Sara's Back in MN

Grandma Agnus Kvale (Sara's mom's mom) passed away today. The family had sort of been anticipating it over the past few weeks. Sara had debated whether to fly back and see her before she passed away or take the trip later for the funeral. The procrastination of making a decision brought us to another dilemma: Sara's parents (dad and stepmom) are coming to visit us in Arizona this weekend. Sara was beginning to accept the potential reality that it wouldn't work for her to head back to Minnesota since we've got Minnesota guests coming to visit. Not only is the timing tight, but so are finances; and last minute flights from Flagstaff to Phoenix to Minneapolis are not cheap. Sara told me later that she prayed for God to make it happen if she was supposed to go, otherwise she would accept it if she could not go, though she was having a very hard time being away.

This morning, about 10:30, she sent me a simple text that said "I'm having a hard time being away. Do you think there is any way to fly me out?" I happened to be in a meeting with the senior pastor at the time, and I explained the situation. He used to be an airline pilot, so he offered up some of his guest standby tickets. He immediately began to search for flights, and within the next twenty minutes he decided to just use up some frequent flyer miles to book a round trip flight for Sara to go be with family.

I continue to be amazed by the care and love we receive from our church. They even decided to give me a fairly significant raise last month so Sara would not have to work as much at the pre-school. What an amazing blessing!

So, back to the story: Sara's parents arrive in Phoenix on Friday at around 11am, then Sara flies in about 1pm. So they'll meet up with each other there, and I'll pick them up with the kids so we can head to the zoo for a few hours. It should be a comfortable upper 70's that day, so that will be nice. Then we'll head back a couple hours north to Flagstaff where it's usually about 20 degrees colder. Oh well, it's still warmer than Minnesota :)