Its hard to explain but for the past two weeks, every time I sat down to blog - my mind went phizt!! Nothing. Nada. No dice. Its not that nothing has been happening. Over the past two weeks (since our crate left with almost everything we still own) we spent some time with my family in Savannah, GA (where my sister lives), I celebrated by 35th birthday (my son told me that that was really old), we have been running around gathering all the last minute items that we want to take with us, we’ve spent times with friends, and we are currently trying to fix all the things we broke in my parents’ house that we have been living in over the past year (Mom & Dad, just forget I said anything there - ok?).

Our todos are getting marked off the lists but we keep looking at how many days are left and all of our emotional energy leaves us. We have 5 days left before we drive to the airport with one-way tickets. Over the past week, I’ve had to do some driving around Charlotte and since this is where I have spent the last 23 years of my life, I saw a lot of memories. For those of you who don’t live in Charlotte or don’t know the city, please have patience with me - here’s what I saw:

• Great Outdoor Provision Company - This was where I got my first paycheck back when I was 15. Thank you Mr. Mauney for the job and over 2 years of great work.
• The old Forest Hill Church or at least the property. The church was just demolished to make way for condos. This was my childhood church and where Krista and I got married back in 1992.
• I went down near where I first started living in South Charlotte. I originally lived in the boonies off of Providence Road, south of Hwy 51. That area has really changed and is now no longer the boonies especially since I-485 was built.
• I was on Central Avenue twice this week just north of Briar Creek. I worked security for some apartments in that area for a while. Those were some adventurous times in my life.
• I was in the Uptown having lunch with a friend and saw the Wachovia Buildings. I worked for them when it was First Union and even had an office in the Uptown for a short period of time while working on a special project. I also went past their big CIC office building on Harris Blvd where I spent several years.
• I drove past the University of North Carolina at Charlotte where Krista and I graduated from back in 1995.
• Krista and I went to The Melting Pot for my birthday which has been a tradition since before we got married. Any reason for fondue - birthdays, raises, I cut my finger nails - any reason what so ever. We even went there on our honeymoon. Now we will live 20 km from Switzerland where fondue started. Yeah!!
• Lake Forest Church which is our sending church and the church we got to help start. It was a church plant from Forest Hill and just this last April it moved into its first building. When we started this adventure, we didn’t know if we would see Lake Forest move into a building. Now we wonder what it will look like next time we are back as we are sure to have done more construction since they are bursting at the seams already.

Of course, while driving around we noticed all the construction and road work being done. When you live here, this happen so slowly that you really don’t notice the changes on a day to day basis. However, as we thought about it - Charlotte and Huntersville are going to be really different the next time we come back for a “visit”.

But the biggest changes are going to be in the people we know. The teens I’ve known are going to grow up. Friends and their children will change. We will change - Krista says we will be more German and less American next time we come back. We are saddened that we will all be going through theses changes away from each other. But God has a greater purpose in all of this and we are trusting Him.

Sorry for the ramble, just thinking back on some fond memories.