2019 UK Trip

Hi there! Today I am wrapping up the story of the trip my husband and I took to the UK.  We had lots of ups and a few downs, but it was truly a great trip. Follow along as I bring us back home.

2019 UK Trip – Day 11 (London to Orlando)

Today we fly home!!! I am very eager to see my little people. I am also eager to process this whole experience. I process things a little more slowly than Eric. I need distance and days to find out what my heart truly is saying (and not just my emotions). If you are wondering, “Girl… why do you have to process your vacation?!?” Well, here’s the answer. (If you’ve been following along, you already know this info.)  We are praying about moving to the UK for Eric to finish post-grad school and get his Ph.D. This trip was a 15-year wedding anniversary trip and an opportunity to check out schools. We wanted to “live” in the UK for a couple of weeks to feel the atmosphere. We wanted to meet the professors. We came with a “What if?” in our hearts, and that is what I am needing to process. So today we get distance. 

I may have left my bracelet on going through security at the airport. This did in fact lead to a pat-down. I think enduring a pat-down should put me in some sort of club. I know, I know… it happens everyday to lots of people. For me, it was a big deal. I was a little afraid that the security lady was going to find something illegal on me. What if the guy in front of me planted evidence on me? Oh wait, the guy in front of me is Eric! Is he trying to get rid of me? Ok… no more white collar crime shows for me.  After every inch was checked I was free to go. It was indeed my METAL bracelet that set your metal detector off and I am not part of the drug cartel. 

We are finally in. I thought we were entering an airport, but really I think I just got a pat-down to shop at a high-end mall. I am a small town southern girl that has only flown once in my life (and that was only to Kansas City) so I really am clueless about all the many stores in the airport. We found my baby girl some British tea. I am sure it is the same tea I could buy at Publix, just in a British box. Oh well, she will love it. We found a store that had a little pharmacy in it so I could get some motion sickness medication for the flight home. Once through all the stores, we go find a place to get coffee, sit, and wait on our flight. 

Oh plane, how I have missed you! I love sitting two inches front, back, and side from complete strangers. It is the highlight of my day. I also love it when the guests two inches in front of me have chosen to drink a little too much (mother and son may I add) and get into a cussing fight. It was a joy! Eric was nice enough to let the flight attendant know about the behavior on his way to the bathroom. She and her pretty smile came and had a nice conversation with the guy and we heard nothing more from him. Eight hours later and we are in Orlando. It is hot and we forgot what parking lot our van is in, but we are so glad to be home and off the plane. Now to drive the four hours home. 

So if you do not know this information, I am going to fill you in. One cannot pay the toll road lady with a debit card or British pounds. It just does not work. So we went through two toll booths with no money to offer. We were given a number to call and pay the bill, which was around $3.00. We made it to a gas station that would not give us change back on our purchase but we could use their overpriced ATM. 

Somehow we made it home. We were so tired. We were very ill and our attitudes sucked.  Jet-lag hit me hard. The kids have waited up for us and it is so good to see them. We talk a bit and then quickly get to bed. I sleep for what felt like two days. Eric, on the other hand, was up the next day doing school work and taking care of stuff. Some days I just want to thump his awesomeness. 

Eric waits more than a week to talk about our trip (he knows all about how slowly I process things). He waits to hear my heart. We meet on the porch when I am ready, and he says “So…?”

So… I don’t know why, but staying in the US feels wrong, even though our wonderful families and the best of best friends are here. There are so many people here that mean so much to me  that it hurts to breathe when I think about leaving them. Yet now I feel misplaced. I long for a place that I never dreamed I would long for. I am amazed. 

So what’s next?

Eric will apply in September to two schools – the University of Cambridge and the University of St. Andrews. We should know if he has gotten in by December and will make a choice. He plans to do a one-year post-grad masters degree and then begin his Ph.D. If this is the door God is in fact opening for us, we will be selling our home and moving in the summer of 2020. Please pray for us. Our only desire is to bring God glory and make Him known. We want to follow wherever He leads, even when it makes no sense. We know His view of our life is so much wider than we could ever see. We trust Him. Eric’s motto is “learning to follow Jesus everyday, every where.” That’s what the Foster-Whiddons are doing.

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Here on, my little blog, I have been reliving my trip to the UK that happened about a month ago (at the time of writing). This post is about my last full day in London. I am not sure why I have procrastinated on this post. As I ponder it, I believe it comes down to the fact this post means I am just a few thoughts away from writing down exactly what I believe is next in our family’s life. Something about writing it down feels like going skydiving and committing to the jump. Writing it down for me means committing to believing this is going to happen even if I don’t know how. 

Scary. So I procrastinate… but here it is. 

