Fireworks & Fireflies

Once we got more settled into our home, we were able to better enjoy my family's visit. Of course, with it being mostly girls, we did do a lot of shopping! :) But, we also did some sightseeing and made plans for the Fourth of July. Lauren had never seen an actual firework show before and with her being so scared of loud noises, we weren't quite sure how it was going to go. But, we talked it up to her all day and by the time she woke up from her nap, she decided that she was excited to do it...that, and the fact that Ryan promised to bring the earplugs for her.

So, we left the house around 6:00 to have dinner at The Cracker Barrel and afterwards planned to go to Davidson, a small town nearby, for their fireworks show. We didn’t really know where we were going, but it was a beautiful drive and there were the neatest old houses lining the streets of this old-fashioned town. We parked by Davidson College and followed the crowds through downtown to find a spot for the show. On the way, we got to see (Lauren and I for the first time) fireflies. It was so cool! Lauren kept reminding us not to eat them (from the Curious George movie) because they taste bitter. As we kept walking through the campus of Davidson College, we were basically attacked by cockroaches. There was this one part on the brick walkway where there was a ton of them and you could hardly walk without stepping on one. We screamed and ran as fast as we could to get away. Ryan, of course, was laughing at us.

After walking for what seemed like forever, we made it with about 5 minutes to spare before the show started. The place where everyone was setting up their blankets and chairs was actually a cemetery. So, we decided to sit on Jerry & Marie Caldwell…they seemed like a nice couple. :) When the first firework went off, Lauren was not so sure about it. She kept saying she wanted to go home, she wanted the earplugs and she was afraid the fireworks were going to get her. But, soon, she saw other little kids around her enjoying them and she finally warmed up to it. By the end, she was picking out her favorite colors and clapping. We made the long walk back to the car and headed home very late – around 11:00. It was definitely a memorable 4th of July!!

Moving In

Sorry we are so late posting this...as you can imagine, things have been a bit hectic around our household lately! We have so much to share with you, so we will begin posting every other day for the remainder of this week in order to get caught up. But, now we finally have a moment to update you all on the move.

My mom, sister and neice (Emily) arrived last Monday evening, July 2nd, to help us. We were so excited to see them - Lauren ran and jumped into Grandma's arms as soon as she saw her come through the gate. They stayed with us in the hotel that night and the movers were scheduled to come the next morning between 9:00 and 10:00am. So, we got to sleep in a little bit before we had to get to work.

Right on time, the movers showed up and began the unpacking process. I think you don't realize how much stuff you have until you move (9800 lbs. of household goods)! Still, they were able to get it all done in one day...but it was a LONG day! Everyone worked so hard. My mom and sister were in the kitchen unpacking dishes and silverware and washing everything as they put it away. They completely organized my cabinets and pantry for me, which was wonderful! I worked getting Lauren's room put together first because she needed to take a nap that afternoon. Emily kept Lauren happy and occupied, helping her open boxes of toys and books and put things away in her playroom. Meanwhile, Ryan directed the movers outside and was in charge of the "clipboard"...every box or item that was packed had a colored sticker with a number on it. It was his task to make sure and mark down each box's number/color as they brought them in the house and direct them to the room where it belonged. That way, at the end of the day, it would be easy to tell if anything was missing.

Luckily, there was only a little damage done to a few pieces of furniture. Other than that, everything remained in tact and arrived safely. At the end of the day, we were so exhausted, but were thrilled to be able to spend our first night in our new home! The next few days were spent continuing to unpack and organize, making countless trips to Target for things we needed, and decorating our new space. I cannot begin to say what a TREMENDOUS help my mom, sister and Emily were during this time!! I can't imagine having to do it without them and I'm so thankful that they were here.

Another Great Sunday

This is Ryan writing for this post, my first appearance in the author's seat. Hasn't Kimberly been doing an awesome job sharing on here? I certainly think so. She encouraged me to contribute today in response to a very special 4th of July church service we attended at Lake Norman Baptist, where we have been visiting for the last 2 weeks.

I've been to a lot of services in the Church held around Memorial Day and Veteran's Day, but nothing has compared to the service we attended today.

It began with the worship time. After singing How Great Is Our God and How Great Thou Art, we sang as a congregation: The Battle Hymn of the Republic, Our Country Tis of Thee, America, the Beautiful and God Bless America. The congregation paused and the pastor had current and former members of each service branch of the military stand when called. As should be, the Army led the way and we were invited to stand first. I stood to represent my own service (12 years in the Oregon Army National Guard) along with a handful of other men. To my surprise, the whole sanctuary erupted in applause. It was humbling to be singled out. I never really thought of my service as being all that noteworty, certainly not deserving of recognition. I probably would have preferred to sit and applaud the others. After the Army, the other services were called in order and applause followed for each of them.

After this, a choir assembled on stage and they sang a medley of the service branch songs (The Army Goes Rolling Along, Anchor's Aweigh, The Halls of Montazuma, etc.) while a multi-media presentation of photos and military videos played on the screen.

It was really special to see a church body celebrate patriotism and national pride in such a public way, and to tie that in with appreciation given to the military as the defenders of our freedom. It certainly left me feeling honored.

We also attended the young adult Sunday School class with a room full of young parents. It was a great way to meet some of the other couples in the church. Afterwards we picked up Lauren from her class and hung out at the playground in the back of the church while she played with her new friends. Some of the couples we had met in Sunday School invited us to the local after-church hang out, Jason's Deli. It is a modern day cafeteria style restaurant. Every Sunday families from the Sunday School meet for lunch after second service. Guys at one end of a big table, ladies at the other, and all the munchkins at a kid's table laughing and eating together. It felt really good, after making a solid connection with one family last week, to be invited in by a larger group on just our second visit. I overheard Kimberly and the other gals planning playdates and some initial discussions about a Lia Sophia jewelry party (how much is this "fellowship" going to cost me?).

