Three months ago, this little child was born into our family. It is sometimes hard to believe it!
Praising God for our little Hope today.
Archive - April, 2010
Restoring My Faith In Humanity
I was born and raised in the friendly South. The type of place where you come home from the grocery store with a recipe, written out by the lady in front of you in line. You made a comment about the season’s sweet strawberries, so she offers her best strawberry jello recipe. When you move into a neighborhood, your new next door neighbor shows up with a homemade pecan pie. When you are driving faster than the slow-poke in front of you on a one-lane back road, the slow-poke pulls off the road to let you pass. And waves at you. And it’s an actual “hi, have a great day” sort of wave not an obscene gesture!
I miss these things about the South. These things rarely happen here. Dave and I often express dismay at the lack of friendliness of the east coast suburbs. And we wonder how we are going to keep our kids from joining right in with rudeness.
Today, I went to the grocery store. Hope was fed and happy. That lasted until the bread aisle. Hope was tired of the grocery store and decided to let everyone know about it! I hurried to the check out lane and started putting my groceries on the conveyor belt. Hope kept getting louder and louder. She was heading into that all-out purple-faced scream. The one where you wonder how they can breathe while screaming that loud.
A sacker came over to my lane and took over putting my groceries on the belt. She said, “Oh, I want another one of those!” I laughed because a peaceful, happy baby makes me want another one, not a screaming one! I picked up Hope in her infant car seat carrier, swung her back and forth, and calmed her down. I paid and thanked the lady. I started pushing my heavy cart, still swinging the car seat. I got outside and the man putting the carts back in place ran over and asked if I needed help. Yes, thank you! He unloaded all of my groceries into the back of the van.
My faith in humanity was restored.
On the way home I started thinking that we just never know. We don’t know what someone is going through. We don’t know how bad their week has been or month or even year.
So, how about smiling at someone this week? Holding a door open. Waving. Offering help. They might think we are nuts but oh well, at least we can try!
When we got home, Hope fell asleep. Nothing more perfect than a sleeping baby!
***
Wes, Dave’s brother, wrote a really inspiring blog post about his recent kidney surgeries. I wanted to pass it along to all of you. Click here to read Thoughts on the Failure by Wes.
To Bloom Again
It’s been a rough week. We would greatly appreciate your prayers. Here are the specifics.
Wes and Steve (Dave’s brothers)
Brief update: Wes’ body rejected the kidney that Steve donated last week. Wes is still in the hospital, hoping to be released tomorrow. He has been dealing with a lot of pain but is feeling better. Steve is also doing better and may get to travel back home today (he has been recuperating near the hospital).
- For Wes to continue recovering from two major kidney surgeries within a week.
- For Steve to continue recovering from donating his kidney last week.
- For both to emotionally heal.
- For Steve’s and Wes’ families. They too have gone through a very traumatic week.
- For the doctors to come up with the best course of action for Wes now.
Our Family
- For our marriage. Lately, we have not been responding well to the enormous amount of stress we are under.
- For our living situation. We are still in limbo land as far as where we will be living after this summer. The owners of our townhouse did send out two contractors for an estimate on finishing the basement bathroom but we haven’t heard further.
- For Carmen. There’s nothing specific going on with Carmen but we always appreciate your prayers for her.
I took a picture of these flowers in our front yard a few weeks ago. They only bloomed for a few days. But, they reminded me that the bleak, dead days are only for a season and that life does bloom again.
Something Beautiful
During the past three years, we have received the gift of pictures from Rashmi, Melanie, Sarah and Beth. These photographers have blessed us with amazing pictures of our family. We will forever have beautiful pictures of Carmen. Thank you ladies!
Last year Rashmi took pictures of our family. Like she always does, Rashmi captured something beautiful. Thank you.
(Turn on your sound as the slide show music is beautiful.)
