Pastor Appreciation Day

We loved picking up the kids from school on Tuesday and spending some weekday family time together at Funworks.  This is the place that opens up all of its attractions to pastors and their families totally for free.  We look forward to this day all year!

Delia is newly uncasted, so we thought she should wear her sling and avoid things like the bumper cars and high climbing structure.  We mostly stuck to the go-karts and mini-golf on this afternoon.  

(Look who got to try steering for a little while!  We think she'll be tall enough to drive herself next year!)

 Ella and Dave took one ride on the bumper cars while Delia and I cheered for them.

 And there was a small hay maze the girls spent some time playing in.

After our fun at Funworks, we had our traditional pizza dinner.  It was Family Fun Night here too so the girls got their faces painted.

Life is good and we are not complaining because we are blessed with work and places where we know we are meant to be, but doctor appointments and youth group lock-ins and tests and book reports and Classis minutes and working with a sub every day this week have made us all feel a little worn out lately.  It is always so good to just press pause for a bit to laugh with my favorite people about mini-golf holes-in-one and who will pass who on the go-kart track.  For giving our family this break, we appreciate YOU, Funworks!  

Highs and Lows

No pictures in this post, just a little update on the emotional roller coaster we've experienced here in the VM House this week...

HIGH: After nearly two months, Delia got her cast off!  She was so excited to see and bathe her arm again (okay, maybe just Mom was excited about the bathing part) and spent the entire night smiling and exclaiming over the way air! and water! and tickling! felt on her covered-up-for-so-long skin. Her bones are still not totally healed and, though the doctor thought enough progress was made to keep her uncasted, he warned us that she needs to keep taking it easy for the next month.  So, no playground, no PE, no running, no dance, basically no "Being Delia" for a while yet.  It's gonna be a challenge!  LOW for me: seeing Delia on the play structure at recess while I am teaching and having to open up my classroom window and yell at her.

LOW:  We said goodbye to our hamster Cutie.  We noticed she was sick a few nights ago and prepared the kids for her inevitable death.  The reality is that there is no way to prepare girls who are super sensitive and have soft hearts for all living creatures for goodbye to a beloved pet.  All our talking and preparation did nothing to avoid the hours of wailing that we've endured.  Please Lord, let Lily live forever!  Speaking of prayers, we did get a smile out of one that Ella said the night before Cutie died: "Dear Lord, I know that you don't usually accept pets into heaven, but can you make an exception for Cutie?  Maybe she can be "a chosen one", like your Israelites?  I think she even knows about Jesus from living in our house.  Amen."

HIGH (for Ella): The Giants are going to the World Series!  We let her stay up a little later to watch this exciting game last night.  She was jumping around hugging us when that walk-off run flew into the stands at the bottom of the 9th.  If it can't be the Cubs, we're excited to cheer for our second favorite team a while longer! :)

Weekend with Friends

Last weekend, Dave attended a youth worker convention.  That left the girls and I alone with plans to head down south and spend time with two of our favorite families.

On Friday night and Saturday we stayed with Dorina, Meilani, Giada and Zayla.  I can not tell you how good it was to spend this quality time with my dear friend.  Dorina continues to adjust to life on this side of Ericlee's passing, but God has been incredibly good.  She and the girls are being carried by our faithful Lord and by a loving community who feels convicted to take care of them.  We believe that "in all things God works for the good of those who love him" and there is a mountain of evidence that God is absolutely at work here.  Dorina's stories are amazing!

We did spend a good amount of time talking about and shedding tears over the recent big events in their life.  But, what was so beautiful about this visit was the opportunity to laugh and find some normalcy with our friends too!  The girls, with that crazy strong bond they all share, instantly got busy playing.  We went out for a fun appetizers and dessert only dinner.  We took these girls to our favorite accessory shop for the first time.  We ate popcorn and watched a funny movie together in our jammies.  We cheered Giada on in her Saturday soccer game. We talked about books and old boyfriends while we folded laundry.  We discussed and pinned paint colors for the house make-over an army of friends wants to do for Dorina.  And we took goofy group selfies.
  

