Go with faith...Trek, day 1

The day began early.  Mark and I, meet the English's and the Hunter's at the Trek Starting point at 6:30.  We were supposed to meet Brother Endicott and Brother Swapp there at 6:30 to finish essembling the handcarts.  We still had two handcarts that needed full assembly and 16 that needed to have wheels attatched.  6:30, no sign of Swapp or Endicott or two thirds of of the hardcarts and all of the tools.  7:00, still no sign.  7:30, Mark and Brian drive around looking for them.  No luck.  7:45 the honey buckets are delivered which were supposed to be put on the trailers that were currently filled with handcarts.  8:00, Swapp and Endicott show up Brian and Mark have found them and should have been right behind them.  We began attaching wheels to handcarts.  No sign of Mark and Brian.  8:30 Mark and Brian return after having to change a flat tire, the first of many that would happen over the course of 4 days.  We worked hard and fast knowing that the youth had left Rainier at 7.  Hoping it would take the buses longer to arrive than had been forecast we all put our shoulders to the wheel, literally.  Moments after we got started all of the remaining pa's arrived...woohoo!  More hands, more help!
Unfortunatley the buses filled with excited youth and the remainder of the ma's arrived before we were finished.  I forgot to note that when Brother Swapp and Brother Endicott did finally arrive that morning one of the bottom handcarts on the stack of four had been crushed by the others, hence needing more attention and time to rebuild.  Miracluous moments had already happened.  Faith had alreaded been tested and assured and by the time we were gathered around waiting to be assigned our families there was already a feeling a service and community and excitement and love.  I remember thinking over and over as we overcame the obsticles put before us that today we would go with faith. When it was our turn to gather our family, Mark was at base camp helping there and I felt his absence.  I searched for him needing his strength. A tiny glimpse of the women who began the journey alone or lost their husbands on the way.  It felt a little daunting at first but I just let these words Go with faith sooth my soul.

When I got my kids, we introduced ourselves, made an plan to load our cart and got ready to move out.  We had a young bunch, our oldest was 16.  Four girls, four boys and president Opdahl who checked in occasionally but as our company captain had to make sure all in our company were good to go.  Provisions packed tight and tied down as best I could, Mark returned just in time to check our work and move us out.  Amy Sumsion, below in the yellow shirt, was one of our daughters and would prove to be an absolutely delight.  It was so nice to have someone from our ward, especially one of my miamaides to begin this journey with.

Alyna was in the first company, and therefore far ahead of us.  What a wonderful thing to be there with her, to share this experience, even if from a different vantage piont.  In the picture above Alyna is the super cute pioneer girl in the yellow skirt and green top talking to Paige.  While we waited to move out the kids talked...

played games...

ma's talked...

kids sang...

Note, the kid in the large sombraro, Josh was one of ours as well.  Also a delight!  But we did say "Where's Josh?!" a lot.  It didn't take too long to figure out that he was either visiting his real parents or a friend in a nearby family, but as the week went on he stayed closer to "home" to hang out with his new brothers and sisters.

 

These are my boys...Alec (?)W., Raiden (Indiana) B., Josh (Sombarro) S., and Ocean (Waves) U.  I can not sing their praises loud enough.  They played hard, they worked hard.  They worked together.  They were kind to one another and the took initiative and took the lead.  They were gentlemen. Odd how quickly I loved them and wanted a strengthening experience for them.  I wanted them to spend this day going with faith.  We talked about going with faith, we talked about the Articles of Faith and the 2012 YM/YW Theme Arise and Shine forth as we walked mostly uphill until late afternoon. 
Today was a day to Arise.

Our flag; as we walked we were constantly trying to improve our flag, bigger better sticks, sticks that would stay put, different ways to tie on our bandanas to make a flag.  It was fun.  It was fun to see the kids interact to work together, to bond.  To struggle as they worked hard and distibuted the heavy load.  Mark and I only momentaryly helped with the handcart and only on a very few instances.  These kids worked hard!  There was a thrill looking ahead and looking back; hearing the wagon wheels, the laughing, the talking, the love.  It sparked my spirit.  The Durant family was in front of us and the McMaken family behind. Mark and I held hands while we walked. We encouraged the kids.  We tighted screws on the wheels.  We made sure things weren't falling out and on occasion we carried the flag.
At lunch time we stopped and ate our sack lunches on the trail.  The kids moved amoungst the companies visiting with friends, checking in with their real parents, 4 of our kids had parents that were also ma and pa's. Alyna and other girls from our ward would come and say hello to us, but when the company captains called for us to move out everyone quickly got back in order.  It was fascinating. 
On this first day there was a lot of stop and start and so when stopped we would pass out trail mix or candies.  On the last day I asked the kids if they would write me a note in my journal and Josh wrote "ma you are amazing and you make amazing trail mix.  Joshua S!lls your favorite child"  Sweet boy, just goes to show that truly the way to a mans heart is through his stomach.

Ma & Pa Habel's "amazing" Trail Mix Recipe

raisans
white raisens
craisans
walnuts
cashews
toffee peanuts
boston baked beans

There were a few large obsticles that we had to overcome on the first day; namely a fallen tree in our path, a small stream to cross, a rediculously steep and tourcherously long hill and a ledge of a campsite that proved to be my favorite night and campsite, but at first gave me heart palpitations.

I wish I had a better picture, but this gives you an idea of how close we snuggled and the beauty that surrounded.  One of our girls was afraid of heights so being the second handcart up the hill we quickly hurried to the woods away from the edge so she could sleep in peace.  It was a wonderful evening.  The temperature was perfect.
We had steak cut from a quarter of a cow hung from a tree.  We had corn on the cob and rolls spread with butter that we churned as we walked.  It was delicious and we were hungry.  It was fun to look around and see families clustered, talking, having scripture study, singing, laughing, sharing and bonding.  I went to sleep happy and grateful for such a choice opportunity.  My faith had been strengthen as we spent the day going with faith one step in front of the other.  We overcame, we pushed, we pulled and we appreciated a little more our ancestors who once upon a time, a long time ago also had to go with faith.