Friends, family, fun, and fatigue

 The last few weeks have been very busy with visits from lovely friends and family from far away: Amy and Robert from MD, Keri and Ethan from TN, J. from France, Tim, Nikki, and Emma from AZ, and Jeni from IA.   And we have been silly and serious, and have enjoyed renewing friendships and loving one another in person instead 9of from afar..

 I have been reminded of several sweet things in these weeks:

1. Children are wonderful: Happy 28th birthday, Tim! You are a wonderful son and Daddy!
2. Grandchildren are a complete joy. There is nothing better, though thoughtful and loving daughter-in-laws come close.
3. Family matters: I love time with my sisters, my nieces, my kids and grands, my parents, and my sweet hubby.  God is good to give us these relationships.
4. Friendship invested in bear much fruit over time.  Many of the women who visited were very young women when we became friends.  As a matter of fact, I was a young woman with young children then. What a joy to watch them mature in grace.

 Last Saturday I rode up the chairlift with my sister to the top of Pajarito Mountain.

I thought, as did several of us, that we would hike the ridge, then ride the lift to the bottom.  Silly me.  The lift at Pajarito is a one-way event, which I should have realized.  So no ride down for us, but a rather unexpected hike down 1500 vertical feet and a couple of miles, not just for me, but for my 3-year-old grand daughter, my almost 87-year-old mother-in-law, and everyone in-between.  It was not what we had planned, but there were no choices once we reached the top.  It was extremely tiring, and I found myself wondering, not whether I would reach the bottom, but if i would do so without crying.  But in addition to the fatigue and sore body parts, I got to enjoy that spectacular journey-- it was a beautiful walk, and a great adventure.

On Monday, as I visited my eye doctor, I found myself in much the same spot as I had on top of that mountain: only one way to go, so like it or not, keep moving. My disease is not yet in remission, but we are unsure where my eyes stand.  They could not get the injection of fluorescein into a vein properly, so while my hand turned an amazing shade of bright yellow for a few hours, my test was inconclusive except for the fact that there is still some amount of leakage in there.  That also means that we won't move forward on the cataract surgery for the foreseeable future.  I will give the test another try in early September.  In the meantime, I have decided it is best for me to resign from my online teaching job with Veritas Press Scholars Academy-- something I am sad to do.  But it seems like I have no other course to follow, and that God is calling me to rest for a season, and wait on Him.  So onward, down the road before me I go. Who knows what beauty and adventure lie ahead?