Picture This: Somber (and otherwise) moments during Family Conference

Thanks Jocelyn Frey for the photo!

The MAF family of west DRC has officially conferred and our conference time is over until next year. As always, there were many blessings. We had time to visit with one another in a relaxed, non-work/ministry setting, just getting to know one another better and enjoying each other's company. Since some of us live in Lubumbashi and all of us stay really busy, that is a rare treat. We enjoyed goodies that our pastoral team brought from the states - especially chocolates! The teaching sessions were great. The food was great - BONUS: we did not have to cook it! In the land of weirdo-unpredictable power that was a huge blessing.

I promise this is the LAST post about this year's conference. I just wanted to share some of the special moments with you, via photos.

photo credit: Jocelyn Frey

 On the last day of conference the kids showed off the songs they had learned. Except my kid, who was busy talking to his buddy, Nicholas. My gene pool is a strong one, what can I say?

photo credit: Jocelyn Frey

One really neat moment was when the pastors anointed us, all thirty-something of us, with oil and prayed for our team, even the kids. It was a very serious and touching moment...

Photo credit: Jocelyn Frey

...as you can see.










But then, Pastor Don was a very serious kinda guy. Truthfully, we have many special memories from this conference and lots of things to ponder in our hearts. Thank you, Walnut Creek Mennonite Church, Don, Brenda, Beau, and Nicole!












I already have a very nice group photo above of our entire team, plus the pastoral team from the states. I really like bloopers, though, so I thought you might enjoy these. Click on them to see an enlarged view.

Photo credit: Jocelyn Frey

Photo credit: Jocelyn Frey

Perspective

Today my husband related a story to me about his day at the hangar. He was talking with one of our national staff, who was asking David questions about our home.

"Do you have a water tank?"
"Yes."
"Do you have a generator?"
"Yes."
"Do you have solar panels?"
"Yes."
"Aaah. Paradise. Like heaven."

Perspective.

Renewal - Family Conference

Family Conference is in full swing.

A major theme at family conference time is renewal. We have time to focus on spiritual renewal with worship times and teaching.

Our friend Jocelyn with her daughter Ruth, who is getting an early start in discipleship!


We also have times for paying attention to our needs for physical, emotional, and relational renewal.







Yesterday after the worship/teaching session, we took an outing to a lake for a hike and a picnic lunch. The drive was long, the weather was hot, the traffic was terrible. Once we arrived at the lake, though, it was worth it.








We took our time walking, enjoying the quiet and tranquility - a rare thing in a city the size of Kinshasa. At one point, David and I literally just stopped and took a deep breath and stood there taking in the fresh air and natural beauty and wide open space.

Last evening the ladies enjoyed some time pampering our feet - which take a beating here in the land of dust and concrete.

While we soaked our tired feet, we had a chance to just relax and visit with each other. Often when we get together as a team there is work to be done and not much time for visiting and connecting on a deeper level.

Conference Time!

photo credit: Tim Dyk

This week we are having our annual Family Conference. I'll try to take photos for ya and post them. Meanwhile, here's a cool photo or two of our guys working on the planes. In both photos, my hubby is the one on the ground at the nose of the plane.

I don't get a lot of comments on the blog but I do get some emails. I hope you'll check out my latest post on the MAF Blog - Better Than Bitter. This post started as a response to an email from a blog reader/friend. 

Numbered With The Transgressors

I wasn't going to blog today. I have so much to do, and so much that should already be done but isn't, that somethings just had to give and today it was going to be the blog. 

Then I read Charles Spurgeon's "Morning and Evening" devotional for March 30 Click here to read). When I read Spurgeon's writing, I can't simply skim it or speed read it. His older English obligates me to actually stop all my mental multi-tasking and just focus on what he was trying to say. No zipping through. That's a good thing. We have so many easy to understand paraphrases and translations of the Bible available to us that I think it is easy to "zip through" without completely focusing all of our thoughts on what we read and meditating on it. Reading the works of people like Charles Spurgeon and Oswald Chambers is good mental exercise and builds study skills that I can transfer to my reading of the Bible. 

On my huge list of "things I thought I already knew but seem to keep learning again" is that Jesus doesn't just love me as I understand love, He loves me with an intensity I can't begin to fathom. He didn't just die for me, He also identified Himself with me. 

