Atkinson Adventure

If you're wondering how Joe ended up in Haiti, it all started about 3 months ago when we met Jenn and Amy and learned about their plans for Second Mile Ministries.  We met at an Einsteins Bagel in Tucson, and now they are showing him around Haiti. 

Surely God must have orchestrated this.
Read more about it here.

So Jenn and Amy headed  back to Haiti on January 8, 2012 and set out to buy a truck, find some land to buy, prepare to build their facility, and get on with it!  Oh to be young and full of that much energy!  In addition to a great conference opportunity, all the pieces worked together to make this trip happen.  Joe's main goal is to see what business opportunities are available for ministries like Second Mile and what other ways IYT could be involved with the rebuilding of the economy of Haiti.

Here's a picture he snapped as they were heading to the Partners Worldwide Conference in Petionville.   Partners Worldwide works around the world in business as ministry to end world poverty.  

Joe, Jenn and Amy are joined by a group from One Globe Fund  (That's Jenn and Amy on the right.)  Is that THE truck?  I think it must be!

_At church on Sunday:  "These ladies were so happy to see Jenn and Amy. They made my day! Even though we were in the sunlight they brightened the space."

Haitian "nannies" will be an key part of the ministry to sick children and their families.  The Nannies will be providing the majority of the direct care and mentoring of moms.  Most importantly they are spiritual leaders!

Jenn, Joe and Amy at church.

As the One Global Fund group leaves today, our friend, Peter Weinman is joining Joe for the rest of the trip to get some video footage of the area and various ministry work going on in the area.  It's really great to have missions-minded friends.

Hope to post more this week as I hear from our Haiti travelers!

I began blogging when we started this whole idea of a road trip.  And I have to say, I don't give myself very high marks for consistency.  I wanted to share so much more...pictures, stories, thoughts from the road, but sometimes you are so busy living in the moment you can't translate it into a blog post. 

So here's to 2012 and blogging and a look back at the road traveled in the last months of our Adventure on the road.  For the Adventure is sure to continue...

Emily and Jade.  I love these girls and I love them more when they're together.  They are what cousins ought to be.  And that's an Ohio sunset.

Camp Michindoh in Hillsdale, Michigan...who knew we would end up there for a week of Young Lives camp?  Teen moms, their babies, and their mentors make for a crazy camping experience.  Just a reminder that God uses the small, weak, "the least of these" to show us His great power and glory!  

Wow, that St. Louis arch is tall!

These 2 are good sports.  That's pod #6 to ride to the top of the St. Louis arch - we made it INTO the pod, and Joe and I promptly opted to exit.  They followed us like good children do, but then they were kinda mad they didn't go on without us.

If only I had a tripod I could have been in this cool picture too.

This makes the whole trip worth it all.

There's a picture of 2 year old Max in an album somewhere in front of this same tire.  He's grown a bit.  We've all grown.

A rainbow over the Arkansas Valley in Buena Vista, Colorado.  One of the most beautiful spots on the planet, and one of our favorites.  God's promises never fail.  He took care of it all that day.

This little guy, along with his adorable brothers, will likely be the reason I someday come home with another child...from where, I don't know.  Thanks to the Blacks for all the good family times.

One of the best days ever...the day we picked Emily up from Redcloud, where she spent 3 weeks serving families (and her 15th birthday.)  I think we all just felt sheer joy being together again.  And she took her brother repelling to celebrate.

Max was a superstar football player...what a payoff to work so hard, love the game, and then win the state championship...all in your first season to ever put on pads. 

I don't think we've ever been so proud of him.

So the year in the rearview mirror looks like a life lived to the full.  Blessed in so many ways and thankful to have lived and loved with no regrets.  

From Pennsylvania we went on to New York!  (this was in May) Niagara Falls was one of the "must see" things on our list of destinations, partly because Joe's parents honeymooned there 48 years ago. 

We decided to do the Maid of the Mist boat ride.  I DO get quite motion sick, but I figured it usually takes me about a half hour to start to feel sick on a boat, and the ride was only 27 minutes.  We decided to go for it.  What's the worst that could happen?  I'd throw up in front of a bunch of strangers.  Nothing new.