Almost hourly, my thoughts and prayers continue to stay with our friends.  To get this time together to hear about and see for myself how they are healing, and to just have a blast, was a real gift for me and my daughters.

After Dorina's, we headed on to our other good friends Teri and Phil's house.  They have recently moved, so it was nice to get acquainted with their new home and neighborhood.  Teri took us on a tour of the school she teaches 2nd grade at and on Sunday we were blessed to attend their church with them. (We hardly ever get to see new churches, it's a real treat!)

We missed seeing their middle daughter Allie, who was at a school retreat, but their other kids, Beth and Nathan, were wonderful hosts to my girls and the fun times swimming and playing continued at this second stop!  Since Teri and I both started teaching, we've been able to connect via phone much less than we used to.  It was another treasure to get this big batch of quality time with my friend to do things like stay up late catching up or get a real visual of what her family's daily life is like.

When we returned home on Sunday afternoon, feeling happy and grateful for the great time we'd spent at both of these friends' homes, Dave was back from his conference and excited to greet us.  It was the kind of weekend that doesn't really have any rest in it, but somehow leaves you feeling fully recharged!

Cast Story: Chapter 3

Well, here we are on post #3 about Delia's arm!  This has been a big and long ordeal for us, so I guess I'll continue recording the tale.  About 2 weeks ago Delia was able to get her first glimpse of her left arm in over a month!  The doctor was ready to take off her long cast and see how things were progressing.  

Her pink sparkly cast was jam-packed with signatures, so Delia was excited to keep it.  The ortho tech carefully cut it off with a tiny saw that tickled Delia and made her giggle.

I was actually expecting her wrapped-up-for-over-a-month-arm to be way grosser.  The only thing weird about it was seeing her summer tan peeling off.  After the cast was off we had to walk over to x-rays.  The whole time it was uncasted, Delia kept her arm cradled next to her body and she was unwilling to straighten out her elbow. I guess when your arm has been in one position for so long, it's just too strange to change it!

The x-rays indicated that though some healing has taken place, there is still enough of a gap showing in the bone cracks that the doctor wanted to keep her casted.  So...back to the cast room we went.  For cast #3 Delia decided to go with bright yellow and blue stripes.  And more glitter.

Stay tuned for Cast Story: Chapter 4!  On Monday we head back to orthopedics (aka "Home away from home") for yet another appointment.  This whole procedure will be repeated-- remove cast, x-ray, determine if another cast is needed.  If Delia ends up in her 4th cast, she already has picked out what she wants-- glow in the dark! (For real, they have it!)

A Very Delayed Post Featuring Uncle Kyle

Hello blog readers, are you still out there?  I haven't been bloggin' much lately, but we still have stuff to tell you about (and yes, I do recognize that by "you" I am probably just referring to myself on a day in the future when I am feeling sentimental and re-reading old posts!).  Our fall has been full of interesting outings and time with loved ones and today I am going to finally cross the "Publish a few blog posts from this month" item off the to-do list!

About a month ago now, we were so blessed to have Kyle stay with us for a little over a week.  It was a school week bookended by weekends where some of us had to be in other places, so the time with Kyle was pretty uneventful.  We celebrated that we got to just "do life" with him and actually feel that all this time sharing meals, reading stories, playing games, and talking on couch was probably the most quality time we could have spent!  This special time to share life with Uncle Kyle made a huge impact on the girls and they continue to talk about it and miss their awesome uncle.

On one Saturday Dave, Kyle and Delia headed to the coast for the day.  Ella is obviously in 4th grade now, which means she is old enough to join our church's GEMS Club.  She had a kick-off party that she was unwilling to miss on this particular Saturday, so we hung back.  I asked Dave to take some pictures and here is what I got:

The day at the coast was cold and overcast, but I heard a fun time was still had.  This trio saw sea lions and boardwalk rides.  They ate Pizza My Heart and Maryann's ice cream.  They flew a kite on the beach and even sighted several whales!  I'm glad that, even though our family was split up for the day, Kyle was able to get at least one outing into his week with us!   We have our fingers crossed that he'll acquire more San Francisco clients and these weeks at our home will become a regular thing! :)

Piano Recital 2014

Last night Ella had her annual piano recital.  She's been practicing hard and was very excited...and for the first time VERY nervous.  She played two songs, a solo called "Boom, Boom, Ain't It Great to be Crazy?" and a duet with her teacher Miss Sara called "Trumpet Voluntary."  She played her duet perfectly and was especially proud of it.  Here's a video of the short performance...

