October update from the Roberts

So what's new with the Shryman and the Lundster and the Scorecards since we spoke?

Hanne is working away at the hospital...  I'm getting pretty much all the shifts I can handle so that's good.  I love interacting with patients and my coworkers, and I'm hoping that through my job I can make at least a little bit of a difference to somebody every now and then, but in order to be the best person I can be, I need something more in my life besides work.  I am noticing that when I work a lot I can tend to feel uninspired and be a less-than-inspiring person to be around, too.  I'm the kind of person who needs at least a little bit of space and time to dream and to have something to reach towards.  So now that work life's on track my new project is figuring out what to do with my spare time.   Great suggestions are warmly welcome in the comment field:)  For now, Christmas preparations are on my mind... and painting our apartment... I have a couple of friends from Fuller visiting me in November (Nelli and Ja-Kyung, yay!!!)... we are starting to get plugged into a church community here... and I'm looking into ways of serving local immigrants or just other newbies like myself, because that is something I am really interested in.  Also hopefully, at the start of the new year, we'll be able to have some kind of small gathering of believers that will meet regularly, but that is to happen all in God's time.

We are starting to make friends, and that has been just a super awesome improvement to our life here in Fredrikstad.  This fall I've gotten to go along to two of Ryan's gymnasts' competitions, and we've had a lot of fun with the gymnasts and their families--and the girls have had some really good results, too!

Ryan's traveling a bunch with his job, so far to Slovenia and a few places in Norway, later this fall he's heading to Croatia, Czech Republic, Hungary and who knows where else... I'm impressed by the work he is doing, it's fun to see him thrive in this new context.  Really, getting married and then moving straight to a whole different culture is something I wholeheartedly would recommend, haha, contrary to what most people have gently recommended to us.

We're quickly approaching our first wedding anniversary.  This past year has gone by soooo fast, but it's also been soooooo good!  Maybe we'll blog about our past year some day, who knows.

And the Scorecards (Torvald)?  He lays around and sleeps all day, so not much new with him...  He's been on vacation twice this fall, once to Oslo and once to spend the weekend with BJ and her family and their girl dog named Mim.  Torvald likes Mim a lot, but to her he couldn't be more invisible... the story of Torvald's life when it comes to girls... sigh...

Some quick thoughts on something I read this morning that made a lot of sense to me and I wanted to share

I often read things that stick out in my mind and I think a lot about them.  When I read this this morning, I really wanted to share it with someone so I decided I'd write about it.  I thought about how simple it is to gauge my spiritual condition and how I'm so often unaware of it and am so often spiritually unfit...

"I was sitting in my bedroom, reading
into the wee hours, when suddenly I heard my dogs barking in the
back yard. My neighbors frown on this kind of disturbance so, with
mixed feelings of anger and shame, as well as fear of my
neighbor's disapproval, I immediately called in my dogs. Several
weeks later the exact situation repeated itself but this time,
because I was feeling more at peace with myself, I was able to
accept the situation--dogs will bark--and I calmly called in the
dogs. Both incidents taught me that when a person experiences
nearly identical events and reacts two different ways, then it
is not the event which is of prime importance, but the person's
spiritual condition. Feelings come from inside, not from outward
circumstances. When my spiritual condition is positive, I react
positively."

This is so true...when I have inner spiritual calmness and am in touch with God, I am better prepared for life.  It's not the circumstances of life or the events of the day that matter so much, it's the way in which we approach them and respond to them...When I am spiritually fit, I am more selfless and humble, and am better prepared for anything that comes my way...when I am trying to control and promote my own selfish agenda, things get convoluted and bogged down by things that matter little.  Being spiritually unfit, I am bound and glued to one course of action...being spiritually fit, I am free and can make the right decisions.