Smiles from the Girls!

A Small World in God's Kingdom

As promised, I am writing to share more GREAT stories with you! On Sunday, Ryan, Lauren and I visited a nearby church called Lake Norman Baptist. We had done some research online and looked for churches in the Huntersville area before we even moved here and this was one that really stuck out to us. Their programs and ministries seemed to be very similar to our church in Oregon, Tigard First Baptist. So, we prayed the night before and attended the 9:45 service on Sunday morning. We were directed to the foyer and while one of the ushers was trying to direct us to the Sunday school room for Lauren's age group, a man came over to Ryan and said, "Are you Ryan T. Smith?" Ryan stood there with a perplexed look on his face until he finally realized who was standing before him. It was one of his friends, Shad Kayser, that he had gone to college with at Seattle Pacific University. He and his family had moved out here less than a year ago from Oregon, for a job change, as well. He immediately welcomed us, introduced us to some other young families and invited us to sit with them during the service.

Shad shared with us that he and his wife, Jennifer, had visited 15 different churches in the area before settling at LNB. We had such a great time visiting with them after the service...and then they invited us over to their house for a BBQ dinner that night.

As we talked with them further over dinner, we found we knew alot of the same people back in Oregon and his wife, Jennifer, and I even had the same doctor! Lauren had so much fun playing with their 10-year-old daughter, who introduced her to Barbies (much to my dismay) and their little 2 1/2 and 1-year old boys. They gave us wonderful advice on places in the area to visit, good doctors, dentists, etc. And Jennifer invited me to come over for a play-date again on Wednesday.

At the end of the evening, all the kids were snuggled under a blanket on the couch, consoling each other about the booming thunder and crackling lightning outside. We drove home in the pounding rain and experienced the most severe thunderstorm I have ever seen or heard. Amazingly, Lauren was not all that scared, but more fascinated by what she was seeing. The thunder was so loud throughout the night that it woke Ryan and I from our sleep. But Lauren was unmoved and slept soundly all night long. :)

Then, on Monday, Lauren and I visited the local library to get library cards so we could begin checking out books (one of our weekly rituals). As we were searching through the shelves, some little girls from Lauren's Sunday school class ran over and said hello. Their mom was Lauren's teacher in church on Sunday, so we chatted while the girls looked at books and played. She told me more about the Women's Ministry, the bible studies and the small groups. She even invited us to join their small group for the Adult Sunday School next Sunday morning so we could meet more of the young families in the church.

All of these experiences added together to completely blow us away at how God is providing!! Here we were, dreading the idea of "church-hunting" and just praying that it wouldn't take too long for us to find a church home...and God already had it planned out for us. So, now we are just praying that we can get plugged in as much as possible and start developing some solid relationships with godly people.

PDX to CLT

Well, we finally made it! (My apologies for this post being a little belated.) We arrived in Charlotte Monday evening around 5:30pm EST. It was a full day of flying and had you been a bystander at the Portland airport, you would have laughed watching the chaos. It was like a three-ring circus! Picture this... it is about 4:45am, there are hundreds of people waiting in line to check-in and here are the 3 of us, sleep-deprived and trying to manuever no less than 8 bags, one box, a carseat, 4 carry-ons and one semi-sedated cat through the madness. Quite the site! After we paused to address the tantrum that Lauren was having, we made it through security and to the gate just in time to board the flight. Whew!!




Lauren did surprisingly well on the plane, for this being her first time flying. She wasn't scared of the loud take-off noises, like we thought she might be. In fact, when we first lifted off into the air, she exclaimed, "Yahoo - we're flying!!" and threw her hands up into the air. She stayed fairly well occupied during the 4 hours that we were confined to our seats. We gave her the window seat, which helped...and she had so much fun looking down on everything from above the clouds. We were blessed with the most beautiful view of Mount Hood as we left Portland

We flew through Chicago and had just enough time to grab a bite to eat at the airport before we boarded the next flight to Charlotte. Thankfully, the second flight was much shorter (about 2 hours), so we didn't have to keep her entertained for as long. I will say that for not having a nap (for a girl that usually takes 3-4 hour snoozes), she did extremely well in holding herself together. And she was rewarded with lots of little treats along the way (compliments of my mom, who snuck them in my bag at the last minute). When we finally made it to North Carolina, we were relieved and exhausted. We couldn't wait to get to the hotel and jump into bed. But, there was still more to come!

Have you ever made one of those decisions that you later regretted? Well, I experienced that when I agreed to let Ryan go get the rental car while I got all 8 of our bags off the carousel (including the carseat and box). I struggled to do this, all the while holding one sleepy girl on my hip, one howling cat in her carrier, plus my purse! Thankfully, several people were generous enough to help me pull bags off before they whizzed by. And one lady even went and found a skycap and brought him over to where I was so he could load everything onto his cart and help me outside. Gotta love that Southern hospitality!!

Once we got everything loaded into the car, we set off for Huntersville via Billy Graham Parkway. Of course, we had to stop at the grocery store to get a litter box and litter for Casey. As Ryan ran in to buy them, I sat there in the car, talking to Lauren about all the fun things we would do and see in the coming week. I went on and on for about 5 minutes before I realized that she wasn't responding to me. I turned around to find her completely zonked out! (see picture below) So, she did get about a 30-minute nap, after all, on the drive to the hotel.




What a journey it was to make it to Charlotte!! But, how exciting to finally be starting our lives here and to be all together again as a family. We thank you all for your prayers for Lauren's sickness (she has recovered beautifully) and for our safe travels. I'll write another post in a few days to share about life in a hotel and our daily adventures.