the whirlwind...

Greetings friends...

You see, there is a double digit number of times in the past few months I have said to Anna, "Heck yeah I'll update our Team Rendell blog. No problem." Well, ambition, meet procrastination.  Clearly, I excel more in the latter.  I'll tell you more someday later...

Anyway, life for Team Rendell in these past few months has met every mental picture you may be having reading the title of this blog.  Other descriptors may include hurricane, F5 tornadic activity, pandilerium, etc.

The last you hear from this lifeblog of ours, it was April, we were at camp in our little house, working hard preparing for the summer ahead.  Things. have. changed.  Buckle up.

Around that time in our hearts we had begun to ask ourselves, as it is good to do, as a year on the prairie in ND was approaching, how we felt about where we were in things like life, job, family, etc.  This exploration brought us a few places. One, we were happy, Anna, Nysse, and I, being together as a family.  We could look at each other and laugh and smile and cry/whimper and know it was all going to be ok.  Two, we had some deep desires....

We had begun to believe that, while we loved so many things about life at camp, there were other things that we wanted as well.  The heart of that was the need to lay down roots.  We had felt like we had been in transition for much of our life and it was time to plant for a while at least.  As we prayed, we realized where we were was not the place to lay down those roots. We began to realize God may be leading us somewhere else.  This lingered in our head and hearts as we still dove completely in to preparing for the summer at camp, staff arrival, campers and parents, games and music, and learing about Jesus.  What a ride it was in May as training began with summer staff joining the year-rounders.  They were and are so talented; such a dynamic, wonderful group of people.

So, its mid-May.  Anna and my mom headed down the the Twin Cities MN to go to a James Taylor and Carol King concert.  They had an incredibly good time.  Anna was in a wedding that weekend so I came down Thursday evening.  On Friday morning, before the weekend festivities began, Anna gives me a box.  It was the prettiest pink box I ever did see.  Inside the box a stick that said one word, THE word, the word we had been waiting for for at least a year and a half....Pregnant.  I remember two things, screaming and tackling.  We have never felt such joy.  We had wanted to have a baby for so long.  Anna's whole life goal had switched from anything she ever thought.  She would love to be a stay-at-home mom. I couldn't wait to be a dad.  Our excitement was simply not containable.  So, we told our families and tried to keep a lid on it from the rest of the world for a while.

At the wedding that weekend, Anna introduced me to a new friend of hers.  This girl was the roommate of the sister of the friend that was getting married.  Follow that?  During that bachelorette party they had begun talking about this faith based financial services organization headquartered in the Twin Cities where this girl worked.  Anna mentioned that I had been thinking about that company as a place I would really like to work if God was bringing us back near the Minneapolis area, closer to family and friends. At the reception while everyone was hitting the dancefloor, I am sitting there talking with this girl about potential opportunities at a Fortune 500 financial company...nerd.  By the following Friday she had given her boss my name, I had sent in an application.  By the next Friday was on the phone for my first interview.  The next Wednesday I headed to an office for a teleconferencing second interview.  The following Monday I was offered the job, a new pilot program with a goal to help 1 million people worry less about money every day.  Cool huh.  We decided to take it.  The kicker, the job started July 19th , 3 weeks from the offer and smack in the middle of a summer camp program.

God leads and we follow.  It should be as simple as that.

It was hard to hold in the news of the pregnancy and after an 8 week checkup the doctor had proclaimed, "Oh yeah, you are definately 8 weeks pregnant." So we told the world via mouth, phone, and of course, facebook.  And twitter.  Information flows so quickly its incredibly, this matters later.  So we had two sets of news to share.  One that we were going to have a baby.  Then a week later, that we were leaving camp and moving to MN for this great new job and to be closer to our fam and friends.  Tears...

Over the 4th we stayed at camp and had our last major duty, hosting a family reunion.  We spent time with them as well as the process of preparing job things for the next person.  We also slowly began to pack a box or two.  Anna's mom came up to be with us over the 4th and good thing she did for a number of reasons.  We didn't have to miss fireworks, good thing to because I am pretty sure there would have been a two woman riot if we did.  These ladies LOVE fireworks.  It was also nice to have a mom there when we went to the doctor that week to check on some light bleeding Anna had been having for a few days.

