Annie B Garman

Motherhood, Mayhem, & The Meaning of Life

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Toby & Me

In 1990 I was 10 years old.  I can remember the day we went to the Learning Shop to buy a tadpole and a "grow-a-frog" kit.  It was very exciting to meet "Toby" and learn about his stages of development.  He was a rather easy pet and my mom gave him only the best of care.  I have memories of driving across town to get free filtered water from the Brewery for his tank.  Soon he graduated from his small cup to a bowl, his bowl to a small tank, and eventually was granted the luxury of a 10 gallon Read More

Imagine

Last weekend we saw in the news that the John Lennon "Imagine Peace Tower" was being lit up in Reykjavik.  Our friend's Dad who was visiting was CONVINCED from a distance that it was the northern lights, but...hey....it's easily confused. We went on a 5 minute boat ride to the island of Viðey (compliments of Yoko Ono herself) and walked in the utter darkness until we reached the light.  When our "tour guide" told us to all hold hands and send up our wishes for peace, I saw this picture in my Read More

My Little SpongeBob

Haley has now completely phased out of nap-time, but unfortunately I still have not.  Karen Doheney gave us a few books on CD before they moved, so I have been letting Haley listen to them during "quiet time" in the afternoons.  I didn't realize how much Haley had absorbed them until we got to Finland.  Every day we would load the kids up in the double jogging stroller and go for a run.  On distance days, Darcy would ask Haley if she could listen to Nemo, put on pretend headphones, press the Read More

What is happening to me?!

I have had a really hard week.  I feel like I've been welcomed back to Iceland with a slap in the face.  I have had very little strength to face all the challenges of being back, trying to get settled in, and starting language class.  This morning I found this article that made me feel very understood.  This exhaustion is normal, and hopefully soon this too shall pass.   Read More

It wasn’t smooth and it SURE wasn’t pretty…

…But we are back in Iceland with VISAs. Here’s a recap of what we had to go through in the last 3 days: 1. 1. Three hour train ride from Jyvaskyla to the capital:  Helsinki, Finland. Colby’s backpack broke. Had to shop for another one in the Helsinki mall and transfer everything into it. 2. 2. Hellsinki Airport. Got into the slowest line at Czech Airlines. Finally it is our turn at the check-in counter. We find out we are only allowed to check 80 kilos and we are required to check our Read More

Meet the Pauls

We met the Pauls in April of 2008 at our interview conference.  They were pure-bred Californians deciding whether to serve in Indonesia or Finland.  Since our church was doing work in Indonesia, I tried to persuade them to go to there.  They decided Finland.  We went back to our separate coasts, packed up our lives, rented out our homes, and reunited in August in Richmond at our training center.  For 9 weeks we shared meals together, sat together every day for our sessions, and bonded through Read More

13 months and 9 days…

The moment came at the perfect time. We were at the home of Irma, an amazing Finnish woman who glows with the presence of God and who owns a lovely piece of property in the outskirts of town. We had just sat down for afternoon coffee with her and our dear friends here, the Pauls, when Darcy busted in the front door from playing outside screaming, “I have to go POO-POO!” Colby got up to help her when I heard his phone ring. My stomach immediately dropped and the Finnish fancy cake I was chewing Read More

Adventures in Scandinavia, Part 1

In Iceland, people are serious about catching rays when the summer sun shines (since it's so rare). It’s almost as if people just collapse wherever they happen to be when the sun peeks out. One time, I looked out my window and saw a full-grown man lying prostrate on a piece of grass beside the bank parking lot. I love to see the Icelandic people enjoying the warmth of nature and not taking it for granted. Naturally, here in Finland I want to soak up every last bit of summer. Yesterday, I Read More

Meet Annie

“Remember He is the artist and you are only the picture. You can’t see it. So quietly submit to be painted” -CS Lewis
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