"Now, when the sinner is brought to the bar, Jesus appears there Himself. He stands to answer the accusation. He points to His side, His hands, His feet, and challenges Justice to bring anything against the sinners whom He represents; He pleads His blood, and pleads so triumphantly, being numbered with them and having a part with them, that the Judge proclaims, 'Let them go their way; deliver them from going down into the pit, for He hath found a ransom.' Our Lord Jesus was numbered with the transgressors in order that they might feel their hearts drawn towards Him." 

He came and was numbered with us, the transgressors. Sometimes we generalize that and forget that He didn't just become a face in a crowd of sinners that suddenly turned on Him. He counted the cost before He came, and did it anyway. He was loving and thinking of every individual one of us while He was being crucified, paying the price for each. Your price. My price. 

Because Christ was numbered with the transgressors, I can rejoice that am numbered with those whom He has made new. 

He is risen! Have a joyful Easter!

Everyone likes a good story!

Thursday, I was invited to share my testimony with the ladies from Nsango na Bomoi, the church that is pastored by our missionary friends Dan and Christine. I have been a little spoiled because each time I have shared my testimony here I have been allowed to do it in English with someone to interpret for me. This time, I was asked to share in French! Yikes! 

I only had a few hours' notice and still had to do school with Daniel so I sort of cheated. I knew I had forgotten a lot of grammar. I also was aware of the fact that when I am nervous, it is even more challenging for me to think in French. I had written my testimony in French during language school so I pulled that out and edited it a bit. Hooray for saving language school homework! 

French is the official language here, but even among the nationals not everyone speaks French. Many have not had enough schooling to be proficient in French. There was a woman in this group who only spoke Lingala so our time together involved a mix of English, French, and Lingala. I gave my testimony in French and Mama Louise interpreted it into Lingala. If she had a question about something I said, she asked Christine, who then asked me in English so that I could rephrase my original sentence back into French. 

Sharing my story with the ladies was a blessing for me not just because I got a review of some vocabulary I had forgotten, but also because it gave me a way to connect with them. As my story progressed, I could see the ladies smiling and nodding. We are very different in culture and background, but all of us had a testimony. Each of us had a story to tell about how we were burdened and empty before Christ had changed our lives. 

Stories are very popular here, so we also talked about the fact that nearly everyone likes a good story and that if a person is able to share the story of what God has done in their life, they have a very powerful tool for sharing the gospel. Then the ladies shared their testimonies, first in Lingala and then Mama Louise translated into French for my sake. Having heard these ladies' stories made me feel like I was getting to know them on a deeper level. They shared of painful experiences, of growing up in churches that did not teach the gospel so they spent years following rituals without having a true relationship with Jesus. 

A Cheerful Look

Original depiction of fictional anthropomorphic rabbit from the first chapter of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

One of the little quirks our family has is that we like to use anthropomorphism outside of the literary genre. We often ascribe human emotions or thoughts to objects, animals, even our food. We like practicing our vocabulary too (just kidding).

We like for our food to be happy before we eat it.

I have a spoon that I like way more than any human being should like any spoon. It's happy. We use it to make peanut butter cookies so they have smilies on them instead of fork marks. Cookies with smilies are way, way more fun to eat than cookies with prison bars. (As I said previously, we like happy food.) 

Last night during supper our happy spoon was gaily floating in a dish of green peas when my youngest made an observation. He studied the spoon for a bit and then said "How can he be happy sitting in a bowl of nasty peas? We should get a frowny spoon." 

Now, as far as I know, no one likes a frowny spoon anymore than they like a frowny person, so I will likely have an impossible time finding one. Who wants to serve veggies with a frowny spoon? No restaurant or business advertises "service with a frown!" 

I want to be like my spoon, and be able to offer a smile and a cheerful  look to those around me, even if I am in the midst of something nasty. I want my face to reflect the joy God has given me in my heart, and not my sometimes less-than-pleasant-green-pea circumstances.  

"A cheerful look brings joy to the heart, and good news gives health to the bones." Proverbs 15:30

Bone Tired?

We have been in Kinshasa for two and a half years now and sometimes, especially lately, I am just TIRED. It's more than a physical kind of tired, and my whole family is experiencing it. It is emotional, mental, and spiritual. My grandmother used to say "bone tired," meaning she was completely, through and through, weary and worn out.

