There and Back Again - An Unexpected Journey

Outside of Thurso - looking out over the fields, across Dunnet Bay,
with Dunnet Head in the background and the Orkney Islands beyond that. 

In the movie, “The Hobbit,” Gandolf is trying to convince Bilbo to go on a journey. Bilbo is completely resistant and his response is, “We are plain, quiet folk and have no use for adventures. Nasty, disturbing, uncomfortable things! Make you late for dinner!” Gandolf goes on to woo Bilbo by saying, “You’ll have a tale or two of your own to tell when you come back. And if you do, you’ll not be the same.”

Unlike Bilbo, Mike and I were eager to go on a journey and have an adventure.

Like him, we did return with a tale or two.

And we are not the same.

I am often unaware of how things in my life are strung together until I look back on them.  You know that saying, “Looking back gives you 20/20 vision” ?  That is how I am able to see how God worked through circumstances and experiences to prepare me for my time in Scotland.

Through studying the Bible over the past 20 years, I have been learning who God is and how He works in my life. I have learned that God equips those He calls. That means when He calls me to do something, even if I don’t currently have the resources or skills to actually do it, God will equip me for it as I need it.

Now, sometimes (read that as ‘often’) when God has called me to do something, I’ve been resistant. Reluctant. And I could give many examples of that. However, unlike those times, this call to move to Scotland was met with excitement.

I did not- and still do not know fully – what God’s purpose was for moving us there, but I know God does not waste anything. He uses all of my experiences to prepare me for His future plans.

What I DO know, is that God DID prepare me in many ways.

As soon as the opportunity of Scotland was offered, I began to pray for the answer about whether or not we  were to go (trying all the while not to be anxious about it and also not to get too excited about the possibility). And then once the move was definite, I began to pray ahead. I prayed things like, “Prepare me for this move.” “Prepare me for the new friends I will make.” “Prepare my new friends for me.”  “Guide us to a bible-teaching church.”  

Although I was excited about going, I had a big fear of being lonely – like the loneliness like I experienced when I first moved to Richland 20 years ago.

In 1998, we moved from Virginia, where we had lived for 7 years and where 2 of our 3 children were born. Our neighbors were our friends and our children and theirs were playmates. Our friends had watched and helped our children to grow and were people I could call on and depend on. We were known.       Also, Virginia was GREEN and had lots and lots of TREES (we had 36 skinny pine trees in our 1/3 acre back yard!) Virginia had PROPER rain AND thunder showers. The houses all had porches that people actually sat on while visiting with neighbors or watching the kids play.  These things are all important to me and are sources of joy.   

 

This is Albertson's. It is the grocery store nearest my home.
I could walk there in 10 minutes. But instead, I drive.
I miss Thurso where I had to walk everywhere. And didn't even mind. 

You see, I had lived many years of my life in Las Vegas, Nevada. Las Vegas is in the middle of the desert. It is hot and dry. Nothing grows if it is not watered. It is a land of cement. Cement walls and rock yards. It is so hot in the summer that you MUST have air conditioning. (It was 114 degrees the day we got married in June and the air conditioning went out in the church the day before. (That’s 45 C for my UK friends)  Imagine that!) It rains very infrequently in Las Vegas, and when it does, it floods, because the ground is so dry that it cannot absorb the water fast enough.  When I married and moved away from Las Vegas, I never had any desire to ever live in the desert again. So when we moved to Virginia in 1991, I was ecstatic!  Within the hour of arriving in Newport News, there was a tremendous crack of lightening and then the rain came down in buckets!  In spite of the high humidity (which, I believe to be Virginia’s only weakness), it has been my favorite place to live.

This is the edge of town. Rattlesnake Mountain is in the background.
The Tri Cities is in a desert. What you are seeing is sagebrush - a desert plant.

But in 1998, Mike retired from the US Navy, took a job here at the Hanford Site, and moved our family across the country. Back to a desert. To another place where things are only green if they are watered. There are only trees here where trees have been planted. It is another place that gets very little rain. In fact, we lived here for 10 months before we even heard thunder – and then, it woke us up and we listened to it cracking far away.   

I had told Mike that his job satisfaction was the most important thing. I would make friends and make a home no matter where we lived.    But the desert?  Really? (What was that about, God?) 

Moving to Washington was a HUGE challenge for me. Kathryn was 7 (2^nd grade), Bryan was 5 (kindergarten) and Emily was 2. Mike had work to go to every day. At his work were people to talk to and a job to do.  The kids had school. I had nothing. I had no friends. We searched for 3 months for a church home. I would look out of my kitchen window at the large, dry, empty, brown desert mountain behind our house and cry. I would strain my eyes to see something moving on it, which never happened. My job was to be a mom and a wife, but I was so lonely. I had moved from a place where we were known to a place where I could go ANYWHERE and know I would not see a single person I knew. The phone never rang. 

It took 9 months for me to hear God say to me, “Bloom where I have planted you.”    And so little by little, I did bloom here in the desert. And now it has been our home for 20 years.