This year Ella also joined the "300 Measures Club" by memorizing and playing 300 measures of music for her teacher.  She was awarded with a special ribbon that Ella is also very proud of.  Miss Sara is a great teacher!  We loved listening to her roster of students perform.  Some are new and playing songs Ella excitedly told me she remembered playing.  And some are more advanced, playing things Ella said she's looking forward to learning.  Sara is having a baby next month and will be taking some time off.  As a gift, she gave Ella a book of Christmas songs to work through on her own.  Ella is thrilled and immediately dove into some sight reading upon coming home from the recital last night .

What was extra special about this piano recital was that Uncle Kyle could hear it too!  Did you know we've had a family visitor for over a week now?  Kyle had some clients in the city on Monday, so it worked perfectly for him to come stay with and do life with us this week.  I haven't posted anything because we haven't done too much besides the norm, but it has been wonderful to share it all with this super uncle!

The Pink Sparkly Cast

This post shows a little bit of the process and product from our appointment at the orthopedics about 2 weeks ago.  Delia was REALLY looking forward to getting her hard cast and knew exactly what she wanted...hot pink with sparkles.  

We started the appointment with more x-rays to confirm that the bones have not shifted.  They had slightly, but not enough that the surgeon was concerned.  Then they cut off all the plaster and bandage layers of her old soft cast.  This was actually a 2 person job, because one tech needed to keep both hands on Delia's arm at the break point and keep it held together.  There was a whole bunch of color choices, and even options like stripes, but Delia had her mind made up.  I told the orthopedics they were making this way too much fun and they winked at me and replied, "Job security!"

  

Above shows Delia with her first few signatures-- Mom, Dad and Ella.  She also had it in her mind that her school principal, who has been extra attentive to Delia through this whole ordeal, would be the first school friend to sign, so we stopped in his office first.  She came home later that day with her cast full of signatures and messages and a huge beaming smile.  Cards, gifts, a hot pink accessory that friends can sign, and lots of extra attention-- I get the feeling Delia will some day say, "Remember when I broke my arm?  That was AWESOME."

A few days after the new cast went on, Delia had Cowboy and Cowgirl Day at school.  The above picture shows off her signed cast a little and the outfit and pose she came up with for this special day at school.  Another very amused teacher swung by the preschool and told me to look out my window at the 2nd graders doing Cowboy Day.  I saw all the little girls had tied their bandannas into slings around their left arms.  Yikes!  Not exactly the trend we wanted to set! :)  

She'll wear this cast that goes above her elbow for 2 more weeks, then they'll switch her to a shorter hard cast for 3 more weeks.  With her three different casts, this whole broken arm adventure will stretch out all the way into October.  We thankful every day that there have been no complications and that Delia has easily and completely adjusted to having one arm immobilized for 2 months!

Memories

When Dave came to school at 1:00 yesterday to tell me in person that our friend Ericlee had passed away, there were no words.  There were no thoughts.  Only tears.  I could not have written this post 24 hours ago, because last night I was shaking my fist at God and questioning the justice of taking the life of a man with a 37 year old wife and 3 young daughters.  I was demanding to know the justice of stripping a man who dedicated his life to fitness and health of the ability to move.

Today I spent the day with my friend Dorina and she ministered to me, as she has been doing for the past 2 decades.  She testified peace and comfort and even joy during this time.  She spoke honestly about the burden of watching her husband in pain for the past 3 weeks and the relief that he no longer is.  She proclaimed the certainty of Ericlee's welcome into the loving arms of his savior and the hope she has that her family will continue to be held and embraced by the huge community that loves them.  We laughed, we cried, we put together a funeral slide show, we reunited with our other college roommate, Cindy.   And I helped as best I could, changing her baby girl's diaper and clothes, snuggling the one who cried when her toes were stubbed, reading stories, singing songs, watching gymnastics demonstrations.  During this most difficult time, I saw Dorina's precious daughters actually exuding joy and hospitality!  I left Dorina's house today with my heart lighter and ready to share some of my own thoughts of the friend I only knew for 11 years.