So, Tuesday we head in to the clinic.  We were excited because they said they would probably do an ultrasound and we were only a few days away from a 12 week appointment to hear the baby's heartbeat.  Wahoo for early milestones.  Well, the ultrasound was, we'll say, wierd, and inconclusive.  Not a great thing when you are talking about babies and mommies.  Next, blood test.  And questions galore about due date and last cycles and timelines.  After reviewing all of this the doctor comes in and the tone of voice, the facial expressions, and while she used many more words it meant one thing...miscarraige.  We have never felt so much devistation.

Let me interject, it continues to become clear to me that my wife and the strongest, bravest woman ever.

They said there was a small chance she was less far along than we originally thought but for the most part we knew, and we cried our eyes out.  Poor girl had to go get more blood tests done the next Thursday and then had to wait again for a day to hear the official news that the pregnancy hormone numbers had dropped.  We had no idea what was coming.

That night Anna began to bleed a little.  Then she woke up at 5:30 am in a small pool of blood.  Sorry for any quesy but it simply did not stop.  We rushed to the hospital in the small town near camp but headed the hour and a half to the big town where Anna was examined and taken in for D&C surgery late that morning.  For her, she descibed the whole thing as the ultimate slap in the face.  "Not only are you not pregnant but bleeding and having to go through the ordeal of fixing it."  It was hard to see God.

Anna had to lay low for the next days.  Camp pretty much just let her be done with her duties and she left a few days before I did with my mom and then her dad to get her down to the Twin Cities.  I finished, with tons of help from great people at camp, packing up the house and then u-haul to move down.  All of this happened inside of 7 days.  We decided it was a blessings to be moving down to where family both immediate and church could be rock-solid support and it was.

Did you know that 1 in 5 pregnancies are miscarried.  Blew my mind.

You know who was incredible support?  Our internet family.  Astounding how many people could speak words of both sympathy and empathy and lift us up.  We owe online social networking something fierce. Thanks again if some of you are reading this.  Your were a Lifeline, capitalized purposely.

Our surroundings now are a loft in mom-in-laws townhome, mom-in-law, sister-in-law, and two golden retreivers.  We are thankful to have a roof over our heads and food to eat.  Truthfully, we can't wait for those roots to have a house (we are hoping to buy as soon as possible) to plant themselves in.  I have started my job and it is simply incredible.  Anna found a great job too.  Get this, it has regular hours, the unwaivering stipulation in her job hunt and something she hasn't experienced in a long while.

Anna has also been rockin her personal blog "Girl with Blog" more and more in this past year especially and it is taking her places.  She is a really, really talented writer.  This weekend it has taken her to New York City for BlogHer '10.  It is really the largest blogging conference there is with over 2400 women in attendance.  She's attending parties, meeting tons of people, going to sessions, and making new friends.  Of course, all this in a cute pair of shoes.  She was also on a TV this past week for a makeup spot.  How cool!

So, do you see why those descriptors make sense.  I even feel like I forgot stuff. The moral of the story is.  God is still good, people are great too, no matter what.

Sorry if there are typos; Anna is the proofread queen.

With love for the world and the people around us...

Team Rendell

we're here (for good!)

well, we got all moved to North Dakota! It was a looooong drive, but we made it. last week absolutely FLEW by! finalizing stuff at work, packing the house, having goodbye lunches and dinners with friends and family, "one last trip"s to several special places... it was too fast. we had been packing, and each time jared camp up he took a carload. still, we just had so much stuff! we rented a 14-foot uhaul, and i swear if it hadn't been jared packing the truck, using each nook and cranny, we wouldn't have made it. the morning of the big move, most of the ladies from GLC came over to help!! we definitely wouldn't have made it without them. my baby sister was also a HUGE help that day (and for the days prior too), and my little brother and his girlyfriend came too. it was very humbling and wonderful to have all these people helping us move away from them. we really miss you all. we have amazing friends.

