Beautiful MAINE!

We are back in Cali now and are so excited to share with you about our time in Maine!!  We have been so thankful that we had that time up there!  It was great to get to spend more time with the team members there we had already met and then the ones we hadn't met yet!  There are presently 2 other families and one intern who work with Lifelines at the University of Maine.

Well, we got into Boston Wednesday afternoon -picked up our rental car and hit the road for our 4 hour drive north!  It's crazy how quickly you can drive into another state in the Northeast!  We got outside Boston and before we knew it, we were in New Hampshire!  I feel like I looked down for a few seconds and then we see a sign that we are in Maine! lol ;).  Another thing that we noticed is that Dunkin' Donuts are like Starbucks up there!!  I stopped counting at 6 Dunkin' Donuts about 30 min outside of Boston, haha!  There is seriously one on almost every corner - actually at one point we past 2 across the street from each other!  Guess they love their Dunkin' Donuts in the Northeast :).

About an hour or so before reaching our destination, it started to snow!!!  I was very excited, I had prayed it would snow while we were there, haha.  Kaleb was driving as the snow came down and I got SO excited and stated, "oh my GOSH, it's pouring!!"  He laughed and said, "Um, this isn't much at all" haha....apparently it wasn't, but to me - being from good ole Georgia, it looked like a pretty good "snow storm" LOL.  They ended up getting about 3 inches (that's a lot of snow for Georgia! haha) but nothing to even blink at in Maine.  It was fun to be welcomed by a bit of snow though :).  

While there we got to stay with one of the staff families (Ryan, Steph and their son, Jack) and had such a great time getting to know them more and hanging out with their little boy who is just over one :).  We both got to sort of "shadow" them on the Thursday and Friday we were there.  Kaleb got to go with Ryan when he worked on campus and I went with Steph.  It was great to see what a day on campus looks like for each of them!  Kaleb was also excited for some "man time" with the staff and students while there.   We both got a little tour of the University as well.

On Saturday, we got to participate in a Lifelines hiking trip the staff had set up.  We were both SO excited to see the area they usually do trips at, and well, just to get outdoors in Maine :).  They do most of their trips at Acadia National Park, which is just over an hour from them on the coast.  One of the main towns in the park area is actually Bar Harbor....so as you can imagine (for those that know Bar Harbor), it's beautiful!!  On the hike (which was in the snow by the way!  So fun!) we got to see how the staff (Joe -our director for Lifelines at UMaine, Ryan, and Rebecca -who is interning right now but joining staff this summer, YAY :) ) led the trip.  They used one of their programs to talk about relationships and how we are not meant to live in isolation.  At the beginning of the hike, they had each of us hike for a mile of the trail alone.  We were all staggered far apart and then met back together at the end of the mile.   Later, we all talked about what were there thinking and how we were feeling during that mile and how we would have felt to be completely alone for the whole time, our lives, etc.  It brought up some good points and good topics to discuss.  Towards the end of the hike, we stopped for a debrief.  Joe led the discussion and talked about some of the different points discussed throughout the day.  Everyone got to share if they wanted and Joe shared about how God has created us for relationship with Him and with one another.  Once the hike was completely over, the students had the opportunity to fill out their information and if they would like the staff to follow up with them and or meet with them.  We have known how the trips were done for a while now, but it was just SO great to actually BE at one!

The guys at the start of the hike on the nice wide trail (it got a lot more narrow later).

We passed tons of icicles.

Now on to my favorite part of the trail!  Through the woods in more snow!

Loved stomping in the snow :)

One of the many beautiful views we got to see on the trail!

At the top!  Hiked from sea level to an astounding 1,373 ft!  As Kaleb likes to remind me, they are "hills" on the east coast, not mountains ;) - I still say they are mountains - but yes, nothing compared to the ones out west ;).  Still a good hike and we both really enjoyed it!!

One of the views from the top, gorgeous!

A pic of all of us that went on the hike - such a fun day!!

After the hike, Rebecca, Joe, Kaleb and I drove to another spot in the park so that they could climb for a while.  It was neat to see some of the other areas in the park where they have done trips.  We all hiked up to another area where the guys and Rebecca got to climb -it was a gorgeous setting and the view where they climbed looked out to the Atlantic Ocean.  I, of course, did not climb ;) but was excited to watch and take pictures.  We left to hike that morning just before 8 and got back just after 8 that night.  It was a GREAT day!!

Gettin' ready for a climb.

Repelling down....

Joe setting up the next climb.

Off they go!

Climbing the crack....

And repelling back down again.

On Monday, our last full day there, we got to attend their staff meeting and then that night we all went out to dinner before saying our goodbyes.  It was a really great time!!!  We were SO happy to be able to finally see first hand how trips are done and what a typical day might look like for us once we have reported.  We have known, of course, for a while what we'd be doing - but it's always nice to have a visual :).

Thank you for all your prayers for our time there!!  God definitely used that time to confirm to us both even more so that this is where we should be headed and we are even more excited (if that's possible) to be apart of such a great ministry!!  The Vision Trip definitely gave us more "vision" as it should have ;) and helped us to receive better knowledge about what a ministry day will look like for us once we report full time.  Overall, a great, GREAT trip!! :)