Ericlee was the kind of person you might find really intimidating, especially if you are one who compares yourself to others.  He was the most fit person we knew, working as a trainer at Cross Fit and running marathons or triathlons, what seemed like, every weekend.  He had a passion for keeping his body healthy and never put anything artificial or un-organic into it.  When he learned of his cancer diagnosis, he even felt convicted to treat it using the Gerson Therapy-- juicing and consuming organic fruits and veggies every hour.    Ericlee was a great dad and I had countless opportunities to watch him parent his daughters with patience, energy, humor and grace.  He had an amazing work ethic, seen in his extreme devotion to pretty much anything he did in life.  His faith meant everything to him and he did not ever waste a moment getting to know our big God better.  He'd often share with his friends what he was learning from the latest devotional or theology book.  His faith and total trust in God is what led him to full time ministry in Haiti, where he and Dorina helped bridge resources in the US with the remote mountain town they visited every few months.  They also launched The Haitian Bead Project, which has been changing Haitian women's lives for years now by offering "a hand up rather than a hand out".  He and Dorina had this epic love that was unlike any marriage I have ever seen.  They complimented each other perfectly and lived sacrificially for one another.  They embodied the idea of "team"-- working together to passionately do everything from coaching track teams to improving the eating habits of the people around them...and in ALL things always trying to point the world to Christ.  This super fit, super Christian sounds pretty perfect, huh?  And that is why he might be intimidating.   But, Ericlee never made you feel like he was better than you (even though he probably was).  He was one of the warmest, friendliest guys you'd ever meet-- always ready to greet you with that huge smile, a hug, and inquiry about your own life.

I've been dragging some old pictures off my CD library for Dorina, so here are a few random shots taken over the years.  Each carries a special memory with it.  Ericlee and Dorina getting us to do things we'd never do on our own, like eat Ethiopian food and run half marathons (not together, that would probably not be good.).  A reunion with all my college roommates and our hubbies, before there were 8 kids in the picture. And a weekend at a house on the coast with one very creepy stuffed bobcat.

My mind has thought of little else besides Ericlee and his life and death.  And, of course, these thoughts bring up memories of my own parents.  Like Ericlee, my dad was 40 when he died.  Like my mom, he died of a short, but intense battle with cancer.  Like Meilani, their oldest daughter, I was 8 when my dad died.  As we talked Ella through all of this yesterday, she made the natural connection to my parents too.  She asked me to tell her about them.  I told her how my dad was gentle and tender-hearted.  He was the one to tickle me and hold my hand.  He was blind, so his sense of hearing was especially strong and he loved all things music.  He would take my sister and I on a walk to the ice cream shop on the corner every Tuesday night.  My mom had to raise two little kids completely on her own when my dad died suddenly.  She was strong and independent and tough enough to fight for everything her family needed, and even wanted.

Ella cut right through me when she asked, "Do you think they would have liked me?"  "Oh Hunny, they would have LOVED you!  My dad would have been your #1 fan as you played piano for him and my mom would have thought you were independent and strong too. Your amazing self would have melted her tough heart." I assured her.

A part of me is still shaking that fist at God... for the childhoods my dad missed-- mine and his granddaughters' and now for the childhoods of Meilani, Giada and Zayla that Ericlee will miss. And I have a million questions: Given what he and his life were all about, wasn't his death was the most cruel way to go?  He was such an amazing leader and servant, couldn't he have done so much more if allowed to stay on this earth?   These questions will continue to haunt me, and it is Dorina's own words that I'll continue to go back to in seeking comfort, understanding, and trust: "We have heard many people question: How could something like this happen to Ericlee? He’s so healthy, so fit, such a good guy, works so hard, sacrifices so much for Haiti, etc. etc. We want to underscore that we do not believe in that theology. We do not believe that just because you are “good,” “hard-working,” “healthy,” or even “doing good in the world” then you will be exempt from trials. In fact, the Bible gives example after example that we will ALL face trials. Every trial is an opportunity to reflect the God we trust, who holds the future and loves us deeply. James 1:2-3 says, 'Consider it all joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you can be mature and complete, not lacking in anything.'"

