The Blue in My Brown

I walked out into our yard yesterday morning and found this beautiful blue hydrangea flower. My hydrangea bush has been sickly, as you can see by the surrounding foliage. I thought it might not survive. It was almost all brown and most of the leaves had fallen off. Finding this flower was a bright spot in my morning and just a really nice surprise. The sort of thing that makes me feel like God put it there just to make me smile. I have a friend who once said these little surprise blessings were like God was winking at her - a special moment between them and a reminder that He not only loved her, but also took pleasure in blessing her.

It reminded me of something I had read earlier in the week. A fellow MAF'er had shared this article by Jason Carter. He suggests several ways to refresh and encourage missionaries. Even if that subject doesn't interest you, I encourage you to read the post because it really applies to the entire church body. His article is specifically about things people can do while a family is on their furlough, and having recently returned from our first furlough, he is pretty much spot-on. However, there are lots of ways people can bless their missionaries without waiting months or years until furloughs come around. The very first item on the list mentions letters and cards for birthdays and holidays. That is HUGE, especially in this age of emails, and social media. Real letters and cards are so much more personal.

I was reading through all the suggestions and thinking about myself and my family, mentally saying "ooh, that one!" and "oh, yes! That would be so awesome!"  about various items, when my thoughts of myself were (thankfully) interrupted. I need that sometimes.

The article states that one of the least helpful things you can do is ask a missionary to let you know if they need anything, because they won't/can't. But that isn't true only for missionaries. We all throw that statement out to people we care about and often we really mean it, really want to help, and really want to know the best way to do that. But we all also know from being on the flip side that none of us are going to go to someone and say, "Remember when you said to let you know what you can do to help? Well...." 

If the Holy Spirit can spur our hearts to want to bless and help someone, surely He is also willing to guide us in how we can use our skills, our vocation, and our resources to do it without us putting that burden on the other person.

The author also exhorts us to be like Philemon, who refreshed the hearts of others. It must be an important function, and Philemon must have been really good at it, because Paul made a point of telling Philemon how much joy and encouragement Philemon's love for others brought to him. 

When someone does something to bring refreshment to my heart or even the heart of someone I love, that is an amazing thing to experience. It never gets old. Reading this article and talking to God about it made me stop and ask some hard questions.

"Am I being like Philemon? Am I refreshing the hearts of my missionaries? my co-laborers here in Congo? my friends and family?"

"Do I let God inspire me and use me to bring a "wink," a bright spot to someone else's day, like that bright blue flower on my sickly hydrangea? because I would love to be like that."

"Your love has given me great joy and encouragement, because you, brother, have refreshed the hearts of the saints." Philemon 7

My washing machine is a girl, and she has a crush on my husband.

How else does one explain her habit of malfunctioning on me and then working like a charm the moment my husband comes home. She hates me. 

Obviously I’m joking, but we do sometimes make things personal in our own mind that really aren’t. At least I do. One of my goals this term is to try not to do this and to also remember who the real enemy is. It isn’t my washing machine, my noisy neighbor, the reckless and rude drivers, the corrupt policeman, or even the electric company. We know the real adversary is Satan, but sometimes we assist him by being our own enemy as well. 

For me, it’s the trap of looking inward instead of upward. Of being ungrateful. Of feeling entitled.

During furlough, I finally got my hot little hands (Yes, they are hot, I live in Africa.) on a copy of One Thousand Gifts, by Ann Voskamp, thanks to a dear friend.  I know, I know, everyone else read that book ages ago and this is old news for most folks. I have really been enjoying it. I am going through it slowly, taking time to reflect and absorb. Here are some of my favorite quotes so far:

“Jesus didn’t institute the Eucharist around some unusual, rare, once-a-year event, but around this continual act of eating a slice of bread, drinking a cup of fruit from the vine. First Corinthians 11:26 reads, ‘whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup” (NIV) –whenever.”

She quotes Alexander Schmemann: “Now, in the Bible a name…reveals the very essence of a thing, or rather its essence as God’s gift….To name a think is to manifest the meaning and value God gave it, to know it as coming from God and to know its place and function within the cosmos created by God. To name a thing, in other words, is to bless God for it and in it.”  

                                                                                                                    Does the old hymn “Count Your Blessings” come to mind? Name them, one by one. By doing so we are blessing the Lord and in return, we learn the secret to being content.

