The Usually Unusual

I believe late summer always finds me extremely random.

It's some strange combination of too much sun, too much time to think, and lots and lots and LOTS of time with my kids. Whom I love. Even when they whistle. Even when they whistle songs that don't exist outside of their heads. Even when they are 15 and still mispronounce "legend" by phonetically saying "leg end" and leave me thinking tibia while they are talking Sleepy Hollow.
See what I mean...random.

I have to record a story right now because it needs to take it's place in the halls of our family history. But I'm warning you...do not continue reading if you are faint of stomach.
You may (or may not) recall that we went to Hawaii in April. Well we left a pregnant cat at home. With my mom. I gave my mom implicit instructions on how to deliver Persian kittens. Persians need help cutting the umbilical cord and delivering the placenta. I told her whatever she does, to NOT LEAVE the cat once labor started because they will let their kittens die if they don't have help. My mom took all this in with a half skeptical half terrified look. I assured her she's make an excellent doula and began to pray.

We got a frantic call in Hawaii that the cat was in labor and when Mom tried to help the cat bit her and broke skin. So she said something like this on the phone, "I'm bleeding. I hate that cat. I'm going to the store to get band aids. I hate that cat." And I wanted to say DON'T LEAVE THE CAT, RECONCILE, there are Band-Aids in the cupboard. But seeing as how I was laying on the beach and my mother was bleeding I wisely said, "I'm so sorry mom. You go get band-aids."
Let's fast forward over the part of this story where she came home to 2 dead kittens. She sent me a picture of the one live one and I had to ask..."Mom is that a dead kitten in the background?" Oops, 3 dead kittens. The good news was that about a week later she found another live one also.

Fast forward to last week. It was Grant's first week home from Trinidad and we celebrated by having friends over. On Monday and Wednesday, several groups of people came to play. Avonlea mentioned at various times during the week that people didn't want to play dress up because it smelled in the dress up area. Finally Mom commented that she thought the cat had pooped on a little pink costume. So later on Wednesday, after all our company left, I grabbed the offensive costume and had Avonlea throw it in the washer. When I opened the washer after it was done, I almost fainted from the smell. I took out the clothes and there was the poop, still solid after a round on sanitize. What had this cat been eating?? I scooped it up with paper towels and found myself looking at a kitten. Or what was left of a kitten. From April. Oops, 4 dead kittens.

Can I just say that this was one of the grosser moments of my life, and if you recall, I have four children, so that's truly saying something.

I don't really feel like writing (or eating) any more after that. But if I did...I'd tell you about my time on the hammock down on the island at the cottage. I took off my glasses and looked at the world, blurry and beautiful. Suddenly I felt like I was blurry, indistinct. I melded with the waving leaves and the laughing brook and the birds flitting all about me. I must have melded for quite a while because when my world came back into focus, I was looking at Rowan yielding a machete (it was actually a stick, I was still fuzzy). He said with concern, "You have been gone for so long! I came to rescue you!" Totally worth putting my glasses on to see each freckle on that precious face.

See I kept writing and I started eating trail mix, too, so that kitten story must not have been that bad.

On Sunday, the people who sold us the cottage came by it to meet us. I officially have new FAVORITE PEOPLE. It was amazing to talk to them and hear of God's faithfulness over the years and how He honors a Godly heritage. We were so encouraged and again recognized God's hand in leading us there.

Next time I write, it will be from a place of school and order and schedule. And I will live a whole year before I have the time to be random again.

This is a good thing.


Photos by Avonlea unless she's in the picture

Walking in the Footprints

Our plane landed in Hawaii at 10:30am.
By 2pm we were on the beach.
We don't believe in wasting time.
Not when there's an ocean involved.

Avonlea, Grant, and Dave had their snorkel gear on and were off. Rowan was catching surf on the boogie board and Rose was rolling in the waves, a horizontal, aquatic Tasmanian devil.

I was on the sand prostrate.
It's like this, I grew up in Alaska. Swimming was just not a popular sport up there. YMCA open swim always ended in an ear infection for me. I like to wade, to my knees. Deeper than that, something strange happens to my lungs, and I can't seem to get enough air to make rational decisions.

All that to say, I was on the sand prostrate.
The sky was wide-awake blue and the clouds were moving over it quickly. I couldn't remember the last time I watched the clouds. Then, like something out of a novel, the clouds made a picture right above me and held. It was a footprint. A perfect gigantic footprint complete with tread. A shapely heel, a wide curvature to a narrow toe line, a perfect footprint.

I've heard about the fingerprints of God, so why not footprints?

After a bit it dissipated. I didn't see anything else of interest.

I remembered that footprint in the days to come as we celebrated Good Friday and Easter Sunday. Jesus walked this earth. He left His footprints everywhere, even on the water. Even though His footprints were made thousands of years ago, I'm still trying to follow them.

Part of that following, is discipleship.
Dave and I spent every morning of this vacation reading the Word, talking about it, and praying with our children. We were intentional in our conversations with our kids and with others.

 We followed by celebrating. Our first born is approaching 15 and this trip was our present to her, the last vacation she gets to pick.

She has always been a water baby. She is the first one in the ocean and the last one out. She snorkels like a pro and identifies all kinds of fish and eels. She likes to swim with big turtles. There were times when she'd come in from snorkeling and we'd all be standing there, dressed and packed, waiting to go. One of those times, I said, "Don't you realize when you're out there, that we are all waiting to leave?" She looked at me in surprise and replied, "I was exploring the ocean!"

Point taken. So we let her explore God's creation. And we let her tell us all about it. Her excitement was joyous and her laugh loud. We followed by delighting in the good gifts of God.

