Never a Dull Moment

It was haircut time for us ladies of the house last week. We found our favorite stylist, Laila, in her new little salon at 6 in the evening. A cute "hallway" studio, with clean white tile floors, a bright light, one chair, one shampooing sink, and a cassette player that played some ethnic dance music. B. was first and Laila began chopping away. (She has a good eye for even hair, though she certainly likes to cut short!) B's hair was half done when I noticed that Laila began to cough and went for a brief walk outside. When she returned she bent down to get a drink from the shampooing sink. Unfortunately we heard a retch and poor Laila began vomiting. The minute that followed felt like a good 1/2 hour as I asked her if she needed help, debated if we should quickly run out of there (!), said "poor thing, poor thing," and then determined to sterilize myself upon our return home. She felt much better after that episode and put a towel over the shampooing sink (remind me to always wash my hair before going next time!). Though I urged her to rest and we would return another time, she wanted to complete all of our hairdo's. So she did. And we all showered vigorously when we returned home.

I love an adventure. I do. But sometimes I just long for something here to be routine, ordinary, what I expected. I guess "dull moments" don't always require much faith in God to get you through them though. He is near and cares for us and a little sickie stylist.

Signs of Fall

The start of new online Veritas Press classes--Medieval Literature, Composition, and Theology

New classes at the local French/Arabic school in the afternoons

And pumpkin pie!

New growth, new life

My mom influenced me to like Jade plants. They are my favorite. I delight in going outside on our balcony patio and examining them. I always kneel down, finger their leaves, and revel in their growth. After doing this for a few minutes in the morning, I shake out of my dreamy state and go back to the laundry or dishes or whatever. There's great therapy in a little nature!

When things were so difficult this spring, I thought I might objectify my pain a bit. I took my biggest jade plant and pretended it was me. (Bear with me...it will soon make sense!) I chopped off 4 branches to represent our 4 Mexican friends who were asked to leave. As you can see, I mutilated it a bit.
My sweet plant, clobbered. It was how I felt, like my own right arm was cut off. The pain of their leaving and everything else that was happening.

But, I knew a secret as I cut away. I knew that it would grow back. I knew that it would take time. I knew that it would take care. But, it would grow.

Similarly with my heart. It would take time, care, and soaking in God's promises, but I too would be new. With the kids last week we learned a new one of God's promises--God will not bring any unnecessary suffering into your life. The apostle Paul had hardships, ones in which he despaired of life itself. But, he said, "that was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead." (2 Cor. 1:9). So God doesn't waste our suffering as He doesn't bring any needless pain in our life. For a little suffering is a small price to pay to gain faith in God.
Months later, you can see the growth on my jade plant (above). You can still see the incision but in some way it adds to the beauty and character. By God's grace and kindness, may it be true in me too.

Tribute to mom

August was my mom's birthday month. It reminds me of popsicles on the porch and banana splits, ringing phones and our late night "Streets of San Franscisco" TV shows. She was such a joyous dear. A stabilizing glue for us all.

All 4 of her granddaughters carry on her name. My sister's newest, born just a month ago, bears the middle name of Alice. My oldest does also. My sister's big girl's middle name is Elizabeth, my mom's middle name. And our youngest girl, has a middle name of Rose, from a little verse of Amy Carmichael's writing, "From thy briar shall blow a rose for others." From my mom's "thorns," her debilitating physical illness, she was a sweet rose to others. May these girls, the next generation, have the compassion and mercy that my mom had because of her simple faith in the Lord Jesus.

My oldest wrote this about her grandma a few years back--

"My Grandma was a servant of a lady. She would always make banana bread and take it to people who were feeling down. Before my mom was born she taught 4th grade. She was born in Cleveland Ohio. Her grandparents immigrated from Germany.

She always wanted to drive down a road with a canopy of trees. So she got some trees and asked neighbors to buy trees. But the trees were slow growing, so they never really made a canopy.

Grandma liked to stay up late and work. She also liked owls, Dopey and wearing powder that smelled nice. One time she was teaching Sunday School and hit her chest with her hand and a big cloud of smoke went POOF!

She loved to laugh and to play with me. She got some kind of disease and had to go in a wheelchair. She died when I was around 7. I wish I could remember her when she could walk. It was very sad when she died, though joyful at the same time since now she is in heaven and is perfect."

Old things made new

Our 1986 Nissan Patrol, "Big Red," fits all of us plus some. Patrick's a truck guy and this is a great vehicle to have because people in our country can take old things and make them new.

Yesterday on our return from a beautiful beach about 40 minutes from us, the car overheated. Patrick pulled to the side of the autoroute and within 2 minutes a road assistance car pulled behind us. (Before yesterday, I had never known that yellow road assistance cars existed here!) Patrick and the road man looked under the hood and discovered that the radiator hose broke. So Patrick ripped off the tape that had been holding it together for the past few months (See? If they can't find a part here, they turn old into new! And it had held up through many kilometers!) The car was returned to the correct temperature and the road man had the number for the tow truck.

Within 40 minutes a tow truck pulled up in front and after looking at us all (whole family plus one extra kid) told Patrick that we would need to get a taxi because he didn't have insurance. He changed his mind after Patrick talked his winsome ways with him and we began our ascent up the back of the tow truck. The top of the hook contraption that was pulling us looked like it was re-hammered on the front part of the truck (See? Old things into new!) Patrick's flipant comment, "If that snaps it will come right through the windshield, so duck," didn't quite quiet my fluttering heart! But there were no problems, we were all hooked in, and took off slowly down the highway, perched in Big Red. Two men on donkeys looked and pointed as I'm sure 6 kids, a mom, and no driver (Patrick was in the driver's cab) high in a big red car looked a little quirky. My favorite look was from our 1 1/2 year old neighbor when we drove up our street. He peered out their white curtained windows, looked at us, smiled and waved. He was so enthralled, I laughed out loud and waved back. Quite a day!

So today, Patrick was very cultural and made a new radiator hose out of two old ones. He travelled to a city about an hour away and looked through a junk yard, asked around, and managed to find three hoses that could possibly work. They didn't. He improvised. Hopefully it will work until he can travel to another big city about three hours away. I'm so proud of him always working so hard. And thanks be to God for always providing us manna when we need it and promising that one day He will make all things new.

14 is a lovely age

"14" now belongs to our lovely daughter! I am so thankful for this girl and that God has placed her in our family. May the Lord continue to grow her and show His love to her. We love you big sis!

We have an 8 year old!

Hooray! June 7th marked JP's 8th year of life. What a privilege it is to be his parents. We did a 8 day countdown beforehand in which he could pick out a different type of ice cream treat, and we marked it on this cake. (My personal favorite was day 3--look at the size of it! I couldn't accurately draw the creaminess either...)
How appropriate to get spider man jammies. On the night before JP was born, Patrick and I had gone to see the 9pm showing of Spider Man in the movie theatres. Then the castor oil kicked in and JP was born at 2AM. Oh my word! Fast and furious is an understatement. Praise God that I didn't chow on the movie popcorn that night! Ugh!
We took a special day trip down to the zoo. I love JP's expressions--he is a lover of life and his face always shows all of his emotions.
A new zoo friend/employee invited us back to see the animals up close...very close...probably TOO close. This lovely, dangerous hippo, a crocodile, and an elephant (that we petted). At the end of the "tour" I realized that he probably wasn't supposed to do this (especially jump into the crocodile display and try to get him to bite a stick! My boys were ready to jump in too when I reminded them that usually a gate in front means, "Don't go in!") but it was quite an adventure for our big boy! May the Lord give our little buddy much growth in wisdom and love for the Lord this year.