at the last minute, my mom decided to come along for the move! she had a good time. She thought our little house was "darling", liked the look of camp, and loved staying in the retreat center. She went through "downtown" Garrison, and was relieved to see a hospital/clinic/ER right in town. We spent Sunday in Bismarck, shopping and eating and at a movie, so that was really fun. It brought me a lot of peace knowing she approved of the new venture - no matter how old you are, your mom's opinion still matters.

we are slowly getting settled in here at camp. Hardly any boxes are unpacked, but all the furniture is finally in the right places, so now we are able to unpack and put things away. When we arrived, the executive directors' wife had prepared a meal for us that was waiting in our fridge. The staff helped us unload the truck, and Sarah and Ben (site caretaker and his wife) brought over fresh veggies picked from the large camp garden. The next morning, we found a loaf of homemade summer squash bread on our door! So that all made us feel very welcome.

on a yucky note, the second night we were here, we couldn't sleep in our house because there were 15+ HUGE wolf spiders in our bedroom!!! SO GROSS!!! So we bug-bombed the house and slept in the retreat center. There haven't been any around since, which is a gift straight from God because if that was the norm, I would be sleeping in my car!

I had my first day of work yesterday, and it was kind of hard for several reasons: i missed my friends terribly, Jared is coaching volleyball at the high school and had to leave camp for practice, I didn't think we were going to be able to come home until Christmas, my eye mysteriously swelled up and i was hopped up on benadryl for a while, and I just generally got overwhelmed by everything. Today, day 2 of work, has been MUCH better. I got a handle on the calendar for the year - we will be busy! There are groups scheduled to come to camp every weekend through January, phew! Even though I'm still figuring out just what my new job entails, I am glad to have it and excited to really be doing it. We met today with an Air Force chaplain who is bringing a group of young adults (17-30yrs) from the Minot AF base on a retreat over Labor Day, and that was fun.

I miss you all very much. We will be home over my birthday (October 4-8), and hope to see everyone sometime then. I will update the blog as often as I can. Know if days go by w/out an update, I am still thinking of you all.

Lots of love and hugs,
anna <><
(& jared)

t-minus 1 week...

it's now exactly one week until we move, and not a thing is packed in a single box. blah!! tomorrow i'm driving to moorhead, and husby will meet me there. then we'll drive to luther dell (yay!) for a friends' wedding, and will return to apple valley sunday night. next week is full of dinners and time with friends and family, and then friday is the big moving day! last sunday was the beautiful celebration for us at church, and monday was a fabulous girl's night out with my office ladies. the uhaul is rented, i's are dotted and t's crossed with final stuff at work, and camp is ready for us to be there. so look out north dakota, here we come! but first the packing... =)
anna <><
(& jared)

packing up

today we started packing for the big move. jared goes up tuesday morning, but i don't leave until late august. he'll be back a few times this summer. my job takes me all over the place during the summer, and since we've done this yucky distance thing before, i think it'll be ok. but it's still no fun. and packing/moving is not my favorite thing. sigh... but we're getting excited to be at camp! anybody got any packing tips? ;)

anna (and jared)

fastest summer ever

this summer is just shooting past! i (anna) returned from my first mission trip on friday, and vacation bible school started sunday night. the last day of it was today, and will be really over after worship on sunday morning. it's always a fun week - 120+ kids singing praise songs at the top of their lungs is a blast - but it's exhausting. jared was in orlando while i was on the trip, and then he left yesterday for miami. he'll get back tuesday, we leave thursday for his sisters' wedding, and then he's going straight to camp! he'll be back for some weddings and events through july, and then i'll go up to join him at the end of august. phew! it's a serious whirlwind, and i'm not sure i like it.

one thing i'm excited for in this moving adventure is the hope of slowing down. my pastor assured me this week that a slower pace is possible, and i for one can't wait to enjoy it. right now, small town life seems like a novelty, as i'm used to the fast-paced bustle of the 'burbs. we're going from an overpriced apartment in the middle of a thriving suburb to rent-free living on a lake in the middle of the prairie. from an instant gratification city to the slower pace of a town where the nearest target is 45 minutes away. i'm hoping to go from a constant "go-go-go!!" pace to a slower rhythm in the country. right now it's hard to imagine, but here's hoping...

anna <><
(and jared)