First Project

Building a soccer goal with Daddy...

Have truck, will travel

I'm sitting in the lobby of the Hampton Inn in Covington, Louisiana. I've been awake since 3:30 Central Time. I finally showered and dressed around 5:00 and am now down here making my grocery list, checking the weather for the day's driving, and smelling the breakfast that should be served soon, I hope!!

Here's the ginormous moving vehicle David is driving. We filled the 26' U-Haul truck completely, tight, no spare inches, and then had to rent a 6'x12' which we then filled, completely though not as tightly packed as the professionals earlier did.

The drive was uneventful for the most part, though I realized around 9:30 at our second stop (the first was about an hour after leaving when we realized that R hadn't peed that morning! MickeyD's here we come!) that I forgot the entire bag of snacks, vitamins, dish soap, and other things I've forgotten about sitting in the living room of my in-law's house. So our snacks for Day 1 came out of the vending machine. Luckily, I had juice boxes in the cooler! Second mishap came around 4ish after our afternoon snack of whatever was in my diaper bag. The DVD player wouldn't work. B is yelling "Lightning! Lightning!" as I am desperately hoping some combination of unplugging and disconnecting will magically jumpstart this crucial piece of technology! (I charged the battery pack overnight. Here's hoping it's good for one movie today.)

Today's drive is shorter though just as boring. I hate driving through Louisiana, especially that stretch over the swamp stuff with the thump, thump, thump every few feet. At least I'm in a minivan with cruise control instead of a monstrous U-haul truck towing a trailer!!!

Sunday, Sunday

Last Sunday...I made it through with mascara intact. My man texted me (in the middle of Sunday School with Dr. K!!!) with an encouraging message, letting me know he was thinking of me on this difficult morning. For some reason, maybe the busyness of getting kids in place, talking calmly with friends, or maybe even a sense of peace finally coming, I didn't totally break down.

I shed a few tears as we worshipped, singing "So I will wait for you to come and rescue me." The songs during worship revolved around the theme of peace, so appropriately. We ended communion with "It Is Well," a hymn we also sang the one Sunday I was in Houston. I made it through that as well. And Jeff's message, from Eph. 2, was on our new life and identity as a family once we have new life and identity in Christ. Upon leaving one church family and looking towards a new church family, that was a good reminder that it is so much bigger than just me and my world.

On the way to lunch, I put it to MC this way: Worship and teaching and preaching will be good wherever we end up. But the hardest part of leaving and starting new is not knowing people's stories and knowing they know your story. From my bleacher seat in a noisy gymnasanctorium, I can see a young man--once bitter and angry--sing Gloria! Peace is coming. To see others who have had such loss and tragedy sing with joy and gratitude. It's being stopped in the hall or hugged at the passing of the peace by women who I've had contact with here and there over the past years who have met needs and given wisdom and God's grace to me at just the right time. It's having people who know my quirky kids and love them anyway.

I know in going to a new church I'm still connected to God's family universal and that the Church doesn't reside in a building. My biggest anxiety or desire is for authenticity. (C'mon, I've been friends with Patti, Marie, and Hilda to name a few. If they won't tell you like it is, no one will!) And that takes time more than anything, but I am grateful for their openness and vulnerability and acceptance.

Being at O-wood for these almost 10 years has been a lesson for us. We've grown up here in many ways, coming as college sweethearts, getting engaged and then married, starting first jobs, having two kids. While our journey here hasn't always been easy, I know we've learned a lot about God, His Word, and His people. And I am so excited about how God is moving already through the church in TX. Good things are coming and I can say that because I have a good, good God.

Covenant Family

Today was the first "last....". For the last four years, Tuesday morning has meant going to the women's Bible study. (I really don't like the Women in the Church or WIC term. We need another name!)

At first, I was a bit reluctant to join this group. The first week I walked in, 8 months prego with the girl, Hilda yelled out my name and a "You're here!!" thoroughly embarrassing me. Already a sad that all my friends were back at school teaching and I was starting a new phase of stay-at-home mom, I didn't know what to do with myself in this group of ladies in the middle of the day in the middle of the week.

Since that first day though, WIC has grown into a central part of my life. It's been a primary means of social connection (pastries and coffee in the morning, Chick-Fil-A nuggets afterward), a respite in a busy morning with munchkins, a time of learning and growth through Bible study that keeps me in the Word and accountable, and a rich time of interacting with women of all ages and stages.

In the past year or so, Women's Ministry has been the primary avenue for service in the church as I joined the board as a communications person and then gradually elbowed my way into a role in the Bible study and teaching part. This semester, I even taught a few weeks--YIKES! Incredibly intimidating teaching to a room of women all older and much wiser than I but I also enjoyed it and thought maybe I may have even made sense a time or two. I got a reminder of myself in a role that I used to do (every day even) and a glimpse of what I may get to do later on.