The ExplOratorium

This post starts with praise yet again for our awesome library system.  They have a program that allows you to "check out" tickets to area museums for free.  We have tried and loved using this library program the past.  The museum we explored this weekend is a pretty popular one, so we had to reserve these tickets about a month ago.  We've been looking forward to this outing for a long time!  We explored San Francisco's hailed science museum, the Exploratorium.  

We've been here before, but the girls were small and the museum was still in its old location.  Last year it moved to a beautiful, bright, new setting on Pier 17.  I had read that the Exploratorim has 1000 some hands-on exhibits, with about 600 of them being on the floor at any given time.  And I think we saw most of them!  We stayed the whole time they were open-- touching, experiencing, and learning cool new things about all areas of science.

 This air blower both balanced a beach ball in the air and gave us new hairstyles, which was perhaps not the most scientific!

 This crazy drinking fountain messed with our minds and tricked our senses.

 In the xylophone room we learned how sound changes when the shape and thickness of the block you are whaling on does.

 This huge curved mirror turned our inverted images into 3-D ones!  We were all fascinated giving our reflections high fives and hand shakes.

This room was one of our favorites!  A trick in perspective shrank and grew us!

 Delia loved learning about 3/4 and 4/4 rhythms while practicing her Rick Allen one-armed drumming skills!

 We left our jumping shadows on the wall of this fun room.

 Another trick in perspective.

 Here the girls got their 80's music video vibe on.  Also, they learned about how tornadoes form as a fog vortex twisted around them.

 This exhibit was hands-down our favorite.  With magnifying glasses that saturated the color, we watched the water we sprayed become frozen crystals growing and spreading across an ice table. "I know what 'frozen fractals' are now!!" exclaimed Ella.

 Reverse ears made our brains have to think in a new way yet again when we closed our eyes and tried to discern where sound was coming from.

And some very cool outdoor exhibits got played with too.  Here Ella has found her way to the top of a strange kind of maze structure.  (Delia is not in the picture because she far away pouting that we wouldn't allow her to climb it too.)

We're thrilled that we got to experience this world-class museum for free!  Visiting the Exploratorium was super fun, but also exhausting.  Seven hours of walking, playing, thinking, and learning will really wear out your mind and body!  Delia fell asleep before we even turned her lights off at night.

No Surgery!

For Delia, the past 10 days have been all about getting used to a very different lifestyle.  She has learned how to do most everything one handed.  She has learned how to entertain herself at recess without moving from a bench.  She has learned that Mom will freak out if she jumps on the couch instead of just laying still on it.  She has learned how to tell her story 100 times and deal with people she doesn't even know giving her hugs and expressing concern.  She has learned that checking the mail each day is an exciting adventure! :)

And today we learned a lot more about what the next 56 days will look like when we had our follow up appointment with the orthopedic surgeon.  He is very pleased with the bone alignment job those rockstars in the ER did.  He sees no reason to do surgery, but warned that the arm is still very fragile.  It is possible for the bones to bump out of place, which would cause great pain and also send us straight to the operating room.  Because of the fragility of the the bones even 10 days in, he didn't want to touch Delia's arm too much, or take off the soft cast.  In one week, he will X-ray again and hopefully move Delia to a hard cast that will still go up over her elbow.  Delia's one question to the doctor was, "What color casts do you guys have?"  He said the magic words, "Oh, almost every color...and GLITTER!"

While we're thrilled to hear the exact news we've been praying for, we still have concern.  This IS Delia we are talking about and if the issue is protecting her arm from any sort of bump that would misalign those bones, we need to keep praying!  Right before the doctor entered the room, we shooed Delia off the wheeled, spinny stool she was attempting to climb and stand on!

     

But, oh how we are blessed!  The above picture shows Delia posing with some of the cards and notes she's received.  Entire classes at school have written her letters, people from our school we don't even know have mailed stuff.  Presents are found waiting for her in my classroom in the morning.  She has felt the love and we're once again so thankful to be a part of such an awesome community!