Some things are just too good not to share. This morning I found this post by OliveTree: "How to Keep Going When the Road Seems Long." She tells of her struggles with growing weary but also graciously shares what God has taught her through the struggles. Her post is full of practical advice on how to keep going when it seems like we work and work and work and see few results. OliveTree reminds us that our labor in the Lord is not in vain; if we persevere, we will be rewarded.

In God's perfect timing He inspired OliveTree to write her post and I found it when I needed it. So, if you are or have been "bone tired," too tired to lift your fork at supper, to think about anything, even to pray - check out her post. I think you'll be glad you did. I was.

Widows and Orphans

Nancy and Nancy, heh heh heh

My friends Jim and Nancy Smith returned from their mission station in Nkara and will soon be on their way back to the U.S. for a few months. I had sent a sack of yarn with Nancy to see if any of the ladies in the Literacy Center would be interested in making baby blankets for the orphanage (more about the literacy center HERE) (more about the blanket project HERE).

One lady, a widow named Ibo, crocheted these blankets. That's her front row left. She is a graduate of the literacy center and now teaches the other students to knit and crochet. She told Nancy Smith that when her husband died, she became very angry. Then she went to the literacy school and met Jesus and He changed her life. Ibo has no children to help care for her. Culturally and economically, life here is very difficult for widows and for people who have no children; I was very pleased to be able to give her an opportunity to earn a little extra money. Now I have soft, new blankets to take to the orphanage before the chilly dry season arrives. Mama Ibo lives a long way from the children at the orphanage in Kimbondo and neither of them has any knowledge of the other. We are admonished in James that pure religion is to look after orphans and widows in their distress. By paying Mama Ibo for her labors and donating the blankets to the orphanage, one project is helping both! I think that is so cool beans!

Tuesday was my birthday. My family spoiled me and did all the dishes all that day and all the following day. Of course it had NOTHING to do with the face that my thumb is still messed up. It is improving. An adopting family came through last week and I was able to buy a splint for my thumb for them to bring. That has enabled me to give it both protection and support, so now I have a lot less pain.






We are all looking forward to furlough this summer. Already our family is praying for a place to live and transportation and doing our best to search for both from here. We have lots to do during our time in the states: doctor and dentist visits, settle Emily into college and teach her how to drive, visit family, friends and ministry partners, raise ministry support, additional training, shopping for supplies for the next term, home schooling Daniel, etc, etc, etc. Somewhere in there we are supposed to take some R&R. We would love for you to pray with us.

Sunday Drive

You may have noticed I haven't posted in a while. I fell on our patio and got to go get xrays taken of my left hand. Those of you who know me well know that while I am fairly ambidextrous, I write with the left hand. Nothing was broken, but before I fell I already had a sore thumb from a softball injury and now that middle joint is just not doing well. 

While trying to rest my hand and let it heal as much as I can, I've discovered some cool things I can do without using my thumb: tie my shoes, brush my teeth, and even put in a pony tail. Things I can't do without hurting my thumb or at least without it getting in the way: wash dishes, open cans, sweep/mop, chop food, grate cheese. Apologies to my family.

Last week we went I got a chance to see a friend from the U.S. who came here on business, as well as meet some new friends who were here to adopt three  children. We planned for all of us and my friend Christine to go to a local church together, followed by visits to a couple of orphanages and lunch together. 

We didn't get to go to the church because it rained Sunday morning and the roads were too bad, even for Christine's big tough vehicle. None of us were really dressed for mudding or for pushing vehicles.









It was a long, slow drive. We tried several routes. Each time we had to turn around. I was pretty disappointed and hope to get to go another day.

 
We did make it to the orphanages. Both of these orphanages are managed by Christians, one by missionaries and one by a Congolese family. This was the first opportunity I had to visit other orphanages besides the one in Kimbondo that I am accustomed to. These were much smaller. One of them is specifically for boys who were street children. 

We were greeted with a welcome song, the second time I have had that pleasure since coming here. These kids were waiting to have their meal but they didn't object to having lollipops for their "appetizers."

the kitchen

Cooking is done outdoors. This is not unusual in Congolese homes. There isn't enough space indoors for a kitchen, nor enough light or ventilation. When we arrived they were preparing lunch of fufu - a starchy hard to describe food made from manioc, the main carbohydrate here. It's sort of like mashed potatoes that you can pick up and hold in your hand and tear pieces off to eat, but not really. 




