Sunday, October 23, 2011
...and a funeral
Yesterday I commented on the "Three weddings..." Today it's just a brief note to add "... and a funeral". Sounds like a movie title. But that's the past four weeks in a nutshell: three weddings and a funeral. I couldn't go to the funeral. But four weeks ago - is it possible it's been so long? - my host mom died. I wish I could have found time today to call Switzerland again. I've called a couple times. It's not easy with the time difference, and it's sometimes hard to know what to say. But I miss Lucette and I am mindful of the grief of my host family. I always will miss her. I imagine it will get easier of course when I do think of her. I still think of her almost daily. I am noticing already that now that she isn't there to call, to write to, to buy little gifts or postcards for, I don't think of her quite as often as I did when she was still alive. That in and of itself is taking getting used to. I wish I did think of her as often as when she was alive. I think my mom would say this is part of the grieving process - the letting go. I expect she'll write on this blog to say "amen". (Thanks mom).
Saturday, October 22, 2011
Three weddings...
This afternoon, my beloved attended his third wedding in almost as many weeks - and he's attended as many rehearsals to boot!
Four weeks ago, a dear friend was married. We all attended that one, as she is a neighbor, a sister in Christ, as well as a beloved friend. Her son is a just a few weeks younger than our Andante. We've known her since before he was born and remember meeting him in his first few days - what a blessing that day was. We also know and are friends with the groom and have delighted to see God bring them together, and to give her son a father. Papa Bear was their photographer. It was a sweet gift and a privilege for us to be a part of their day.
Then, two weeks ago, one of my beloved's younger brothers was married. You can see all our commentary on that in a previous post, but needless to say, it was a special day and my husband played his part well.
Today, we got him all dressed up again and made sure he had the car. The kids implored me, "Do we have to go to another wedding?" While I would have enjoyed going, it was time to give them a break. This time it is the daughter of some of our friends, and my beloved is, again, the photographer. We both know the daughter, but the kids don't, hence the decision. But there went my handsome groom, off again. What a privilege to be able to do something so special for people as to capture their "once in a lifetime" event (Lord willing). So we share him gladly, and look forward to hearing about the time, seeing the dress, and asking a zillion and one questions about it all when he comes home (more likely in a couple days after he's downloaded the camera and rested his poor feet).
That said, this is - hopefully - the last wedding for a while. We will be glad to have our weekends, and our Papa Bear back with us. We knew this fall would be busy what with these commitments, and soccer, and the other regular things that make it busy, but I can't think of many happier reasons to be so busy.
Four weeks ago, a dear friend was married. We all attended that one, as she is a neighbor, a sister in Christ, as well as a beloved friend. Her son is a just a few weeks younger than our Andante. We've known her since before he was born and remember meeting him in his first few days - what a blessing that day was. We also know and are friends with the groom and have delighted to see God bring them together, and to give her son a father. Papa Bear was their photographer. It was a sweet gift and a privilege for us to be a part of their day.
Then, two weeks ago, one of my beloved's younger brothers was married. You can see all our commentary on that in a previous post, but needless to say, it was a special day and my husband played his part well.
Today, we got him all dressed up again and made sure he had the car. The kids implored me, "Do we have to go to another wedding?" While I would have enjoyed going, it was time to give them a break. This time it is the daughter of some of our friends, and my beloved is, again, the photographer. We both know the daughter, but the kids don't, hence the decision. But there went my handsome groom, off again. What a privilege to be able to do something so special for people as to capture their "once in a lifetime" event (Lord willing). So we share him gladly, and look forward to hearing about the time, seeing the dress, and asking a zillion and one questions about it all when he comes home (more likely in a couple days after he's downloaded the camera and rested his poor feet).
That said, this is - hopefully - the last wedding for a while. We will be glad to have our weekends, and our Papa Bear back with us. We knew this fall would be busy what with these commitments, and soccer, and the other regular things that make it busy, but I can't think of many happier reasons to be so busy.
Thursday, October 20, 2011
Apples apples apples....
I love fall, and I love my four little apples. We went apple picking one afternoon last week and it took us about 10 minutes to pick a bushel of apples off two trees. And we barely made a dent! Since then, we've eaten tons of apples (yum) and dried tons more. Delicious. Soon we'll go back and get piles of drops to make applesauce and apple butter, which we can to last 'til next fall. They are definitely our favorite fruit!
Wednesday, October 19, 2011
Marriage . . . that blessed event
We took tons of pictures - and have no time to cull and edit them at this point. However, it's good to take a moment and pick a few to share right away, hence this post. There were so many wonderful memories of this special day - before, during, and after. All the photos capture but a brief glimpse...
Congratulations to the happy couple! Thank you for including us in so many ways. We look forward to seeing how God continues to grow each of you into His own image, now through your marriage. May what He brought together never be broken asunder! And may we, as your family both by blood and in Christ, do all we can to encourage you to seek Him first, to live graciously with each other through faith in Him, to both repent and forgive quickly when you sin against each other, and to represent Him to the world wherever He may lead you!
