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The Incredible Journey

Mar21

This summer, we are planning an epic road trip. We’re calling it “The Incredible Journey.” We plan to drive from our home in Orlando, Fla., ultimately to my niece’s wedding in Kirkland, Wash., and back home again.

ImageAll five of us. In the car together for hours on end. It could be torture.

Or it could be the journey of a lifetime.

Our kids–15, 13 and 9–are excited about seeing the Grand Canyon, Yosemite National Park, The San Diego Zoo, Yellowstone National Park, spending time with my 94-year-old great aunt, meeting my aunt and uncle for the first time, spending time with cousins.

They’re not so excited about spending 9-10 hours a day in the car. Thank the Lord for an onboard entertainment system.

We’re trying to think of road games, planning what snacks we want to bring along. Saving every penny we have to be able to pay for gas that is headed to more than $4.00 per gallon (we’re thinking of getting sponsors for the various legs of our journey) 🙂

Here’s what I don’t want to happen on this trip: fighting, car trouble, sickness, missing the beauty along the way.

Sometimes we can get so caught up in where we’re headed, we forget that there is joy in the journey. There’s an old Michael Card song that talks about that.

“There is a joy in the journey
There’s a light we can love on the way
There is a wonder and wildness to life
And freedom for those who obey”

Do you have a dream? Enjoy the process of getting there. Have a place in your life you’d eventually like to be? Don’t forget to see what God wants to show you along the way.

Eventually, like I said, we want to end up in Kirkland, Wash., to celebrate the marriage of my youngest niece. But we plan on seeing a whole lot of America in the meantime. It should be incredible.

Thankful today for:

126. a kitty who likes to lie on his back with all four feet spread to the wind

127. trash pick up twice a week

128. new families applying to our school

Losing God

Mar20

Have you ever lost a child, even for a few moments? It’s terrifying. When Nathan was just a couple of years old, we had annual passes to Sea World. We went there one day with a friend and her kids while her husband was out of town.

After one of the shows, my friend and I took some of the kids to the restroom while David stayed behind with Nathan and maybe one other child. Before long, David comes running to the restrooms area wheeling one of the kids in a stroller, hands me the stroller and runs back yelling over his shoulder, “I’ve lost Nathan!”

20120320-141202.jpgImmediately, panic set in. I had to wait for just a minute for my friend to exit the restroom, and then I rushed back to where we had been. By the time I got there, David already had Nathan in hand. The relief was like a flood washing over my heart.

It took just one distracted moment for Nathan to wander away from his dad, back to where he had been happily playing in the mulch, causing the people nearby to wonder to whom this child belonged. When Dad showed up, Nathan wasn’t worried: He never knew he was lost.

It takes just one distracted moment for us to look around and realize that we have lost track of God. But, unlike losing Nathan, God wasn’t the one who wandered.

We were.

126. An abundant choice of foods, even if I don’t know what to make for dinner
127. Breeze
128. Spring break after a busy week

Brothers

Mar19

Today, I took my two teenagers in to their pediatrician for their annual well-check. Seeing as how Justin now is taller than his doctor, it was an interesting experience. We’ve had the same doctor since Justin was born, and we love him. But I know eventually we will have to move on.

I remember the interview we did with him when I was pregnant. I remember Justin’s induced birth and bout with pneumathorax immediately after, and his brief stay in the NICU where we dubbed him “Bubba” because he was so much larger than any of the other babies in there. I remember our rush to the emergency room when Justin was 6 months old and had his first scare with his milk allergy. And the stitches in his head when he fell on the coffee table. And the stitches near his eye when he was pretending to be blind and walked into the edge of a bookcase. And his surgery where the meds they gave him beforehand made him act drunk. And the rush to the hospital when he had his first asthma attack. Dr. Didea talked us through it all, even if he couldn’t be there to do the fixing himself.

And I remember Nathan’s uneventful birth. Three hours and done. No scary NICU or anything. It was smooth sailing. And I remember how Justin loved him when we brought him home. When we finally moved Nathan into Justin’s room once Nathan was sleeping through the night, every little noise he made had Justin yelling for us: “Nathan’s crying! Nathan’s crying!” Then there was the staples for Nathan after Justin threw a broken piece of asphalt in the air and it landed on Nathan’s head. Back to see Dr. Didea.

The boys have always shared a room, but not always happily. I have stuck to my guns on this issue because I believed it would make them better friends, better people, better roommates, better spouses. Do they still argue? Absolutely. Do they drive each other crazy? You bet. But who is the first one they look for when they want to show someone something cool they’ve discovered? Their brother.

