this and that

Oh, happy spring!  Finally we are greeting warm air, sun shine at dinnertime, rain showers to melt it all.
Ahhh.

My new favorite quote to mull is: "the beginning of repentance is homesickness".  I read it first here and have been mulling the tension of living as an "alien" and living as one called to live Christ's redemption here and now, "taking the land" in essence.  The "in but not of".

We are counting the days to seeing my parents.  13 days!

We are numbering the sleeps to Achterkirchs!  13 days!

Thirteen might just be my new favorite number.

Tomorrow Emma and I go to Gillette's to visit with her orthopedic surgeon in anticipation of Emma's next surgery in April.  Although it feels ages way this morning, it is fast approaching.  What a year of changes for her.

Just this morning Jim and I were talking about Emma experiencing so much change, and the paradox of her being rather bored and frustrated with not being in school.  It really is what it is, and while we are sure of our choice, we also know that it is hard for her in many ways.  She misses the routine and rhythm of her school days.  And she really misses her siblings when she is home with me all day.  God is doing important work in this time in her heart, though, and we rest in that.  Fall will come soon, and then she has a lifetime of school days ahead of her!

Speaking of school...we await news any day of school.  We have some good news already, and are prayerfully considering options for next year for the littlest three.  Weighty decisions to make.  Good ones.  Just hard to decide.

Luke at bedtime as we tucked, "Mom, when I get married I need to choose a wife who likes bearded dragons since Jacques {his bearded dragon} will live to eighteen years old.  She should also like Grandma pants and sports.  I think I might need to use E-Harmony or something to help me out".

I valiantly managed only a small quirk of the bursting laughter bubbling inside me.  We decided prayer would be more worthy than E-Harmony.

Spring bulbs blooming on our kitchen table and living room coffee table are filling our house with pretty reminders that new life emerges in season, and soon Emma will realize she isn't being raised solely in frozen tundra.

Summer registrations and activities are in the pipeline.  Camps for the boys, activities for them all.  Figuring it out is fun, and also a bit like battle planning.  Puzzle pieces.  Camping as a family is on our list.  North shore adventures.  Jim and Cooper are planning to train for a bike race together.  The boys are plotting longboards.  Anna is dreaming horses.

The pool is our mull.  Last year we barely did any swimming with Luke's seizures.  This year we are trying to decide what is safe, prudent and wise and also foster raising Luke, not raising epilepsy.  His seizures are quiet right now, which doesn't mean they will stay so, but does mean they are well managed.  We have an appointment coming up with his neurologist and will mull with him what to do, recognizing that even if he advocates the pool is fine, we still have to make the final determination.  My gut is that the pool is fine with alert and vigilant parental supervision.  How to do that in a calm, relaxed fashion?  Working on my heart rate.

Dinner with friends who also have a son with seizure disorder was a real blessing.  Connecting with people who "speak the same language" and have a similar story.  It only took me a year and a half to be ready to talk.  It was a great evening, and Jim and I both came away realizing we were ready to know and share more.  Just where we are in the journey.  It wasn't the right time before, and it is now.  Just hearing their school struggles and worries helped.  Similar, similar.  Takes the wind out of the sails of some of what can feel unique about the worries and makes of them instead, contextualized.  Whew.

"Spiritual Parenting" and "One Thousand Gifts" are my two reads this week.  Enjoying both.  Cried my way through the first chapter of Ann's book, thinking of sweet Julian and his parents.  Julian Golden met face to face last week with Jesus, after two weeks of a valiant battle with leukemia.  His passing was very unexpected.  Julian's grandparents brought him to church on Sundays.  For the past years {he would have turned four on Saturday} we watched joy blossom on their faces as they dropped him off and picked him up.  Truly, their countenances beamed love and joyousness as they beheld their grandson each week he came.  I loved watching them watching him.  Julian was golden.  At the funeral I could not stop thinking about how much they will miss him.  I'm so sad; not for Julian, but for his family.  When the day comes, what a reunion it will be.

So the days go on, and we rejoice with those who rejoice and mourn with those who mourn.  Praying this morning for friends walking hard roads, and others dancing on their paths.  Grateful that all our paths we walk with God, who leads us on them as paths of righteousness.  For His name's sake.  For His name.  For Jesus.

Soli deo gloria,
Sara