Please enjoy the adventures of our last day in London. Prepare for a future post about what direction we feel that we will be going in!

2019 UK Trip – Day 10 (London, England)

Oh, flat in Notting Hill, we do not care for you. Although we have paid for you in full and your nice owner says we cannot get a refund, we are moving out. We are packing our bags to drag ALL OVER London until we catch a train to a hotel near the airport. I would much rather pull my suitcase five miles down the street while I sightsee than come back to you. So now you know exactly how I feel… goodbye! 

So far I have not cared for the square-mile of London around the Notting Hill Gate tube station, but today is a new story. This city has wonderful stuff going for it. I am in love with Hyde Park! Walking through it was so refreshing after a weird night. If I lived in this town, I would be at this park daily. It is like a sanctuary away from the cars, buildings, and the hustle. I loved seeing the flowers at Kensington Palace. Hyde Park has several flower gardens as well as miles and miles of walking paths through the trees. This is one of the royal parks that used to be private hunting grounds for the monarchy. It’s absolutely beautiful!

As we walked through the park we made our way to a nearby coffee shop. My phone was on the verge of dying and I wanted to be able to keep taking pictures. We sit. We fueled our bodies with caffeine and our phones with power. The cafe overlooked a lake. It has a nice outdoor seating area and big French doors on the inside that are left open for the breeze to blow in. It was a very comfortable space. We are off now to see what other wonderful things this town has to offer us. 

We enjoyed seeing Princess Diana’s Memorial Fountain, the changing of the guards, and Buckingham Palace. I think the best thing about our visit to London was Eric getting to go into Westminster Abbey for private prayer. Down below I will let him tell you about it. I was honored to stay out with our bags while he had this special time.

Eric’s story about Westminster Abbey: 

As a seminary student and fan of church history, Westminster Abbey was a big item on my must-see list. I had hoped to see several churches while we were in the UK, but that didn’t happen. I really wanted to make sure to see this one. In my research, I learned that admission to the Abbey was about twenty pounds per person, and the tour took more time than we wanted to give to it. However, you can request to be taken to St. Faith’s Chapel inside the Abbey for private prayer, which was free! This is what I really wanted, anyway – a worshipful moment in the midst of this crazy trip. 

We went to one of the gates of the Abbey and let one of the chaplains know that I wanted to go in for prayer. He was very friendly and escorted me in. The Abbey was busy and quite noisey, full of sight-seers. At this time of day, it definitely felt more like a museum than a house of worship. The chaplain led me past the crowds, around a corner, past lines of people waiting to start the tour, and to a pair of huge, medieval-looking wooden doors set in the block wall. Imagine thick wooden doors with iron hardware, like you’d expect in a castle. He said, “I’ll let you in and close the door behind you. If we leave it open, other people will come in. When you’re done, just head out.” I walked into St. Faith’s Chapel and he closed the huge door behind me. 

The room had about ten rows of wooden chairs. The front of the chapel was roped off and, on the other side of the rope was a beautiful old painting of Christ on the wall. There was one other man in the chapel. He was dressed in a business suit and sat on the front row. Soon, he dismissed himself silently and I was left alone. Behind me in the back of the chapel were several prayer benches. I got up and went to a bench to kneel and pray. I that moment, I was overwhelmed with the whole experience; the visits to the universities, conversations with professors, rides on planes and trains, nights in flat after flat. In that moment, I was very aware of God’s presence with me in the chapel, but even more so, his presence with us throughout the whole trip. I was so incredibly thankful for his protection and provision.

After several minutes in prayer, I got up and looked around for a bit. There was a plaque in the wall in memory of an American bishop whose remains had laid in the chapel for four days during Easter Week of 1873. He died in Florence and his body was on its way back to Ohio. What was interesting to me about this bishop was that his name was Charles Pettit McIlvaine. His middle name, Pettit, was the same as the last name of great-great-grandparents on my mother’s side. It’s not a very common name and I couldn’t help but wonder if there might be a connection.

As I left the chapel, I walked slowly through the Abbey and tried to see as much as I could. There are an incredible number of people buried in Westminster Abbey, including many of Western history’s most notable men and women. I saw the graves of Sir Isaac Newton, Charles Dickens, George Frederic Handel, Robert and Elizabeth Barrett Browning, etc. On the way out, I saw a large black slab in the floor with an inscription that read, “Beneath this stone are supposed to be interred twenty six monks of Westminster who died of the Black Death in 1348.” This was very interesting because I taught my sixth grade students about the impact of the Black Death during our history class last year.

My experience at Westminster Abbey was a highlight of the trip. I would love to visit again for a worship service. It would also be nice to take the tour and see the whole building. Maybe we can return and bring the kids next time!