Fountain drinks.  Self-serve fountain drinks. With ice.
This is what America is made of.

Moving to Scotland, I had that same fear. I feared I would be lonely, with not enough to do to fill my days. When we moved to Washington, I at least had the children and the routine that children bring. But in Scotland, I wondered what my reason would be for getting up every day.   I packed books and magazines to read thre and I planned to do some organizing of computerized pictures and other such things, but I knew I needed to be able to sew. Mike understood that and he lovingly allowed me to take as much of my fabric and accessories as I wanted – including my brand-new long arm machine, Daisy.

The thing I didn’t know was that not only could I live somewhere besides Richland, where I was surrounded by long-time friends – but that I could actually thrive.

But God knew. God had a plan. A plan for me. A plan for us. Let me just say right up front that God DID go before me/us, He DID prepare and equip me/us, and He PROVIDED for me/us above and beyond what we could ever have imagined!  That is my God. He is so good.

 Firstly, He took us to a green, green land, filled with sheep and cows . And farmland with rich, dark soil. He took us to the ocean with its ever-changing tides and movement, and to clean white beaches and steep cliffs. He took us to a place that felt alive with sights and colors and smells. It was very life-giving just to breathe the air. 

I was NEVER lonely. I was NEVER homesick. I NEVER felt like I needed to go home.  I was NEVER in want. My days were filled with friends and projects and activities  - so much so that I did not read a single book I took with me! And so much so that just the opposite was true. Most of the time, there were not enough hours in each day to do all the things I wanted to do!  How unbelievable is that?

Back in the land of coffee. And drive-thru windows.
This is the Starbucks on the corner near my house.
There are always 9-10 cars waiting in the drive-thru lane!!
Coffee is very important here in Washington. 

 God immediately gave me a wonderful support group of ex-patriots who got together for dinners and to play games. (God even provided us with people who like to play games!!)  He gave me a small group of women who walked every week day. He gave me fellow quilters - a lovely bunch of ladies - who invited me into their group and then graciously allowed me to become one of them. He led us to a small, bible-teaching church (and only a 20-second walk from our apartment!!) and warm, loving people there who embraced us. He gave Mike not one, but TWO golf courses to golf on and friends to golf with. And He provided dance lessons and another whole group of friends through dancing. And SO much more.

One of our cherished blessings was the Bible study we did together. While Mike and I have both participated in BSF (Bible Study Fellowship) individually in men’s and women’s groups for many years, we took this opportunity to do it together in our own way.  Mike and I did our own individual study and met weekly to pray together, read God’s word aloud to each other, and discuss our responses to our study. We so enjoyed the intimacy that that time created. It blessed us immensely and is one of our ‘take-aways.’ We have made it a priority to continue this together at home.

Another popular coffee company here.
Notice there are TWO drive-thru windows - one on each side of the building!
This is not abnormal here. 

We lived life more simply. Our apartment came furnished with furniture, bedding, towels and kitchenware, so we took a minimum number of things with us. In fact, probably 80% of the things we shipped were my sewing things, with 18% being clothing, and about 2% of small personal items to make the apartment feel like it was ours - a couple of table runners, 2 bed quilts, and a couple of throw blankets I had made. We learned that we did not need all the ‘stuff’ we left behind.  And we didn’t really miss it. (Well, I really didn’t NEED all my fabric, but it sure gave me a lot of comfort to take it.)

Salads. A meal in itself here.
I missed salads like this. 

We lived life at a slower pace. Never in our married life was Mike ever home to eat breakfast with the kids on a work day. He was usually gone by 6 am for his 45-minute commute to work and arrived home about 6 pm, walking in just in time to sit down to supper. And in the past handful of years, Mike has worked 4-10’s which means he worked 10 hour days Monday through Thursday, getting every Friday off. Of course, the 3-day weekends were lovely, but during the week, Mike would need to go to bed by 8:30 so that he could wake at 4 am and be out the door, and then get home at 6. 

Living in Thurso allowed us to experience life differently. Because Dounreay was only 10 miles out of town and the work day did not start until 8 am, we both went to bed at 10 pm and awoke at 6 am. We would sit together in our ‘room with a view,’ drink our coffee and look at Facebook and/or read emails, and sometimes have a conversation. After an hour of that every morning, Mike would leave for work at 7:20 and get home at 5. (He started showing up about 4:30 this fall and he finally ‘fessed up that he was coming straight home on these days. Apparently, he usually stopped to hit a bucket of balls on his way home, which is why he was getting home at 5!  LOL)     Working those kinds of hours meant that Mike had the energy and opportunity to do things in the evenings, which enabled us to take dance classes.

We danced – another unexpected blessing!  We have taken a handful of dance classes in the past but not very successfully. Steve, our dance instructor in Thurso, was very effective at teaching the LEADS. And, while it was difficult in the beginning, Mike started to ‘get’ it and suddenly dancing was enjoyable and something we both wanted to do! We ended up learning “Modern Jive,” “Smooth Waltz” and just started learning “Salsa” this fall. We made a lot of friends through dancing and had so much fun at the monthly “Live Jive” dances.

