YEAR 2020

A new year and a new decade!! And as people and advertisers have noticed, this is the year to see "everything clearly."  I don't think that will be enough to "fix" the world, but hopefully people can be more hopeful as they look forward to a new year.

This is a special year for us and one that I have had on my "long distance plans" (and my bucket list) since Gary and I got married in 1978.  This year, we will have been married for 42 years in March, but it is also the year that Gary and I will turn 65 years old.  Back that long ago, I had targeted this year as the one that Gary and I would start serving an LDS senior couple mission.  A few years ago, I pointed out that would be an ideal time to go right after he turns 65 so that we can be back home before Scarlett and Niki turn eight years old.  At that time, Gary listened to my reasoning, nodded his head, and then said, "That is a good plan....but what about our life in the past 40 years indicates that things go according to OUR plan?"  Touche! Our life has gone many different directions from our simple plans as a young married couple in Springfield, Missouri.  Amazing ways, ways that couldn't have been more perfect for us--but not really how we started this journey off in 1978.

However, it does seem like we are at least starting off on this journey!  On January 1, 2020, we begun the process of applying online to serve as a senior couple and will meet with our bishop next week for our first official interview, although he is aware of our general plans.  We have put our availability date as October 1, 2020 and plan to serve 18 months with a possibility of extending another 6 months if needed.  Our situation is a little more complicated as we are planning on taking Jena with us, so we have to get special permission for her to come and serve with us as a Church service missionary.  We had gone back and forth about taking her (and early on she would remind us that she already had served as a missionary and didn't need to go again.), but in the last several weeks, I have felt strongly about her coming with us and experiencing a new situation and to be able to impact new people in her life.  She has been excited about it over the past month as we have talked more about it.  After a family dinner recently where Grandma Hall (Nauvoo) and Grandpa Giberson and Karla (Sendai Japan) talked about their missions, Jena looked up the Nauvoo mission and was very excited to think we could go there.  (I told Gary that we better pray harder than Jena or we might send up singing in Nauvoo!)

Ben will remain here and have increased support by the local community mental health center while we are gone.  (Our bishop is the CEO of that agency so has reassured us that Ben will be watched over well.)  Part of it we just have to have faith about.  We are open to staying home and serving in Salt Lake or going anywhere in the world.  It just has to be a place where Jena would have a place to serve as a Church service missionary.  We are interested in family history service, office support, or member support which gives a broad range of things to consider.

So 2020 is here and we couldn't be more excited!

Of course we will keep you all updated on the progress and if and when we can get all of this put together with needed permissions, etc.

Life can change in a moment (and the Elders Quorum President Gary serves with in our ward keeps reminding us that he hasn't gotten his confirmation that we should be going this year!) but this is the direction we are heading at the moment and it feels awesome!