OK… back to my story!

After we left the church, Eric and I experienced our first ever protest. President Trump was in town from the US visiting with the Queen. There were a lot of unhappy vocal protesters in the streets. Although it was a bit stressful, it was a really cool experience. Of course, I wanted to be in the middle of it… until I was in the middle of it! Then I remembered how crazy, passionate humans can behave and I no longer wanted to be in the middle of the action. We quickly made our way to Big Ben for a picture for our son. Only it was under construction and it started to pour rain! Thankfully, we were near the underground station. But guess who else found refuge from the rain in the station? You guessed! All the passionate protestors! Also, guess what I am still pulling along behind me? You are right! My suitcase Through the protest.Through the rain. And through a crowded train station. Do you think I am rethinking my decision? Not for one second. 

I seat my fanny down on my suitcase right there in that train station while Eric fought the crowd to get our tickets. People watching was extra fun that day. 

Let’s change gears a minute. We all know that loved ones like to get souvenirs when we come home from a trip. Especially if those loved ones are your children! We have been in this beautiful country for eight days! You guessed it… eight days and not one child’s souvenir has been bought. 

Now resume… reality hits us. We are getting ready to get on a train that will take us to a hotel near the airport which will fly us back home to our children… our children waiting for souvenirs from England and Scotland… souvenirs we have not bought! Insert freak-out face! 

I found a coffee shop in the train station and Eric went on a mad rush to find overpriced trinkets of Big Ben and red telephone booths and Union Jack flags. He came back with the mission accomplished just in time to catch the train.

We made it! We made it to a comfortable hotel for tonight’s stay. We had dinner in their downstairs restaurant. We are now chilling in the room uploading Instagram stories about walking through protesters. President Trump was in town and boy, people were not happy about it!

But guess what? I am happy. I am happy laying in the bed with the man that knows me best and loves me so well. It has been a crazy trip and I would not change a thing about it. I cannot wait to fly home to my babies. I cannot wait to view the sonogram of what God is birthing in us. I cannot. But yet I must wait. The in-between is uncomfortable, but I am right where I am supposed to be! 

2019 UK Trip – Day 9 (London, England)

(FYI – this was a long day of travel and finding our destination. We were tired and took virtually zero photos. Most of the photos in this post are royalty-free photos of the places we went, courtesy of the interwebs.)

I never in a million years thought I would be able to go to London. I guess I just dreamed too small or had not been dreaming at all… but here I am, standing on the streets of London! We had a long train ride from St. Andrews, Scotland to here. We are tired from nine days of travel and, honestly, I can’t even feel excited. I am quite frustrated with my emotions. The train ride here was beautiful but the busyness of this town is a bit much for me. We both have our eyes set on finding the flat, dinner, and rest. Well, rest for me. Eric has school work. His discipline blows me away. At this point, I would have thrown my books out of a train window. But not him! He just keeps doing what needs to be done. I, on the other hand, plan to eat and sleep.

Our last stop on the train was Kings Cross, a famous train station in London. This is the station where Harry Potter boards the Hogwarts Train at Platform 9 ¾. Eric and Holton have been reading the Harry Potter books for fun (aside from both of their assigned books for school), so he wanted to find the platform. Of course, they have a Harry Potter display, including a buggy with an owl cage disappearing into the brick wall. Folks are lined up to take pictures at it. We don’t stand in line, but we do get a photo of the display.

From Kings Cross, we find our way down to London’s famous Underground metro. We have to take the “tube” to Paddington Station (which is where another famous book character, Paddington Bear, gets his name!) and then to Notting Hill Gate (another tube station). Once we’re there, we have to find our flat in Notting Hill. You may be familiar with the Notting Hill neighborhood from the movie by that name with Hugh Grant and Julia Roberts. 

The tube station is PACKED with people. It takes us a minute to figure out which train we’re supposed to be on. We’re both quite tired and our patience levels are low. We’re standing shoulder-to-shoulder with people waiting to get on a train. Finally, we find the right train and get on. Just like the platform, the tube is standing-room-only. We have our luggage in tow and we’re trying to figure out how to get where we’re going. Eric is studying the Underground map on the wall of the train and tries to tell me something. I can’t hear him well. A nice English man standing next to Eric says, “You’re not the only Americans who landed in London today!” He’s referring to President Trump. We had no clue we would be in London at the same time as the president. We’re not sure how English people feel about Trump, especially since there’s no telling how any given American feels about him. The nice English man confirms what Eric is trying to tell me; we need to get off this train at the next platform and get on another one, otherwise we’ll be on this very crowded train for a long time because it’s going the long way around to Paddington Station. We get off the train, cross the platform, and get on another one that’s heading the way we need to go. This train is much brighter, cleaner, and MUCH less crowded. We take a seat and a deep breath. This is better.

