New Year Updates

As I write this, I am waiting for Dave to arrive home from work so we can hit the road to ABQ, where we will have a date over-night before I head to Tucson in the morning.  Maybe a couple of updates are in order:

My infusions are going well.  The second one gave me a couple days of headache and about a week of extreme fatigue, but now I am back to what passes for my perky self.  I still have to watch not to get over-tired, but this drug makes me feel less horrible, and I am enjoying having days that are pretty good.  I am grateful to Jehovah Jirah for providing, and I continue to pray the new drug combo will be effective.  My third infusion will come on January 31st, and then my eyes will be tested on March 21, with my next infusion on March 26.

Baby Ezra is continuing to grow and seems healthy and strong.  However, he acts like he wants to enter the world whenever his mommy has to be up on her feet for more than a shower or a bathroom run.  Nikki is tolerating the prospect (and reality) or many months of bed rest very well.  Their church is serving them wonderfully.  But this is all vexing at time.  Please keep them in your prayers.

My travel agenda is currently home for infusion and rest following it, then back to Tucson to play with Emma until I need to be back for the doctors visits before infusions or the infusions themselves.  This time I will go for a little over two weeks, and without my sweet husband.  Pray for the travel and the time apart, for life in Tim and Nikki's home with me around all the time, and for Emma to feel a senseof security and schedule with me there.  What a blessing it is to feel well enough to be of some use to them!  And this trip will include an over-night visit from Ben, Elsa, Ada, and Femto-- their new arrival due on the scene sometime in June.  I am so grateful to see them all!

A year of renewal: My sweet husband considers what our theme for each year should be, as he shepherds our family through this weary world.  He has decided that this is to be a year of renewal: renewal of our first love for Christ, renewal of our tenderness for one another, renewal of health, renewal of fire for God's kingdom, renewal of our vision (physical and otherwise).  I am finding this idea refreshing and challenging, and I am so thankful for this godly husband who serves me and leads me and is my best friend.

So, Gentle Reader, I am busy and rejoicing.  God is so good.  And where would we rather be than in the center of His will in this world?  I would love to hear how your new year is shaping up

Wednesday without words

The never-ending Christmas, projects, health updates, and waiting

Today's post is a four-parter.  I am clearing my mental clip board of things I want to say here before we head out on our next great adventure.

1.  The never-ending Christmas: We celebrated our first Christmas this year over Thanksgiving.  With both of our boys and their families here, we exchanged our gifts and enjoyed being together in the opening of them.  Then, little Ezra started causing problems, meaning Tim and Nikki's long-anticipated trip to Canada needed to be canceled, and we decided to go hang out with them over the holiday (what a hardship for us!)  So yesterday we had our home Christmas with Marilyn.  Tonight we have our Christmas with the Hansons in Rio Rancho.  And by Christmas Eve we will be back in Tucson for another Arizona Christmas.  What a wonderful, drawn-put season of celebrating for us!

2.  Projects: I am posting a few more Christmas project photos below.I made picnic quilts for both the boys and their families.  The first is "Canadian Picnic" for Tim and Nikki.  The second is "Gateway to a Picnic" for Ben and Elsa.

3. Health updates: My first remicade injection went off without a hitch, and the combo of being off the cyclosporine and on the remicade looks like a winner-- at least concerning how I feel.  There has been a marked return of energy for which I am very grateful to God.  I am not waking up every morning (as I have for the last 2 years) and wondering how I can possibly make it through the day, and that is something to celebrate.  It remains to be seen if it is doing the job of getting my eye disease into remission.  My next infusion is scheduled for January 3, and then one for January 31.  After that I should see my eye doc and be re-tested some time in March, and set up a recurring treatment schedule based on that outcome. Thanks so much for your prayers, Gentle Reader!

And down in Tucson, Ezra is staying put for the time being.  Mommy, Nikki, is a trooper on full bed rest and medication, and Ezra appears to be doing well.  He has passed the 24-week mark, which is considered the point of viability, but has a long way to go.  Please join me in praying for him to stay put at least 35 weeks-- or 37 or 38 would be even better!

4. Waiting: This is advent.  We wait for our redemption in the unlikely birth of a real baby boy, born to a real girl who was still a virgin.  What an unlikely source for redemption.  I am reminded this year in particular of the poignancy of that story. Of a young girl who trusted God, and a kind man who thought he would put her away quietly to spare her scandal, but believed God instead, and named that baby Jesus.

As we look at our spring with so much up-in-the-air that we cannot really plan any of it,  I am often tempted to despair over my lack of control.  What a beautiful reminder Advent is that God is always in control, and I can wait on Him with patience.  He will be good and true to His word, and send redemption in His perfect timing.  I can wait in confidence, though I can't see how everything will work out.  I can rest because He is sure while nothing else appears to be so.

As you wait this advent season, Gentle Reader, may your mind be fixed on the source of our great redemption, and find rest there.

Merry Christmas, 2013!

Well, the Christmas postcards are being addressed, which means it is time to update everyone here on all the Lord has done this year, and the ways He continues to go before us. So here is a snapshot of the Finnegans as 2013 comes to a close.

