Taking J to School

This is the farewell family picture the morning that we left. Missing from the picture is three family members: J's Mom was at work, younger brother was at early morning seminary and baby brother was sleeping.

My sister is a genius. She came up with this cooking bucket. J is in a dorm-like room that has a shared group kitchen every other floor. Thanks to me awesome sister, J can tote everything she needs to the kitchen to prepare delicious, home-made, affordable meals. It's complete with everything someone would need to cook the basics, including basic spices, cutting board, knives, grater, can opener, peeler, utensils, spatula. measuring cups and spoon, small pot, skillet, and more. We used it to prepare several meals while we were there. It is slick!!

J has a small fridge and a microwave she shares with her roomate and here is her little food/supply shelf we bought at walmart. It's all stocked up, so no worries Mom! We met J's roomate and she seems very nice. Her family farms hay in a small rural town in WA. Just think of the work eithic those roomates have between the two of them! Geesh!

J's bed. They elevate the beds so that you have places to store stuff.

More dorm pics. That is J's desk

What the room looks like from the entrance of the door.

The group kitchen. J is blessed! Not only does she live on the same floor as the kitchen, but she lives 3 doors down. Yeah! On Saturday J and I spent several hours cooking food that we could freeze. She has about 14 meals she can defrost using the microwave in her room. More importantly she learned how to take some protien (like chicken, ground beef or black beans) and make four of five kinds of meals using that portien, then how to freeze it very flat in a ziploc bag. The food takes up very little room in the freezer and is easy to defrost. The girls in the picture is another student in her dorm. She is from Indiana. She was so nice and chatted with us as we worked.

Another picture of the kitchen

Dorm lobby

Outside of the building

Across the street is a train. It can take her all over the city.

She is a quick walk to campus. The buildings on the right is where the school is. She is only 2 blocks away!

The campus is beautiful. Very well maintained with gardens everywhere. It's hard to not be in a good mood when you are walking around. It made me miss college days!

J's ward meets on campus. Here all the chairs are set up for church. I asked her how it went on Sunday and she said it was "very big!"

This is moments before I left to come home. J and I spent two long days together figuring out schedules, fixing registration problems, working out kinks in finacial aid, shopping, cooking, learning about student health insurance and how to use a planner. A special thank you to my mother-in-law who spent the first day with us and helped us to organize J's room and helped with alot of other things. We also attended the student orientation and lots of activities. It was the best organized, most comprehensive and fun orientation I have ever attended. The school put out alot of effort to help the new students meet other students. They assigned them to mentors and they broke off into smaller groups and did get-to- know-you activities. They fed them breakfast, lunch and dinner (free) for two days. They set up a huge inflatable, broke up into teams and did obstacle courses. They hiked a mountain together. Students would come up to J and talk to her, invited her to go to Jamba Juice, sat with her during meals. The place is like Disneyland! Everyone is super smiley and will bend over backwards to help you. I was so impressed!! J couldn't be in a better place. I left with the overwhelming feeling that she was in the ideal spiritual and academic enviroment.

At the orientation one of the administrators talked about no matter how each student arrived at the school, that there was a reason why they were there and that the Lord's hand was in it. I was trying to keep from openly bawling. I really felt the spirit and I knew that God had helped to orchestrate all the events that lead to J being able to attend that school. There was a full team of people behind the scenes helping to make it a possibility. It was such a privelege to see all the efforts combined. It has brought me so much joy and it has inspired me to see all the unselfish acts on J's behalf and her family's behalf. It just underscores to me how important each life is to our Heavenly Father. We all have such value to him. Each of us is worth legions of effort.

A thousand thank yous to everyone's conribution! You are loved and appreciated!!

Janea