Pained Glass Windows....

We returned to the mission on Saturday, January 3rd. We left Louisville at 9AM and arrived in Phoenix at 11:00 AM local time (15 minutes early!) Our friends Jim & Anne picked us up from the airport and then provided us with lunch at their home before we began the drive to Winslow. Thank you Jim & Anne! Your hospitality is truly inspiring!

It was 70 degrees in Phoenix. We headed up to Flagstaff, which is about 2 hours north of Phoenix. There, it was blizzard conditions! It was 31 degrees and pouring the snow! It was beautiful! We stopped for groceries in Flagstaff before heading back to Winslow. Here, one of our problems started. While I was inside the store, Jerry was outside, putting our luggage into garbage bags (the luggage was in the back of our pick-up and, as I said, it was pouring the snow). Jerry had the passenger side window down so that Abby & Kelcy could see the snow. Well, somehow the passenger side window fell down into the door! Yes, fell down into the door! As in, can't come back up with our cracking open the door and doing something. So, it is 4:30 on a Saturday afternoon. We just left the airport, our window is open, it is pouring the snow and we are still 50 miles from home with no tools to get into the car door. Needless to say, we were a little put out.

But, the Lord provided as usual. We drove down the street and we saw a business with its "OPEN" sign still lit. We pulled up and saw that the shop was supposed to close at 3PM. Jerry tried the door and there was still a man there. He came out and looked at the door and said that he could probably help us. We pulled it inside and after an hour, he gets the door apart and the window up. THANK YOU SIR! We gladly paid him and were on our way home again. The window was up, but it was not fixed.

We drove home to the mission to find no snow. Kelcy made the comment that maybe we would have snow in the morning.

We got up on Sunday morning and we had snow! Lots of it! Jerry, Mr. Bill and Miss Springer decided to cancel church because the roads are not cleared here on the weekends. So, we had our family Christmas gift exchange that Sunday. It was magical. Abby kept saying "I told you it snows on Christmas". I was sad that there was no church that day, but we had a wonderful family day. We got to play in the snow. The snow was too powdery to make snow men, but Abby and Kelcy played by jumping into the snow drifts. We have not idea how much snow actually fell because the wind whips it around so much. But there were drifts about two feet high here at the mission. The girls jumping into them on their hands and knees. And we made snow angels. Then, we came in and had hot chocolate. It was a wonderful day.

That next day was Monday and school was canceled because we got more snow that night. The roads would have been terrible at school time. However, by lunch time on Monday, all the snow was melting quickly. Jerry kept the girls at home while I went into the office and got a lot accomplished that day. We also had a staff meeting about 1PM, since Miss Springer & Bill had come into their classrooms to work.

Abby and Kelcy have had an extra hard time coming back here. I think Kelcy was glad to be home in her bed.