Wednesday in Wisconsin

I woke up early Wednesday morning. Know why?

Turns out that cock-a-doodle-doo thing is real! But it was lovely to awaken to sunlight streaming in the window...such an Anne of Green Gables moment. I made my way downstairs to journal, and pretty soon, Allison showed up in the room with...

I was so spoiled. :) Also joining me for the morning coffee was this little cutie:

I took my time getting ready, and then I did a little bit of farm exploration...

Butter and Dolly...the guards of the driveway. Sometimes guards have to nap.

Allison took me to Eau Claire, where we met up with Glen at Panera for lunch. (Mmmmm - broccoli cheese soup and a panini!) Then they took me around Eau Claire to see some of their rental properties and some houses they've been flipping. (It was like House Hunters come to life. HEAVENLY.)

They also took me down by the river (can't remember the name of the river) where they go to the Farmer's Market in the summer. We walked around the outdoor amphitheater, which was so pretty. Here I am with beautiful Allison...

Glen kept taking pictures and I didn't know it. (But of course, I was very happy when I discovered it on my camera!) This was one of my favorites. I just adored looking out over the water. You know how much God speaks to me on the water!!

Glen used to own a photography studio...so he had lots of fun doing a little photo shoot of me down by the water!

So pretty...the purple flowers!

If I'd been thinking ahead, he could have done my Christmas pictures!

It was a little breezy, and the wind kept blowing my hair in my face...it grew to be comical.

This old railroad is now a walkway....

View of the river.

Glen and Allison - I just love them!

After our photo shoot, Allison went home, and I spent the afternoon with Glen, seeing how his job works. We had some great talks, and I enjoyed catching up with him. Just as in talking with Allison - it was like no time at all had passed...we just picked up where we left off, only this time we felt more on equal ground.

When we came home, Allison had made a gorgeous candlelight dinner - chicken parmesan...mmmmmm. While we ate, their sons, Lane and Aidan, told me about the world of airsoft guns. Glen told them to go put on their shooting gear so I could see, and they did. THEN Glen decided my life would be more complete if I tried SHOOTING.

SHOOTING. Did you hear me?

Heaven help us. Bekah is holding a rifle. Never mind it's not a bullet-shooting gun. It's still dangerous in my hands. This is me receiving instruction from Lane.

After I shot it (and hit the target, thankyouverymuch) the first time, I jumped up and down and screamed. :) I'm such a girl.

This shows my true feelings....

More lessons from Lane....

Please don't let me shoot someone.

Aidan took over teaching...

Success! Aidan, Bekah, Lane. Lesson over and no one was maimed. SWEET.

And that's how you do a Wednesday in Wisconsin!

Day of Beauty

Tuesday morning, I woke up and repacked the car to head for Wisconsin. I surprise even myself at how perky I am in this picture, considering I'd not yet had any coffee:

Never fear. I remedied that quickly.

I had prayed so hard before my vacation that God would make it a time of healing. I even packed several worship CD's so I could listen to great praise songs in the car. And I have to say, the driving stretch from Jenna's to Glen and Allison's was filled with MUCH singing. MUCH prayer. It was beautiful. Beautiful.

As was the scenery...

I told Allison later that it was not lost to me what a privilege it was to take this trip. A privilege to have the days off work to allow me the freedom to go. A privilege to have saved up enough money to pay for gas and meals. A privilege to have not one, but two sets of friends who welcomed me very lovingly into their homes. A privilege to be able to make the drive after months of being unable to do much at all. Over and over during the drive, I thanked God for all these things...and for the beauty of His creation. Gorgeous trees and hills and beautiful blue sky. (FINALLY! A vacation with good weather!!)

I arrived at Glen and Allison's with no problem. I guess I haven't really told you yet who they are! Twenty years ago, Jody and her fiance-at-the-time, Jeff, were the youth pastors at my church. They left for the summer to get married, and while they were gone, their friends Glen and Allison led our youth group. We were such a tiny group, but Glen and Allison loved on us anyway. I remember them teaching us the importance of scripture memorization and putting on the armor of God.