This is the pizza I missed while I was away

I wrote a blog. I had no idea I could do it or that I would enjoy it so much. I certainly had no idea that I would have so much to write about! (This post is #70!!)  Before we left the states, a couple of people suggested I start one, but I was never good at keeping a daily diary (for my Scottish friends, a ‘diary’ is a personal reflection that you might write in every day. For my American friends, the Scottish use the word ‘diary’ to mean a personal calendar). I didn’t think I would be very faithful at writing. But my young friend, Debby, encouraged me by taking off the pressure when she said I only needed to write when I had something to say. She is the one who helped me set up the formatting for it and got me started. And what a blessing THAT turned out to be!  It was a way to communicate all that we were experiencing with lots of people. AND it was a way for me to record our adventures for my own memory. And who knew so many people would want to read it???   I was often encouraged by people telling me how much they enjoyed reading it.   And then, it was completely unexpected that I would make Scottish friends who would also read it.  I had more than one Scottish friend tell me that reading my blog often helped them see themselves from another perspective.

We traveled. As I have written on many occasions, I have had travel anxiety. I have always liked the IDEA of traveling. But I would get anxiety about it and often overwhelmed by planning it.  The only reason we ever went to Alaska, Hawaii and Mexico was because Mike took over the planning and made them happen. And they were wonderful trips. But not without anxiety on my part.  

I believe God prepared me for travel in Europe in several ways. In June of 2016, I got a good cell phone that I could access the internet with (and had a good camera and storage space!!) In July that summer, my friend Glenda and I took a trip to Florida to help our friend Amy where she works at Wycliff Headquarters. On the return trip, I found I needed to go to my mom’s and flew there within 2 days. I had opportunity to use and learn the new phone features I had – like Mapquest.  That fall, Glenda, Steve, Mike and I went to New York City for 5 days. THAT was a bucket list item. I was really nervous about it, but it turned out to be a FANTASTIC  trip with no trouble at all. And in spite of my fears, I was never afraid in NYC – not even when we were walking the side streets of Manhattan at 11:30 pm.  That trip had a significant impact on me.

Stop signs are noticeably missing in Scotland

The next one that impacted me significantly came in January 2017.   I was asked to return to Wycliff Headquarters to again help my friend Amy. However, this time, I would travel alone and I would spend most of the time there alone. I was concerned on many levels (loneliness being a big one).  But I felt God was calling me to go and so I placed all my anxieties on Him – and He provided in ways I could not have imagined. It was during this time away that Mike was asked if he would go to Scotland.

If you have read many of my blog posts, you will recall that many of them had to do with travel. God again provided for me in so many specific ways. I wrote down the details of them even though I didn’t publish all of them. And while I could write pages and pages about it, I will summarize by saying God gave me courage. He helped me think clearly when travel was confusing. He helped me gain confidence in my ability to plan and think through tons of details. And He helped me let go of much of my fear.   In the end, I was able to plan a trip to Norway with my Mom, to Ireland with Kathryn and to navigate there and back safely and confidently (even with some travel hiccups that occurred). I was even able to take trip to Worster, England - alone. I traveled alone and I stayed alone in hotel rooms for 3 nights. And it was all good. (That was a big deal for me.)

Not a good picture of the Tri Cities, but it shows part of one of the 3 rivers

 I trusted. To be so far away from my children meant I would have to trust God to take care of them. And He did. He even gave me this wonderful technology that let me SEE my children as well as talk with them. I never felt like I was on the other side of the world. At the same time, I learned we could live on limited phone and internet access, which did not cause me anxiety at all, but rather, was pretty nice.

Even though I’ve taken a lot of space to say all these things, there is so much more I could say. I loved learning about different cultures. I loved being a part of a different culture – not just visiting it. I have been stretched and I have grown (you will have seen evidence of some of those stretch marks in some of my posts).

Mike and I can’t tell of one negative thing about our time away. It was only blessing upon blessing.

Like Bilbo in “The Hobbit,” we took an unexpected journey and we have not returned as the same people who left. We have been changed. And we like it.

Not my picture - but it shows the vineyards that fill
this valley and Rattlesnake Mountain in the distance,
which has the honor of being the highest, treeless
 mountain in the US.

If you have managed to read all the way to this point, I applaud you. There were very few pictures to put in this one. (I always preferred books with pictures, didn’t you?)

And I want to thank you. Thank you for reading our posts. Thank you for going on this journey with us – for letting us share our experiences with you. To those who wrote encouraging messages or even just shouted out, “I’ve enjoyed reading your blog,” – Thank you!  It was so much fun to write these knowing that people were reading them. 

Many people have suggested I continue writing, but I really can’t see what I would have to say about my ordinary life here in Washington. 

But if God should call us on another adventure, I will surely invite you along. 

This sign was posted in the Wolfburn Distillery in Thurso