Sunday, October 9, 2011
Irene's Wake
This is a synopsis printed in our local paper today (10/9/11) of Irene's impact to our roads, statewide. And as complete as it appears, they say the local impact is much greater than what is depicted here. Note that this doesn't begin to count the cost of reconstruction (only guesstimating that of labor on the state roads - so far), nor of the impact of all this infrastructure having been missing. Note too that Irene came through six weeks ago.
A look at the damage Irene caused to Vermont's roads and bridges
Irene's damage - state
• STATE ROADS CLOSED POST-STORM: 146
• STATE ROADS REOPENED AS OF LAST WEEK: 140 (27 with some restrictions)
• STATE ROADS THAT REMAIN CLOSED: Vermont 107 in Stockbridge, Vermont 107 in Bethel, Vermont 131 in Cavendish, Vermont 106 in Weathersfield, Vermont 100 in Jamaica and Vermont 12A in Roxbury.
• STATE BRIDGES CLOSED POST-STORM: 34
• STATE BRIDGES REOPENED AS OF LAST WEEK: 28 (three with some restrictions).
• STATE BRIDGES STILL CLOSED AS OF LAST WEEK: Vermont 100 in Readsboro, Vermont 73 in Barnard, Vermont 73 in Rochester, Vermont 100 in Jamaican and two bridges on Vermont 12A in Roxbury.
• MILES OF STATE ROAD CLOSED POST-STORM: 531.77
• MILES OF STATE ROAD REOPENED AS OF LAST WEEK: 518.76
• STATE TRANSPORTATION WORKERS ASSIGNED TO STORM RESPONSE: 700
• OUTSIDE HELP: 349 from Maine Department of Transportation; 20 from New Hampshire Department of Transportation; 667 from six states’ National Guard units, 1,860 from 185 private contractors.
• AGENCY OF TRANSPORTATION OVERTIME: 55,000 hours for a total cost of $1.8 million.
Source: State Agency of Transportation
Irene's damage - local
• LOCAL ROAD SEGMENTS DAMAGED IN STORM: 2,260
• LOCAL ROAD SEGMENTS CLOSED AS OF LAST WEEK: 175
• LOCAL ROAD SEGMENTS OPEN ONLY TO EMERGENCY TRAFFIC: 33
• LOCAL BRIDGES DAMAGED IN STORM: 289
• LOCAL BRIDGES CLOSED AS OF LAST WEEK: 90
• LOCAL BRIDGES OPEN TO EMERGENCY-ONLY TRAFFIC: 6
Source: Chittenden County Regional Planning Commission
What roads are still closed
Agency of Transportation Secretary Brian Searles said the longest-lingering projects to reopen roads closed by Tropical Storm Irene are:
• VERMONT 107 between Bethel and Stockbridge, which has two separate washouts where the White River rerouted itself. The road is expected to be open by Thanksgiving.
• VERMONT 106 in Weathersfield, which is likely to be done in December.
• VERMONT 131 in Cavendish, where Irene opened a canyon. It should be open by Thanksgiving, possibly earlier.
• VERMONT 12A in Roxbury, where two bridges and a section of road are washed out. The bridge repairs will be permanent rather than temporary and are expected to be done by Dec. 15.
Other work to reopen state roads is expected to be done by the end of October, Searles said.
Wednesday, October 5, 2011
A long couple weeks
My posts have been slow at best. Life has been moving at lightning speed, and full to overflowing. Honestly, the "fullness" hasn't been what's been hard; what's been hard have been the "overflowing" emotions.
Hurricane (aka Tropical Storm) Irene hit the state hard. While she failed to bring the anticipated rain to our particular region, she deluged the state as a whole, and emotionally I have struggled with the suffering felt by my fellow Vermonters. Many I know suffered job dislocation due to flooding, or business impact (destroyed workplace etc). Our infrastructure has been impacted, and it's affected much both directly and indirectly. It will take years to recover. While I know God is good and sovereign, I have had to work through my place in all this - how to process it, how to respond, etc.
School began, a busyness in and of itself, and there's always a lot of adjusting to do, between managing Patience's diabetes and setting everything in place for her at school, establishing everyone's basic routines, scheduling activities, a lot of "start-up" meetings to get the school year going. Multiply that by four. Deal with character issues as they arise. And fatigue. And growing - and seasonal changes - and thus clothes.... Always clothes to deal with, be it too small, too big, too cold, too hot, or too dirty. And the garden and groceries and so on and so forth...
And then the activities themselves: soccer, music lessons and practices, church activities...
And retreats, doctors appointments, ministry involvements, PTO involvement and so on and so forth.
And weddings (3 in 4 weeks - one down, two to go!)
And my host mother's death.
And the emotions. I'm tired. I'm concerned. I'm not "settling in" as quickly this year as prior years. I'm torn in my priorities. I'm wondering where God wants to use me. I'm happy. I'm sad. I'm grieving. I'm rejoicing. I'm busy. There are things that must be done. There are people who need me NOW. There are people who need me - and I can't keep putting them off. And the stuff must get done. Etc. For moments, things are clear, and then not so clear again. And then something will happen (like the vacuum breaking - still don't know where that's at and the house is not cleaning itself in the mean time) and the emotions will overflow. I'm going to need lots of tissues at this upcoming wedding because the joy and happiness will make me remember my host mom coming to my wedding which will remind me that she's dead and I'll cry again. I came close to crying cutting bread last night at dinner, because it was she who taught me how to properly slice bread for a meal ( THICK so you can taste it!). It's amazing how my emotions run in waves and have done so all month.