So we donned our rain ponchos and ran to board the boat.

Don't know who that random guy in the back is...or if he was actually trying to get in my picture???

We were all soaking wet.  Her face may not say it, but we had the best time!  We giggled and laughed the whole time as the mist was spraying all around us.

He looks pretty happy to me.

The Lawson's were in Niagara waiting for us when we got there.  So we got to hang out with them for a few more days before they headed west for home (Washington).   We had a big night out at a local pizza dive called "Goodfellas", which had amazing pizza and wings for cheap! 

Later that night we decided to drive over to Canada to see the falls all lit up.  Our first trip to Canada! 

Unfortunately because of the fog and mist, there wasn't much to see.  But, now we can say we've been to Canada!  It is my dream to be a world traveler...so this is a start, right?

The Lawson's met up with a park ranger on the US side of the falls while we were in Canada, and found out a little bit more about the falls.  Apparently a LOT of people try to commit suicide over by jumping over the falls.  Many succeed, but those who don't end their lives have reported that there is something about the falls that "call to them".  Creepy!  We listened for a while...but we didn't hear any such "calling".

This post was written several months ago.  I am attempting to complete a chronicle of our trip, mostly for posterity's sake, but also so we have an online journal of our journey.  As we continue to process it all, I hope to share more of the stories that made this a year to remember.

After Emily and I returned from Azerbaijan, we headed north from South Carolina. 

We had an interesting few days.  God showers us with blessings when we least expect it, and when we need it the most.  We left South Carolina and headed towards an RV park in Colonial Beach, VA.  Most of the RV parks we stay at are very rural.  We drove down a harrowing narrow country road,  faithfully following our GPS, only to realize at the next turn that we could have taken a much better, wider road.  But, we made it, and the park was in a beautiful area near the Potomac.  We caught up on some school work and tried to recover from our jet lag.

From there we decided to try to drive Buster into Washington D.C.  I know, it was crazy.  We thought we'd like to spend just one more day in the city at the Smithsonian and maybe the new Spy Museum.  We had a few options for parking, but in the end, none of them worked out.  One option was now a construction site, and then we couldn't make the turns required to get to the other one!  So, we drove north toward Pennsylvania.

We weren't sure where we were going to stay once we got to PA, but our new friends, The Lawsons were already there at a park near Dover.  After debating about whether we should spend the money to stay at the RV park, or opt for a night at Walmart,  we called the RV park, and were told it would only be $3/day! God is so good to us.  I'm so glad I didn't spend another minute worrying about where we would stay.  Again it was SO GREAT to be with the Lawsons!!   They are expecting a baby this fall and were beginning to plan their trip home to Washington. 

I think this was the day I sat on a well used camp chair and it broke!  So embarrassing!  It was great for the kids to hang out with some friends, swap books, ride bikes, and watch YouTube videos.

We toured the capital of Pennsylvania, Harrisburg. 

The Lawson's 5th wheel was named "Out Of The Rut" after Kyle's grandpa who had recently passed away.  The sentiment was wholly appropriate for our lives at this moment.  We were both families that were trying to get "out of the rut" and into what God was calling us to do.  Living on the road will get you there pretty quick!

And another blessing in Pennsylvania...
The next day we took our TV back to Costco.  It hadn't been working for a few weeks, and we thought we'd see if they would be able to help us out.  Sure enough, we were within the warranty period and they gave us a Cash Card with the value of the TV.  So, we were able to get a new TV AND some groceries.  Yay!

We spent a few days in Lancaster and Intercourse, Pennsylvania, also known as Amish country.  It was awkward to take pictures of people who were just going about their everyday lives.  As if THEY were the spectacles!  This was a shot I took from a distance...the countryside was about the most beautiful I have ever seen.  It made me want to live on a farm...just a little bit.

girls...

During our first few days in Baku Amy and I attended a women's retreat where Amy spoke on the topic of "Peace".  She did an excellent job and we were both so blessed by all the women and their sweet and tender hearts.

