Why? How? What for?

"How can you stand the cold temps?"
"Why on Earth would you move from the tropics to the Arctic?"
"You moved from Sunny Florida to Alaska with 20 hours of Darkness in Winter? WHAT FOR?"

I get questions like these ALL the time. And my friends and family thought(and still think) we were crazy to make this move. It has been 2 years since we moved here and I must say it has been an adventure! And I love it! That is not to say that I don't have days that I would love to be laying in a hammock on the beach listening to the waves crashing on the shore or How many mornings would I LOVE to sit outside on the veranda with my mom and drink tea, enjoying the warmth and listening to the sounds of Africa. I have days where I don't want to have to take 30 minutes just to get all our coats and gear on to brave the elements of this frozen land. And I have days that would love to walk into my pantry and have Instant meals made and just ready to bake and not have to make anything from scratch. Or even be able to order take out Chinese. There are times that I think this winter will never end and my snow globe that I live in keeps getting shook up. There are days everything goes wrong, I burn dinner, the kids are screaming, and nothing on my list of things to do get done. There are days, weeks and months that I get burned out.

He knows EVERY DETAIL of my life. He knows when I am having a terrible day, a happy day, and he cares about each one. He cares about the concerns I have going on in my life. When I get to the point where I am worn out and trying to keep my head above water, He knows it all!!! And he cares! He will never give you more than I can handle.

Well when these hard times in winter come around it always seems that God reveals something that always reminds me that he cares about the details in life. He sends the Aurora Borealis. I can stand out in the cold and watch them for hours....(if it were not -40 degrees outside). This week God knew I needed a Spectacular show of lights because he put some amazing ones out. God, for some reason had me wake up in the middle of the night and look out my bedroom window. Then I woke Keith up and told him to go out and take pictures. I wish we could get video of it. Pictures don't do it justice but they still look beautiful! You can even see the stars shining through the lights. Check out Keith's pictures! I was very impressed with my husbands pictures and his willingness to brave the -15 degrees and take pictures.