All in all it was a day of many emotions: joy for seeing my friend again, heartbreak at seeing the poverty and need everywhere we went, excitement for meeting new friends and going new places, anguish and helplessness for the tears and sobs of a child who was heartbroken, and tiredness after a long day. After the day was done, one emotion still remains, hope. God has placed people here who deeply love Him and are dedicated to helping kids by giving them a place of refuge where their most basic physical needs are met but also where they can be loved, encounter Jesus, and find healing for their hearts.

"Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world." James 1:27

A Fun Change in Routine

My normal Saturday routine includes working on the blog in the mornings and playing softball in the afternoons. These last few weeks, we have not had enough players in town to continue softball, so in order to stay active we've had to break that routine a bit and take walks or go swimming. Yesterday I changed up the morning blog post and afternoon softball game routine to do something different and play a different game. I've written in previous posts about our missionary friends Jim and Nancy Smith. They raised their children here in the Congo. For the past few weeks, their son in law, Rob, has been here helping them in their ministry in Nkara. This was Rob's first trip to Congo. Friday evening he returned to Kinshasa so he could fly back to the states today. So yesterday morning Daniel, Pepe, and I took Rob to the artisans' marketplace. In the photo above Pepe, my driver, is on the far right. Between Rob and me is an artist/vendor holding one of his paintings. When ever we go there to shop, this gentleman gives us good prices on his paintings and walks about with us telling the other vendors to give us good prices so that we will keep coming back and bringing our friends. Generally it works, but shopping in the market is also a game. They always start with a ridiculously high price. We always counter with a lower price than we hope to get away with. We all end up meeting somewhere in the middle and everyone is happy. It's how you play the game. Even if it is 99 degrees outside, and you are hungry and tired, and you and the vendor both know exactly what you paid for the same item the last time you shopped, and you really just want to skip to the end, you can't. You can win the game, lose the game, or even quit the game, but you can't skip the game. 

Daniel and Pepe at TASOK campus, Shawn's school

We also visited some of the old stomping grounds of Rob's wife, Shawn. He was able to see places she lived, studied and worshiped and take photos to show Shawn what has changed and what has not. I'm sure when he gets home with his photos and shares his experiences there will be some nostalgic moments for Shawn. I remember what it is like to be in a strange country trying to travel and shop when no one speaks my language, so I was glad to be able to help Rob. I had a lot of fun seeing Kinshasa through fresh eyes again and explaining things for him. I also remember the first time David took me to see the places he spent his childhood and how that felt, to have that added connection and to actually see the things he had described to me. Very cool beans.

Giving up bragging for lent?

Heart For God (Photo credit: SweetCapture)

Lent season began yesterday. Last year I shared what I had newly learned about this season and my reflections at that time in my post Learning About Lent. I understand what lent should be, and what it can be.  But I still struggle with some things. I wonder if it is still meaningful when a person gives up the same thing year after year for lent. I wonder if we are missing the intention of the early church leaders when we think of lent in terms of giving up a bad habit. Why wait until lent if we already know it is bad? Or when we give up something good, what are our motives. I wonder if it is a good thing to tell everyone what we are doing to observe lent or if it is a better thing to treat lent observance in a similar fashion to the way we ought to treat prayer and fasting, not secretly, but not as the Pharisees either. Does telling everyone what we are doing for lent bless them in any way or does it just puff us up and make them feel like they have to do something equal or better? or feel like they are less pious because they aren't choosing to observe lent? Is lent about looking holy? or about being holy? Our family was talking together about all this and my youngest jokingly said "I'm giving up bragging for lent." What stunned me was that in our semi-isolation here, he had already observed that some folks do seem to use their lent observance as an opportunity to boast and put the focus on them instead of on Christ. Out of the mouths of babes.

There are several articles posted in my Learning About Lent post that address the positive elements of lent and the links are still there if you are interested. I found a new article this year whose author has a different and thought provoking perspective, Pastor Stephen Sammons' Why I don't Celebrate Lent. He clarifies up front that he does not have a problem with the origin of lent or the intended purpose of lent, but with what it has become in our day, and then he gives his reasons. It's a stimulating read and made me think about my own motives and desires.

Another pastor suggested that for lent we give up to God what He really wants - our broken and contrite hearts. I've included a link to his article below.

The bottom line is that lent observance is a personal decision. It is not commanded of God. It is not addressed in the Bible. But repentance is. Renewal is. Humility and submission are. Holiness is. Lent season is one avenue God might use in a believer's life to work out those issues in their heart, but it certainly is not the only one.

