Flush the toilets before you go!

Aaaand we’re off.

It’s the last of the infamous Kinne family camping vacations. Or at least the last for me. I hope.

From the seaside in San Diego to Old Faithful at Yellowstone National Park; from Disneyworld to Hersheypark; from a hike into the Kentucky woods that yielded nothing but bug bites to a pre-dawn wake up to see the sunrise off the shores of Bar Harbor that yielded (three hours later) the realization that if it was light up, the sun must be up, despite the fog, we’ve done…well, if not all of this-land-is-your-land, a lot of it.

When you consider that my first family vacation was also the occasion of my first spanking (“That didn’t hurt! Do it again!”), it seems fitting, really, that I end my tenure as a financial dependent and Kentucky resident with one last family excursion.

So if, over the next week and a half, you hear screams emanating from a campground in Lorton, Virginia, the monuments and museums of Washington, D.C., the shores of the Atlantic at Assateague Island, or the hills of a yet-to-be-determined location in West Virginia, don’t worry. Say a prayer for me…and my family, and go about your day.

We really do love each other (I think), and I’ll be back with a load of fantastic dysfunctional family stories on August 8th.

Because really, what family isn’t dysfunctional?

Good Times, Good Times.

We have an apartment!

So exciting. Now we just need an apartment number, and we’ll have an address and everything.

Also, in the exciting-news department, Peter and I are now famous.

Well, maybe famous.

We went to see Michael Feldman’s radio show – Whad’ya Know?, on NPR every Saturday morning – on Saturday. When you go in, you get to submit a question for Michael to answer. I (teasingly?) wrote on my card “Why is my boyfriend so crazy?” – probably in reference to something he was doing at the time, I don’t really remember (he says, looking over my shoulder, “Probably singing something”). Anyway, long story short, the card got picked, Michael Feldman made me talk to him on National Public Radio, and Peter got to play bass. So I got embarrassed and Peter got famous. Y’know. It happens.

If you want to listen, you can download the podcast. There’s this really long thing about food that’d kind of annoying, and we’re after it – Peter says, “we’re in the second half hour.”

So yay famousness. Peter says “Peter wonders why he’s getting quoted so much.” Katie replies, “So people won’t think I’m reappropriating your story.” WordPress says “Reappropriating isn’t a word, stupid.”

Peter says “I’m confused.”

You probably are too, whoever is reading this.

But that happens.

i love him

 

we are walking in the light of god

 

Jamie and I wore coordinated dresses. The bishop’s hands on my head were ridiculously heavy. We sang and danced and praised. I got an uncontrollable fit of the giggles during the sung response to the offering. There were six kinds of cake afterwards.

I’m going to miss these people so much. But I know that we are there for each other. We can share with each other. We will experience these next two or three years together – not physically, but in the same spirit and for the same purpose.

I am no longer my own, but thine. Put me to what thou wilt, rank me with whom thou wilt. Put me to doing, put me to suffering. Let me be employed for you, or laid aside for you; exalted for you, or brought low for you. Let me be full, let me be empty. Let me have everything, let me have nothing. I freely and wholeheartedly yield all things to your pleasure and disposal. And now, glorious and blessed God, Father and Mother, and Holy Spirit, you are mine and I am yours. So be it. And the covenant I made on earth, let it be ratified in heaven. Amen.

We’re commissioned.

Go in peace while we run this race.

Deus ibi est

What will we do with all this leftover food?

Let’s take it to John D., he hangs out by the church.

Hey, John, we were just looking for you.

Well, I can’t use this, but I’ll get it to someone who can.

Ubi caritas et amour, Deus ibi est. Confitemini Dominum, quonium bonum. Confitemini Dominum, Amen.

Let’s sleep on the fire escape.

In solidarity.

How do we encounter these issues?

How do we handle the systemic without dehumanizing the real struggle?

How do we live Christ into this space, into this world?

Brother let me be your servant, let me be as Christ to you. Pray that I may have the grace to let you be my servant too.

They will know we are Christians by our love.