We didn’t have to go far before we’re at our stop. We climb up the stairs out of Notting Hill Gate and get our bearings. The flat is just around the corner from the tube station. It’s also right across the street from Kensington Gardens and Hyde Park, and just a short walk from all the sightseeing we will do tomorrow. Eric chose this flat because it seemed nice on AirBnB and it was so close to the things we wanted to see. 

We make it to the flat. The buildings in Notting Hill look just like they do in the movie, but the neighborhood feels kind of… well, Americans would say “sketchy” and the Brits would say “dodgy.” Either way, it’s not a good feeling. It is one of those apartments where you have to put in a code to open the front door and then climb three flights of stairs to get to your room. Yeah, that kind of place. We knew about the code and the stairs going into it but what we did not know just how run-down the inside of the building was. Our flat is a studio apartment and is really small. In his research, Eric found that small and expensive was the norm for flats in London. Once again, we were prepared for the small space, but really how do you prepare yourself for your bed to be four feet from your stove? No exaggeration. Our AirBnB experience has been mostly good, but it’s really like going on a dating site and a person showing you one-quarter of his good side and when you show up the other three-quarters he did not show is just too much to handle. (The dating thing has not happened to me… just guessing this is how it would have gone if I ever tried!) 

Well, back to the flat… the three-quarters outweighs any one-quarter of good, but I am too hungry and tired to care tonight. We made our way down to a Mexican restaurant! Yes!!! Something normal to feel like home! Only at home, my Mexican restaurant gives me as much chips and salsa as I can eat and they taste yummy. Here, I got enough chips to feed one small squirrel and the salsa was straight-up fire. My drink was 6 ounces and not a drop more. (I’m so tired of tiny Coke bottles!) Just maybe, friends, if I was not on the verge of exhaustion I could have found a silver lining to tell you about… but that is a big fat “No.” The best part is that there were so few people there (first warning sign) that we were in and out quickly. 

We are now back at the flat. The original plan was to stay for two nights. I told Eric that if I had it my way we would leave this place in the morning and stay in a hotel near the airport (we fly out in two days), but we have already paid for this place and it just makes sense to stay here. So I am off to sleep while Eric burns the midnight oil to get his next assignments done. I am praying for a great day of sightseeing tomorrow. 

Did I mention that the stairs get more and more narrow as they go up? And that there’s no elevator? And that there are “What To Do In Case of Fire” signs EVERYWHERE?!? After all the fire safety warning signs in this building, I am praying for no fire because there would be no getting out. We’d burn up before we made it to the front door, for sure. Pushing those thoughts down, I settle in to sleep and ask God to continue to show me His plan daily and help me walk in joy in the unknown.

2019 UK Trip – Day 8 (St. Andrews)

Welcome to my blog home. I am glad you have dropped in! I write about many things here. My passion is helping others “untangle” their minds and bodies so they can freely live out the calling on their lives. I fully believe fear, anxiety, and stress rob people daily and I am tired of watching it. So here I am, sharing my story in hopes to teach others that they can overcome whatever it is that keeps them from running full-on into their lives.  

Speaking of full-on… my husband and I took a trip overseas to visit universities that he might attend to get his PhD. This blog post picks back up midway through the trip. If this is your first visit here, click here to see all the posts about our 2019 UK Trip. You can go back and read from the very beginning if you would like. Maybe you just want to bookmark them for those free moments when you want to grab your phone and chill. (By the way – I write the trip posts in present tense so it feels like you’re experiencing it in real time. We’ve made it back home safely to the US.)

Day 8… I think!

Today is going to be a great day! The weather is perfect. My coffee is wonderful! And… my little black boats still are doing great for me. Eric and I plan to keep it simple today. We are going to visit downtown stores, go to the famous St. Andrews golf course, and check out the beach again. Really, that is it! We leave tomorrow for London so we will pack up tonight. But for this day, we are taking it slow. 

We start with a brunch at a restaurant downtown. It’s next door to Forgan’s, the place in the old golf club factory where we had dinner the first night here. Our meal at Forgan’s was incredible! This place looks like it will be too. After waiting a few minutes to be seated, we order. It’s 11:00AM now. I order a Caesar salad with salmon and Eric orders the “full Scottish breakfast.” He had it at The Elephant House in Edinburgh and liked it. He wants to try something called black pudding, which is often part of this breakfast. He hasn’t had it yet.

