Updates on almost everything

To my Gentle Readers, should any still exist,

My apologies for a mostly-absent summer.  I have literally been too busy and/or tired to get anything posted here.  Let me try to rectify that by giving at least bullet point updates with some photos...

Since the grandchildren are the most delightful news, let me share something about them:

• Ezra  joined the family on April 4th.  He is now 3+ months of charm, and big sister Emma is proud as a big sister can be.  Ezra adores her, of course.  Tim and Nikki are doing well, have adjusted beautifully, and are in the midst of even more change as they try to sell their house and move into one being built some time this fall.

• Carys joined the family on June 16th.  Ada was not at all sure about the whole "little sister" thing, but it was love at first sight! Elsa once again made the whole pregnancy-labor-delivery thing look easy.  Elsa's mom, Donna, was sad not to be present, but she was helping Elsa's dad, Chris, who is recovering from a tractor accident, start learning to walk again. Donna got some face-to-face time this week when Ben and family met her at a conference.  Our prayers are with Chris as he continues to recover, and that he will meet this precious grand daughter soon.
• I picked Dave up from the airport in Phoenix and headed to Tucson for the weekend on June 20th.  The plan was to give the Phoenix kids some space, see the Tucson kids, then bring Nikki and the kids back to Phoenix the following Monday.  Tim was headed on a short-notice trip to the U.K., and Nikki understandably didn't relish time with two little ones, no husband, and a house on the market.  So we were all headed back to Phoenix to stay in a friend's empty apartment and help Ben and Elsa while Ben had surgery.  You heard correctly, Gentle Reader: double-hernia surgery one week after a newborn.  Elsa needed a hand!
• However, God had different plans.  On Sunday, June 22, Marilyn, Dave's mom home in New Mexico, suffered a stroke.  Folks from church took her to the emergency room, and she was then transferred to Albuquerque.  I am so grateful that my parents met her there and stayed with her until we could arrive.  We threw Nikki and kids all into our car, and headed first to Albuquerque, then on to Los Alamos. It was a slow trip with a nursing baby, a recently potty-trained toddler, and a stop for a visit at the hospital!  But Marilyn was in good hands and doing well, and we all made it safely to Los Alamos in the wee hours of Monday morning. The next day, Dave and I returned to Albuquerque to spend the day with Marilyn, then I took Dave to the airport and sent him back to Phoenix to be there to take Ben to his surgery.
  
• Ben's surgery went well, but he definitely needed a man for support since his wife was not allowed to lift more than 10 pounds!  Dave loved the time with Ben, Elsa, and the girls, and by the time he flew home on Friday, Ben was over the worst of the pain, cutting back on his pain meds, and was reasonably cogent and moving pretty well.  Above Ben is in his post-op comfy chair, where he slept for the first few nights.

• Meanwhile, I brought Marilyn home on Wednesday morning.  By God's grace, the stroke left her with almost no physical symptoms, and we are all beginning to figure out and adjust to what the new normal will look like for her and for us.  There are difficult transitions afoot, and we appreciate your prayers for all of us to love God and one another well, and to make a smooth transition to wherever God is calling us to go.
• It was a blessing having extra time with Nikki and the kids, and then have Tim join us for the Fourth of July weekend before taking them all home.  I'll end with a few photos from the Fourth below.
• Throw into this mix: two work-related trips for Dave, two infusions for me, one bout with acute diverticulitis for me, and what is brewing into a major battle with my insurance company, and you will have a pretty good idea why I haven't had time to blog much.  But I am tolerating the infusions well, continuing to regain a little much-needed energy, and remain without active disease in my eyes. Praise God!
• Through everything, I am constantly amazed at the goodness of God, his attention to detail, His tender answers to prayer, and His mercy and care for us all.  I hope your life is a bit calmer, Gentle Reader, but that your amazement of God's love is just as great!

Wednesday without words

Two weeks, two weddings, two picnic quilts

 Over the last two weeks, both of these sweet nieces of mine (pictured with their parents) got married.  If you go back a few weeks before that, Myka on the left got her Master's degree, and Rachel graduated from college.  Add a few significant family moments to that, and you can image the last six weeks these precious people have had!  Talk about emotional exhaustion!

