Red Yellow

That was the summer of 1985. Sometime after the garage sale and before school started in the fall, we loaded up our trailer with all of our things, and we moved to Seattle to live with my grandparents - just until we could get settled in our own place.

Things don't always turn out just like you plan...

Scratch that.

Do things ever turn out just like you plan????

I know that my parents never planned to stay with my grandparents as long as we did, but those months contain many many fond memories for me.

These grandparents are the Swedish grandparents: Mormor and Morfar. Daddy said that we all gained 10 pounds the first month we were there because Mormor was always feeding us. Morfar was forever trying to teach me Swedish too. His method was full immersion with lots of sign language. It might've worked except that i didn't have anyone else to speak Swedish to.

While we were there, i tried very hard to write down Mormor's recipes for all of her wonderful Swedish pastries and was very disappointed to find that most of the time she didn't use a single measuring instrument; and when she did, it was METRIC. I gave up altogether.

I'll tell you a funny and fond memory i have of my grandmother.

Mormor (and of course the whole family) came to live in the United States in 1969, when Mormor was 51. I've been told that the only English word Mormor spoke when she arrived in this country was, "hungry?"

Between 1969 and 1985, she learned English quite well, but as you might imagine, her Swedish accent remains very clear to this day.

The house where we lived was not too far from some sort of little store, and if i remember correctly, my grandmother would sometimes send me there to pick up whatever small grocery item she was missing.

I was nine or ten at the time, and i have this very funny memory of a long and difficult conversation between me and my grandmother in which, from what i could decipher, she really wanted me to go to the store and buy some yellow.

Yellow what, Mormor?

Red Yellow.

Red or Yellow what?

Eventually my grandmother reached into the cupboard and found an old box of ( i know you guessed this already ) jello.

Oh! You need Jello, Mormor?

Yes, Yellow.

Yellow Jello, Mormor?

No. Red Yellow.

I'm not sure how long this went on, but in my mind, it took FOREVER. I think i finally got the picture, and presumably, i successfully brought home the red yellow, but all i remember is that conversation.


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November 28, 2007

I got an email from my mom a couple of days ago.

Mormor and Morfar are something like 88 and 89 years old, and they live with my parents now.

A couple of days after Thanksgiving, the four of them were having Thanksgiving leftovers for dinner.

My mom related the conversation between Mormor and Morfar:

Mormor: What's the red stuff?

Morfar: It's yellow.

Fairview - Atlanta - Fairview - Sell Everything

That was Fairview. When we moved there, i was in the second grade. In that small town, my entire grade level consisted of about 20 students.

I don't remember too many signficant events in Fairview. We lived there until the beginning of third grade, and then we moved to Atlanta, Michigan. Atlanta's about 30 miles away (or at least that's what my third grade mind recollects)from Fairview, and we got to live close to my Uncle John and Aunt Julie and their kids, Chris and Susie.

That didn't last too long though. Before the end of third grade, we were back in Fairview - at a different house this time. I remember living down the street from a girl who became my very best friend. Her name is Valerie. Valerie is a little bit older than me, but we became very very close.

.............................................i'm stuck here, i'm afraid--because thinking about my friend Valerie brings a special feeling in my heart and a little bit of sadness because when we were little girls, we would encourage each other in the things of the Lord (in our little girl way), but when i last was in contact with Valerie, she was far away from the Lord. That makes my heart sad. Hers was a very special friendship that i still cherish. For a girl like me, who changed schools as often as i did, a true buddy was hard to get. Valerie was a true pal.

Sometime in (i think) the summer after fourth grade, we (my family) had a new plan. This move would be to Seattle, Washington to help with a church that we had been associated with when i was a very small child. But, because we would have to live with my grandparents while we got established, we would have to sell as much as we could and pack what was left in a trailer that my dad's cousin would build for us. We could park the trailer at my Uncle Soren's house while my parents looked for work and a place to live.

We had never done this before. We always packed everything, except for maybe some of the big stuff, and took it with us. My dad kept encouraging us with God's word that the Lord would replace what we left behind for His name's sake, and He would replace with better.

We had a great big garage sale. I sold a lot of my toys, and my parents said i could keep the money that was made from my stuff. Also, my friend, Valerie, put some of her stuff in. If i remember right, we both made about $20. Valerie bought a cabbage patch doll, but i think someone may have supplemented the amount. She named her cabbage patch Beth, after me. Soon after, my mom made me a doll, similar to a cabbage patch, but cooler 'cause my mom made it for me. She gave it long blond hair and blue eyes, and we named her Valerie, after my friend. Then we hitched up our trailer full of all our things, and we drove away to Seattle.

I think this was the first (and least painful) of many purgings the Lord has brought me through. Starting over with less, little, or nothing, is actually good for us. But it rarely feels very good. The purgings i've gone through later in my life haven't been voluntary, and they've been much harder for me, but they've been healthy for me. I've learned to trust God more. He is my provider, and He never lets me truly go without.

God is good.