Man Plans His Way...

     Proverbs 16:9 aptly says, A man's heart plans his way, but the Lord establishes his steps.  We have certainly experienced that!

     My husband and I just took a trip to Idaho to spend Thanksgiving with family and friends.  We had a fun drive up, visiting another missionary couple in Kansas along the way.  

Walter and I are pictured with our good friends, Bob and Becca Adamson.  The four of us have served in ministry together.  They recently moved back to their hometown of Newton, Kansas, and we enjoyed visiting with them en route to Idaho!

     We also enjoyed some beautiful scenery in Wyoming...

     Along the way, we have been listened to two of our favorite Christian fiction books on CD, Frank Peretti's This Present Darkness, and the sequel, Piercing the Darkness.  We had both read these books several times, but listened to them on CD was kind of a different experience, and we enjoyed it.  It was a nice drive.

 

     While in Idaho, we enjoyed time with friends and family, especially our precious niece Macey.  Here, we are pictured with her at our favorite pizza restaurant in Rupert, Idaho, Doc's Pizza.  You can't really tell, but she is wearing a T-shirt we got her that says Somebody in Arkansas Loves Me!  

     The adventure really got crazy on our return trip.  We had some reasons we wanted to take a less conventional trip home.  We took a beautiful highway through Eastern Idaho, up into the Montana Rockies.  It was absolutely gorgeous, and we had a wonderful time taking in that beauty and the Lord's presence.  These two pictures were taken just minutes apart, and only a few miles.  In the first, the outside temperature was in the 20's, and in the latter, it was almost 50 degrees!

     The object of our goal (one of them) was to get to Hamilton, Montana (which we did) and go Black Friday shopping at Kmart--one of the few Kmarts left!  From here on out, the pictures I'll show are off the Internet and not my phone/camera, and I'll explain why in a minute.  As you can see, this Kmart in Hamilton has the original signage from before 1990 (when it switched).  Even though I got this picture off the Internet, I can attest that it looks just like this.  

     Many of you know that Kmart is an old favorite of mine.  I grew up going there long before my home state had Walmart.  Even after we did, I have always preferred Kmart.  It saddens me that there are so few left, and if I'm honest, I doubt any will remain in the long run (I'd love to be surprised, though).  We love going to Kmart.  As some of you remember, we took a very quick trip up to Marshall, Michigan a few months ago and went to their Kmart (which is now set to close soon, but at the time, was doing very well.  The manager even offered us jobs!).  I think our out-of-the-way excursion to the Hamilton Kmart was sort of a fun attempt at nostalgia, maybe trying to cling to the past one last time.  Trying to do what we can to stop the inevitable tide from going out.  Do you do that with anything?  Kind of sad, isn't it?  But we had fun.  

     Anyway, from there, we drove across Montana.  Right about the time we got out of Kmart, my phone simply stopped working.  It doesn't recognize the sim card.  We didn't have time to deal with it then, but we were certain that we could run into an AT&T store the next day and get a new sim card.  No problem, right?  Five minutes, tops.  

     We got to North Dakota (which was another goal we had.  It was the last state in the contiguous US West of the Mississippi Walter had not been to).  We lived in South Dakota for a few years, but never made it to North Dakota.  We have now, and really like it.  That northern accent I had in South Dakota (but lost) has returned to me up here!  Just ask me to say the word "Dakota" and you'll hear it with the long O!  I've also gotten back into saying "eh?" at the end of sentences!  It's amazing how easy it is to pick it back up!  HA! HA!  I'm sure I'll lose it again soon!  For me to make all states west of the Mississippi, I still have to go to Louisiana, but I will soon enough.  I've also not been to Alaska, and Walter hasn't been to Alaska or Hawaii, so we have some more traveling to do!

     Anyway, in Bismarck, North Dakota, we took my phone into a shop.  It literally took them hours to figure out that the phone is simply dead.  It wasn't the sim card, but the phone.  I am phoneless!  I had just gotten this phone, so I am eligible for a free replacement.  It will just take a week or so!  I am phoneless for the time being.  I am reachable by email (on my computer) but not by text or phone call until I get that replacement!

     That stay at the AT&T shop took its time and put us way behind schedule.  We were able to enjoy a nice late lunch or early dinner in Bismarck before setting off...but then something else happened we did not anticipate.  Walter got sick. Very, very sick.  We had to pull over on the Interstate ever five miles or so for him to get out and get sick behind the car on the shoulder.  It was awful for him.  It took a very long time to get to Fargo (the state's largest city, and on the far eastern end of North Dakota).  By then he felt like he was dying!  We went to the hospital and admitted him.  It turned out to be very bad heartburn.  He is perfectly okay, and was discharged after a few hours.  That hospital is willing to work with Walter's insurance (he has it through being a member of the Cherokee Tribe).  Anyway, by the time he was discharged, he was very late, and we just checked into a local hotel.  We had not planned to stay in Fargo overnight, but here we are.  We had hoped to get home early Sunday morning--maybe in time for church!  As I type this, it is mid morning on Sunday, and we haven't left Fargo yet.  Also, due to the situation, we have to make a stop in Oklahoma to take care of some insurance things regarding his hospital stay, and that will add more time.  We probably won't be home until late Monday.  

     I am so thankful for the adventure of it all, the safety we've had, and especially that Walter is going to be okay.  If you read this before the evening of the 29th, pray for a safe return home.  We have a lot of ministry this week (Happy Birthday Jesus parties, normal Good News Club, meetings with church leaders, etc.).  We had it all planned out, but God directs our steps.  He had a purpose in this, and we are trusting Him!