She writes about replacing the habit of discontentment with a habit of seeing God’s gifts as grace and accepting them with thanksgiving. 

Why is it that we interpret everything that is bad or hurtful as a personal attack from someone/something/somewhere and blindly overlook so many of the truly personal acts of grace intended for us that the Father bestows on us every day?

I am looking forward to the rest of the book, to learning about the author’s journey and transformation and to see how God might use her story in my life. 

Elliot: the picture of contentment.

Kinshasa Journal 2: Robocops and Refrigerators

Thanks Nick Frey for the photo!

We’ve been here almost a week! Where did the time go? 

Here is a list of highlights and “lowlights” from our first week back in Kinshasa.
We arrived late on Thursday evening. On the way home from the airport, I got to see the traffic robot, aka robocop. These new aluminum and steel traffic officers were built here in Kinshasa while we were in the states. You can see more photos, some video footage, and read more about the robocops HERE.

Upon arriving at the house, we were pleasantly surprised at the work our team had put into cleaning it and stocking it with enough food to get us started until we could go shopping. David Francis had done some plumbing and wiring repairs so that we could have electricity and showers. There was a welcome banner for Daniel from one of his friends. The beds were made with clean sheets. We were UNpleasantly surprised to see someone else’s refrigerator in our living room when we walked in, because it could only mean one thing. Sure enough, our refrigerator that we bought shortly before we left for furlough was not functional. 

It did not take us long to feel like we were back in Congo again. Friday night the car we are borrowing from MAF broke down on a dead end road and we did not have working phones yet. Not that anyone could have easily come to help us because the reason we turned down the wrong road was because our road is under construction and is completely barricaded and we were trying to find another way to the house. The nice thing is that in Kinshasa if you have some francs in your pocket you can always find a couple of guys willing to help you push your car. All we had was a twenty dollar bill so we really made their day. For a lot of people here twenty dollars is more than a week’s wages. Then on Saturday evening we spent nearly an hour stuck in a traffic jam. The kicker was that we were only about one minute from our destination when we got stuck.

We’ve already had several power outages, including one that lasted about thirty hours. David has already repaired the same light fixture four times. Two voltage regulators have fried. I no longer have a dryer, which means scratchy towels and hoping the mango flies don’t find my clothesline. We haven’t found a vehicle yet. 

David jumped in with both feet and started working in the hangar on Monday, but today he stayed home to try to address some issues here in the house. We discovered the refrigerator had zero refrigerant in it, so there is a leak somewhere. If we can find the leak, we can get it repaired and save a lot of money versus buying a new one. We are grateful for the loaner refrigerator while we sort this out. 

This doesn't look like much but it is a big deal to me. Our 12 volt lights, internet antenna and router are set up to run on battery power. The batteries are charged by solar panels, but they are not holding their charge well anymore so when the power is off or it is too cloudy our internet quickly begins to fail, followed by our back up lights. I was running up and down a ladder several times a day to turn the inverter off and reset the router to get internet back, or to turn it off altogether to try to conserve battery power for running the lights. David lowered the inverter today so that I can reach it without the ladder. That beautiful green light means we have internet! No more ladder in the hallway. Yaay! It’s the little things, folks. 

So, we are definitely not in America anymore. But we are doing well. Since this is our second term and not our first, now that the jet lag has worn off it does seem a lot easier to adjust. I know how to cook here already, how to pay bills, how to shop, how to run a generator, etc., so it doesn’t feel like a mountain of stuff is being thrown at me to learn and navigate. I already have friends and acquaintances here, which is a huge thing. During the last several months leading up to our furlough, David and I both had health issues we did not know about until we got to the states, but which were contributing to our mental and physical fatigue and stress and probably affecting how we (or at least I) related to our team. Thankfully, we have a very understanding  team, and we are both feeling much better now.

We’ve learned some things. Firstly, next time we go on furlough or an extended trip we will label where we store the parts for the water filter. That’s sort of important and at 1:00am after a flight across the ocean one’s memory is not what it should be. 


Secondly, I am learning to take better care of myself and to minimize stress as much as possible here so that I have more energy for my relationships with others and for the things I have to do. For example, we have one room that stays cooler than any other room in the house, so that is where we now have our home school day. It’s amazing the difference that ten degrees can make on a person’s overall well being and temperament after several hours each day! 

