Big Changes Are Coming!

If you were to tell me 5 days ago that we would be moving out of Port Alsworth THIS MONTH, I would of said you were crazy. If you were to tell me we were not just leaving Port Alsworth but leaving the whole state of Alaska, I wouldn't believe you for a second and I would of laughed at you. A lot.

We love Alaska! So. So. Much.

We have been praying about our future and where we should be. We didn't have any plans in mind but we were open to eventually moving on from Port Alsworth but had no idea where in Alaska or even how. On Tuesday(4 DAYS AGO) Daniel sent me a text asking how I feel about making a move. Soon after that, he came home for lunch and we talked about it some more. Not even an hour after he left from lunch, our brother-in-law, DJ, called out of the blue about a job opening in Waukesha, Wisconsin and wanted to give us the option. We know this was the Lord. Things are just falling into place.

It has been hard to process this and get used to the idea the past 4 days.. but there doesn't seem to be any time for that. We are trusting the Lord, taking a huge step of faith, and selling the majority of our earthly belongings. In less than two weeks, we will be hopping on a jet plane and saying goodbye to our first home we had together. Hopefully not a forever goodbye. Our rough draft plan is to work for a couple years, save up money, and then move up to Fairbanks so Daniel can get his A&P. That makes the move a bit easier knowing we might end back up here some day. :] We will have to wait and see where God leads.

Moving is always a chore and so tiring... but moving out of Alaska is kind of a nightmare. We have to pay per pound just to get our stuff out of our little village and to Anchorage and we have no car up here. Plus.. we have a few months worth of food and toiletries stocked up. =] Lets just say we are going to have a massive garage sale this coming week.

I always wanted to move to Alaska and we love it more than we ever thought possible. We are so thankful we were able to experience this Alaskan life and have opportunities that we never thought we would. Every place has downsides... of course there will be things we won't miss at all but there will be so many things we do miss.
To list just a few:
-Friends that are so dear to us. We will miss you guys so so much.
-The starry nights with northern lights dancing in the sky in the winter and long light summer days we have here.
-Mountains for days and days.
-Our cozy home with a view.
-An almost endless lake to adventure on. So it seems. =]
-Planes. Planes. Planes. Planes. and more Planes. :] I love those things. Wheels or float planes... it doesn't matter to me. :]

The one thing we are really excited about is being a lot closer to family and living in the same town as Amber, Dj, Jaylea, and Zeke. =] It's a little town but it will feel a lot bigger than it used to after living out in the Alaskan bush. Waukesha is where Daniel and I went to school and started dating. We haven't been there since so it will be cool to be back where "we" started.

Even though this move will be really, really hard... God is still good, He still has us in His hands, and He will continue to provide. I wish I could be that person who is excited for a new adventure and ready to pick up and go onto the next season without skipping a beat. But I'm not like that so it's taking me a bit to come around to the idea and I can say that many tears have been shed. Even though this is moving much too fast for our liking, it has been amazing watching God work. Things really are falling into place.

We will hold the memories so close to our hearts and cherish them.

Alaska will always have a part of our hearts. Always.

Soaking up this view as I write this post.

Things you might not know..

I have had some requests to post a blog all about the cool and different ways living off the road system, in the bush of Alaska can be! 

I will start out with a few interesting facts about Alaska in general! =)

• The highest temperature recorded in Alaska was 100 degrees Fahrenheit in Fort Yukon in 1915. Yup, I was born to live here! Everyone who knows me, knows I hate the heat! =)
• While it is legal to shoot bears in Alaska, waking a sleeping bear for the purpose of taking a photograph is prohibited!
• Of the 20 highest peaks in the United States, 17 are in Alaska, including the highest peak in North America (20,320 ft. above sea level), Mt. McKinley.
• Alaska’s largest lake, Lake Iliamna, is roughly the size of Connecticut. (Only about a 15 min flight from where we live)

• Alaska has more coastline than the rest of the United States combined (more than 34,000 miles). Alaska is also the only state to have coastlines on three different seas: the Arctic Ocean, Pacific Ocean, and Bering Sea.
• Alaska has the lowest population density in the nation at one person per square mile.

There are so many more cool facts, like a 13 year old designed Alaska's flag, they have grown a record cabbage weighing in at 94 pounds, or the fact there is about 5,000 earthquakes a year and 1,000 of those measure above 3.5 on the Richter scale! But now lets talk about living in Port Alsworth! =)

We live in a small town in South Eastern Alaska! Population is around 150-200 (ish) but in the summer it grows quite a bit, because of the Lodges, National Park, and Franklin Graham's "Operation Heal Our Patriots" and "Samaritans Purse"!

Welcome to Port Alsworth!

It really is in the middle of no where! Usually in the lower 48, that term is used to described a place where Walmart is a 40 minute drive! But we live off the road system, meaning we have no roads connecting us to other towns or villages! To get anywhere, we have to fly in a small engine airplane!

-We have no grocery stores. So if you are missing an ingredient there's no running to the store to grab it!

-If we want to go shopping or buy groceries we have two options. 1) We fly to Anchorage ourselves and buy a cart load or two at Costco or 2) We send a list into town and pay someone to buy it all! Then we pay per pound for it to be flown out to us! Unfortunatly, it just too expensive to go in every month or two so we just pay someone to pick up our groceries! The longest I have stayed in Port Alsworth straight without flying out is 4.5 months and the longest we went without a food order was 2 months(Not counting ordering fresh produce) Thats my current record! =)

Here are some of the things we stock up on! =) No, that is not Hershey's Chocolate Milk, just boxed shelf milk!
It's not too bad! =)

-We have no gas stations...our fuel comes in a "big" plane.

-We have a cafe, The General Lodge, that is open on Saturday nights but its open a lot more in the summer! With how expensive things are here, a latte will set you back 6-7 dollars, but it is so nice to have a place to go for a little date night or special occasion!

-We have no stop lights or stop signs!

We have yield signs though! :)

-Our boss, Glen Alsworth Sr. is also our Mayor! =)

-There is no hospital or clinic here! If anything major happens its is a 55 min flight to Anchorage! Not counting the time it takes to quickly plan it out and prepare a plane so its ready to go!

-We burn our garbage! Any glass or cans get flown into Anchorage!

-The home we rent used to be a cafe a long time ago and they made it into a house! The word "CAFE" is written in big letters on our tin roof!

-We have to cross two airstrips to get home.

-Mail comes three times a week at the most and everyone makes up their own home address!

-I have bells hanging on the outside door of our arctic entry(mud room) so we'll hear if we have any sneaky bears trying to enter! =) It happened once awhile ago, before we moved in! Knowing that, one day I thought a bear did make his way in...I was kind of scared for a minute until I looked in and saw a dog managed push the door open and it started to close behind him making him stuck! Haha!

-We have a marshy area behind our house and the moose like to hang out there in the mornings!

-Our house is feet away from many Lake Clark National Park trails!

-We don't do fire works on the 4th of July because it doesn't get dark enough...so we do them on New Years Eve instead!

-Because of Operation Heal Our Patriots, Franklin Graham often invites well known people to come welcome and encourage the wounded Vets! Greta, Duck Dynasty, Michael W. Smith, Sarah Palin, and so on! 

Everywhere you live, you will have awesome perks and hard things! There have been some struggles while being here but also so much good! I can't think of a better place to spend our first year of marriage! Lots of great lessons learned and awesome quality time together! 

God, of course, has been faithful, continually providing for our needs, and our constant peace! :)