It's not so bad.

After a week of fighting colds, Will had a high fever a couple of nights ago while Annie was cutting her third tooth, and none of us slept very well. Will spent yesterday laying around and asking for naps and I managed to give both kids baths in the afternoon as if to say "good riddance, you mean and nasty Cold!". We tucked two happy, recovering kids in bed last night with a good night story and everything.Then this morning, when I was helping Will get dressed, I noticed that he had some spots... and as I looked more closely, I realized it was not just a few, but they were rapidly taking over his whole body! Teeny tiny spots everywhere. We went to the Health Center and several nurses gathered around my little boy and named it "Measles". Measles? Who gets measles? They told me I could take him to the hospital to make sure. No thanks. I told them I didn't really care what it was called as much as I cared about what to do for my Will. Nothing. There is nothing to do but watch it take over his body, keep him from scratching it (yeah right!) and watch for secondary infections. So I am beginning to feel like a real parent these days. When it rains, it pours, and I just have to laugh, throw up my hands and say, "Who'd have thought we could handle all of this?!" And really, it's not so bad. One nurse's advice: "Take pictures!" :)

last week

Here are a few pictures from around here last week.

Nate cooked a delicious Sunday morning breakfast complete with bacon, eggs, tomatoes, toast, and tea. I'm so spoiled!
Will "helps" Auntie all day long - here they're doing laundry.
I took the kids down to the playground at the school to escape the painting at our house for an hour. Annie was left in her backpack since I couldn't face trying to keep her from eating dirt and everything else that day.
Will enjoyed himself immensely of course, entertaining himself with the sand and a little cup I had brought. I'm glad he's not in school yet - he just needs to play the days away right now.
We stopped on the trail above the gym because Will begs us to stop and watch the work everytime we walk on this path. This time, he said, "Mamma, you take a picture please", so I did. :)
The week ended with a bang. Wednesday, while the painters were still lazily plodding along with my bedroom, the mattresses arrived for our beds (which I had ordered about a month ago), and Annie and Nate got sick with a terrible cold that is still running it's course. Thursday, the painters finally finished and I kicked them out of my house and began to reclaim it. However, the 'alarm installers' also came that day and managed to do very little damage to our freshly painted house, and another man came to replace our gas line to our stove - finally. Friday was a day to begin reclaiming the house but the weekend was fairly sleepless with Annie so sick. Today Will has the cold too and my throat is sore. Here's a picture of my sick little Annie.

But my favorite picture is this one of Will on our way back home. These are the last steps before our house. Our house is up along the path (you can see the rail up to the top left a bit) and last year I took this path daily and called it my 'commute' to school. The steps and path remind me a little bit of the paths at Kwada (a lake we went to in Africa).

an attempt

I've been wishing I were an artist lately. This is the best I can do for now, but I thought I'd share it anyhow, because it might make sense to some, and others might just smile and see lots of fixing that could be done. Enjoy! :)


An Attempt to Articulate.

Oh to sit and pen a rhyme
that’d float upon the wings of time;
to swiftly transform muddled thoughts,
such lovely lines skillfully wrought;
to chant the truth poetically and touch some part forgot.

I long to write in poetry
with meter to craft breezy, free,
enchanted dance that words with rhythm be.

Amazed I gape at the sharp mind’s skill
to paint a picture and spread the thrill
of a moment, a season, a struggle of will-
the guts of reality spill.

Oh to brave a slim communication
with a nameless, faceless, feeling person.
I hunt for words that’ll clarify,
for rhyme that fits, for what won’t die-
for both of us, our hearts to pry
open.
-J. Burchell 19 Oct. 2008

Blessed

The house is quiet as midnight draws near, and I have just spent the past hour listening to a very helpful message from Steve Saint about suffering and our incredible God. Wow. I found it helpful and encouraging and am putting the link here so you also may be blessed through it.
"The only sure way to maturity that I see is through suffering"- Steve Saint.

http://www.desiringgod.org/ResourceLibrary/MediaPlayer/1673/Video/

Will's 3rd Birthday

Happy 3rd Birthday, Will! For probably the first time ever, we got up before Will and woke him up with singing, cake, tea, candles and presents.

Thanks for the Farmer Will book and farm animals, grandma and grandpa et co., for the cutting book and big balloons, mormor and morfar, for the transformer car, great G and G, and for all the phone calls from afar. Will also loves the camel Nate made for him, which will hang on his ceiling when he's not using it.

(By the way, that's a freshly painted bedroom!)

And we had a little party with many of Will's friends. It was fun for all of us.


Will had a really wonderful day! Happy Birthday, my boy!