I would love to hear your thoughts.

Related articles

• A Sacrifice for Lent...a broken heart?

Picture This 2

My friend and co-laborer in Christ, Nancy Smith has returned to Congo for a time. In addition to attending to their ministries here, teaching in the women's literacy center and the Bible school, seeing to repairs of their radio tower, evangelism, etc, Nancy found time to spend an afternoon with me. It is always a blessing to get time with a friend whom you don't see often. I am extra blessed this time because she and I have a little project we are working on now. I have a bunch of baby soft yarn for knitting and crocheting baby blankets. I never could figure out how to knit or crochet on my own (instructions are always right handed, ugh) and couldn't find anyone with time to teach me. The women in Nkara at the women's literacy center are trained to do both so that they can make things to help support their families. Nancy is going to leave Tuesday for Nkara - in an MAF plane that my amazing husband does maintenance on! She will take my yarn with her and have the ladies in the school make baby blankets for me to donate to the orphanage when Nancy brings them back with her. I will pay them a fair price for their labor and they will have contributed to an important ministry here in Kinshasa. I am very excited to finally see this desire coming to fruition. They should have the blankets in time for the cooler dry season. Don't look too closely at that photo. We both had been in my hot car with no a/c for a while and were both pretty tired.

We had a stressful January, lots going on back home and here, and I thought a light-hearted post of some random photos would do us all good. Here are some of our most recent odd photos.

In the "Things we eat in Congo" category:

Plop - These are actually cookies and aren't too bad if you like store bought cookies.

We also occasionally eat Smoked Russians. Wonder if the Russians eat Smoked Americans?

In the "Oxymoron" category: This made me laugh. It's a bug spray called SafeTox. Seems to me it is either safe, or it is toxic. I am not sure how it can be both.

In the "What is that and why did they put it here?" category:

Gripe Water. Shelved between the yeast and the pudding mixes in the baking section. If you don't have enough to gripe about, try some gripe water.

In the "TIA: This is Africa" category:

If you go shopping in Nairobi, Kenya, be sure to drop your toddlers and preschoolers off at the Kids Corner so they can play with all the nice breakables and power cords while you shop.

Lastly, in the "Things A Mom Just Doesn't Want to Know" category, along with why I found a straw in the litter box: What makes a child want to take a photo of himself doing this?

Once again

IMG_5805 (Photo credit: strudelt)

Once again my heart is broken. Another one dear to me has gone home ahead of me. She is the sixth in the 28 months we have been here. 
Once again I feel the loss in many different ways. The words of encouragement that will no longer arrive in the mail or in my email box. The smiles and hugs that won’t be there anymore. The lessons and experiences that will no longer be shared. The absence.

Once again I am helpless when I want nothing more than to help someone I love. I have no magic solutions. I haven’t got the words and wisdom needed. I haven’t got a clue. I can’t give them what they need. I haven’t even the ability to be with them in person and just walk through this beside them.

Mary Magdalene, in a dramatic 19th-century popular image of penitence painted by Ary Scheffer. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Once again I cling to You. Yours was the first broken heart, on that day when Eve lost her trust in you and made her fateful choice.  You understand loss and grief and brokenness.  You understand longing. You are wise and strong. 

Once again I ask You, take my mourning and as You change it slowly into gladness, change me too. Guide me in your Truth and teach me. Help me help them. Be the strength in my weakness and speak through me. When they are too weak, weary and broken to walk, gather my loved ones in your arms and carry them close to your heart, dear Shepherd.

Once again, Father, give me the grace and strength I need for this day. Give me eyes to see beyond myself.

Young Shepherd (Photo credit: edbrambley)

"He tends his flock like a shepherd: He gathers the lambs in his arms and carries them close to his hearth; He gently leads those that have young." Is 40:11

Clothes don't make the man,

(65) paper doll (Photo credit: crackedmoon)

but what we wear each day might say a lot about who we serve. Recently I received an email with a subject line that read: "Do you dress like your quilt?" My first thought on that question was "gee, I hope not," as I mentally pictured myself dressed like a paper doll in quilt tops I have made. Hmmm, there was that one that had a three dimensional cat with a tail made from a boa. No way. I have loved every quilt I have made, but honestly has anyone ever looked at a quilt and thought "that would make an awesome dress!?" You get my point. 