Our food comes out pretty quickly. My salad looks so yummy… but it has let me down! I am trying to eat it, but it tastes incredibly fishy. I know, you’re thinking, “It has salmon on it! What did you expect?” Eric says it’s OK to ask the waitress if I can get one without salmon, so I did. Why do I have to make things so complicated? Over 15 years of marriage, Eric has learned to be so patient with me.

While we’re waiting on my salad to come back, Eric is eating his breakfast. He really likes that the Scottish breakfast comes with a mushroom and a tomato. His tastes are sometimes a little weird for south Georgia but seem to fit well here. He tries his black pudding… and doesn’t like it very much. After a few bites, he says he doesn’t want anymore. Then he tells me what it is. Apparently, it’s not pudding at all… it’s a type of sausage called a “blood sausage.” That’s why it’s black – because it’s full of cooked blood! GROSS!!! He can eat most anything, but he says he won’t order black pudding again.

So my salad comes back and I try to eat it again. Key word – try! It still tastes very fishy. I figure they just took the salmon off and sent the salad back and I’m still tasting it. Eric takes a bite and said even he couldn’t eat it. Then he remembers that Caesar dressing has anchovies in it! He says that the Caesar dressing we’re used to at home also has anchovies but doesn’t taste so strong. The waitress sees that I’m not eating it and comes over to check on me. She’s so sweet! She apologizes and says that there’s nothing they can do about the anchovies in the dressing. It’s OK. Not every meal in the UK is wonderful, I guess!

After brunch, we take a pleasant, slow walk down to the golf course. The part of the course we’re looking at is called The Old Course. As I mentioned before, St. Andrews is the birthplace of golf. We are looking at the world’s oldest golf course. I am a full believer that if you have seen one golf course you have seen them all, but people come from all over the world to play golf right here on this very course. It looked so incredibly normal to me. I am aware that it is the history that draws like-minded people to this place. It is the story and the years of existence that makes the avid golfer travel the world to tee off here. Are we not all like that? We love a good story. It draws us in. We love the richness of history and the consistency it gives us. So I will not poke fun that one of the most famous golf courses looks just like the one back home. Ok… minus the beach!

Speaking of the beach, that’s where Eric and I are now. Just a few feet from the course is this beautiful sea. Eric and I climb over some rocks to find the perfect place to sit a while. It is wonderful. The sun has come out and there is a light breeze. We lay back on the rocks to soak in the sun and soon we found ourselves napping. We wake to kids playing near us. One kids yells out “Hi! You can’t sleep there! It’s not comfortable at all!” We got a good laugh out of that. We were very comfortable and could have stayed all day but the clock was moving so we needed to also. Do you ever just wish you had a pause button to hold everything still for a moment more? Yeah, I wish I had that button for this moment! 

We are back at the flat enjoying our last meal together in St. Andrews. We chose to stay in again for dinner. Tomorrow we will get up and catch a bus that will take us to the train station. We will be on our way to London. We are just going there to sightsee. We will not be looking at any schools there. Eric and I are both getting a little homesick. We have two more days before we fly home so we are going to push on and make the most of it.

(Side note… you may have noticed in most of my pictures it appears I am wearing the same thing. Good eye! I spent time doing clothing research before we left. What I found for the weather here is that it is best to start with a base layer and build on that. My base layer would change but the outside layers stayed the same. This made packing and getting dressed each day so easy for me. I plan to do a stand-alone post on this topic.)

2019 UK Trip – Day 7 (St. Andrews)

The morning has started slowly. Eric has let me sleep in; it was much-needed after last night’s episode. We are getting ready to go into town and have lunch. Yes, we slept till lunch! 

You would think after last night that we would both be lighthearted and glad to start a new day. It’s not quite that easy. I’m feeling better, but Eric is pretty beaten down. Bless his heart. In my mind, it is OK for me to act crazy, to freak out and cry… but it’s another thing for Eric to struggle. He has been under a lot of pressure and I figured that it might eventually get to him. He worked for months to plan and pay for our trip. He has spent every day since we’ve been here figuring things out, getting us where we need to go and meeting with professors. He has spent night after night trying to make sure I am ok. This morning he is running on empty. He doesn’t want to navigate. He doesn’t want to decide where to eat. He doesn’t want to think about ANYTHING. He asked if I would make decisions today; he is on autopilot. He is done. 

