, “The end of the month.” and this was always a shock. Which would have been fun, if I had enjoyed seeing the sickening look of shock on peoples faces. I tried to get used to it, believe me!
Tim and I were beginning to get depressed. We told everyone we were leaving, and we were packing, but we did not have the means. A flicker of hope sprang into our hearts when a donation was made as “seed money”. We couldn’t believe it! Although we had been asking God for a miracle, when it started happening, we couldn’t believe the generosity. The money continued to come in and 3 mileage tickets were donated. What a blessing! We were able to buy 5 tickets and in faith prayed that there would be 3 more seats available on the same flight so we could travel together. Guess what! … There were! Are you surprised? All 8 tickets, on the same flight! Thank you, God. Moving Day: Dec. 30, 2015!
Another concern… We bought a St. Bernard puppy at the beginning of the month. BEFORE we knew we were moving to AK. She was growing fast! We called the airlines. They said their last available live animal space on our flight was just enough room for the smallest dog crate (19” x 20” x 27” weight limit 25lbs). We weighed her. 25lbs! Immediately we started to sweat. With only a week until departure, she couldn’t grow another ounce! I wondered if I should stop feeding her until we left… before you get ready to hang me from the nearest tree, please be advised, that was only a passing thought and nothing more. (Turns out that the weight limit was for the crate rating and the airlines were fine taking her at 27lbs. She could stand up and turn around comfortably. The crate was perfect!)
We did not have a dog crate. I checked Craigslist. Nothing, unless I wanted to pay $75 and drive 3 hours in to pick it up. Checked Walmart.com with no success finding one the right dimensions. We talked about leaving her with family or friends until spring when we hoped we could return to bring our stuff up from storage. She was only 12 weeks old. She would do a lot of growing before spring and wouldn’t know us when we came back. We couldn’t bear to have that happen. We decided to trust God in this aspect as well. He had been so faithful to take care of everything else. Why not see him flex his muscles a little?
Tim went to Monday night “men only” bible study on the 28th. He came home beaming from ear to ear. He had told the story to the guys. Treven said, “Hey! We have one you can have!” They measured it. Guess what! It was the EXACT dimensions the airlines had specified. (Talk about God having huge muscles! *sigh* I totally felt loved and taken care of.)
We were running into another problem. The amount of luggage we needed to bring was more than we could afford. What is a necessary amount always seems to grow larger when you know you are going to the bush. Everything is brought in on a barge or is flown in by plane. You can’t just run to Wal-mart and get it. Should we take bedding and how much? Pots? Pans? Flour? Sugar? Toilet paper? All these things are heavy or bulky. One piece of luggage can weigh only 50lbs. Each costing $25. We had about 12 totes at that point and we hadn’t even packed bedding. We prayed about it again.
God answers prayers, people. He parted the Red Sea long ago for the Israelites, but it seemed like we were backed up against that sea (figuratively, of course) time and time again during this whole process. And time and time again, He got us out of there on dry ground!
I got this text, “Sign up with Club 49. You can get your bags for free!” What?!?! What is THAT? We called the airlines right away. We signed up that day! The day before MOVING DAY!! (Because we were moving to Alaska we were able to get 2 bags each for FREE.) From $400 to free in 10 minutes… God blessed us with that. I am sooo thankful!
Our tickets were set to fly out of Seattle 10:40am Dec. 30th, 2015. The weather had been unusually bad. Very cold and snowy. Snoqualmie Pass was closed off and on all the week before. I will admit I was worried about road conditions after hearing several stories of friends who had to drive it at only 10 mph and watching other cars slide off the road. I prayed for good weather and good road conditions and we decided to leave the night before (10pm) just in case the roads were icy and we had to drive really slow. This was a bit excessive given that in good conditions, drive time is about 3 hours.
We realized about 7pm that we were down to the wire and were not going to make it out that night. We called our friends who were taking us and driving our van home that the plans had changed. There was still so much to do!
