Road Trip

My friend Kate flew in from Wisconsin and wanted to meet up with friends at the YWAM base in Los Angeles where we used to live and work together, since there was a good-bye party there for old friends of ours. At first I said no because a 250-mile round trip is tough with a baby in a car seat with no one to help entertain her. But Eva had so much trouble sleeping the night before, I knew she'd be down most of the morning, and decided to risk it. I figured we could stop at Grandma's house along the way if she got too antsy. Eva was still asleep when we passed Grandma's, so I decided to gamble and drive straight on up. It was a 2 1/2 hour trip, and she did great up until the last 20 minutes, when she finally started throwing a fit.

When we got to the YWAM base I let her stretch, climb and crawl wherever she wanted, so she got pretty dirty, but burned off enough energy to be able to handle the drive back. I got to see all my old missionary friends I used to be on staff with, some of whom I hadn't seen in years, and most of whom had never met Eva. Dave Gustaveson was there, surprised to see "the leprechauns" out in force again and meet the babies ("Big" Eva, Kate and I used to run around as a trio of the shortest staff on the base, and were good-naturedly dubbed "the leprechauns" because of our petite size). I also got to see Dave Smith (Smitty), Ylva, J.D., Megan & Nigel, Bonnie & Conrad, and Wayne & Karen. Kate and Nicola and baby Raphael came to visit, too, so it was like a mini reunion.

I could see the light of recognition come on whenever someone first heard Eva's name; they immediately knew whom she was named after. I thought that was sweet. (I joke that the only opportunity her 5-foot namesake would ever have to being called "big Eva" was my naming my little girl after her.) It was nice to spend some time in a place where people had those mutual friendships and understood how much they meant to me. It was a lot of fun. My visits there are always few and far between, and with a baby, they get even more difficult to manage. (Boy, did I feel like an old fart with all these young DTS students swirling around, and me married with a kid! I still can't believe my DTS was 10 years ago! Ouch!)

On the way back, little Eva started fussing just before we got to Grandma's, so we stayed there for the next few hours while I gave her a bath and let her crawl around some more. We left around Eva's bedtime, hoping she go to sleep, but she was so over-tired and wound up that she cried the whole drive home. Then it took her an hour at home to finally settle down enough to fall asleep. Needless to say, as fun as it was to see old friends at my old stomping grounds, I won't be going back anytime soon.