Robocops aside, life here is just as difficult for most Congolese as it was when we left last summer - maybe more so. The police are destroying the wares and stands of the roadside vendors in the name of "cleaning up and beautifying the city." There are new laws going into effect regarding what parts of the city the taxi buses are allowed to run in. Taxis are the primary mode of transportation for most people here. The prevailing attitude of those in power seems to be the end justifies the means without regard to who gets hurt in the process. Please continue to keep Congo in your prayers!

Exciting Times and Heartache

We are busy, busy, busy packing, shopping for things we need, and tying up loose ends. It seems for every thing I scratch off my list, two new items appear. Finishing the first furlough and returning for the second term is a big deal to us, almost as big as actually finally getting to go to Kinshasa the first time around. So, I revisited the first post I wrote when we arrived, Kinshasa Journal. 

It covers our entire first week in Congo and is pretty long, so you may or may not be interested in reading the whole thing. It was fun for me to read my first impressions in light of what I know about Congo and life there three years later. Honestly it made me shake my head at myself and laugh at myself a little. This time around, I think we have more realistic expectations. Everyone there was a stranger the first time around, but this time we have reunions with friends to look forward to! 
 
Tomorrow we take Emily back to school so that will be a long (6 hours one-way) day and a sad one. Then when we fly out on Wednesday, we will be down to a family of three. Being 7,000 miles from my kids is the hardest thing I have ever had to do. I won't sugar-coat it, it stinks.

Pray for our travels, for all of our luggage to make it intact, for Josh and Emily as they stay behind and for us as we re-adjust to life in Africa. 

Another Announcement and A Long Hello

Josh and Kristen came for a visit! We got to close out 2013 and ring in 2014 with ALL of our kids and many of our friends. I am so, so grateful. 

While we had an opportunity, we asked a friend to take some pics.

We aren't the easiest or the most cooperative bunch to photograph, but at least our personalities are shining through.

I love this man! He's pretty amazing.

                                                     The goodbyes have begun. We said goodbye over Christmas to our extended families. This week we said goodbye to our oldest son and his fiancee.  Billy Sprague had a song years ago that said "heaven is a long hello." Saying goodbyes hurts a lot, so I am trying to focus on all the hellos we have said over the last six months and looking forward to the next round of hellos.                                                               One thing we did not expect was that in the midst of shopping for supplies, packing, and saying our goodbyes, David will go to the hospital Friday and say goodbye to his gallbladder. We know God is in control and that having to have surgery here is way better than having to do it in a third world country, so we are looking at this as a reminder that God is taking care of us. We would appreciate prayers for a quick recovery for David and for our travel preparations. 

A Homemaker Displaced

christmas tree ornament (Photo credit: zaimoku_woodpile)

Last weekend we drove to Tulsa, OK and spoke in our old church there. Except for the horrible weather, which prevented many people from being able to come see us, we had a wonderful time seeing old friends and catching up with one another.



Besides speaking in churches, we've been doing a lot of this kind of activity:


What is this? It's basically a meal, a dessert, or just coffee at someone's home. They invite their friends to come and learn about our ministry in Congo.  It's much more personal and informal than a church presentation and allows for more direct interaction with the guests.



We came home recently and discovered that the lovely couple we are staying with had put up their Christmas tree and decorated the house while we were gone. I was very surprised at the mixture of emotions I felt when I saw it. I was excited and happy, yes, but some little thing inside me was disturbed. I couldn't put my finger on it at first. I just knew I was less happy than I thought I ought to be. Later it came to me. We haven't been missionaries for all that long and this is our first furlough, so maybe there's a name for it and I just don't know it. I was conflicted because even though the tree was beautiful, it wasn't MY tree. The ornaments weren't MY ornaments. Self-centered? Probably. I just felt a bit displaced, like I was home but not really, even though the family we stay with loves us and we love them.

I feel really convicted about it. I thought about Mary and Joseph, and how displaced they must have felt when Jesus was born, again when they were in Egypt, and yet again when they went to Nazareth.

And then there's Abraham: "By faith he made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign country; he lived in tents," Hebrews 11: 9.

We don't live in tents, but we do live in temporary locations, in other people's homes.

