It’s been a hot minute since I wrote to let you know what we were up to! Let’s just say that I was feeling super overwhelmed with all of the travel and transitions and change – and helping Lucy Mae to get through it all, too. It took us some time – more than I wanted – to get us feeling settled and into a routine. 😅 Let me give you the run down and an update.
- May 9 – come out Simple Living, and jump back into classes
- May 21 – classes finished at the Training Center in Missouri
- Clean. Clean. Clean.
- May 24 – turn 30
- May 25 – leave MTC, go to the zoo, heading for Wisconsin
- May 26 – June 6 – visit with churches, supporters, friends ♡
- June 7 – drive back to Missouri, pick up a trailer with all of our belongings, and keep driving.
- June 10 – arrive in Arizona!
- June 14 – start training!
Woo! That was a lot of driving, a lot of change, a lot of hotels, and a lot of people. Lucy Mae did great for the most part, but towards the end you could definitely tell she needed some more stability (and honestly, so did we!). It felt like we had been running basically since Spring Break back in March.
It’s another proof of concept that you can feel all the things at the same time – so grateful and excited to see and spend time with friends and churches that we hadn’t seen since LM was just a tiny baby; and exhausted and ready to be in our own space.
The last time that we were here in Arizona was when we were here for our initial training in 2014! It feels a little strange to be back after so long. There’s a lot more people, and kids than last time around, which is just so nice! But my thoughts haven’t changed – I’m still not a desert girl; give me trees and the tropics all day every day. Hah. But we actually have a really cute house with grass and several proper trees right around us, and it helps make it feel not quite so desert-y.
As you can see from the timeline above – Josh jumped straight into helicopter training and he is ROCKING it! He should be taking his commercial helicopter check ride in just a couple of weeks already! To say he is excited and loving it would be an understatement, and I am so proud of how hard he is working!
We still don’t know how long we’ll be here exactly, as there are a lot of different factors in play that could change. We’d love to be back in PNG by February or March, but we’re holding it loosely. Until then, Josh is flying, and I’m keeping home and doing some flight following. There’s not much else to do around here, but we’re keeping busy, and trusting the Lord’s timing for all the things.
Erin Verdonck 