We celebrated this little woman as well. Rose turned 8 and Bridgette (doll) turned 7. Rose delighted in frolicking in her tankini this trip. She stated seriously that she was going to stop wearing two piece swimsuits when she turned nine because they were so immodest and she didn't want anyone looking at her "stuff". I'm not sure what "stuff" she'll have at nine, but I'm glad she's thinking that direction.

We followed by feasting.
Every meal was shared and enjoyed.
Every meal was an opportunity to thank God for His provision for us.

We followed by laughing.
Our condo overlooked a luau. Almost every night we were able to watch amazing hula dancers and fire throwers. One night during a hula, Grant got the binoculars out. He watched the hula dancers so long that I started to get a little nervous.
Finally he said, "I see pork. And rice. Lots of salads. Oh it looks so good!"
Apparently he was watching the food bar and not the dancer's "stuff". Thank you Lord.

We followed by loving each other, even when we didn't feel like it. Even when we were tired and grumpy  and bickering. Even when expectations went unmet and the time change caused my children to wake up at 4:30am ready to start the day. Even when we had sand in uncomfortable places.

One night I brought them all into bed with us and cuddled them.
I told them, "When I was a little girl in Alaska..."
A teenager interrupted with, "I think we've heard this one."
I graciously ignored him and continued. "When I was a little girl in Alaska, I dreamed about someday having a loving husband, and a white house..."
"Yep, we've definitely heard this."
I kept my calm and sought revenge, "...a white house and two beautiful girls and two funny, strong boys. But God doesn't always give us what we ask for and I got you four instead...."

Like everything in life, this vacation was an opportunity to grow. As we read God's Word, we looked at how He walked. As we celebrated Easter, we saw the sorrow and joy in His path, the heights and depths He traveled.

I hope that when our kids look back on this trip they'll remember that the journey of God is full of joy, beauty, and fellowship. I pray that the confidence they gain by following on the sand will nurture in them the faith to follow when He calls them out upon the water.

He's Five and I'm Still Alive

When Avonlea turned five she asked if she could go to Disneyland, this being one of all children's inalienable rights, we said yes. Being the short-sighted people we are, Dave and I went one step further and said that all our children could pick where they wanted to go on their fifth birthday. We just kinda assumed that they would all want to go to Disneyland. So, we were caught off guard a bit when a year and a half later Grant turned five and told us he wanted to go to Hawaii. Hmmm.....
And I was a little more than concerned when Rowan's fifth birthday approached and he was heavily leaning toward taking us all to Nevada. Now...I have nothing against Nevada, but Rowan's sole attraction to it was it's shape outlined on his placemat, and that's almost impossible to actually experience. So....we encouraged him to think about other options...like Hawaii.
So motivated by the fact that he loves the ocean, and by the knowledge that his three pretty cousins live there, he consented.
We gave him a police uniform for his present and he made several citizen's arrests. He blew his whistle at all the crosswalks when it was time to go. He lingered by police cars, vowing to save all his birthday money so that he could buy one when he grew bigger.

I am a blessed woman. I love these boys.

Dessert!

His birthday dinner was at the cheesecake factory in Waikiki with his cousins.

This birthday marks so much more than just the passage of time and the acknowledgement of physical growth. Rowan gave his heart to Jesus this year and I've witnessed with my own eyes the Spirit's work in his life. He's learned to think before speaking, to pray for others, to check his anger by counting to ten, to ask questions and ponder answers. He's become a helpful son and a caring brother. He still gets into mischief, he still sighs when his will is thwarted, but he's learning, and so am I.

I'm so thankful for Rowan.

I'm so thankful I didn't have to go to Nevada.

Hawaii

I tend to travel with one goal in mind. God often has a different one. After a brief tussle I give in and take what He has to offer, and it's always an adventure.

Dave came home from Dallas on Sunday after an exhausting trip moving his friend there. We flew to Hawaii on Monday morning. Dave also got sick that day. Tuesday he got a terrible sunburn. I mentally constructed a post entitled, "When Paradise Isn't".

I sat at the beach for hours and hours, and at night when Dave and the kids went to bed at seven, I stared into the darkness and thought, and thought, and thought.

I thought about this life I lead and I evaluated how much of it is lived for self as opposed to what is lived for God. I thought about all the beautiful scenery before me and how it is a reflection of the God who created it. I thought about my favorite scenery of all, my family. They can stand in front of anything and make it beautiful.

I couldn't help but think about old Hawaii, what it would have looked like, smelled like, sounded like. I could look at the highway and imagine it away, and picture instead an old trail through the wind blown grasses, the roar of breakers unceasing, the heady scent of flowers.

I thought about family and friends, and those I consider both. My children's wealth of cousins is a great joy to me.

I thought about a woman's role in ministry after her baby/pregnancy days are done. I thrashed out the desire all women have, to be used in ministry, and their insecurity how best to pursue that.

I thought about my marriage and how my world turns upside down when my husband ails. It is so much easier to face life with his loving, giving heart by my side. When he was in his tired/sick/sunburned fog, I could barely face the day, even in Hawaii. My prayers were half moan, half battle-hymn, and I prayed much.

On Saturday, 5 l-o-n-g days later, he started feeling better. My smile returned. The vertical line between my eyebrows disappeared. I stopped thinking quite so much.

I had different adventures in mind for this trip. But God took me to a place where I could think, pray, reflect on His creation, and ponder my place in His work. I had my sister-in-law and my husband (the last 5 days) to stimulate thought and His beauty to stimulate praise.

And really, it came down to what it always does, all roads of thought landed me at the same destination; that in Him, I have everything I need. That when I seek I always find, when I knock the door is opened. Sometimes I'm just asked to knock in unexpected places. Like Hawaii.