It's nice to be rooted. I remember that feeling. But I am beginning to think there are things I can learn and gifts I can receive only by being uprooted and transplanted. It's a gift to read about Mary and Abraham going to foreign lands and to really know what it feels like to be displaced and foreign. How precious to think I might have something in common with her: knowing what it is like to be a mom raising children in a strange country without the closeness of extended family!

Standing Out in the Field

We've been focusing on family the last few weeks. Both of our oldest two are now settled into their new school years and we have gotten our home school year off to a good start. Life with only one child at home is very different. And very quiet.

Here are some highlights of our last few weeks.

Playing with my new camera! I'm still learning but so far I really like it. This little hummer and the statue above were in my mom's yard. We had a very nice visit with my folks.







Josh played with my camera and took this one of Emily. Weird.

All five of us together!

Bratwurst!

State Parks!

One of the things I really, really, really hoped to do during our furlough was go to a St. Louis Cardinals game. We drove up early the day before Emily's college move-in day and went to the ball game. We picked a good night -- Cards won!

We had a TON of fun! 

Daniel put his faith in Jesus just before we left for Africa. His brother led him to Christ and Daniel wanted to have his baptism last week when Josh was visiting so that he could be there. 

So that's August in a little nut shell. David has also been busy studying and we've begun working on raising our ministry support back up to where it needs to be: 100%. 

In a baseball game, there are always some players standing in the outfield. We are grateful and blessed to know a bunch of folks who are outstanding in their field.

 Not this field.

Or this field.

They are the people, groups, and churches on our ministry team, and they are outstanding in praying for us, supporting our ministry, and encouraging us. Because they "stand out" in their field, we can stand in ours. We thank God for them continually and pray for them. We are looking for people whom God is leading to pray for us and/or support our ministry with MAF by giving a monthly gift of any amount. Would you prayerfully consider joining us? 

If you are interested, you can sign up for our newsletter and/or give a donation by:

 going to www.maf.org/burton,

mailing a gift to MAF, PO Box 47, Nampa Idaho 83653 with a note that it is for "Burton Family 9059"

or by calling MAF at 1-800-FLYS-MAF.

First Week of Furlough

MAF Office in Nampa

A week ago today in the wee hours of morning we landed in Boise, Idaho. It does not seem like a week has gone by! Already we have had some memorable moments:

* stepping off the plane in Brussels was like entering a portal to another world - "first world"

* hot water/showers, and actually feeling clean after we rinsed off

* hair that behaves

*people are so friendly and polite!

* driving! Oh my! Smooth roads, orderliness, street signs and street lights

* re-teaching my son to make microwave popcorn

*first time I put on a clean shirt and it smelled clean

* milk in a jug!

* pulling something out of the fridge that is actually COLD

* getting all our groceries, toiletries, etc at one store and finding everything (In reference to my post about what it might be like to go to Wal-mart, not much had changed really. I still had the entire floor plan memorized and had no trouble finding things. The big difference is that it took me twenty minutes to pick a deodorant, and the first time we went to Wal-mart, we came home with only two food items: milk and Oreos. We may have been tired but at least we had our priorities right.)

* While putting away groceries, someone forgot what crescent roll dough was and put it in the freezer. oops.

* one of my kids was the first of us to accidentally speak French to someone instead of English, and yes, the rest of us laughed

* INTERNET!!!

* getting to dry my clothes in a dryer!

* David mentioned the other day "No one in this family except me knows how to turn lights off." That made us realize that in our house in Kinshasa, it rarely mattered if the switches were on or off. It's hard to waste electricity when you don't have any.

We have all been to the doctor for physicals and are attending meetings/debriefings. Next week David has some training in the hangar and I hope to use that time to get a few much needed clothing items for the kids and me.

It has been a real treat to be in Nampa and see again our friends there. These are the people who work behind the scenes to help all of us who are on the field with everything from processing support gifts, writing literature and making our prayer cards, arranging our travel, raising funds to get us planes, helping us with insurance claims, training us, coaching us, processing our mail, and more. They pray for us, advise us, serve us and encourage us. Many of them have served overseas and know all the ins and outs and understand all that we experience. They know how weary we were when we arrived without us having to tell them and they have loved on us since we got here. I have met missionaries who do not have the kind of support that MAF gives to their missionaries and it makes a huge difference! If any of our Nampa friends are reading this, THANK YOU! We love you too!

