After our wedding we moved into Jan's grandma's house. It was an old, small house. So small, that we had the bed in the bedroom and the dresser in the "living room" and another in the other bedroom. The bathroom was a toilet only with a tub upstairs--a ceiling so low I had to duck when I was up there. Jan's dad put a shower in the moldy, carpetless basement and we added a garage (a must in cold Minnesota winters.) It was small, but it was home.
Jan took a job at a nursing home as we knew we would be moving to Seattle, Washington so I could finish up my last two quarters of school starting January, 1980. It was the only place she could use her nursing degree knowing she'd be there just a few months.
Our plan was for Jan to put me through my final year of college and 4 years of seminary before we started a family. But precautions aside--in October we discovered that Jan's nagging sore throat was a pregnancy.
After our first Christmas as a married couple we moved to Washington. We stayed in a small apartment with rented furniture. At one point we were eating off of an ironing board. But again, we loved it.
Jan took a job at a nursing home. I would drop her off early in the morning and then head over to a dark, quiet campus to study. Then I'd pick up her up after work and she would basically crash for the rest of the day and I would study.
Because of her pregnancy, as I neared the end of school, Jan flew home. She happened to fly home the day Mount St. Helen's exploded. She was able to see if from the plane.
Two weeks later I graduated from LBI and Jeff and I drove back to Minneapolis.
On June 18, 1980 our first child, Alycia was born.
I started seminary--Bethel Seminary--in the fall and we moved into student housing on the campus. We were on the third floor and had to hand carry a piano up to the apartment so Jan would have something to play. But the piano was so crummy I don't think she ever used it.
Jan took a new job at a nursing home in St. Paul, working evenings. Living on the campus we were able to juggle caring for Alycia while Jan worked and I studied.
The following year I transfered to Luther Seminary. We moved back into Jan's grandma's house (which we actually owned but had rented out for awhile.) Jan took a new job at a new nursing home. It was a long ride for me into school every day but Jan worked evenings again. So I would usually come home from school and spend some time with Alycia. I would make her my speciality--a fried egg and peas. Then I'd take her to my mom's house so she could watch Alycia while I went back home to study. Then back to mom's to pick up Alycia. Jan would get home late and she and Alycia would watch David Letterman and MASH. One of Alycia's first words was MASH.
In August of 1982 we headed to Phoenix for a year of internship at Community Church of Joy. Jan was pregnant at the time and Mike was born on internship. So we had both of our kids before I graduated from school.
We lived in Sun City at Jan's parent's condo for a few months then Joy rented us a home across from the church during the months Jan's folks were in Phoenix. I had no idea how fast weeds grew here. I had no lawn mower or lawn equipment. By the time we moved back to Sun City our back yard was a forest of weeds. One of our last nights in the rented house we noticed a black widow spider by the door. We moved out immediately the next morning and headed back to the safe confines of Sun City.
Then it was back to Minneapolis to finish out school. For those lasts several months we lived in the basement of Jan's parent's house.
I graduated in March of 1984 and we headed back to Phoenix to begin ministry at Community Church of Joy (see musings on 25 years of ordination.)
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