My Thankful Delhi Musings

A couple of weeks ago Nate came home from working in the woodshop with this cool camel 'marionette' which he had designed and made to give to Will on his 3rd birthday. Here's a picture of him finishing up stringing it. He had it completely done before we left for Delhi and it is SO neat!

Will and Annie in the train passing the hot hours together.
We took a rickshaw from the train in the north of Delhi all the way to the south of Delhi where we stayed and it took us around an hour in the dust and heat.
It was nice to be staying close enough to the hospital that we could walk or take a cycle rickshaw there in just a few minutes.
After enduring a few miserable days of Delhi, we were back on the train bound toward home. We got seats at the end of the car where there is one fewer chair, so we were able to put annie's stroller there and she slept for a couple of hours - that helped. What we didn't remember was how the passengers line up to exit the train about half an hour before their stop and they just stand in the aisle waiting... in our space... for what seemed like forever.
For those who have never taken 2 class non-AC trains in India, here's a picture of our car during the last hour of our travel when it had finally cleared out and cooled off a bit.

We have taken worse train trips - like when we rode in 'ordinary class' for 16 hours and we were packed in a car with benches like we were cattle. We've also taken sleeper class, 3AC, 2AC, AC chair class, and AC chair class with complementary meals and tea. That's 7 different types of train travel and there are still several more that we've not taken yet. This trip was hard because of our two white, rowdy kids and the discouraging circumstances surrounding the trip - the worry of seizures, and the exhausting news that we'd be changing medicine but wouldn't know for a long time if it would work or not.

In my last post I promised to list some things I am thankful for:

-none of us were sick during the entire trip

-the location of the hotel was great -near the hospital

-will's MRI was normal

-we got to eat at Subway, KFC, and cafe coffee day several times each!

-we found lettuce and avocados and they mostly survived the long hot trip home! YAY for a couple of days of lettuce SALADS!!!

-will lay down for a nap when we needed to do the EEG, and he slept so we didn't have to drug him (smile)

-we bought a really nice french-english picture dictionary that Will loves looking at

-we had good discussions with two senior neurologists about will's medication

Delhi makes me thankful that I have a roof to sleep under, a warm, soft bed, all the beautiful clothes I can imagine, a loving and brilliant husband who plays with our children and gives them all a father can. We have enough money to buy whatever food we want to eat and whatever books we want to read, and toys we want to play with. We take warm showers, can get clean and out of dirt and dust whenever we want, and we feel generally safe and cared for in our community. We don't have to put up a piece of plastic in a smelly, dirty section of town as a shelter from the sun and rain. We are so blessed by God - and I have barely begun to write about all the blessings we know.

Perhaps most importantly, I find that hanging out in a hospital just generally makes me thankful. I spent the hours looking around and seeing so many people with more desperate problems than ours. A man hobbling down the hall with a cage around his leg where pins have been inserted -has he been wondering if he'll ever walk again? A woman lying across some chairs in the waiting room writhing in pain as she clutches her head and crys from a massive headache or problem in her brain. The man with her doesn't know what to do -how to help her - how long everyone will be looking at them. A woman with a 1-year old baby girl who doesn't seem to even be able to hold her flat head up very well yet. The baby's face looks squashed so that I can hardly look at it - and I'm ashamed that I am not more thankful for the blessing of healthy children. I am ashamed that I worry so much about Will. Yes, Delhi leaves me feeling incredibly blessed and rather ashamed for the ways I grumble about the amazing life I've been given by our Father in Heaven.

1 Th 5:16-18 Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus.

back home

We're back from Delhi. I'll try to write more details soon, but essentially, we had lots of tests done on Will and the doctor said that he is having two kinds of seizures and suffering some side effects from the medicine that has been helping one kind of seizure - so, we're needing to change medication but we won't know for about 2 months if it is working or not since we have to ease him onto it. I found many things to Praise my God for during our trip, so I'll try to compile a list of those to share, and there were many frustrating and discouraging things as well, which I'll try to let go of (smile). We are thankful that Will had a very detailed MRI done which showed that EVERYTHING is normal in his brain - this is a huge blessing. We also had blood tests done and the results were fine, so he's not in any critical danger. We are simply trying to get the seizures under control without Will suffering any major side effects.
Then there is the painting project. Suffice it to say that this was only barely begun when we returned last night and it is well underway this morning- but we are only barely living in our house at this point... grrr. I'll be glad when it's all over with and there isn't old paint falling off the walls, or new paint to bump up against.
Well, that's it for now. Annie is asleep in her stroller since her crib won't fit easily out of her room where they're painting - oh what a mess!

to Delhi

We're off to Delhi in just a few hours taking Will to see the doctor again about his epilepsy. We're catching a taxi at 3:00 am so we can make it for the train that leaves at 5:00 am, which also does not have air conditioning. Our home is all packed up because we're hoping that the painters will come and paint it while we're gone. I will be very 'put out' if they have done nothing when we return! So I'm off to bed for a few hours of sleep. Thanks for your thoughts and prayers.