Dancing With My Friend

We went to say goodbye to some friends yesterday and they snapped this photo, then emailed it to me with the caption "help, let us out of Congo!" Yes, we are READY to get a little break, but we'll be back.

My friend TJ blogged yesterday and many of her words resonated the feelings and thoughts of my own heart. I want to be open to letting God teach me to dance. I don't just mean in the physical sense. I mean that I want to let go more, relax in Him and trust Him more, be more willing to put myself out there for Him if that's what He wants and to receive the joy that He means for me to have in the process. Here is a link to TJ's post "Here In This Place I Learned To Dance." I haven't seen TJ in several years, but maybe one day our paths will cross again and we can dance together! 

We are about to go face traffic and check our bags in at the airline, then we will have about a five hour wait at the airport before our flight tonight. Next time I post it will be from the other side of the pond! Lots of people have been and are praying for us and we are so thankful! 

Breaking Up Is Hard To Do

But I managed to do it to my favorite RevereWare sauce pan. We were cooking and heard a popping noise. When we lifted the pot, the bottom had come off. I got my set of RevereWare pots for a wedding gift, twenty-three years ago this month, and have dragged them with me everywhere. I had sort of taken for granted that they would last til I died. I did not even know these pots were two pieces instead of one. Oh, well. Now it fits in better with this family of cracked pots.

Thursday was my last evening with the ladies Bible study group from Nsango Na Bomoi, Christine's church. I will miss these faithful women and look forward to seeing them again in January.

We had to order them to smile for the camera! The Congolese usually sport serious faces when they have their photos taken.

Promised Pics, Preparing to Leave, and a Post by One of Our Pilots

As promised, here are pics from Emily’s graduation.  Sorry about the low quantity/quality.  A new camera is very high on my wish list for furlough. I think I may have even found the one I want. 

I love, love, love this photo of Emily and David!













We leave in a week! We’ve been going through all our stuff, getting rid of everything that doesn’t fit or doesn’t bless us or that we do not use. FLYlady would be so proud of me for finally doing this. I only read her book like ten years ago. In an act of ultimate irony I gave it away. Not because it didn’t bless me though. I was moving to Africa and got rid of hundreds of books. We could only bring so much with us. It was either the books or the kids. 

At least when we come back and unpack all this stuff, there will be less of it to deal with and it will all be useful, right? Of course, it will. We never really finished finding proper  places for it all after the last move because we still haven’t finished repairing and painting the house. There were always more pressing issues like burning wires and graduations and car repairs. High on my wish list for AFTER furlough is a more reliable car.

I’m almost afraid to say it, but we have had good electricity the last few days, which makes cleaning and packing a lot easier. We’ve had our other issues. Emily got sick. Now I am sick. The dryer broke, again, and will have to be replaced when we come back after furlough. You would THINK that during DRY season, laundry would dry quickly on the line because the humidity is lower, but it is just not working that way. At least no one has gotten any mango fly worms from our clothes. Yet. (more about mango fly larva, also known as tumbo flies, HERE .) That post about the tumbo flies goes all the way back to 2010 and as I read it I thought "It's no wonder we are tired and ready for a break after two and a half years of that craziness!" 

While we are preparing to leave, our friend and teammate Nick Frey is in Canada for a couple weeks and has written a great post for the MAF Blog (click HERE to read Nick's post) contrasting Kinshasa and Congo with life in a first world nation. His post is a great reminder the heart of MAF and why we are here. He's a pilot so he gets to see the physical isolation of people in Congo on a regular basis. Not so much for our family since we are always in Kinshasa, but we see first hand every day that even in this city of millions, people live in self-imposed isolation, whether intentional or not, behind their concrete walls, their emotional walls, their social status, and their fears and superstitions. Pray for Congo, for our pilots, mechanics, IT folks and national staff, and for our travels next week!

I've updated our Media Page with some new items!

Don't mind me...

Coffee & Donuts (Photo credit: Jeremy Brooks)

…I’m just a missionary on furlough (almost).

We leave in two weeks for our first furlough. I don’t know if this happens to every missionary family but as our departure time creeps closer, we’ve begun to notice some strange mental shifts. Nothing scary or creepy, just little things that by themselves mean nothing but collectively make us a little bizarre.