I ran to Wal-mart and grabbed a box of 40 black flex garbage bags and we just started throwing everything that was left inside of them. Then we threw all the bags into storage. It took some time. My friend, China, came over with her 3 kids to help us. And Tim’s friend, Treven, helped him put the furniture into storage. We got as much as we could done by 11pm with only 4 hours left to sleep.
We slept on the floor with minimal blankets and pillows. We were only taking what we could carry on the plane. The fire in the woodstove was dying out and we were too tired to make it hotter. We lay on the floor shivering and uncomfortable, unable to sleep. The night seemed to drag on and on like when driving the freeway across Montana. Finally, I got up. The big girls had been cold too and they were putting a little wood in the woodstove. I decided to help them but they had it under control all on their own. We sat, warming our outstretched hands. Some time later my cell phone alarm rang. It was 3am! Time to get everyone ready and in the bus! (We call our 15 passenger van the bus so it doesn’t get confused with our minivan) Sadie called her brother and we all piled in. We got out later than anticipated and went all the way to Everett to deliver our guests to their own home. The roads were bone dry and the weather was good the whole way. What a blessing!
Back to Seattle! We were cutting it close for time and just made it to the airport at 9am. It was packed! I had never seen it that way before. However, whenever I needed to fly in the past I would make sure my flight was the redeye. We snuck into a unloading space nearest the curb and felt extremely blessed to have it open right as we neared the unloading zone. We piled our 16 pieces of luggage (mostly tote boxes), 8 carry-ons, 8 “personal items”, and one dog inside her crate on the curb and waited for our friends to come get our vehicle. Tim found a luggage cart that was just standing there and moved all our luggage inside two at a time. With such a crowd pressing in, 3 lanes out, unloading passengers, I was worried we might get towed for just sitting there “parked” while Tim moved everything by himself. I stayed with the huge pile and sent the a couple of the kids at a time to go with him to wait with our stuff on the other side of the doors. What relief when our friends arrived! They parked our bus and waited with us in the check-in line. We said goodbye just as we made it to security. I checked the time. We had 20 minutes until our flight started boarding. There was a huge line! We could hear a security guard shouting at the front of the line that he was making everyone wait because a lot of people were not following the rules. (trying to bring full water bottles through security, not getting anything liquid or electronic out of their bags for inspection before the check-point) On top of all this, Charlotte began to cry and whine. She was in bad spirits from not sleeping well and she was fighting a cough and sore throat. She kept asking me for water. There was no way I could get out of line and there was not a drinking fountain anywhere nearby or in front of us. I was at the back of our party so turned to check behind me for one, and was overwhelmed by the staggering amount of people behind me. It had only been a minute or two since we had entered the check-point area and already a throng of people surrounded us. There was no going back. We waited and waited. It was long and obnoxious. The kids were troopers. Except for Lottie, and she cried and fussed until it was our turn. I knew we had to be quick when it was our turn. I checked the time again. We now only had 20 minutes until our plane left!
When we reached the front of the line, the security guards were so kind. They saw all the kids and asked us about our travels. We explained that we had 6 kids and were moving to Alaska. In the hurry, I forgot to pull out all the liquids I had in the diaper bag. They didn’t question us at all, they let us go through. They complimented us and suggested we hurry. We still had to make it onto the train and get to the N gates. We pulled on our shoes and grabbed all we could carry and practically ran to catch the train.
On the train, a lady who worked at the airport suggested we have one person run ahead and hold the plane for us until we could all arrive. Tim volunteered. He ran up 3 escalators and got to the gate just in time! The kids and I hurried as fast as we could behind him. I was checking around me constantly to make sure I had everyone. We boarded and they shut the door behind us!
Our seats were in the back of the plane. Pretty sure anyone sitting in an aisle seat was thoroughly smacked in the face with our “personal items”…
Tim grinned as he gave high fives all around. We were sweaty and relieved. We had made it! Whew!
Keeping the Castle 