these bittersweet days

This has been our last week in NC. We've spent most of our moments cleaning and clearing our apartment. I have gone to bed super late each night working to sort and pack and clean. While cleaning, I have been imagining the lady who walked through our house when we cleared Ft. Richardson. That lady made Ash clean the oven three times and even checked for dust on the blinds. Clearing the army post was a rigorous process, to say the least. So I have cleaned this apartment with that lady in mind. And it was so unnecessary! This lady walked in with her clipboard and stepped into a couple of the rooms and smiled and said we're done. That was it. It probably took as long as it did for me to type that sentence. I was relieved-- I'm not ungrateful here, but I actually wanted to take her by the arm and say, "Wait... please wait. Come and see how shiny I made the oven. And look at how the fridge sparkles." I wouldn't have dreamed of mentioning the blinds though. Our windows were somewhere close to 12 ft. tall. I didn't dust my blinds.

But my apartment is where the sweet part of my post title comes in. It is very sweet that we have cleared our apartment. Charlotte said it best when we were driving away for the last time and listed all the reasons why she was glad we didn't live there anymore: "We won't hear our neighbors walk anymore. We won't find any more big spiders. Nobody will bonk our car " (we walked out one morning to find the passenger side of our camry smashed in-- no note, ofcourse. We never found out who did that, but it was actually the third time we've been hit in NC!). "We'll be able to run and jump" (something we couldn't do in our apartment because of no insulation-- also the reason we could hear our neighbors walk and talk and grow to know their favorite music and tv shows). It is very sweet to be moving out of this apartment!

The bitter has been saying goodbye to friends. Our days have also been filled with visiting dear friends for the last time. I have some pictures to post from these visits. God has been tender to give us several sweet friendships. The first picture is of Zachary and Charlotte. Zachary is the boy who told his mom that he would marry Charlotte because "she plays with light sabers." Zachary's mom has been one of the sweetest blessings from my time in NC. I have loved afternoons playdates where we all pile around her table and eat p.b.&j. sandwiches and then sit to talk while the kids (she has three boys!) play . I've loved your friendship, Alison!

The next pictures are from our dinner with Jamie & Cara Shey. They were our neigbors in the old cotton mill apartments. One of the very last moments with them was out on the parking lot at 4am! The fire alarms were blaring again-- most residents don't even bother leaving their apartments for the alarm anymore. But we did and so did Jamie and Cara Shey-- all of us in our pjs watching the firefighters storm the building. Thankfully, like every other time, there was no fire, but something I loved about the evening in their apartment for dinner is that their walls are covered with Jamie's artwork. You can see the sunset he painted for Cara Shey for their first anniversary. I'm also including the painting he did for his church-- we loved it.

This last set of pictures are from our evening with some old friends from Ft. Richardson. Ash and Jim worked together in the 1-501st PIR. Laura and I discovered we were kindred spirits way back then and I have been quite grateful that God has allowed us to live near(ish) to one another again. It is always a pleasure to share an evening as families and Laura's friendship in particular is a treasure to me.

Bittersweet is the best word I can find for this past week. We are excited for what God has given us and the adventure He has planned for us in Alaska, but these goodbyes are so hard. We'll have more tomorrow; our small group from the Summit has been a joy and then we'll have a family dinner that will be heartwrenching. When people discover that we are from Alaska and are moving back they usually ask if we've liked NC and what we'll miss. I've appreciated a lot about the last three years. Jokingly I'll tell people I've liked being warm and I've like fresh fruit. Really though, it is the same as I tried to explain when we left Alaska three years ago. I'm going to miss the good things about NC. God has taught us a lot while here-- just as much outside the seminary classroom as is and those have been so good. And these friendships... these friendships have been so good. I will miss these good things.