Home, sweet home! July 12 - 13

WE ARRIVED!!!!!  9 days of traveling and we made it!  With the Lord's help, we arrived safely in Fairbanks around 3:00 p.m.  We actually could not believe we were really entering Fairbanks, so I took a picture of almost every sign that told us we were there.  It was such a joy to actually be at our new home.  Thank you Lord for blessing us with safe travels.

The morning started out a bit rough when we found out that the moving truck was not there at the house.  It was supposed to be there two days ago.  It was probably not going to be there till Thursday or Friday.  We were a bit disappointed.  But of course, God showed us his reasoning.  We have been able to get lots accomplished: seeing the city, cleaning ALL the carpets, deciding where we want things, getting the kitchen ready for all the dishes, and hopefully painting our master bedroom tomorrow!  The Lord ALWAYS knows what is best!

When we did arrive, we met the church's president, who gave us the grand tour. The house is HUGE! Way bigger than we expected, and way more room than we need, but we will take it!  Lots of room for guests, (yes mom, and babies)!  It has 5 bedrooms including the office and 3 full baths, and is set back in the woods.  We are excited to paint and few walls, and make it our own. 

We made our way to Walmart, to get a few necessities.  Yes, they have Wally World.  We also drove around a bit to see what else was here.  They have Home Depot, Sams Club, Lowe's, Safeway (grocery) Fred Meyer's (grocery and misc.), Old Navy, Sears, JCPenny, Pizza Hut, McDonalds, Wendy's, and tons more.  We were really impressed!  We came back home to eat our frozen pizza and skype with my family.  We can already tell that Skype is truly going to save us this year.  Being able to see my family and talk has already helped tremendously! Love ya guys!  If anyone else has skype, let me know your screen name!

We then blew up an air mattress that a church member lent us and set up our bed for the next few nights.  I can't speak for Jason, but I slept like an angel! Finally off the floor!  Can't wait for our real bed to arrive, though!

The next day Jason woke up pretty early, but I had no problem sleeping in till 8:00 a.m.  Jason began work on all our paperwork that needed changing over and what not, while I began to organize the things we did bring with us in our car.  Late morning we went to Lowe's to get the carpet cleaner and a few odds and ends.  When we returned, we met another congregation member and talked with him for about 2 hours.  After that, the carpet cleaning began at about 3:00 p.m.  It is now 11:00 p.m. our time, and we are just about done.  Every room in this house is carpet, except the bathrooms, so it has taken us forever!  Throughout the afternoon two other members stopped by to introduce themselves and welcome us.  You don't know how good it feels to have these people stopping in and saying how happy they are that we are here.  It reminds me that even though we are far from our families, God already has friends and family in mind for us. These individuals are going be our Alaska family!  One member even brought us dinner, Shepherd's Pie and a rhubarb pie!  DELICIOUS!  The mashed potatoes in the shepherd's pie were PURPLE.  She's says they grow purple potatoes at their house.  I had never heard of it! 
Now it is off to bed, but I think we may watch a movie first!  Oh, and the sun is still up and shining into our windwos! CRAZY! We will see if we can fall asleep with nothing on our windows.  We don't have shades or curtains yet!  That we will get tomorrow.
Goodnight!

I tried to upload pictures, but our internet is just too slow.  We are working on upgrading.  So I will have to try again tomorrow.  Sorry!
The only two pics that uploaded are below:

Our shepherd's pie from a member.  It was SOOOO good!

Pipeline while driving to Fairbanks, AK