Savoring the Moment

Promises, promises....We said we'd update the blog regularly but several people have commented that they've seen no postings since we travelled up north. Our friend Calum, who used to visit us from Scotland would say we're "savoring the moment". I used to wonder if that was an excuse to avoid taking pictures but now I understand that sometimes absorbing the present and transferring it to memory is enough.

Though we have precious few pictures to prove it, life has been full to overflowing.

We love our refuge here at Kuyper--our 2 bedroom apartment in an idyllic setting. It is a gift from God. The sights and sounds are all so familiar and comforting....the smell of the apple turnovers as we hike across the orchard to the donut shop, the deafening roar of the waves along the shore at Lake Michigan, Starla's squeal of delight as she puts her penny in the pony at the local grocery store and rides (when I watch her I see 3 other faces smiling gleefully in my memory), Louie beginning each sermon with "turn in your copy of God's word to..."

Brian is pounding the pavement 6 miles many days doing his summer weight reduction/fitness program. He plays "Mr. Mom" while I play daughter many days. He's busy writing his next book and studying the US constitution.

Angela is BUSY! She's volunteering at the local library in the kids summer reading program, volunteering at the nursing home painting a beach scene wall mural, studying Shakespeare with a friend and she just finished a weeklong Worship Arts Camp at church.

Lily recently celebrated her 11th birthday and enjoyed her 3rd annuall roller coaster extravaganza day with her dad at an amusement park. She and I just completed a cake decorating class. Her lofty reading goal for the summer reading program is 65 books and she's already completed 34.

Robyn and Starla found baby raccoons one night last week and tried to feed them graham crackers. They feed the chipmunks on our patio and climb the mulberry trees to find the best berries. They are employed by our neighbor to water all the flowers around our building and she pays them 10 cents each per day.

We've all celebrated wedding, birthdays, graduation, meal sharing, walks and play dates with friends. Much is good in our lives and we are grateful people.

The bittersweet part of the return has been walking alongside my mom as she approaches death. I never anticipated becoming so intimately acquainted with the local hospital. Recently, she stablilized the very same room that my dad breathed his last on this earth. Her body continues to weaken under the strain of congestive heart failure and every night I go to bed wondering whether my phone will ring with a message of crisis before morning. I long for the day when her suffering will be over; still, the unknowns of "walking through the valley of the shadow of death" to get there is what she and I both dread.

So there's our June in a nutshell. As for the weather, it started out and ended feeling more like fall than spring--cool and crisp. But we also enjoyed many "perfect" days and even a couple of scorchers (by Michigan standards).