I didn't sleep well the night of the 11th. Partly excited, and partly nervous/freaking out about what these next 4 months have in store. I ended up getting about 5 hours of sleep, and awoke to find 3 inches of snow on the ground. So after a few sips of coffee, there was nothing to do but to begin shoveling. Emiley and the girls got up, we had breakfast, finished all our packing, and were on the road by 9:15, only 15 minutes later than we had hoped. Not bad.
I was a little nervous about how the roads would be after the 3 inches of snow we got overnight, but the interstate was fine. We made it to DTW by 10:15 and my good friend Tommy Airey was at the airport to meet us. I met Tommy at Fuller in an Anabaptist Missiology class taught by Wilbert Shenk (no relation). Tommy grew up in Orange County in the shadow of Saddleback, but was freshly disillusioned by the evangelicalism he grew up in. He was compelled by the Anabaptist vision for faith and discipleship, and even started a small church plant dubbing themselves "The Orange County Mennonites." Tommy and his wife Lindsay began drinking deeply from the wells of discipleship Christianity, and in 2013 embarked on a "radical road-trip" to visit discipleship communities across the united states. That trip led them to relocate for this year to Detroit where they are learning from the Jeanie Wylie Community and St. Peter's Episcopal Church and exploring issues of peace, simplicity, racial justice, and watershed discipleship in the city of Detroit. Tommy is car-sitting for us while we'll be in Pasadena. It helps them to have an extra set of wheels this winter, and it saves us on parking fees.
We made it through airport security with two of the cutest little travelers you could ever imagine, had
a fun time riding the terminal tram, and got lunch to take on the plane. Then we sat... and sat.... for an hour on the plane before takeoff as they had to de-ice the wheel wells from the blistery cold and snow and ice of Detroit in January. Needless to say we weren't thrilled about an extra hour on the plane with two little ones, but it's good practice for our longer international flights in February. All in all the girls did fine. Roslyn got antsy toward the end, and Liz didn't want to eat and was really squirmy. But we made it. We made it just in time to get our car rental and get stuck in LA rush hour at 4:30 pacific time. Tired, hungry, and couped up all day, we were happy to make it to the guest house and turn in for an early night.
Today has been a wonderful start to our time in Pasadena. We traded the blistery winter of the mid-west for blue skies, sunny, 70-degree weather, and fresh strawberries from the farmers market.
We basically spent the day getting groceries, running errands, and cruising the old familiar streets of Pasadena. Around 3:00 I took my first walk through Fuller's campus, stopping at the bookstore and library. I ran into a former professor Erin Dufault-Hunter, and a good friend Matthew Krabill. Afterwards I spent some time reading, outside, in one of my old study spots.
Yes... this is nice.
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