Dreams Lome Tuer

Yesterday we were at the Stationers Shop in town and Nate pointed to a display box with the caption: Dreams Lome Tuer.
You see, in India, people try to follow the general shape of the letters when they're copying a word down and you can spell a word any way you like. Oops, forgot a letter? No sweat, just add it later - the order shouldn't make a difference. It is helpful if it is spelled somewhat phonetically, but let's be realistic, many people can't speak much less read English, so any way you spell it will do. It seems that simply having words is what matters. Can you figure out what English phrase inspired this caption?

"Swimming"

The weather has been wonderful since the rain has stopped and the sun is bright all day long. Will and Annie have been enjoying spending the mornings 'swimming' in our backyard. Nate took these fun pictures - enjoy.

too many pictures!

I guess these pictures are especially for the grandparents, but I thought I'd post them anyway, although there are a lot. I like pictures. : )
"I don't know why some people can't touch their toes- it's easy!" : )Relaxing out in the shade after a long day of work - is Annie giving Pappa all the answers for his crossword puzzle?

On the fence...

Here are some pictures of the social activities I mentioned earlier:
Sewing night- Will fit right in with us ladies, crossing his legs while working on his cardboard sewing.
French Club with some middle schoolers

Baking Club with some high schoolers

Life these days.

What to say? It's been awhile since I wrote on here. I REALLY appreciate the comments you readers have taken time to add here and there. My days have been filled with taking care of my kids and planning for the next social thing I'm a part of. Today I taught Sunday School, although I'm still undecided about the value of this both for the students who come and for my family. At least it's done for a couple of weeks now. We have a short break coming up this weekend and the following weekend we won't have sunday school because there will be a chapel service that week (we made an arbitrary decision not to run sunday school on chapel sundays). Anyway, now for preparing for guitar lessons tomorrow, and Bible study and French club Tuesday. Wednesday will be free as the break will start that day. The other things I've chosen to be a part of this year are Baking Club (which is really great!), Sewing night (monday evenings of hanging out with other women to spend time working on our sewing projects and talking), and once a week I play in the student orchestra - it'd be better if I would practice more than once a week! It's been nice to have some things going on to get out and spend time with people.
Other than that, my mind has been on the problems in this country - the persecution of Christians and terrorist bombings, and the upcoming election in the US (actually i'm not thinking about it very much - i'm just glad to be far from TV and political bashes and I pray about what God has in store for our land). More pertinent to me are the 'news' items in my life- the accomplishment of putting up Annie gates in our house, organizing Annie clothes gone wild, bringing in the bukari (wood stove), cutting down candles to fit into my candle holders, fixing tea for my amazing and wonderful husband, FINALLY beginning to quilt Will's quilt, soaking an infection on my finger, sweeping up crumbs from under the table, and washing Will's sheets daily as he keeps wetting his bed due to seizures :( . yes, he has had more seizures. So we are planning a trip to Delhi in two weeks when we'll have more tests done and discuss medication options with the doctor. This is life right now. I'm also anxiously awaiting the arrival of several babies of friends and family - Just got word about Laura's new daughter! Next should be Mary, then Sarah, then Laura before the middle of October, then finally Sasha in a few months. How exciting! :)
So this is life right now. I've recently put up a Bible verse on our bathroom wall which has been a neat picture to me.
Isaiah 40:11 He [the Sovereign LORD] tends his flock like a shepherd: He gathers the lambs in his arms and carries them close to his heart; he gently leads those that have young.
These days feel like God is carrying us close to His heart and gently leading us. I pray that He'll remind you of these pictures too and of who He wants to be in your life these days.

So thankful.

I just got off the phone with the doctor who saw Will in Delhi a month ago. Will had another seizure last week after 3 weeks of no seizures, and also had a rash appear on his face over a few days. We emailed with the doctor our concern that the medicine was perhaps not working and the rash was a side-effect that would need attention, and he requested that we bring Will down to Delhi again and have more tests done. In the past few days, however, the rash has completely disappeared, so we felt that the trip may not be necessary. We were encouraged to go anyway by a nurse here, and so I called the doctor to find out details about the trip- when he could see us, how many days it would take, what tests would be done etc. When I mentioned that the rash had disappeared, he said that we should continue with the same medicine and just wait. He said that if Will has another seizure, then we should get blood work done and consider a trip to Delhi and perhaps a change in medicine or dose. This response was such a blessing to us as we really didn't feel that the trip to Delhi would be beneficial at this time-- with no real sense of what we'd be trying to accomplish there and no sense of a definite problem with what we're currently doing. We are so thankful that the doctor has told us to just wait and see. It feels good to be in agreement with him about this and it is very nice to not have to go to Delhi right now.

happenings at our house.

