Sunday, October 31, 2010

Welcome to Alaska.

October 14th was a pretty great day. My mom and I had our airline tickets for Alaska in hand, our bags were packed, and we were ready to go. We flew Alaska Airlines nonstop from O'hare to Anchorage departing at 6 pm and arrived in Anchorage at 10:30 [although the flight was a bit longer then that, we gained three hours in the air]. By the time we landed it was too dark to really see that we were completely surrounded by beautiful mountains the entire time we were driving into Wasilla. Even with all the excitement about this new adventure, we tried to get a good night sleep so we could go explore in the morning.

That next morning we headed into the CYAK office to go through a little orientation, and to meet some of my new office mates! We took a little break and headed over to Pandemonium to get some coffee and meet a few of the team members who work out on the road system.



As part of our orientation we got to go on a 'mini fieldtrip' to this place called hatcher's pass. It was beautiful.



Next in our list of must-do's while mom was in town was to go to Anchorage.
                          we saw a few sights.



and even discovered a Wyland mural

all in all a great day in the city.

.:.So it begins.:.

I never know quite how to get going with things, so i suppose I'll just start at the beginning. For quite a few years now I've dreamed about moving out to Alaska. I suppose the idea of mountains, men in flannel shirts, and the prospect of seeing a bear are pretty enticing. Somehow this distant dream turned into a real possibility. While there were many a night spent staying up late with Nat and Ellen Fondell discussing things like airline tickets, insurance, and the summer camp in Unalakleet Alaska, i knew i finally wanted to move out there.

Ellen and Nat told me about this organization called CYAK, which stands for Covenant Youth of Alaska. So after praying about this opportunity, I called the founder to learn a bit more about what they do. That phone conversation turned into me filling out the application, the application turned into a phone interview, and that interview turned into a plane ticket. I felt truly at peace about each step and was amazed at how the Lord just seemed to go in front of me and work everything out.

Once everything was all set up it came down to logistics. Buying a plane ticket...


packing my bags...


 spending time with friends and family.







And there you have it, all the great things that lead up to my new adventure in Alaska.