We toured some of the city sights with the retreat women.   The spring weather was perfect.  Here we are at the National Cemetery.

The Walk of Martyr's commemorates the attack on Baku in 1990.

The kids took us on an adventure on the public transit (the bus) to downtown Baku where we shopped and walked along the "boulevard".  They were quite the tour guides.  Their language skills were top notch, too.

Emily and I had our ultimate Mother-Daughter trip in late April.  She is posting some "historical highlights" and her own insights on her page.  Check it out Emily's blog here. We traveled with the ever excellent Amy Haley to Baku, Azerbaijan where we visited some amazing people and an incredible country.  Our dear friends, the Mo's, have lived in Baku for 8 years.  Since the Mo's left Texas for the "other AZ", I've dreamed of going to visit.  So when Amy was invited to speak at a women's retreat, she says she immediately thought of me.

Of course, I was so excited about the opportunity!  I love women's ministry (and it had been a while since I had been to any kind of retreat) and the chance to see the Mo's on their own turf was...well, you get the idea...I really wanted to go! 

I knew that God would have to supply the funds for this trip, so we prayed and then put out a call!  We let our friends and supporters know what was happening, and within a few weeks all of the money needed for both me AND EMILY to go was provided.  "my God will supply all your need according to his riches in glory".

This all came about in March, and so we went about the somewhat complicated task of getting our travel visas.  Amy's and my visa applications were submitted before we knew that Emily was going, so her's went in separately.  After the 7-10 days that was promised, still no visas.  But we had 3 weeks to go, so we weren't too worried.  After daily calls to the document service in Washington DC (all done by Amy) exactly one week before we were scheduled to leave, Emily's visa was delivered!  What!?!  Would she be going alone?  I think not!  But it was a humorous thought.  Amy was getting a little discouraged, as evidenced by her lack of punctuation (people exhibit their frustration in different ways).  At least she wasn't SHOUTING AT ANYONE.  So 2 days later, our visas were issued!   Whew!  That was a little close!  It was interesting that once we were in Baku, there was much talk about wanting to increase tourism in the country.  I'd say the visa process needs to be addressed pronto!

These flights were going to be loooong.  The longest I'd ever been on.  Frankly I was getting a little apprehensive the days leading up to the trip.  If you know me at all, I am not known to be the heartiest of travelers, and I'm referring specifically to the motion sickness to which  I sometimes succumb.  Ok, it happens often.  The week leading up to our trip carried it's own stress...we were in Tucson, Barbara, my mother-in-law passed away, we planned and had her memorial service, celebrated Easter, and then finally, the day after Easter, flew to Charlotte, NC, to begin our trip.  God certainly worked out all the details, and I am so grateful.

Our flight went something like this:
Charlotte to Chicago - with barely enough time to get to the international terminal, go through security again, and then discover there are no restaurants inside the int'l terminal

Chicago to Istanbul (Turkey...this was the 12 hour flight...see Emily's post "Flying" for more about this.  I slept most of the time, thankfully.  The flight was followed by a 7 hour layover in Istanbul.  By this time the internal body clock is thoroughly confused.

Istanbul to Baku - Finally on to Baku...about another 3 hours.  Then we were there!  And it was 4am.  I'm just not sure what day it was.

More on Azerbaijan in future posts.

Two weeks after heart surgery, our mom, mother-in-law, grammy, and biggest cheerleader, Barbara Jo Atkinson, left this world and went to be with Jesus.  She was a miracle in the flesh.  Her flesh actually was the miracle.  We just didn't know how much of a miracle she was until the doctors were continually baffled by how her body had come to function in the 37 years since her treatment for breast cancer.  The treatment for her cancer was ultimately what caused her earthly death on April 21, 2011  Radiation therapy had caused damage to her heart and lungs that her body could no longer overcome.

She was my mother-in-law for 24 years, and a spritual mother for much longer.  I can't remember NOT knowing her. (LIterally I've known her since I was very small)  

Last night I made one of the family favorites:  spice cake with peanut butter frosting.  Joe's birthday is this weekend, and everyone loves it.  And it turned out REALLY good.  Probably my best ever.  I think she would be proud.