It’s been a busy week at the Macphersons. I absolutely love Portland. The girls went out last night, so today is guy’s night out. Looking to see if I can find good mexican before we leave.

I did have my interview at Providence, but didn’t get the position. They said lots of positive things: that they felt I had a strong call, that I was mature and patient, that I was more open than a lot of 60 year olds, that I was bright and articulate. They had only one negative—that I need to further “integrate my past.” I didn’t quite understand all she meant by that, but her description was kinda like, “You should try to do some therapy to understand the ways you were negatively affected by your past history.” She’s right. I don’t tend to dwell on ways I’ve been wronged or given the short stick. I think she was trying to see how woundedness would help me in my ministry, but the things she was asking me about were not the things that have really wounded me in life. I’m much more wounded by the loss of recent friendships than the loss of my father. But she had mentioned that she was affected in several ways when her father left her—things like a sense of abandonment. I never had a sense of abandonment. Anyway, something I need to explore.

We’re going home tomorrow, and hopefully we’ll get in town early enough to get our deposit down tomorrow.

Okay, good enough. 50 more weeks to go.

We recently took a trip to Florida and had a wonderful time. Rick has been attending Robbert E. Webber’s Institute for Worship Studies in Orange Park, FL for the past 3 years, spending the past year working on his doctoral thesis, and finishing it up last winter, earning the title of Dr. Capezza. The official graduation ceremony was 8 days ago in Florida, so we decided to plan a family vacation around that time so we could kill two birds with one stone.

We arrived on Wednesday, June 10th, in time for the convocation. The worship was beautiful, and the enthusiasm and love for God was felt in everyone around me as we sang our praises to God without reserve or hesitation. After the service, we drove down to Daytona Beach, where we’d spend the next three days soaking up sun, splashing in the waves, building sandcastles, and relaxing in the pool. We had an oceanfront hotel, which was really just perfect for us. We were able to spend lots of time on the beach, which is mostly what I wanted to do. The kids absolutely loved the pool, and were very brave and confident in the water. Antonio was too afraid of the waves at the beach to get near the water, but liked digging in the sand. Kyrie was thrilled with the waves and also loved looking for pretty seashells along the shore.

On Saturday morning, we left Daytona and drove back into Jacksonville to pick up Rick’s mom from the airport. We spent some time at the mall until our hotel was ready for us to check-in. We had a nice evening at the home of the Creeches, the couple that hosted Rick every time he traveled to Florida for classes throughout his schooling.

The next morning we attended a Russian Orthodox Church in the area. I would have probably enjoyed it more if Antonio hadn’t decided to be a screamer that day. The singing was beautiful. There are definitely aspects of Orthodox worship that I would love to see recovered in Western liturgy. There were other things about the service that I didn’t find particularly appealing, but overall I thought it was a lovely service.

We had to kill some time before the graduation, so we took the kids to Chuck E. Cheese’s to get some energy out (the beach wasn’t an option because we had already checked out of our hotel and didn’t want to come to the ceremony all sandy and salty). They had fun, and to our surprise, we killed all the time we needed and were ready to head over to the church. Rick went to rehearsal and Rick’s mom and I spent some time with the kids in the nursery. I also had the chance to take a few pictures of Rick before the ceremony.

The ceremony was great. Some of the music was a little weird for my taste, but some of it was just beautiful. And the people sang with all their hearts, so the sanctuary was filled with noises of praise to God. After taking lots of pictures following the ceremony (visible on facebook if you’re my friend), we headed to Palm Coast, where we’d spend the remainder of our vacation in a 2-bedroom condo along with Rick’s mom.

It was really cute, spacious, and relaxing. The pool there was huge, and we made sure to get plenty of use out of it. We also managed to make it to the beach, although sadly, the beach there wasn’t as nice as Daytona beach. We had lots of fun anyway, though.

On Wednesday morning, we packed up and headed back to Jacksonville. No trip to the South is complete without a visit to the Cracker Barrel, so that was where we ate lunch. Soon after, we dropped Rick’s mom off at the airport, and then went to a few stores to kill some time before our flight. It was beastly hot, so we found a Chick-fil-A with an indoor play place and let the kids get some energy out before the long flight home. We stayed there until it was time to get to the airport, return the rental car, and check-in for our flight. Other than the long, 4 hour flight in the middle, it was all relatively smooth travel on the way back. Our vacation was just what we needed, but it was really good to be home.

There are a lot of things I will miss about Monroe, which may come as a surprise to some, but there were certainly attachments formed during our first four years of marriage living in Louisiana. I remember Isaiah and I driving the rental truck down, pulling into the driveway of the first house that Rick and I would live in, enjoying temperatures in the 70’s on New Year’s Day, having fun with friends, sighing contentedly at the deep blue sky streaked with pink clouds after a thunderstorm, and admiring the sunset over the peaceful bayou. I remember seeing the positive line on a pregnancy test with Kyrie, and again with Antonio, in the little bathroom of our house. I remember painting our dining room red because I need to live with color. I remember painting walls, sewing curtains, and hanging pictures to make our house a home. I gave birth to both of our babies in Louisiana. Antonio was born right in his sister’s room. There are so many special memories that we’ll carry with us. And I know I’ll never forget the challenges we faced as a new couple, and then a new family, living across the country from my family. It was good for me, and I’m thankful for the experience. I wouldn’t change it if I could.

Now that we are back in Spokane, I feel like everything is right. I feel joy when I just look into the starry night sky or smell the fresh, beautiful Northwest air. Every blade of grass that I see blowing in the wind seems familiar to me. I hear voices all around me in the buzzing of bees, songs of birds, and even the distant sounds of machinery or cars whizzing by that seem to be welcoming me home. It fills me with a joy and a feeling of belonging that I can’t fully describe.

On the way there:

In Seattle:

The Seattle Aquarium:

Kyrie saw these fish and said, “I’ve seen that movie!”

Pike’s Place:

I also found out something interesting at church today. After the service, I started talking politics with Bishop Cavalcanti. It turns out that he was a political science professor before becoming a bishop. After this discussion Fr. Jerry mentioned that Bishop Cavalcanti was a major player in South American politics, but we know little of him since he doesn’t write in English. A search on Amazon confirmed this as his name pops up in many books on evangelicals in politics in Latin America. One of them calls him a “leader of the evangelical left,” which I find a funny term since those are almost exclusive adjectives in America (though I would probably throw myself under a title like that).

An interesting weekend to say the least.

These bishops and ministers were humble men of God, which sadly, I didn’t expect. I guess I’m just not used to seeing humility on that level. It was a refreshing weekend of reconciliation and prayer, and I hope to get to go again in the future. But for now I’ll just get to look forward to Bishop Cavalcanti being at Christ the King this weekend.

This is the last picture I took in Louisiana, of Kyrie sitting on our front steps of the house we won’t be going back to.

We all took turns driving (just kidding)

At a friend’s house in Oklahoma, playing in the backyard:

Here’s a picture at the Las Vegas airport from the plane:

Papa and Antonio in the plane

Noelle

Timothy

Noelle again

Kyrie playing with Esther

Making a snowman

In the swing (can you tell it was really snowy there??)

Antonio in Papa’s arms

Aunt Esther holding Antonio

Uncle Matthew holding Antonio

Grandma Lisa holds Antonio while Kyrie and Esther run off to play

Grandparents admiring the newest grandson

Fresh snow

Easter Sunday

Timothy

Esther

Timothy again

David

Kyrie

Pictures from around the house (where I grew up)

Trip to an indoor waterpark

The night before we left