I found a cute pizza place to have lunch. Yes, I found it myself! As we eat our breadsticks, Eric’s eyes have turned red as he fights his emotions. (He can’t even be excited that the breadsticks are gluten-free!) Something is really bothering him. Is it just weariness or something else? Between the waiter taking our order and checking in on us, we’re breaking down the reasons for the red eyes and raw emotions. There it was… FEAR. He is afraid he was DRAGGING us somewhere harmful. He is AFRAID that relocating to the UK will cause past experiences his father had to replay themselves in Holton’s life. He FEARED the move would damage our family. As we sort through fearful thoughts combined with several days’ worth of stress, we’re bringing them to the light so we can cover them in truth. The thing about wrong thinking is that it can only be changed when you take it out, lay it on the table and do an autopsy on. In the process of this autopsy, you don’t fight the emotion. Tears will come. We are taking the time to look right into these fearful thoughts and dispel them for good. Our emotions will rise to the surface as we face these thoughts. Our emotions did get pretty ugly, but the truth is such a joy-giver. And this is the truth: God does speak. We do hear His voice. We do trust Him with our lives. We trust Him with our kids’ lives. We trust Him and He is good no matter what. Eric is not “dragging” his family anywhere. God is calling His Hyphen Nation out. Eric is not placing Holton in harm. God is positioning Holton right where he needs to be. Eric cannot damage us because he is not bigger than the God we serve. As long as Eric and I do the work to stay connected to our Father, we will walk in a place of complete joy. He is not calling us to a life of ease but a life full of HIS JOY!!!  So… over our yummy pizza, we found a peace I know I have not had for days. 

After lunch, we walked through the St. Salvator’s quadrangle. It was very pretty and peaceful. Eric says that’s where the University of St. Andrews holds its graduation ceremonies. Once again he was the best tour guide, even though he was super tired. His brain comes alive when he tells me historical information. We walked from the college to the castle which overlooked the ocean. Talk about magical! We skipped going into the castle and made our way to the beach. 

What is it about the ocean? My heart felt so much solace. Instead of white sand, the beaches here are covered in beautiful stones. They are red, brown, black, gray… Eric says they remind him of the stones in the mountain streams along the Appalachian Trail. As I watched the waves roll over the stones, I felt myself soften. Watching and listening to the waves softened that part of me that is afraid to let go and just be in the moment. Throughout the rest of the day, if I would feel my thoughts get worried and my heart tightening back up I would think back to that peaceful moment. I could use every adjective there is in the book and show you every picture but no words will do justice to the beauty and emotion of that time on the beach.

After we left the beach area we walked down to the harbor. There is another beach area (with more sand than stones), a dock with little boats, a row of colorful flats, and stone pier. We walked across the pier, which was pretty narrow and very high. Eric said that every Sunday the undergraduate students from the university walk across the pier in their bright red robes. (The robes are part of their uniform that they wear to formal university events. It’s a throw-back to the school’s medieval past.) The pier walk is one of the many traditions at the University of St. Andrews… probably its most famous one. Some graduate students do the pier walk, too. I told him that today was his day to practice! He was VERY nervous. It was a little funny to me. OK… a lot funny!!!

Once again, the picture of the pier does not do the height or length or width justice. It was scary. Everything on me was tingly as we walked over it. Eric would call out, “Stop! Ok… Go!” I had a freak-out moment when the wind was blowing and Eric stopped walking. I was thinking, “We are going to get blown off this thing! We need to keep moving!” But… Eric was not moving. He told me later that he kept thinking, “You’re not a feather. The wind won’t blow you off. You are like a heavy anchor on this pier.” He’s really not comfortable with heights and his balance is not the best; this was a challenge for him, for sure. We finally reached the end and had a great laugh. Well, I laughed!!! 

After all that excitement I needed to get Eric’s “tank” refilled. So, we made our way to the ruins of St. Andrews Cathedral. The University was founded in 1413, and the cathedral is 255 years older than that! Construction started on it in 1158. There is so much rich history in this beautiful place and Eric did a good job of sharing it with me. This past year he taught history to sixth graders at Colquitt Christian Academy. Their unit was “Middle Ages, Renaissance, and the Reformation.” He knew a lot of information about how cathedrals were built, why they were made the way they were, and why the Reformers destroyed this one. It was very interesting.

It’s later in the afternoon and I am now sitting in the alley outside a cafe enjoying a piece of gluten-free cake and yet another oat milk mocha latte (I did choose decaf!) I am listening to a local fellow play the accordion. We have had a peaceful sightseeing day. I am finishing up my yummy treat and it’s time to leave the accordion player to entertain the next tired tourist. Eric is back from the local grocery store. We are so tired of eating out, so Eric went to buy a few groceries so we can cook supper. We are headed back to the flat to enjoy dinner in. 

Here we are in bed. Thankful. It has been a much-needed sunny, calm day. We are thankful for the struggle. We are thankful that in this season we are learning how to navigate the challenges in such a way that we don’t stop moving forward. Lord, help us keep our eyes above the waves. Help us see that you are bigger than any challenge this world can throw at us. Help us to have a steadfast spirit, just like the stones on the ocean shore. At the end of the day, may our love for you and our love for each other be the biggest things in our lives.