It is my fervent desire that they be the best of friends as they grow up. They are two very different personalities: Justin is into guns; Nathan loves swords and knives. Justin is a go-getter, seemingly not afraid of anything; Nathan hangs back a bit to see how things play out. Justin is driven; Nathan is laid back. Nothing wrong with either of those personalities and they both have much they can offer each other. As they mature, I see them respecting each other more. That is a wonderful thing.

They are brothers; I pray they become best friends.

 

 

 

Thankful today for:

123. a good report

124. teaching poetry writing to 2nd graders

125. bananas

Hidden Poison, Surprising Fruit

Mar17

I poisoned my eldest son this morning.

I didn’t mean to. But my choice caused him much discomfort, and if it hadn’t been for a quick ingestion of Benadryl, it could have been much worse.

What I thought was a treat, turned into torture as I chose to have his smoothie made with the protein blast instead of the immunity blast it normally comes with, unaware that the protein blast contains whey protein. 

My son is severely allergic to all milk products.

You would think, after 15 years, that I’d know better than to just trust a clerk who says, “Yeah, it’s supposed to be OK.” As we drove home, Justin taking deep breaths and trying to remain calm as his body rebelled against the evil substance, I flashed back to the rush to the hospital he and I had made 15 years ago, when he was just 6 months old and had ingested cow’s milk for the first time. Praise God he never stopped breathing. Now, Benadryl is nearly always at hand.

It’s like that hidden sin that can so easily entangle us. What we think is just an innocent brush with something–just one drink, just one visit to a pornographic website, just one small lie to my spouse about where I was and who I was with–can turn into something much bigger, and even life threatening. Sometimes we don’t even see it coming.

Then there was yesterday. After throwing the ball in the yard for the dog to chase, my mother-in-law came in an announced, “We have a tomato plant in our yard!”

What? How could that be possible since we never planted a tomato plant or seed?

But sure enough, there was this thriving plant, with set fruit on it already, living between ixora bushes, right next to our screen enclosure. What a surprising blessing. Don’t know where it came from, but we will enjoy its fruits.

Sometimes God grows us in ways that are surprising, too. We see the fruit of it in our lives. I like the line from “Evan Almighty.” God is speaking to Evan’s wife, who has taken their boys and headed to her mom’s as she thinks Evan has gone over the edge building this ark thing. God says to her, “Do you think when you pray for patience, that God gives you patience? Or does He give you opportunities to be patient?”

Have you prayed for kindness and wanted God just to make you more kind, and instead He’s given you opportunities to be kind? To love better? To be more peaceful? Gentle? Self-controlled? All fruit of the Spirit. We might not see it for awhile, but like our little tomato plant, one day we all of a sudden realize, we have been bearing good fruit.

Hidden poison, surprising fruit. Both show up in our lives consistently. If we can manage to avoid the one, and thus stay alive in our spirits, then we can live to see the other, and bless people with the results of our growth.

Thankful today for:

117. Benadryl

118. surprise parties

119. speaker phones

Won’t You Be My Neighbor?

Mar16

I really need to have a conversation with Jan. And Monique, I’ve hardly spoken to her since she had her baby–two years ago, was it? And Laura? I can’t even remember the last time I saw her. And Maureen. And Erin, And Shari. And Juanita. And Maria.

These are my neighbors. We live on a small Cul-de-sac. I know all their names. But, boy, have I been neglecting these relationships. We wave and say hi, but that’s been about it.

It’s not like the cold winter has kept us inside our houses. I think the average temperature this winter was 75, or something like that. I may be exaggerating, but you get the point. It’s not been the cold weather; it’s been my cold heart.

Most are older than I and don’t have kids the same age as mine. And they haven’t exactly made overtures to talk to me either. Why do I always have to be the one to do the initiating?

Maybe because I’m the one who supposedly walks with Jesus. I’m the one who knows the importance of community. I’m the one whose church is right across the street, for crying out loud!

My kids have sold them all coupon books in fundraisers over the years. They’ve knocked on their doors to ask them questions for a survey during their community unit in first grade. All three kids, the same questions, a few years apart. No one ever complained.

My dog has run through their yard.

The last time I spent any significant time with any neighbor was when three of us had to go to juvenile court to testify against a boy who had broken into one of the neighbor’s cars. It was me, and two of the husbands. I had to go because I took pictures of the perp, even though David saw him first.

But I spent a couple of hours talking to them while we waited for our case to come up on the docket. It was a great conversation where I learned a lot about them.

That was in August.

Seven months ago.

Who goes that long without talking to a neighbor?

I’m frustrated with myself. Things simply must change. Spring is right around the corner.

I’ve got some cleaning to do.

Thankful today for:
114. My neighbors
115. A waning fever
116. My bike, that hopefully I will get on and ride today