We stayed in touch - mostly through Christmas and birthday cards - all these years, and more recently, we found each other on Facebook. That was how I began to see pictures of their beautiful home and how they came to know about my desert journey. And it's how I came to visit their house.

I was a tiny bit nervous driving up to their house, wondering what it would be like to see them again. Allison walked out to my car, looking exactly as I remembered her twenty years ago, she gave me a HUGE hug, and from that moment on, we didn't skip a beat. It was just like we picked up our last conversation, only this time I wasn't sporting poofy bangs! What a beautiful, beautiful sister she is!

This is one of their daughters, Gabi. She's quite a good artist...and she also takes horseback riding lessons. Allison and I took her to a lesson just a bit after I arrived. The day was beautiful and we sat on a wooden bench nearby and shared our hearts over travel mugs filled with (of course) coffee.

I'd never been to riding lessons before...Gabi did a great job! The horses were so gorgeous. Loved seeing them up close!

After we left the lessons, Allison and Gabi took me to a cheese house. Hadn't ever been to one of those either. It was so cute. Had a little area with tables and a huge fireplace...and oh, the cheese!! I l-o-v-e cheese.

This was the cheese store and it was fun to visit! The owner even drove out to the cheese farm to get fresh cheese curds for us. I'd never had them before. Have you had them? Oh my WORD.

When we got back to Glen and Allison's, it was time to gather the eggs. That is a sentence I've never said before. They live on a farm, but they don't actually farm. Does that make sense? But they do have a real chicken coop...with real chickens...and real eggs.

I even touched one. Yes. I, Rebekah J. Freelan, touched a live chicken. Look at me growing up!

Another feature of the property: a real outhouse. We did not have to use it, praise the Lord. I am appreciative of indoor plumbing. :) But in defense of the outhouse...it was a two-seater. Kind of the Cadillac of outhouses!

Glen and Allison have two Great Pyrenees dogs - Butter and Dolly. This is Butter. I loved these dogs. They were so friendly - and so BIG! They like to lean on you. I lost my balance a lot while I was there. :)

Allison's neighbor delivered chocolate milk in a glass jar. How much did I love that! This was from their farm...we even had to skim it ourselves. Oh the things you miss from shopping at Wal-Mart. :)

The cheese curds I mentioned earlier. They were the freshest of fresh. I'd been told a good cheese curd squeaks when you eat it. These sounded like a dog toy. I've never eaten squeaky food before! So YUMMY!!!!!

After dinner (Allison made yummy chili and cornbread!) we went to their neighbor's dairy farm. And look what your Bekah girl got to try!!

Yep! That's me! Feeding a calf! With a bottle! That little sucker was quite the wrestler. I think it thought I was going to take away the bottle. Noper! All yours, baby. So cute, though!!

This may be the first time a calf was ever fed by someone wearing her black work shoes - little ballerina slippers. They were a bit dusty once I got back!!

The day ended with an official cheese tasting. Isn't this gorgeous?

Allison had purchased some different cheeses at the cheese shop, and put together that pretty tray, complete with grapes and pears. Oh and honey! Ever had honey on cheese??

I'd like you to meet Glen and Allison:

And our Tuesday was done! I had the opportunity to have my own room, even, while I was there! Their oldest daughter, Chelsea, is away at Ellerslie right now, so I got to stay in her room. Down comforter on the bed and everything. (Heaven on a bed.)

Yes. A definite day of beauty...and the start of healing.

Wanna Go On Vacation With Me?

If the answer is yes...I'm sorry. It's too late. I already went.

Last week I went on vacation. Yes, again. I know! That's three in one year! That's three times as many as most of the rest of my adult life combined!

Let me tell you how this came to be. Earlier this summer, actually right about the same time you've been reading in the desert tales, my dear friend Glen Mills invited me to come to Wisconsin to visit his family. (More on Glen and the family later.) As you may have gathered from reading desert stories, I was barely capable of driving to work. Driving to Wisconsin was clearly out.