2019 UK Trip – Day 6 (St. Andrews)

Hello, Day 6! We’re still in Edinburgh, but it’s our last day here. The kitchen in the flat is still covered in Eric’s clothes. If you remember, he has hung the clothes everywhere because the dryer doesn’t work. He has now decided to dry them by ironing them without steam. He has been working on that for a while now… slow process. Bless his heart. We are packing our bag, getting ready to catch a train to Leuchars, about 45 minutes away from Edinburgh. From Leuchars we will take a 15-minute bus ride to St. Andrews. I may be just a little excited to get out of this town. Just maybe. 

The train ride to St. Andrews was really nice. I enjoyed seeing the countryside and the ocean. I felt my heart getting lighter. When we got off the bus we meet an older couple from Missouri which was super cool. It is always nice to hear American accents, especially southern or midwestern ones. We actually got off the bus too early and we had to finish walking into town. The walk was nice and we got to sightsee. It is 11:00AM here. We are sitting at St. Andrews Brewing Company, a neat little restaurant and brewery on one of the three main streets in the city center of St. Andrews (yes, only three streets!) We are going to have lunch here. I am in love with it. Not only do they have a vegetarian burger but they also have gluten-free buns! I am a happy girl. I am going to hang here while Eric goes to meet with the professor at the School of Divinity at the University of St. Andrews. I am hoping he does not get lost. There is no threat that I will, because I am not moving from this spot until he gets back.

Ok, I moved three times but it was only to go to the bathroom. I did not leave the building. Eric has made it back. His meeting at the university went really well.  He met with Dr. TJ Lang, who gave him a tour of St. Mary’s College (the School of Divinity) and spent quite a bit of time discussing their programs and answering questions. Dr. Lang is the director of the Masters of Letters (MLitt) program. They have an MLitt in Biblical Languages and Literature, which makes Eric’s nerdy heart happy. Eric met Dr. Lang and his colleague, Dr. David Moffitt, at a teachers’ conference last summer in Dallas. The University of St. Andrews sent them to the Association of Classical & Christian Schools conference to promote their programs to teachers. Eric and I were already talking and praying about relocating to the UK for his post-grad studies. Meeting these guys put St. Andrews on our radar.

The University of St. Andrews is the oldest university in Scotland and the third oldest in the UK (after Oxford and Cambridge). It is also usually ranked the #3 university in the UK (also after Oxford and Cambridge, which are constantly swapping the #1 and #2 spots). This year, University of St. Andrews beat out Oxford, and it is ranked #2 in the UK behind Cambridge. Lots of important theologians and biblical scholars have studied at St. Mary’s College at the University of St. Andrews. Eric was really impressed by the demeanor of the professors (he met several) and the atmosphere of the school. He says it feels very positive. Dr. Lang described it as a “happy” place, saying that the relationships between the faculty and students are really good. Eric’s academic advisor at Gordon-Conwell got his PhD from the University of St. Andrews. He told Eric that he moved his family to Scotland in the winter, which was a rough start for them. (Surprise! Rainy, cloudy, cold weather with really short winter days!) When Eric asked him how his family adjusted and what their impression of St. Andrews was after the fact, he described it as a “golden season” for his family, that it was a wonderful place to live and study. That sounds good!

We are now on a journey to figure out how to get to our next flat. Once again, I am so glad Eric is good at this stuff. We decide to get on a bus to keep from having to walk so much. The bus driver did not understand our southern American accents and we did not understand his rough Scottish one. We are finding that there is a pretty wide variety of Scottish accents. Some are easy to understand, others sound like they’re not speaking English at all. Eric wonders if the Scottish accents that we don’t understand may sound more like Gaelic, an old Celtic language from Scotland. I have no clue, I just know I don’t know what the bus driver is saying. The bus was full of the sweetest people. They helped us figure out where we needed to be. Honestly, Eric knew where we were going… I was just second guessing him.  Regardless, we felt loved by the Scottish people on the bus.

Praise the Lord, we made it!!! Because St. Andrews is a smaller, more residential town, the housing is spread out a little more. There are no tall buildings with stories and stories of flats. We’re staying in a “mother-in-law suite” attached to a family’s house. The population of St. Andrews is basically the same as our hometown, but it swells a lot when all the students are present for school. In fact, Eric describes St. Andrews as a “Scottish Thomasville.” The downtown area feels kind of like downtown Thomasville… cobblestone streets, lots of interesting shops, busy but not too busy. (Sorry for anyone reading who isn’t familiar with where we live; Thomasville, GA is a cute little town down the road from us.) 