It is always special and fitting in this season of waiting to be waiting for a baby ourselves.  Tim and nikki and Emma, in Tucson, are awaiting the arrival of Baby Ezra, our first grandson!  Ezra is trying to make an early appearance, but Nikki and her doctors are working to keep him where he is until closer to his due date in April, and the rest of us are doing what we can to support that! The church family at Rincon Mountain are serving and supporting them well. Emma turned 3 in August, and is always bright and busy, and Pampa is her favorite.  She'll make a fabulous big sister. Tim continues to enjoy working as an electrical engineer for Raytheon.

Ben, Elsa, and Ada continue to reside in Peoria, AZ, north of Phoenix.  Ben continues to enjoy both teaching Latin and coaching flag football at the Basis school there, and Elsa cares well for him and Ada.  Ada keeps us laughing with her funny sayings and facial expressions.  And Pampa is her favorite.  Do we see a pattern here?

All the New Mexico extended family are also doing well here at the turning of the year.  Marilyn continues to volunteer at the nursing home, walk with a friend several times a week, and participate in a  Silver Sneakers exercise class at the YMCA, along with being our church librarian.   Chris' parents, Jack and Shirley Hanson, had a rough fall- illness, roof problems, and plumbing problems, are now settled down, and we hope the New year brings quiet and calm.  And we enjoy seeing Gwen, Chris' sister, and her family from Edgewood when we can work it out.  Hallie is getting ready to graduate from high school, and it's hard to believe Atalie will be heading into high school!  The years are flying by! Below, we met up with the whole contingent for a day in Los Alamos, playing putt-putt and hanging out.

This year has been a year of both struggle and blessing for us.  We have watched God go before us and prepare the way where we didn't think there was a way, and enjoyed rich blessings. To Him be all the honor and glory this season and always!  As this year closes, I continue to fight my eye disease and will begin anew medication later this week, and we both deal with aging and post-cancer-treatment problems.  But we still love each other, rejoice in our family and friends, and look forward to the adventures ahead.

May God be with you in all your new adventures in the coming year, Gentle Reader!  He continues to be with us in ours!

Thursday thought: Steady

After reading John Piper's poem "The Calvinist", I have been contemplating that word he uses to describe someone who trusts in a sovereign God: steady.

I was reminded of an event several years ago when my son, Tim, was running at Div. III cross-country nationals, and my good friend Angela had joined us at the course.  We made the mistake of walking the course the day before the race with the assistant coach (whose job it was to mother the runners).  After 45 minutes of walking the course with a constant commentary of things like, "I bet a hundred runners slip over this stream.  I'll be purposed if we don;t see broken bones..." and "This is a tight spot-- they will be pushing and shoving here,"  I found myself feeling slightly sick to my stomach and very nervous for my dear boy.  The next morning as we waited for the start, I felt positively ill.  And my sweet friend Angela reminded me, "Chris, this is where being a Calvinist is supposed to pay off!"

Holding steady and acting on what you know to be true despite how you feel sounds wonderful in the abstract.  But it is hard work in reality.  It's much easier to let our feelings have their way, and to follow wherever they may blow. As a matter of a fact, I think it would be impossible without God's gift of grace that gently calls us back to himself.

This time of year I am reminded of the steadiness of  Joseph.  He wasn't buying the whole virgin birth story,  but he was kind, and thought to put Mary away quietly to help her avoid scandal.  Then God, in an incredible work of grace, spoke to Joseph in a dream, and steadied him.  He stayed the course after all.

And I think about Mary, who believed the angel, and hid things in her heart.  How did she do that?  We get a glimpse here, in Luke 1: 46-55.  May her song be ours, Gentle Reader:

And Mary said, "My soul magnifies the Lord, and rejoices in God my Savior, for he  has looked on the humble estate of his servant.  For behold, from now on all generations shall call me blessed; for he who is mighty has done great things for me, and holy is his name. And his mercy of sfor those who fear him from generation to generation. He has shown strength with his arm; he has scattered the proud in the imaginations of their own hearts; he has brought down the mighty from their thrones, and has exalted those of humble estate; he has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he has sent away empty. He has helped his servant, isreal, in remembrance of his mercy, as he spoke to our fathers, to Abraham and to his offspring forever.

Wednesday without words

Everywhere you go...

Another Christmas project recently gifted: felt dolls for my grand daughters.  These are like paper dolls, but made of felt.  And I made them to somewhat resemble each girl.  I still have the pattern I made, so I can continue to send clothing.  This was a really fun project!

The dolls are made of felt, with embroidered mouths and french-knot eyes.  Each doll has a little leotard.  The two-layers of doll body,t eh leotard, and the hair are sewn together.

The clothing was cut from a variety of material and attached to felt backing with wonder-under double-sided fusible interfacing.  Then the clothing was sewn around the outlines, and coated with a fray-stop around the edges.

I covered a plastic binder (with the three-ring insert removed) with flannel and added ribbon ties to provide a "sticky" home for the dolls.