It's been a good month, really, somehow. But God is keeping me on my toes, depending on him. And if this is the new normal (this busyness), it's going to take me a while to adjust it would seem. But I am managing, day by day, to do what needs to be done. And somehow, I am not leaving a complete disaster (emotionally and relationally) in my wake. This is good, and this is progress. I am glad for that evidence that He is working in my life over the days weeks and years.
That's why I haven't written much. You see, between sprained ankles, falls on the ice skating, dodging the rain while attempting to clean out the garden by this weekend, earthquakes, hurricanes, meetings that last 3x the planned length, phone calls overseas, and bobbing and weaving a 1000 more things that I didn't expect, words have just not been there.
But they will come. This is a step, again, towards "speaking". And it's definitely a bit "eclectic".
I know the primary readers of this are family members, most of whom we'll see in just a few days at a very exciting and much-anticipated event. Between now and then I need to do laundry, juggle school, wrap a gift, put away the harvest, and somewhere find time to call Switzerland and write a bunch of cards. Pray for me to keep perspective, keep putting one foot in front of the other, and do, please, even if it makes me cry, ask me how I'm doing, and about my host mom. I need to take the time to keep finding those words..... and I also need some sleep.
Hurricane (aka Tropical Storm) Irene hit the state hard. While she failed to bring the anticipated rain to our particular region, she deluged the state as a whole, and emotionally I have struggled with the suffering felt by my fellow Vermonters. Many I know suffered job dislocation due to flooding, or business impact (destroyed workplace etc). Our infrastructure has been impacted, and it's affected much both directly and indirectly. It will take years to recover. While I know God is good and sovereign, I have had to work through my place in all this - how to process it, how to respond, etc.
School began, a busyness in and of itself, and there's always a lot of adjusting to do, between managing Patience's diabetes and setting everything in place for her at school, establishing everyone's basic routines, scheduling activities, a lot of "start-up" meetings to get the school year going. Multiply that by four. Deal with character issues as they arise. And fatigue. And growing - and seasonal changes - and thus clothes.... Always clothes to deal with, be it too small, too big, too cold, too hot, or too dirty. And the garden and groceries and so on and so forth...
And then the activities themselves: soccer, music lessons and practices, church activities...
And retreats, doctors appointments, ministry involvements, PTO involvement and so on and so forth.
And weddings (3 in 4 weeks - one down, two to go!)
And my host mother's death.
And the emotions. I'm tired. I'm concerned. I'm not "settling in" as quickly this year as prior years. I'm torn in my priorities. I'm wondering where God wants to use me. I'm happy. I'm sad. I'm grieving. I'm rejoicing. I'm busy. There are things that must be done. There are people who need me NOW. There are people who need me - and I can't keep putting them off. And the stuff must get done. Etc. For moments, things are clear, and then not so clear again. And then something will happen (like the vacuum breaking - still don't know where that's at and the house is not cleaning itself in the mean time) and the emotions will overflow. I'm going to need lots of tissues at this upcoming wedding because the joy and happiness will make me remember my host mom coming to my wedding which will remind me that she's dead and I'll cry again. I came close to crying cutting bread last night at dinner, because it was she who taught me how to properly slice bread for a meal ( THICK so you can taste it!). It's amazing how my emotions run in waves and have done so all month.
It's been a good month, really, somehow. But God is keeping me on my toes, depending on him. And if this is the new normal (this busyness), it's going to take me a while to adjust it would seem. But I am managing, day by day, to do what needs to be done. And somehow, I am not leaving a complete disaster (emotionally and relationally) in my wake. This is good, and this is progress. I am glad for that evidence that He is working in my life over the days weeks and years.
That's why I haven't written much. You see, between sprained ankles, falls on the ice skating, dodging the rain while attempting to clean out the garden by this weekend, earthquakes, hurricanes, meetings that last 3x the planned length, phone calls overseas, and bobbing and weaving a 1000 more things that I didn't expect, words have just not been there.
But they will come. This is a step, again, towards "speaking". And it's definitely a bit "eclectic".
I know the primary readers of this are family members, most of whom we'll see in just a few days at a very exciting and much-anticipated event. Between now and then I need to do laundry, juggle school, wrap a gift, put away the harvest, and somewhere find time to call Switzerland and write a bunch of cards. Pray for me to keep perspective, keep putting one foot in front of the other, and do, please, even if it makes me cry, ask me how I'm doing, and about my host mom. I need to take the time to keep finding those words..... and I also need some sleep.
Tuesday, October 4, 2011
Sad news
A week ago, I was notified of the death of my beloved host mother, Lucette Rupp. She spent much of the last years of her life fighting and recovering from illness. She was a spunky lady, full of life and love for those around her, and I will miss her tremendously.
Click here to see the obituary (in French)
Click here to see the obituary (in French)
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