We have now met with the nice lady who owns the flat. She filled us in on how to walk to town and what buses to catch. The flat is actually a lot closer to the city center than it appears; she told us which road to walk to get there the quickest. We are just now taking a few moments to chill before we walk back into town to look around. 

The walk into town takes about 10 minutes. It is a nice walk. There are still a lot of people walking and riding bikes here, but not as much as in Cambridge. There are more cars here, but not as many as in Edinburgh. If we lived in St. Andrews, we would probably get a car… and learn to drive on the “wrong” side of the road! So far it has not rained much here, which is super nice. We’re seeing some more sunshine and blue skies. Because St. Andrews is on the coast, there are seagulls overhead most of the time. It’s refreshing to feel the nice weather and hear the gulls.

Eric was my tour guide at St. Mary’s College (he’s my favorite tour guide!) The University of St. Andrews was established in 1413. That’s 104 years before the Protestant Reformation and 363 years before America declared its independence. Think about it… the University of St. Andrews was older when Thomas Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence than the United States is today… by over 100 years. The city itself suffered a lot of violence during the Reformation. It’s really a sad story. At St. Mary’s college, the old library was built by King James himself… yes, the same King James who commissioned the translation of the Bible named after him. There is a thorn tree in the quadrangle that was planted by Mary Queen of Scots in the 1560s. It is cool to think that this tree has been alive in this spot since just a few years after the Reformation. Of course, Eric really enjoys all of the history of the universities. He knows a lot about the people who have been connected with them over time. I have to say that I am finding it pretty interesting, too!

After we checked out the town a bit, we went to a really neat restaurant called Forgan’s. If you like golf, you would like St. Andrews. You may know that it is considered the “Birthplace of Golf.” It has a really old golf course (the oldest golf course in the world) where the first golf tournament was played. The city of St. Andrews has been involved in the golf business for a very long time. Forgan’s restaurant is actually in an old golf club factory. The entrance to the restaurant was lined with all kinds of cute plants. It was like a tiny plant heaven. The food was SO good! I guess I did not learn my lesson from eating the fish and chips back in Cambridge because I had it again tonight. When we planned the trip, Eric said he wanted to eat the classic English and Scottish foods. Tonight he ate haggis, neeps and tatties… and he loved it!  Neeps are mashed rutabaga and tatties are mashed potatoes (we’re familiar with those from south Georgia!) If you’re not sure what haggis is, I’ll let you look it up. I’d rather not talk about it! Eric decided to try it at Forgan’s because this was such a good restaurant that he figured they would do a good job making it. After dinner we walked around a bit and then we went back to the place we had lunch to “people-watch.” I am really enjoying observing other cultures. Even though the English and Scottish cultures are closely related to our own, they are still quite different. For one thing, their vocabulary seems to be more “colorful” than ours. The guys we were watching definitely gave us an earful!!! Now we have walked back to flat to get settled in. 

Oh, how I wish I could end this post on a good note. After the tension of yesterday I really just wanted to enjoy this day and not think about the future. Getting to St. Andrews and exploring was really great. I enjoyed every part of it up to this point. I may have made some dietary choices that have landed me in the position I am in right now. I’m sure you have noticed, but my body is pretty sensitive to what I eat and drink. But honestly, the way I’m feeling might not have as much to do with the food as it seems. I think I have built up a lot of stress and it has to come out. I know guys – I am on a trip of a lifetime, yet time and time again I am met with struggles. Right now… I just came off a 30 minute panic attack. The attacks I have now are so different than the way they used to be. In the past, they controlled my whole life. In the past, they happened almost daily. So tonight I am thankful for how far I have come. They are much fewer, much farther between, and I have learned how to handle them. I may have had to lie outside half-dressed in 59 degree rain, but even in that struggle I am winning. Sometimes “winning” for one person may look like losing to another, so be slow to judge. I have come so far. 

Tonight I really stressed Eric out. He feels helpless. When I am having an attack, there is really nothing he can do. The battle is in me. I don’t want him to touch me or talk to me. I just let him know when I need something, but other than that he’s in the room but can’t do anything except watch and pray. I know it is hard for him. He wants to fix it. While I am laying in the yard having a panic attack, he is on the phone with our son who misses us, is homesick, and is worried about me. Poor Eric – he’s in the room with a person he wants to help but cannot and is on the phone with someone who wants his help but is 4,000 miles away.

I am finally in the bed and my whole body is shaking. I welcome the shake because it means the attack is over. Now that I’m at this point, Eric moves to the couch to get some distance. We are all turned around in our emotions, but we know our hearts are pointed in the right direction. In that very fact we are able to rest.