Sometimes I Write

I had the privilege of spending a few precious hours today with Linda, my friend and mentor. It’s so nice to know we live in the same town again – even for a short time. She picked me up and we went shopping for a bit, went to her eye doctor, then had lunch together. We ate Chinese food, and since she had her eyes dilated, she asked me to read the fortune from her cookie. I made one up that kept us laughing for several minutes. There is seldom a moment of silence when we are together! 🙂

When I think of my friends, it always surprises me how different they all are. I guess I always thought that as women, we naturally gravitated toward people like ourselves. In some of my friendships that’s true, but over all, my friends are VERY different from each other. Let me tell you about Linda…

She is 60 something, has blond spiky hair (clairol – like me), beautiful eyes and a bright lip-sticked smile. She loves big silver jewelry, fell in love with her husband when she was 17, collects chili pepper stuff, loves chocolate, and reads more than any woman I know. She has some health difficulties, but mostly takes them in stride. She is the only woman in my life that prays with me everytime we’re together. She and I have talked and struggled through some deep stuff. She gives me wise counsel and points me back to God. She has two daughters already so I tease her that I’m a bonus. She gives the best hugs, and is always thrilled to see me. As much as I get from our friendship, she tells me that I’m a drink of fresh water! What a compliment! The funniest thing about our relationship? We met at a garage sale! Our friendship dates back to BC – before children (mine ofcourse – hers are older than me). She is one of my favorite balcony people. How I love and respect this woman!

She makes me a better me.

We had a very safe trip to Colorado. No flat tires, cranky children, bad weather, or anything. We arrived on Wednesday, unloaded the truck and trailer, and crashed for the day! (BTW Nothing was broken.) We weren’t able to fit everything in the moving truck, so we rented a small trailer to pull behind the truck. Turns out it was too small and our neighbors made out like bandits on all of the stuff we had to leave behind. I thought I was beyond holding on so tightly to stuff. It’s like being slapped in the face realizing you’re back in Egypt when you’d convinced yourself you were in the desert halfway to the Promised Land. I’ll try to get over myself!

I had a great visit with my brother even though he teased me endlessly. I threatened to send him home by foot instead of by plane. He just laughed at me in the challenging way only he can. He was a big help and he needed the vacation. It all worked out great. He also took several pictures of the mountains he has come to love as much as I have. We even went out for our traditional Chinese lunch – just the two of us. I miss him being around to see my kids grow up, and I miss his teasing – though if you tell him that I will adamantly deny it!

We are busy settling in here at my in-laws who have been so generous to us and created a space just for our family. It’s just as much for their sanity too! It’s been hard getting acclimated this time, and baby Pete and I have been sick all weekend. Today Grampa Pete and Zoe have fevers too! Benny took Petey to the doctor this morning and he’s now on even more medication, this time for an infection in his eyes. He’s just been crying and sleeping and drinking – he doesn’t really want to eat much which is normal when you’re sick I guess. He’s miserable and that breaks my heart and makes me feel so helpless. Benny said today that Pete has been sick, broken out in hives, had severe eczema, or something to make him miserable 90% of his life. What an awful thought! Please God – make him well!

I haven’t blogged or emailed much since we got here. Between taking care of sick kids and myself, unpacking our stuff, and dial-up internet…I haven’t been in the mood! I need to be thankful they even have internet – it’s just that I got spoiled having broadband.

Benny just came back from town with Petey’s prescriptions, and he brought me chai from my favorite coffee shop! I’m lucky to be married to a thoughtful guy like him! He’s been loving on me and telling me I’m beautiful even though I know he’s lying! I have showered, but NO ONE looks good when they’re sick and miserable. Still, he likes me to hear it and I do!

I said I was going to post about the family that taught me how to say goodbye. Then I thought about it, and there have been several that have been teaching me that lesson. The details are awesome, but what it all comes down to is that they cared for my heart, shared something personal from themselves – not something that cost them nothing, and assured me that the relationship will continue even though we aren’t in the same state. I’d like to post the details, but some of them are private and I don’t want to leave anyone out and they think I’ve forgotten or am ungrateful. We had many friends make our departure from Wichita a pleasant experience. Thank you also to my blogging family for the many prayers during our transition.

Other prayer request updates:

The kids are still not sleeping through the night.

They did awesome at daycare while we packed the truck. Max especially was distraught when I told him he wouldn’t be attending Miss Janelle’s day care again.

The house hunting has begun and we have a few leads – so far too expensive!

I did receive encouragement by mail! YEAH! There’s nothing like seeing your name hand-written on an envelope by a beloved friend! I’m thankful for email, but I still prefer snail mail.

It’s sounds like my friend’s marriage will be ending soon. They are going to see a lawyer this week. My heart is broken for them, and for my family and how this will effect us. I can’t blog about this…Just continue to pray for them and us.

My posts won’t be so long now that I’ll be blogging regularly again. I’ve enjoyed reading my usual blogs for the past couple of hours! (In-laws are out of town for the day, so I can tie up the phone line for awhile.)