I love this picture! What a doll. :)
But she's trouble - "Oh NO! You caught me racing to the toilet again! Maybe if I speed up I"ll get there before you catch me." I don't think she realizes that she's caught between us here.
"Hmmm this stuff is funny and doesn't feel very nice on my knees. I guess I'll have to crawl on my hands and feet."
(Check out the cool slippers.) "How come Will's picture is so much nicer than mine? How does he do that?!"
Show and tell. Evidently Annie doesn't have much to show or tell.

Annie concentrating on her big brother. "I can't wait until they give ME a pair of scissors!"

Annie's "mad bluebird" look. Some friends spent the afternoon admiring this goofy face Annie often puts on and likened it to an angry bluebird face. :)

"Yook! Yook-a-dis!" Will, the socks go on your feet, not your hands.

on being "just a mom"

In response to one of my cousin Laura's recent blog posts about how life is changing and she's finding herself to be "just a mom" surrounded by moms, I thought I'd jot about some of my own thoughts and feelings on this.
I, too, find myself to be, finally, just a mom. Maybe. It's just that in this setting, the past couple of years have made me realize that I thirst for other moms. I long for 'play dates' and to talk about kids. I long to fit into a group where there are others with similar joys and struggles off of whom I can bounce ideas, concerns, questions, throughts and dreams. Being 'just a mom' in my setting has been rough in some strange ways. I think that a lot of it is that it is coupled with feeling very young and inexperienced as well. I feel a bit insecure about having others watch Nate and me parent...-we don't know what we're doing! In this place, I am the only one in many crowds with a little rowdy kid who is 2 years old and acts like it. He doesn't obey or listen or sit quietly or answer politely or behave. He's just a little kid, but I sometimes dread social things because he's the only little kid. Besides that, I'm not very creative and I am finding that I hunger for ideas of what to do with my kids. How to play with them, how to teach them new things, how to pass the time in a fun way. I could learn a lot by watching and talking with other moms if there were some around.
Reading my cousin's thoughts, I'm remembering that I have now deliberately chosen to trade in my 'career' for being a 'stay-at-home-mom'. This reflects a huge change in my heart through the past 5 years. I used to find pride and joy in doing work that pleased people, meeting goals, and being 'someone'. But this has faded for me as I have been learning that God wants me to find my sole identity and purpose in Him, and that when I do that, He promises to fill me up. I find that deep inside God is asking me to love my children, to spend time with them and to raise them to love and know Him, and this year has been a welcome chance for me to do that. I have come to really love and enjoy being a mom - something I never thought I'd be or enjoy! The days can be lonely, however, and often I fail to be the loving, godly mom I want to be. This summer I found refreshment in meeting with other moms to talk about kids and being a mom. Probably my experience is a lot different than my cousin's who sounds like she feels a bit trapped by it all. I am still able to spend time with students, older couples, singles, young married couples - people of all different ages, cultures and religions. My life is rich, yet some days, I just long to hang out with a bunch of moms and discuss kids and motherhood - it might make me feel a little more normal. :)

Signs and Promises

"The whole Christian life can be summarized in our two questions: Who is Jesus? and, What does He want of me? All of us would do well to dedicate our lives to answering these two questions." - Jim Petersen

This quote was a helpful reminder for me recently. I think sometimes it helps to step back from life and reconsider what it's really about. One of my great joys these days is the Tuesday morning Bible Study. We're looking at God's promises and it has been so refreshing and encouraging to meet together and dig into God's Word. I ran into a verse that seemed to clearly express God's whole purpose in giving promises:

2 Peter 1:3,4 "His divine power has given us EVERYTHING we need for LIFE and GODLINESS through our knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and goodness. Through these He has given us his very great and precious promises so that through them you may participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires."

So far we've looked at God's promises of peace and of strength (which are closely related). We read through the story of Gideon which is absolutely amazing- a story I haven't thought about in too long. But the question arose- does God still give signs to us when we ask Him for them like He gave to Gideon? I'll think on it and try to remember when I've seen this in my life. If you have seen God giving a sign, I'd love to hear about it as well. I love remembering God's promises and how He's followed through.

"Not one of all the Lord's good promises to the house of Israel failed. Every one was fulfilled." Joshua 21:45