These sweet, smart, talented girls love the Lord, and their new husbands.  I am so very proud of them and happy to call them family!

I made picnic quilts for each couple, and thought I would share. For Rachel and Jordan, I made "All Star Picnic" (about 42 x 50 inches, and backed with the multi-color stripe.)

For Myka and Jeremy, I made "Parisian Picnic", (about 60 x 60, made with French reproduction fabrics, and backed with the striped fabric).

I enjoyed praying for and thinking of each girl while these were made, and pray they will be used for fun occasions for years to come.

Throwback Thursday: Speech and Debate

I have so enjoyed other people posting throw-back Thursady or Flashback Friday that I thought I would give it a go.  Here is a photo from somewhere around 2000 or 2001, loading a car of speech and debate kids, their luggage and bins, coming home from a tournament. Here's to those amazing and fun days with Josh Baer, Emily and Carolyn Thomson, Joey Piotrowicz, Josh Spill, Michael Francisco, et al. And here's to thinking of the current crews-- Hallie Brown, Drew Hollis, et al., heading to current Nationals tournaments.

Wednesday without words: A new covenant child joins the family

Strange paths

I am often surprised by the strange twists my path in this world takes. But there is a pleasing unity to the whole when I look back at it. That helps me to look forward with hope.

Friday found me at the medical center being diagnosed with acute diverticulitis and an abcess on my bowel. We have hopefully found these in time to successfully treat them with antibiotics at home.

As I look back, I realize the tender care of a loving heavenly Father who was willing to disappoint me (today I am missing a sweet niece's wedding and reunion with family) in order to keep me off the road and with good medical care as this has unfolded. God is good.

And as I look forward to things planned and hoped that may not now be able to happen, I am working at being content in His love and care, and leaving the details to Him. May we both be successful at such rest, Gentle Reader.

Stuck between

I love to look at the backs of quilts.  There is often a beauty to the quilting that gets lost or masked by the colors of fabric on the front, and a plain background on the back often makes the patterns and the stiches stand out.  And of course between the top and the back is the batting-- that fluffy middle that does the yeoman's work of a quilt, giving lift to the quilting and warmth to the one being covered with the quilt.  That batting gets pretty smashed in between the layers.

I suppose it is part of the human condition to feel stuck between things. That seems to be a recent theme of my life: with a myriad of brilliant and wonderful doctor-specialists, I sometimes feel picked to pieces, each doc wanting to deal with his or her own part, but not with me as a whole.  I feel torn between my beloved family members all over the country, wanting to be with them, but being far from some and close to others.  But it never seems to be right.

That is, of course, because of my biggest in-between. I am in this fallen world and don't belong here, and not yet in nor fit for my home in heaven.  There is an old song by Glad that says it well:

The depth of your dreams, the height of your wishes

The length of your visions I see

The hope of your heart is much bigger than this

For it's made out of what might be

So now picture your hope, your heart's desire

As a castle that you must keep

And all of its spelndor, it's drafty with lonely

This heart is too hard to heat

when I get lonely, now that's only my sign

That some room is empty in me, and that room is there by design

If I feel hollow, well that's just my proof that there's more

I need to follow

And that's what the lonely is for

That's what the lonely is for

But you could seal up the pain

Build walls in the hallways, close off a small room to live in

But then those walls would remain

And keep you there always

You would never know why you were given,

Why you were given that lonely

Why you were given that empty in your heart

Why you were given that hollow

That's just your proof that there's more you need to follow

That's what the lonely is for

Feels like a curse, not a blessing

This palace of promise

When the empty chill makes you weep

With only the thin fire of romance to warm you

These halls are too tall and deep

When I get lonely, well that's only my sign

Some room is empty in me and that room is there by design

If I feel hollow, well that's just my proof that there's more

For me to follow

And that's what the lonely is for

For me to follow, that's what the lonely is for

So, on this crushed-between-the-layers kind of day, Gentle Reader, I am clinging to the God who designed me and trusting He knows what he is doing in my life, and in yours.

“I am not what I ought to be, I am not what I want to be, I am not what I hope to be in another world; but still I am not what I once used to be, and by the grace of God I am what I am”
― John Newton