So today, while I cut ribbons and punched out name tags for our upcoming VBS, I was grateful for the friendships and the connections that this ministry has meant to me. And, after dropping not-so-subtle hints to our Children's Ministry Director, she presented me with the beautiful quilt of God's promises that two fabulous, incredibly talented ladies make for new moms. I really wanted one for this little guy and even more so once I knew we were leaving. I know the picture is hard to see, but each square represents a promise of God. In the corners are depictions of what God ordained--His Word, the family, community, and the Church. Between those are pictures of His gifts--food, creation, music, and "you," the soon-to-be here baby. In the middle, represented by the lamb, is His Son, Jesus. I'm blessed to have a memento to take to Houston of God's covenantal love for his children and for the covenantal love of the Church.

There's a first time for everything....

...including staples for head wounds.

Ben has been quite the independent spider monkey lately, climbing up and down various things like the couch arms or into his booster chair at the dinner table. This time it was a bench in the Chick-Fil-A play area. He fell and his head collided with the only non-plastic, non-rubber surface in the entire place.

Thankfully, this happened during our Chick-Fil-A Fridays. Marie and Jeff were there along with Susie, B.A., Sarah Jane, and Diane. It was Diane who brought a screaming Ben to me from the play area (we were like 5 minutes from leaving for naps at home). Someone handed us napkins, Marie grabbed my keys, Susie cleared out the passenger seat for me, Jeff took Big Sis home with him (she was completely blase about the whole thing, willing to follow Aaron anywhere), someone else got the cars in the drive-through lane to back up for us. And thankfully, Marie kept her wits about her and called our pediatrician where we were able to get in quickly and have familiar doctors staple Ben's head together instead of waiting for hours in the ER.

Ben was a trooper through the whole ordeal, having stopped crying about his boo-boo by the time we reached the van, more upset over leaving Chick-Fil-A so abruptly. He jabbered during the drive to the doctor's and while in the waiting room, choosing his sticker with care and patiently waiting for the "doctor to come back and fix boo-boo." He didn't flinch as the staples went in (I'm glad we opted to forgo the anesthesia of two needle pricks). I must have been turning shades of pale since the nurse kept asking me if I was alright. Sarah Jane had wondered what to do with a fainting pregnant lady too. All in all, the major trauma was over in about an hour and we were home for a much belated rest time.

I had thought back in February that it would be highly unlikely we could get through this transition time without a trip to the emergency room for someone. But at least it was only an emergency trip to the pediatrician (the doctor house, as Ben called it) and I had all the help and support I needed. The body of Christ is beautiful.

I know cool people too!

A shout out to my sister-in-law Sarah who ran the Boston Marathon today. She finished in 3 hours, 42 minutes, and 20 seconds. Out of 10,934 female runners, she came in at #2858. None too shabby!

Way to go!

embarrassing

That this is the only book I've read this year.

But it was sooo good!

I bought it with a Christmas gift card (thanks sis-in-law) and started it back in late January or so but then just didn't have the mental or emotional energy to read during so much of the ups and downs of our life over these past four months. My mom got the book way after me and finished way before me.

But if I was only going to read one book the first half of the year, this was a good choice. I first heard about it on NPR's book review series that has a reviewer pick three books with some kind of connection. This was part of a Shakespeare series. The Story of Edgar Sawtelle has, at its center, a Hamlet story. Set in a rural Minnesota of some years past, its also a beautiful Americana story, in love with its setting. The Sawtelles are a close knit family of three. Edgar is his parents' only child and also mute. The family breeds Sawtelle dogs, a fictional but amazing dog, and stays cloistered in their family and business. The beginning is a bit slow in parts but necessary as it builds to the action. Part of my reluctance to really get into the story though is the beauty of their family life in the beginning since I knew tragedy would come a'knockin' courtesy of a jealous and emotionally distant brother.

Wrobleski handles his plot source carefully. The Sawtelles' kingdom is idyllic though sinister forces of people and inner demons arise. And while you can make direct connections from the Shakespeare characters and plot devices to ones in this modern tale, the story is enjoyable and rich on its own. I especially liked Edgar's coming-of-age escape into the wilderness--a portion of the original play that we don't see. Wrobleski also continues the existential themes of Hamlet--fatalism, destiny, purpose of life. And he also handles the supernatural well, not neglecting those pivotal moments.

And update on the TX house: everything is progressing smoothly. We will close, pack, and move the week of May 4th. (I get a house for Mother's Day this year). Keep praying that the FL house sells and sells soon!