Tuesday, November 4, 2014

The Chauffeur Chapter is Nearing its End

Can you believe how quickly time passes sometimes? Aye yi yi, it feels like it was just last weekend that I was having some epic breakdown in front of my friends as I explained to them how purposeless I felt about being back on the farm with no friends and no ministry involvement or anything.

In reality, that was months ago. Before I found my rhythm, before I finally put my hands up and said, "alright, God, alright... I surrender...again" For the billionth time in my life I lost the wrestling match with the angel and, while The Lord coulda chosen to wrench my hip out of its socket...he didn't. He gently waited for me to get over myself and accept that I am blessed no matter where I am and what friends I have access to and what church I have and what kinda worship I get and everything else. 

I have friends my own age. They are miles and miles away, but they have been constant and steady and sweet and encouraging. I attend family reunions every other week via google hangouts. Hangouts  is a wonderful app that everyone who lives away from someone special should have. The joy of working a puzzle in the penthouse while one brother chats about a football party he's at while a sister tells about work and a cousin talks about school... It's wonderful. It's the drip IV that keeps my extrovert alive. 

But here I am, 9 days away from finding a new purpose in my life. 

Well... maybe that's the wrong way to say it. I'll be looking for a new outlet to live out my purpose is more like it. My purpose is to glorify God. Through adventures, through serving others, through how I spend my time, through the words that come out of my mouth or that are typed out in a blog. My purpose never changes. 
How, though, and in what capacity.. that can change a little with the seasons. 

Today was good. I liked today.

Today I woke up and headed to the kitchen with Kolby close behind, since he likes to make me coffee, even if I'm already awake. I was making an egg on the stove when we both saw something small and dark scurry across the floor and under the refrigerator. ALWAYS the mice move when it's me and Kolby in the kitchen. Of course we both squealed a little and I crawled up onto a chair and decided it'd be better to stir my eggs from atop the chair than down on the floor where my bare little feeties could potentially encounter the vile thing.

None too soon, either. For as I stood atop the chair, stirring my eggs, the darn thing moved from under the fridge and went under the stove. Oh praise the LORD I was on the chair.

After that I drank my coffee and Dad and I headed to the office. We were only there long enough for Dad to take a call and print some material before we headed off on our farm visit adventure.

Farm visits are a part of my Dad's job that require my dad to go to a farmer's place and take a first-hand look at the situation, diagnose the problem, present a solution, and then convince the guy how to do it. 


My dad's job covers a lot of ground, of course, so a good portion of our time is spent on the hours it takes to drive to any particular farm. Today's was about 2 1/2 hours away.. which was the distance some of my college friends would travel home to their families. I chuckle, a little, since driving 2 or 3 hours to one single farm seems as natural as driving to church on Sunday morning.

Dad knows my heart for adventures, and he's very good at making sure our trips contain said adventures. He'll make comments like, "If we go up 3 miles and then turn East, we'll go through Plover"

Plover. Pronounced like, "Pluver" seems like a slang name that someone came up with to be silly. Of course with a name like that it had to be good. I usually chuckle and ask, "Is it a real town?" And Dad will say, "yeah! They have a little phone company there the size of your car".. which is the point where I decide I'm absolutely determined to see Plover.

And sure enough, as we begin the drive through, Dad always says, "Slow down.. this is it." Because going the allotted 25MPH is much too fast for a town of this size. We usually slow down to 10mph so we can count the houses and admire the small "businesses" that make it a town.

I counted 6 houses.

We drive and listen to the O Brother Where Art Thou sound track. We've traveled enough times and listened to the album more times than we've traveled that we both know all the songs and I usually let Dad take the lead on singing them out loud. He couldn't carry a tune if you gave him a bucket... but his singing is my favorite.

We stop at gas stations and buy coffee to keep us going. When we get to the farm, Dad already knows the solution..which he explains to the farmer in the first 5 minutes. He then spends the next hour and 55 minutes making good and sure the guy knows how he's gonna put dad's plan into action.

Usually when all that is wrapping up, the farmer will turn to me and ask something along the lines of, "So you just travel along with him?" or "So you're not in school or what?"...I guess my existence makes a good exit conversation. Which I don't mind.

Today on our way home, we found a quaint little diner in a quaint little town. Like something out of the movies. We've done this a couple times in our journeys... found little diners in little towns. Or I've found libraries or little grocery stores. There's something about the little towns that makes my travels feel like big adventures. These towns are timeless. Sometimes you wonder if they've changed at all since they were settled a hundred years ago... but I don't mind that. I feel like I've passed in and out of fairy tales in the last several months.

Also on our way back, Dad and I happened upon a real gem of a find. While weaving our way down gravel back roads, we happened upon a collection of houses on the left side of the road. There are cornfields everywhere... so we were a little confused. Dad said it was a little town, and I was like, "There's no way. There's like.. 7 houses" Which.. there were. Then dad noticed they were cabins. CABINS.. like.. lake cabins.. all together... with docks that went into a grass field. I kind of thought that maybe some crazy tight knit family just built all of their houses extremely close together.. but... no.. they looked like little cabins that'd be all squished together along a lake.

Then we saw it.. with grass growing up all around it... the sign. "Eagle Lake" .... it WAS a lake. ...at one point. Now a lake of grass with a little bit of swamp way off in the distance. 


I know you're probably thinking that these cabins have long since been left behind and forgotten since the lake is all grass and field... But no. I wish I had another picture. The houses looked new.. there were cars parked in the drive ways and one even had smoke rising out of the chimney. PEOPLE STILL LIVE ON THIS LAKE!

Discoveries like these make my heart excited. What an adventure. Eagle Lake. A mythical lake in the middle of a corn field where people imagine they can go boating and have built docks in the back yards of their cabins. Why don't people write books about Iowans?? They'd have a lot of material.

Iowans... people who build boats and docks while surrounded by corn fields. 

Anyways... Upon arriving back up home around 3:30, I very quickly fell asleep for what I thought would be a quick nap. Nearly 2 hours later, I awakened with the confused feeling of having slept over night and not being aware of when you are. I quickly remembered that the Vienna Boys Choir would be in town and giving a free concert and I was out of bed and headed for coffee in an instant.

I was quite dazed as I made my way to the kitchen, and Kolby, sweet as he is looked at me and said, "Uh.. would you like me to brush your hair for you?" Being a little groggy from my nap, I gladly accepted. He even made me my coffee while I ate supper.

I'm spoiled. Spoiled to have coffee made and brought to me. Spoiled to have my hair brushed and braided for me. Spoiled to spend my evening listening to angels singing the most glorious music. Spoiled to live in a big house that is warmed by the best smelling wood stove.

As my home season and adventure wraps up.. I am thankful. Thankful for all I've learned and grown in the last few months. Thankful for the relationships I built with the little siblings. Thankful. Just... thankful.