So it seems that all I have to write about recently is Alaska. Which is great for you, because most of you have never been here. And you've only heard rumors & think we all live like the people in the show "Life Below Zero" or "Alaska- The Last Frontier".
Right now our family lives in the largest city in AK- Anchorage. The state capitol is a few hundred (I'm just guestimating) miles or so south of us and you can only get there by boat or plane. Seriously. Not that we've ever had to go to a state capitol for an emergency or anything, but if we did, it would take some planning to get there.
Now, we've traveled down the Seward highway down to the Kenai Peninsula, and we've went upwards to Palmer and Wasilla, but that's all the time we had for daytrips in the summer. Now we feel like we're "stuck" here in Anchorage until snowy, icy roads are no longer a danger.
It's getting pretty cold here now, but apparently there's "cold snaps" (temperatures in the negatives. For at least a week.) and then it warms up a bit (you know-at least to zero degrees) before another "cold snap" hits...and I'm not sure what the pattern looks like after that. We shall see. We're taking things one step at a time.
Darkness? Eh...as long as you're indoors and the lights are on, you don't notice it. It was a huge thing for me when I was walking the kiddos to school at 8:30 a.m. and it was still dark out...but then Daylight Savings Time happened, so the sun actually starts to peek around the corners at 8:30 a.m. The "darkest day" for us will be right before Christmas, but we should still see about 5-7 hours of sunlight. Sunsets at 3:30 p.m. are hard to get used to, but the views here are stunning and each time the sun rises and sets (unless there's a thick cloud-cover, then we can't see it) it's magical. Well, I think so.
Anchorage is very citi-fied. "Downtown" is like a miniature version of an actual city. There's also "South Anchorage", "The North End", "Turnagain", "Mountain View", and some other . We live in "Turnagain" which would be in the west part of Anchorage. Older houses here are smaller and come in all sorts of shapes and sizes. Like no one really cared how uniform they were.
There is a join military base here which may account for a large number of the population and commerce. We actually live near the airport, so we here (and see) planes all the time. Of course aviation is a big thing here, with the airport, Air Force and bush pilots that service different parts of the state. I grew up near a small airport, so I'm used to hearing planes take off and land.
What bothers me is when we tell people (including "good Christian friends") that God told us to move here...and then they ask what ministry-type thing we're doing...and then we awkwardly answer "Well...nothing yet..." and then there's this awkward pause-type thing....where you *know* they're either thinking that we are crazy or that we're just not the awesome Christians they thought we were.
As crazy as it's been, we do know that this is where God has us. For now. Why?? Yeah...we've been asking that for months...with no answer, so we're just settling in and getting the lay of the land. Learning the culture. Keeping a roof over our heads. Making sure we don't kill the kiddos (and that they don't kill themselves). Because we have faith. And God hasn't led us astray yet. We're not homeless (though technically, 2 families living in a space built for 1 family is considered "homelessness") and we have clothes to wear (we didn't receive any "Jeremiah" visions) and food to eat.
It also bothers me when we tell people where we live and they say things like "Oh, that's too cold for me". Well, good for you. We didn't ask you to move here with us, and you better pray that God doesn't send you here too (seriously. God likes to do this thing where you say "I'll never ----" and then BAM! It happens!).
Any questions about Alaska you'd like me to answer?? Leave a comment below! Meanwhile, enjoy this Alaskan photo dump:
Right now our family lives in the largest city in AK- Anchorage. The state capitol is a few hundred (I'm just guestimating) miles or so south of us and you can only get there by boat or plane. Seriously. Not that we've ever had to go to a state capitol for an emergency or anything, but if we did, it would take some planning to get there.
Now, we've traveled down the Seward highway down to the Kenai Peninsula, and we've went upwards to Palmer and Wasilla, but that's all the time we had for daytrips in the summer. Now we feel like we're "stuck" here in Anchorage until snowy, icy roads are no longer a danger.
It's getting pretty cold here now, but apparently there's "cold snaps" (temperatures in the negatives. For at least a week.) and then it warms up a bit (you know-at least to zero degrees) before another "cold snap" hits...and I'm not sure what the pattern looks like after that. We shall see. We're taking things one step at a time.
Darkness? Eh...as long as you're indoors and the lights are on, you don't notice it. It was a huge thing for me when I was walking the kiddos to school at 8:30 a.m. and it was still dark out...but then Daylight Savings Time happened, so the sun actually starts to peek around the corners at 8:30 a.m. The "darkest day" for us will be right before Christmas, but we should still see about 5-7 hours of sunlight. Sunsets at 3:30 p.m. are hard to get used to, but the views here are stunning and each time the sun rises and sets (unless there's a thick cloud-cover, then we can't see it) it's magical. Well, I think so.
Anchorage is very citi-fied. "Downtown" is like a miniature version of an actual city. There's also "South Anchorage", "The North End", "Turnagain", "Mountain View", and some other . We live in "Turnagain" which would be in the west part of Anchorage. Older houses here are smaller and come in all sorts of shapes and sizes. Like no one really cared how uniform they were.
There is a join military base here which may account for a large number of the population and commerce. We actually live near the airport, so we here (and see) planes all the time. Of course aviation is a big thing here, with the airport, Air Force and bush pilots that service different parts of the state. I grew up near a small airport, so I'm used to hearing planes take off and land.
What bothers me is when we tell people (including "good Christian friends") that God told us to move here...and then they ask what ministry-type thing we're doing...and then we awkwardly answer "Well...nothing yet..." and then there's this awkward pause-type thing....where you *know* they're either thinking that we are crazy or that we're just not the awesome Christians they thought we were.
As crazy as it's been, we do know that this is where God has us. For now. Why?? Yeah...we've been asking that for months...with no answer, so we're just settling in and getting the lay of the land. Learning the culture. Keeping a roof over our heads. Making sure we don't kill the kiddos (and that they don't kill themselves). Because we have faith. And God hasn't led us astray yet. We're not homeless (though technically, 2 families living in a space built for 1 family is considered "homelessness") and we have clothes to wear (we didn't receive any "Jeremiah" visions) and food to eat.
It also bothers me when we tell people where we live and they say things like "Oh, that's too cold for me". Well, good for you. We didn't ask you to move here with us, and you better pray that God doesn't send you here too (seriously. God likes to do this thing where you say "I'll never ----" and then BAM! It happens!).
Any questions about Alaska you'd like me to answer?? Leave a comment below! Meanwhile, enjoy this Alaskan photo dump:
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