But with the passing of time and the perusing of pictures of where they live, I thought maybe a trip to Wisconsin might just be the healing my heart needed.

So in a very unBekahlike move, I emailed Glen and asked if the offer still stood...and so began my Wisconsin vacation plans.

I decided to share it with you as it happened...day by day.

So.

Monday morning I packed - and I do mean PACKED - my car. Hey, cut me some slack. Wisconsin in October means a complete gamble on weather. I needed a substantial array of clothing and shoes.

How does Bekah travel, you ask?

I don't text and drive, but I do take pictures and drive. Expect several. I took a bit of a scenic route for the first leg of my trip. Destination A was Roscoe, Illinois, where my friend, Jenna, lives. (You'll meet her soon.) So I left home about the same time I'd have left for work, but instead of going to the office, I headed out on the open road. Along the way, I encountered a community in need of prayer:

I have mad skills in getting lost. MAD skills. I'd said to many people before leaving, "I sure hope I don't end up in Oregon."

Hee. Hee. Hee.

Part of the reason I did not end up in the STATE of Oregon was because my good friend Judy loaned me her GPS. His name is Larry. Larry and I had a love/hate relationship throughout this entire grip. Larry hated me until El Paso, Illinois. (That's three hours.) RE-calculating. RE-calculating. There IS a better route. RE-calculating.

About six hours after leaving home (and only one brief stop...I'm a stickler for staying on task), I landed in Roscoe to meet Jenna. Oh. And I was so thankful I had exact change for the toll road in Illinois. I was expecting a little booth with a grouchy worker. Not a funnel can that expected exact change. Good grief.

Okay. About Jenna. She was our student worker several years ago. We've been blessed to have many student workers who have proven to be good friends outside the office as well - and for many years after we part working ways. Jenna is such a friend. She and her husband have such a beautiful story of how God worked in their lives as they prayed to be blessed with a child.

And ten weeks ago...

...sweet baby Adelaide came into the world! I was thrilled to meet her. Shortly after I arrived, we all piled in the car and headed out to have some fun. Adelaide was sleeping in her car seat and I was next to her. She grabbed my hand and hung on. Loved it.

So our first stop was.....

Okay, okay, okay. I'll explain. Frog (that's her husband) and Jenna have a couple of side jobs. One is checking the lockers at an indoor water park near their home. They go when the park is closed and make sure the lockers are all in working order. So yes. I went in the men's locker room on my vacation. But never fear. No one was there.



Really? This has to be explained??

By the time we finished working at the water park, it was the middle of the afternoon and my "breakfast" had long since vanished. But people. OH people. Look what lives in Rockford, Illinois:

A Sonic strawberry creamslush. My day was complete. (There may or may not have been an accompanying order of tater tots, deluxe burger, and sweet tea.)

In other news of interesting side jobs, they also check the massage chairs in the mall to make sure they work. As a result, guess who got four free massages?

Another sign I found along the way. If you have to finance the pet, chances are good you cannot afford the pet.

On the way home, look who fell asleep against my hand?

My lovely guest room at Frog and Jenna's. Oh man, that was a comfy bed!

This reminded me of a vanity I had growing up!!

Monday evening, I went with Frog and Jenna to a small group meeting with some of their friends. They went out to a Chinese buffet for dinner first, but I was still stuffed from Sonic. So I fed Adelaide her dinner while everyone else ate. I did, however, score a fortune cookie. Is this not ironic?

Then we headed out to small group. I loved sitting in on their study, which was out of Genesis 30. (That's the chapter where Rachel and Leah are busy having their pro-creating competition.) One of the guys in the group said this, and it resonated with me given my past few months. He commented that in one of the verses, Rachel says the presence of a baby in her home showed her God heard her after all. She felt forgotten. And the guy said it was a good reminder for us as well...God hears us even when we feel forgotten.

And I say to that...amen.