We see photos on the internet of our friends, and after a cursory glance at the people our eyes are drawn to things in the photos that we never would have noticed a few years ago. Carpet. Door knobs that are not five feet above the floor. Sidewalks. Starbucks. Donuts. And we sort of go into a trance and drool. It’s disgusting.

We talk about things we used to take for granted like peace and quiet and fresh strawberries, peaches and blueberries and we sound like Sam and Frodo at Mordor when they realize they can’t remember the taste of strawberries or the sound of the trees. Pathetic.

English: Wal-Mart location in Moncton (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I’ve heard stories of expats returning to the states and crying the first time they went back to Wal-Mart and thought to myself, "no way, not me, Wal-Mart and I are old friends and I CANNOT WAIT to go back." Lately though I am not so sure of myself. Since we've never had a furlough this is all pure speculation but I might cry after all. I might feel overwhelmed. I might be just as likely to cry tears of joy. “Look, Honey! They have EVERYTHING on our list right here in ONE store! And it all has a price tag on it! And none of it is expired! And the labels are in ENGLISH!”

I might do a happy dance.

I might take forty minutes to drive the twelve miles to the store because driving in excess of 35mph feels terrifyingly fast.

I might try to order my meat by the kilo instead of by the pound.

I might try to give a tip to any pedestrian within six feet of my car and thank them for keeping an eye on it for me.

I might hand my merchandise to the cashier and after he/she scans it, ask, possibly in French, “Is that your BEST price?”

If I am going to behave strangely, Wal-mart might just be the safest place to do it. Still, maybe I will make a t-shirt for furlough that says “Don’t mind me, I’m just a missionary on furlough,” just in case someone wonders about me. It might prevent an awkward moment or two.

Processing

shadows and reflections (Photo credit: Pedro Moura Pinheiro)

We leave for our first furlough in exactly three weeks! We have our airplane tickets! We have a TON of stuff to do to prepare and we are in the midst of a flurry of our daughter's end of senior year activities. We have made the mental switch from "if we ever make it to furlough" and now find ourselves thinking about "when we are on furlough."

I'm sure I won't be able to stop myself from writing about furlough and reflecting on our experiences here. I feel like a computer that doesn't have enough memory to run smoothly, so instead of being productive, I'm a perpetual Windows hour glass or a conversation window that says "processing" with a progress bar that is frozen in time. I have managed to collect a few thoughts for the MAF blog, and if you are interested you can read our "First Term Reflections" post HERE.

Our latest newsletter has gone out and features an explanation of what furlough is for, what our plans are, etc. If you aren't on our mailing list, you can read our Spring 2013 newsletter by following the link on our Newsletters Page. One important furlough activity for us (besides hot showers) will be reconnecting with our ministry partners and seeking new ones to help us get our ministry support back up to 100%. The bottom line is if our ministry here is not fully funded, we cannot come back, so please pray with us that God will connect us with the folks He has chosen to be on our team.

Two Finishes

This morning I walked in the annual 5K Run/Walk Kima Mbangu (Run Fast). This was my third year participating alongside of fellow MAF wives Sandy Franci and Valerie Hochstetler. We also had a pilot running, and four MK's volunteering, so MAF was very well represented.

This was a fundraiser to benefit women in Congo, one of the most challenging and statistically unsafe places in the world to be a female. My daughter, Emily, went with me and was a volunteer helper.

At the halfway mark she brought me water and cheered me on for a bit.

Not long after we began the walk, I got a toe cramp. There are verses in Scripture that talk about God's people being different parts of the same body, and if you never thought being just a little toe was very noteworthy, you have never tried to walk or jog with a toe cramp. At that time, my little toe was getting ALL of the attention. A real runner would push through and ignore the pain. I am not a real runner. I started drinking water too late and by the time I reached the end I had a headache that made me forget all about my toe. But, I did get to the end!

Another finish for me this week was the quilt top I have been working on for Daniel.



I had help reaching this finish also. Elliot. As you can see he is doing better and has gained back most of the weight he lost when he was ill. Why do cats think know that whenever a person places anything on the floor, it is expressly for them to lie upon?

I wanted you to see the "texture" that the print on the black fabric lends to the quilt.












Sorry about the poor photo. I'm a quilter, not a photographer. And my kids are just kids, not quilt racks. This will go into storage, along with my freshly cleaned sewing machine, until we return from furlough.

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