We get up every day and get dressed, and we do it with our audience and our planned activities in mind so that our dress is appropriate for the occasion. We want to put forth the best image we can because we know our reputation is at stake. People notice what we wear, whether we like it or not, and they form opinions of us based on their impressions. 

People also notice what we as Christians are "wearing." Romans 13:14 says we are to "put on the Lord Jesus Christ."  Isaiah 61:10 says the Lord "has clothed me with garments of salvation and arrayed me in a robe of righteousness." As a believer, my Savior's reputation is at stake and I want to present well an image of Him. People's opinions of Christ, and maybe their eternities can be at stake. I don't dress like my quilt, but I hope and pray that each day I dress like Christ.

"Therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity." --Colossians 3:12-14

A plane, a wrench, a pen, and a spatula ---

What do these have in common? All of these and more can be tools for ministry! Check out my latest post on the MAF Blog .

Speaking of ministry tools, I have found a really cool tool that is ministering to me! Cool beans! Last year about this time I was already falling behind in my New Year's resolution to memorize more scripture. I never lost my conviction that I needed to be more consistent in my efforts to hide God's Word in my heart, but I needed a little accountability and a little bit of affirmation. Nothing material, just the pleasure of having a way to visualize my progress so that I felt encouraged instead of discouraged. Sort of like when our kids are little and we make a chart with their learning and behavior goals or their chores and we give them little star stickers to put on the chart each time they make progress. Silly? Yes. Effective? Yes.

Memverse is a web site for folks who want to memorize Bible verses but it has a lot of other features as well. You can read a daily devotional from Spurgeon, keep track of verses you've already learned and periodically review them so that you retain them, practice your new verses, see what the most popular verses are that others are learning, read the Memverse blog, and see your progress! I am not receiving anything for recommending Memverse and they have not asked me to. They do not even know I am writing about them. I'm just so excited about this tool that is a perfect fit for me that I wanted to tell others about it. If like me, you made yet another resolution to memorize more scripture, Memverse is free and does not require any downloads, so give it a try!

Three and a half weeks

For three and a half wonderful weeks, Josh was here with us. Yesterday was his last day with us and each of us spent the day trying unsuccessfully to think about anything else besides the fact that he was leaving. We didn't do anything spectacular during those weeks. We just enjoyed being five again, catching up, talking, laughing, Christmas, etc. As you can see by the photos, Josh adds a certain charm and personality to any group he is part of. 

Part of preparing to leave Kinshasa is pre-checking your bags. Pre-checking bags here is not the same process at pre-checking bags for a U.S. airline. It is not done over the internet. There is no curbside kiosk for tagging and dropping luggage. Oh, no. In Kinshasa one would to, ever leave their luggage with stranger in front of the airport. Pre-checking luggage means you take your suitcases downtown to the office of whatever airline you are going to fly with (not all airlines offer this service either.) You present your tickets and passport and they weigh your bags and check them and print your boarding passes for you. You can also pay your exit tax in advance and get a receipt so you don't have to do it at the airport. We go through this process because it is waaaay easier than checking bags at the actual airport. We have had "security" find things in our bags they liked a lot and try to take them, right in front of us. Sometimes they ask for them. Sometimes they don't. Sometimes they ask for money in exchange for letting you keep your own possessions. Pre-checking your bags with the airline means your luggage bypasses the airport staff and is handled only by the airline.

Yesterday we learned that another reason you might want to pre-check your bags is if you have a weight issue. The customer in front of us in line to weigh luggage was trying to get a bin of dried eels through. We know they were eels because the bin was open. It was also overweight. The ensuing discussion/debate was causing a delay and the line was backing up. The official pointed to Josh's luggage and told David to pick it up. When he picked it up easily, she declared it all 50 lbs and sent it through. So if you have  slightly overweight bags and strong arms, you might want to try getting in line behind the eel guy.

Josh's flight was in the evening. David took him to the airport and the kids and I stayed home and boohooed together. Then we all got busy trying to distract ourselves from our sadness. By the time David got home I had done a load of laundry, worked ahead in my Bible study book, baked brownies, baked cookie bars, made two batches of oatmeal muffins, and washed dishes, and lost all my holiday season weight (just kidding, it's still there). I would call it comfort food but we aren't stress eaters so none of it even got touched until breakfast today. A friend pointed out to me that saying goodbye hurts so intensely because we have been so blessed to have a close-knit family. I am very grateful for that!