SCHOOL!

No, not for them. The kids have been in their new classes since June (year-round school here).

FOR ME!

I start online college classes again on Monday. Whew. I don’t think I’m ready. I keep referring to the leisure that is this Saturday as “my last day of freedom.” Think I’m feeling a little pessimistic?

It has been a lovely homework free summer (one that will probably come back to haunt me when my math credits don’t line up in May), but now it is time to work again. I’m enrolled in 12 hours online and hopefully picking up a fundamental math class at a nearby community college.

Thankfully, I love school. Even more thankfully, I hope to finish this undergrad in May. : )

Thanks for the prayers for strength, endurance, perseverance, energy, and, most of all, academic brilliance!

This post is slightly delayed. Our anniversary was August 6th, but since I was surprised by a city retreat for two days, I didn’t get to post this as I planned. It is, of course, still true today.

Happy Anniversary, Dan!

This is one of my favorite pictures of you.

At this season in life, the greatest gifts you have given me are symbolized here: Jesse, Claire, Ellery, Ada, and Macy. We make beautiful babies, sir, and your love for them is amazing. Not just the affectionate love demonstrated in this kiss, but also the faithful love that guides and corrects them, making them the kind of people others will love as well. You are the best daddy.

I love those hands. They are strong and disciplined thanks to hours upon hours of instrumental practice. But they are also gentle enough to hold the smallest baby in need of your touch. Hands made to hold mine.

Those eyes! Those are the eyes full of mystery and fun that first drew me to you. Eyes I would see peeping around the corner just in time to walk with me though the freezing cold to my next class – with a hot coffee, too! Eyes that said more than your mouth was permitted. Eyes that have seen too much pain but that have only grown better, not bitter, because of it.

I love you, Babe (definitely NOT “bane” – as I once typed accidentally in a text)!

Thanks for doing this life with me. I am blessed among women.

Lic

I shared last week about how going through a crisis showed me how big the world is and how God uses us to help one another. This weekend I was reminded of another thing I learned from that crisis.

Saturday Dan headed south for an outdoor concert and the kids and I had the day to ourselves. We are the keepers of two special summer projects, one intentional and one serendipitous (I’ll share that one another day). Our intentional project is the Sunflower Fort. We cleared out a 8 x 8 foot flower bed and planted sunflower seeds along the edges. Inside we put a thick layer of mulch. We left a one foot space as a “doorway.” Even though we planted late, the plants are really starting to live up to their name, Mammoth Sunflowers!

Making the choice to hang around outside with the kids in our Sunflower Fort instead of straying inside alone to clean or study is the direct result of the kind of promises Dan and I made to ourselves in the tiny NICU room where preemie Claire fought for life. We never wanted to put ANYTHING as a priority over our family. We always wanted to remember how clear our priorities were sitting in that room.

Sure, I’d love a cleaner house. It probably should be cleaner; I know there is a place for that. But these days, if I’m making choices, the living souls get my time. Everybody and everything else can take a number and enjoy the hold music! : )

To the Fort, I say to you!

This is our new puppy, Oso (Spanish for “bear” – a tribute to his Cuban heritage):

We got a steal of a deal on him because he was an older puppy and not AKC registered. Normally a puppy of this breed, the Havanese, can run between $600 and $2,000. We paid $150. And, no, I didn’t do all the things you are supposed to do when you buy a puppy. I didn’t check out his parents or his home or his papers. I actually picked him up in a Kum N Go parking lot -  much like a drug deal, really. But he’s a wonderful little guy. We needed him. And this week our vet checked him out thoroughly and declared him a “perfect dog.”

Funny thing is, when I mentioned we were getting a new puppy, my Egyptian colleague asked about our other dog, not knowing he had died shortly after a car hit him in front of our house. He went on to explain his interest in the Western attitude toward pets compared to the Eastern attitude to which he is more accustomed. I could only assume he meant our sometimes over-the-top affection for pets that makes us dress them in little clothes and buy memorial stones when they pass.

Yes, that is what he meant. Growing up, he had both a dog and a cat, but he only kept them because he shared his own food with them. Buying dog food or cat food is unheard of in Egypt. In his homeland it is also a common occurrence for the police to walk the streets and shoot stray dogs just to be rid of the nuisance. My friend shook his head and smiled, “It’s terrible, really, I don’t know why we are this way.”

Then he told me a story he meant to be funny, but it broke my heart instead. Last year when our pastor visited Egypt with my colleague, they stopped on the street to visit with a cart driver and his horse. This job, much like a rickshaw driver in China or Thailand, is a job for the poorest of the poor. It is no way to make a living. Our pastor took an apple given to him by his Egyptian hosts and began to feed it to the skinny horse. What he didn’t know was that the Egyptians called this apple an “American apple” because it is imported and very expensive. As our pastor let the horse take a bite, the driver anxiously turned to my friend and asked him to ask our pastor if he would please save some of the apple for him instead. No matter that the horse had already bitten into the flesh, the driver longed for a taste of that kind of extravagance.

“So, having a pet is a privilege of the rich, isn’t it?” I asked my friend.

He smiled at me sheepishly, as he does when I try to dissect something he would rather leave as a simple anecdote, “Yes. It is.”

Some updates.

This week is Macy’s second birthday! (On Thursday.) Look at how she’s grown:

She and Dan share a birthday . . . you can imagine this is one my favorite days of the year! To celebrate, Macy gets a weekend with Grandma Kathy, the big kids get a weekend with Grandma Cheri, and Dan gets to play with his band, findingBethel, at the Crossover Festival at Lake of the Ozarks. I’ll be with him. AND, we’re planning to pick up a new puppy. I didn’t think I’d want another dog so soon after losing Chuck, but our house feels a little empty without a furry blur under our feet.

I’m also planning to leave my computer at home over the weekend. My new BFF Anne Jackson talks about this on her blog, the importance of unplugging now and then to give yourself a break from the attitudes and tensions that come with constant connectivity to infinite miles of information. I’ll still have my phone that gets emails, so I won’t be totally disconnected. I’m just hoping to remember what it is like to read a real book and interact with humans (and a puppy) without googling for the answers!

To close, here is a video of Dan and Macy – the birthday duo – at Christmas time. It showcases Dan’s playing a little and it is a perfect picture of Macy’s determined spirit as well. (And, don’t worry, she isn’t going to fall off that piano bench. Relax.) Enjoy! Happy random summer weekend!

Dan and Macy at the Piano from Felicity White on Vimeo.

This is the reception table at the wedding Dan and I helped with on Saturday. The bride was Claire’s beloved kindergarten teacher and she wanted something special for all her students at the recption: huge lollipops! Big hit at our table. The centerpieces were two old-fashioned pitchers of lemonade, one pink and one regular, surrounded by colorful  Gerbera daisies. Isn’t it lovely? And so summery.

It was also very practical because by the time we walked from the OUTDOOR wedding to the OUTDOOR recpetion, we were ready for an icy cup of lemonade in any color! It was a perfect touch.

The next day we recived the best thank you gift EVER! On our front porch was one of the clear glass pitchers from the reception with three things tucked inside: a thank-you note, a package of instant lemonade, and a whole lemon. We’ve done worship music at weddings for years, but this thank-you was a very sweet way to be compensated!