Bowman Telling the Back-Story

I think I can safely assume that all three of you reading this (Nana, Mormor and Mishi Angie, thanks to all three of you for reading!) have heard this story and probably told it yourselves, but I still want to write down the version I've learned.  It explains why I am here (on earth and in Bangladesh) and where my name comes from.

Mom and Dad met in Glacier National Park.  They're pretty obsessed with the place actually.  They talk about it all the time, especially when they are saddest and wanting to go there and happiest and remembering their favorite times.  They even named me after one of their favorite lakes there.  They often debate what has been the best summer of their lives and the talk focuses on the summer of 2005, which I'm about describe; the summer of 2006 after they got married; and the summer of 2009 when they both took full advantage of their teachers' schedules and spent the summer climbing and camping.  All three took place in Glacier.  They can't get enough of the place.  

During the summer of 2005, Mom and Dad both worked in Glacier.  There's some debate as to when they met, but the stories agree that Dad thought Mom was cute and she thought he was stuck-up when they did meet.  Either way, they had hours and hours after their shifts at the pizzeria and camp supply store on the Lake McDonald property to get to know one another.

As they started to hang out in the same circle of friends and realized that both had come for the hiking and not the other shenanigans that go along with seasonal work, they found themselves spending quite a bit of time together.  Although it was awkward at first and complicated by a boyfriend Mom had,

they soon realized that not much could keep them apart, and it was less than a year after they met that they were back in Glacier, this time working together at Eddie's Cafe as Mr. and Mrs. Carlson.

The reason I feel like I have to tell you all of that now is that the actual first conversation that Mom and Dad had all started because of Nepal.  In 2000, Mom ended up on a Royal Servants trip to Nepal because SARS cancelled the trip she wanted to take to China.  She learned heaps about how much Jesus loves her and the people of Nepal.  Then, four years later, Dad went on a Peak Performance trip to Nepal because his school schedule didn't allow him to go to Patagonia like he had planned.  He realized he had a heart for serving God cross-culturally.  So, during that first Glacier summer, that's why Dad had a Nepali flag on the back of his Ford Taurus that made Mom think twice about assuming he was just a stuck-up climber.

Whew.  I meant to keep that short, but I just thought you needed to know all the details.  I've really begun to master this typing thing lately, which is one reason I'm rambling on so!

So, now you know why Mom and Dad wanted to go to Nepal over our Christmas break.  In fact, now you know why we live in Bangladesh.  Ever since that first conversation, they've agreed that they wanted to spend at least part of their married life seeing what God might have for them in Asia.  Once I came along, they decided they'd better get going before more of life's little surprises popped up and changed their plans.