I haven’t blogged in over a week! (maybe my addiction isn’t as serious as I thought) 🙂

Tomorrow is moving day and things have been hectic around here. My head is spinning from the pace we’ve been keeping. Between all of the tubs and boxes, meals with teens and friends, cleaning, and getting our ducks in a row, we’re all exhausted. Moving is NOT fun. It’s work!

Please keep us in your prayers as we all travel to Colorado and get settled in at my in-laws for the next 6 weeks. My brother Lennie is here from MN to lend his muscles and keep us company on the journey. He’s considered part of the family at my in-laws, so it will be a nice visit for them until he leaves on Saturday.

My prayer requests for the next week or so:

All 3 children to sleep through the night.

Safe travel and beautiful weather for the LONG drive to CO.

Nothing broken in the moving truck when we get there.

Overwhelming responses when we begin our follow-up calls for the support letters we’ve mailed out. More will be mailed next week.

Healing in my friend’s marriage.

Unexpected encouragement by mail.

Great prospects in our house hunting in the Denver area.

All 3 children to be on their best behavior at daycare tomorrow. (They’ve never done daycare, so none of us knows what to expect. The lady that runs it is a member at Westlink and I trust her, so no worries on that end. They’re even throwing Max a pizza party in the afternoon!)

Thank you to everyone who reads here and prays for my family. Someday when life returns to normal (as I know it) I’ll be able to blog normally too. Thanks for bearing with me during this phase of my journey! God bless you all! < Niki

P.S. My next post is about the family that taught me how to say good bye…

Have you ever wanted to post something on your blog, gotten halfway through it and decided it was crap and deleted the whole thing?

Have you ever wanted to post something but were afraind certain people would read it and be offended so you decided against it?

Have you ever been so stinking mad at blogger for not letting you leave a comment on a blog?

Have you ever read someone’s blog, gotten so upset that you type away furiously then realized that if they are gutsy/stupid enough to post something so horrid, why would they care what you have to say about it?

Have you ever stayed up 3 hours past your normal bedtime to read what total strangers have to say on the web?

If you answered yes to any of the above…welcome to my week!

P.S. Max’s night terrors continue – every other night – UGH! Somebody help me!

Tonight was our farewell party. We received some beautiful gifts. Our friend David, who went on the DB trip last summer, had a picture of the group up on the mountain blown up to about 20X30, and framed for us. It’s breathtaking! Our teens made us a memory quilt of pictures and each teen decorated their own square. It’s bright , beautiful, and made me cry. The congregation got us a coffee table book about Kansas and everyone was signing it. (No, the Wizard of Oz is not on the cover). And finally, we received a basket with a cow bank in the middle with cash around it for the grass. Gary called it our cash cow :). I wasn’t as teary as I thought I’d be and it was nice to hear people affirming our decision to follow God’s call to Denver. I’m so thankful Westlink is going to continue supporting and encouraging us. We also had some very generous friends bless us with a check. Can’t tell you who, but we are so grateful! My friend who said she wasn’t coming to the party was there too. Her son loves Benny so much that he bought him a sword, which Benny loved! It meant alot that a teenaged boy went out of his way to not only buy him one of his favorite things, but he picked out a beautiful oriental style card to go with it and really blessed Benny with his words. God is so great!

The ladies are taking me to afternoon tea at Aunt Hattie’s on Friday. My friend Tawnya (college friend) is coming from Kansas City to see us next week. It’s packing time people! My procrastinating ways are NOT helping! It is a little weird to be getting packing boxes from the Farley’s as they are moving in. What a world I live in.

Today was my last BSF class before the move. It was awesome – as always. It was also our fellowship day. I had such a nice lunch with my discussion group ladies. I’ve blogged about them before. I love these women and I’m going to miss them so much! Kathleen made our family a basket of goodies for our trip out to Colorado…crayons, coloring books, snacks, mini stuffed animals, etc. I am so blessed to have such caring and giving friends.

I have a special prayer request for my son Max. But first – a praise for him…he read his first book by himself yesterday! We were both so proud! YEAH MAX!

Now for prayers: These past few weeks he’s had a few nightmares and we even caught him sleep walking once. But, lastnight he woke us up screaming and we couldn’t calm him down. When I tried to hold him he pushed me away looking at me in terror, yet when he got away from me, he quickly came back and crawled into my lap, clinging to me and crying. He kept saying he was scared, but it was obvious he wasn’t awake. I was freaked out! After he calmed down a bit I held him and talked softly while stroking his hair. I prayed over him out loud in case he could hear me, and he just drifted off and was fine the rest of the night. The whole episode lasted about 15 minutes. Meanwhile Benny got on the net and found some info that described all this as a night terror. I’m still not clear about what we’re supposed to do about this. I’m still searching for more answers. Please just pray that he will get rest, and that it doesn’t happen again. My BSF friends said this is fairly normal for his age. It just caught me by surprise and scared the crap out of me. Ofcourse I questioned if it was all of the change taking place, or maybe he was overly tired because he didn’t have a rest time yesterday. I don’t know. As a parent those moments of helplessness are horrible. He had such a great day before that point. I hope everyone at my house sleeps through the night tonight! Thanks for the prayers!