the Continuing Saga...
We invite you to renew your friendship with...
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Mike
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For every road we take in life there are countless roads untaken. We all know that, instinctively, in the moment. But we don’t truly contemplate it or question it until we get 50 to 60 years down the road.
I grew up in Newfolden. But, while I was still a teenager, I took a road that led me away and I never returned. For better or worse, I am who I am because of, or in spite of, that road.
I am married to my high school sweetheart, LuAnn Sorenson. We were best friends in junior high and fell in love in the summer of ’69. For half a century, through thick and thin, we’ve never left each other’s side. We graduated together in 1972, were married in the fall of ’73, and then moved out—out of town, out of the area, and out of the state.
LuAnn went to college right after high school and had a successful career as a medical transcriptionist. I didn’t complete college until I was almost 30 years old and went on to earn a master’s degree when I was 40.
I’ve had several careers throughout my life and made my income through 26 unique and diverse jobs—from Corporate Chaplain to Custodian; from College Ministry Director to Graphic Art Designer; from Professional Musician to Athletic Director; from Foreign Missionary to Furniture Maker; from Pastoral Counselor to Public Speaker; from Child-Care Provider to Published Author; from "Change Management" Specialist to Certified Health Coach, from Recording Artist to Truck Driver; from Christian Camp Director to Corporate Consultant; from Bicycle Shop Manager to Freelance Writer; from Lumberjack to Jack-of-All-Trades. I’ve worn a white collar, a blue collar, a clerical collar, and no collar at all.
LuAnn and I have moved 28 times. We’ve lived in several states across the country and a couple countries around the world. All four of our children were born in California and all in the ‘80s.
Our youngest son, John, lives in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Our son, Nathan, and his wife, Kirra, live in Lynnwood, Washington with their son, Ashton James. Our daughter, Anna (always Annie to me), lives with her daughter, Farrah Jaye, in Holland, Michigan.
Our beloved firstborn son, James, died of cancer on November 11, 2005, the day after his 24th birthday. God bless him…our brave, sweet boy. Not a day goes by when we don’t think of him and miss him.
Jesus Christ has been my Lord and Savior since I was a boy. My spiritual journey is one of my favorite stories to tell. It influences and informs every other story. But it’s also a story unto itself. It’s too long and convoluted to tell here.
In spite of my faith, the story of my life is a story filled with grief and loss. The litany of loss was so extensive it eventually touched every area of life—family, health, finances, work, and faith. In 2015, after years of tragedy and layers of loss, LuAnn and I lost our home. Then we lost our jobs.
We decided to take a big risk. We couldn’t change what had come to us, but we could choose what to do with what had come. Determined to rise above our circumstances, we packed the back of our minivan with the essentials to survive, threw a mattress on top, and drove off on a Great Adventure—a Grand Quest to expand our faith, rekindle our love, find our joy, restore our hope, discover God’s direction for the next chapter of our lives, and reconnect with people and places from our past. It was like starting over.
And guess what? We’re still driving. Who’d’ve thought?
We’ve been “houseless” since the fall of 2015, traveling through and exploring parts of Canada and Mexico and all but one of the continental United States with a rusty 2007 Dodge Caravan as our primary residence and wondering how we ended up being the ones “living in a van down by the river.”
An odyssey is defined as a long series of eventful wanderings usually marked by many changes of fortune, notable experiences, and hardships. That pretty much sums it up. LuAnn’s and my life together and the roads we have taken, is an odyssey.
In an attempt to chronicle our journey, I have written a blog—Ordinary Pilgrims: Stories Along the Way. If you’d like, you can follow along at sollomclan.com.
I grew up in Newfolden. But, while I was still a teenager, I took a road that led me away and I never returned. For better or worse, I am who I am because of, or in spite of, that road.
I am married to my high school sweetheart, LuAnn Sorenson. We were best friends in junior high and fell in love in the summer of ’69. For half a century, through thick and thin, we’ve never left each other’s side. We graduated together in 1972, were married in the fall of ’73, and then moved out—out of town, out of the area, and out of the state.
LuAnn went to college right after high school and had a successful career as a medical transcriptionist. I didn’t complete college until I was almost 30 years old and went on to earn a master’s degree when I was 40.
I’ve had several careers throughout my life and made my income through 26 unique and diverse jobs—from Corporate Chaplain to Custodian; from College Ministry Director to Graphic Art Designer; from Professional Musician to Athletic Director; from Foreign Missionary to Furniture Maker; from Pastoral Counselor to Public Speaker; from Child-Care Provider to Published Author; from "Change Management" Specialist to Certified Health Coach, from Recording Artist to Truck Driver; from Christian Camp Director to Corporate Consultant; from Bicycle Shop Manager to Freelance Writer; from Lumberjack to Jack-of-All-Trades. I’ve worn a white collar, a blue collar, a clerical collar, and no collar at all.
LuAnn and I have moved 28 times. We’ve lived in several states across the country and a couple countries around the world. All four of our children were born in California and all in the ‘80s.
Our youngest son, John, lives in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Our son, Nathan, and his wife, Kirra, live in Lynnwood, Washington with their son, Ashton James. Our daughter, Anna (always Annie to me), lives with her daughter, Farrah Jaye, in Holland, Michigan.
Our beloved firstborn son, James, died of cancer on November 11, 2005, the day after his 24th birthday. God bless him…our brave, sweet boy. Not a day goes by when we don’t think of him and miss him.
Jesus Christ has been my Lord and Savior since I was a boy. My spiritual journey is one of my favorite stories to tell. It influences and informs every other story. But it’s also a story unto itself. It’s too long and convoluted to tell here.
In spite of my faith, the story of my life is a story filled with grief and loss. The litany of loss was so extensive it eventually touched every area of life—family, health, finances, work, and faith. In 2015, after years of tragedy and layers of loss, LuAnn and I lost our home. Then we lost our jobs.
We decided to take a big risk. We couldn’t change what had come to us, but we could choose what to do with what had come. Determined to rise above our circumstances, we packed the back of our minivan with the essentials to survive, threw a mattress on top, and drove off on a Great Adventure—a Grand Quest to expand our faith, rekindle our love, find our joy, restore our hope, discover God’s direction for the next chapter of our lives, and reconnect with people and places from our past. It was like starting over.
And guess what? We’re still driving. Who’d’ve thought?
We’ve been “houseless” since the fall of 2015, traveling through and exploring parts of Canada and Mexico and all but one of the continental United States with a rusty 2007 Dodge Caravan as our primary residence and wondering how we ended up being the ones “living in a van down by the river.”
An odyssey is defined as a long series of eventful wanderings usually marked by many changes of fortune, notable experiences, and hardships. That pretty much sums it up. LuAnn’s and my life together and the roads we have taken, is an odyssey.
In an attempt to chronicle our journey, I have written a blog—Ordinary Pilgrims: Stories Along the Way. If you’d like, you can follow along at sollomclan.com.
Our past Continuing Saga friends.....
click on their picture to read all about them.
click on their picture to read all about them.
