I have like 1,000,001 things I need to write about….I guess that is what happens when I don’t do a good job staying updated. I’m trying to decide if I should work from where I left off or from where I am and go backwards…or break this possibly enormous post into some smaller and less-time-consuming-for-the-reader posts. Well…I’m going to start with now and work backwards.
We are still adjusting to the “culture shock” of Arkansas. Laugh if you will, but it’s a different country down here. Yesterday we finally went to get our drivers licenses and do all the car change stuff. We got in line to get our new Arkansas drivers license and the lady starts asking our information…the whole time either calling me “Mrs. Braker or Babydoll” and calling seth “Mr. Braker”…it would’ve had to make you smile. Anyways…she gets all the info she needs from our Illinois drivers licenses and all of a sudden I hear a plunk!...she tossed my license into a scrambly old worn out cylinder container which must serve as a grave yard for licenses! I’m hoping I didn’t allow any of my inner emotions to be expressed on my face because I wasn’t prepared for that! As she continues doing her job and asking questions, all I’m thinking is, that’s my license! Give it back to me- I am from Illinois, not Arkansas…if you throw that away, you’re saying that I’m no longer a resident of Illinois…that sounds so permanent. As with most things, I’m a drama queen…though you’ve probably caught on to that already. Sigh…so there you have it…in my wallet, in a place where an Illinois DL used to reside now sits a license with the residence of: Arkansas.
We have decided that there are some things we like and some things we don’t like so far.
Like:
Weather (now…not when we first came & it was 110 degrees all day long)
People (oh my, have we met some incredible people!)
Living in the city (I’ll admit it’s nice to have a grocery store down the road)
Our apartment (yes, pictures are coming!!)
FamilyLife (we love this ministry. It’s definitely a change in job roles than we are used to, but God is teaching us)
Growing us & learning a lot more dependence on God
Don’t Like:
Being away from a lot of our family and friends
Missing out on things
Changing leaves
One World Café (may sound superficial but we just haven’t found a comparable place yet)
Construction & Nursing
These aren’t exhaustive…but they are some of the things we are thinking about. I was at a Bible Study last Saturday and they used the quote…”It’s not good, it’s not bad, it’s just different”…that’s true about a lot of things down here.
We had our 3rd anniversary on September 14th- but have decided to postpone celebrating it until the end of the month since things have been so busy!
We had some of our dear dear friends, Justin & Kirsten Wiegand, come and visit us a couple weekends ago and had an awesome time! On Friday we all went to a restaurant we heard about from a few people. I knew we had to try it to humor my OSF CFH friends back home who often told me what Arkansas was like…and I heard this place was it. We drove about 40 minutes, pretty much to the middle of nowhere, and stopped at a restaurant called “Cothams- Home of the hubcap burger”. To give you a visual…this place is backed up to a swamp and looks like it could fall over at any given point. The inside is an old general store where they simply pushed everything to the sides and plopped in some tables. Justin & Seth split the “hubcap” burger which is 17oz of beef. It was well worth the experience! We also did some hiking and just hanging out with them. We were sooo blessed by their visit to us!! Below are some pictures of our weekend together:
The final night we did "mexican" night...salsa, guac, enchiladas & salad...& finish off with blue bell ice cream!!
The weekend before that we went to the Braker reunion in Joplin, MO. We had an awesome time seeing family and talking with them face to face. We got to see our awesome niece and nephews and soaked up as much time with them as possible! Below are some pictures from the reunion and the weekend:
Well, that's about a long enough post for now! I'll be updating on some previous things and upcoming things as well!
Great to see an update! It was so good seeing you in person, but I wished we would have had more time to catch up. :( I see you are working on getting more visitors by posting food pics- yum! yum! We pray for you often & are thankful to see you're doing well.
ReplyDeleteLove you- Rena