Home!

While my friend, Jana Bi, has much healing to do, she is on the road to recovery.  She was released from the hospital YESTERDAY and stopped by this morning to say, "Hi".

The scarf is covering a hair line full of staples.  I made her put it back on!!!

 

Exempt!

I wept as I watched the Global Mercy travel through the Suez Canal.  Only God . . .

The Suez Canal Authority (SCA) has decided to exempt the largest floating hospital in the world from transit fees due to its charitable activities, and is allowed to pass free of charge.

Lieutenant-General Osama Rabie, the head of the SCA, said during a telephone interview with Channel One on Saturday evening that the Global Mercy ship is the largest floating civilian hospital and a medical convoy in the world.

He added that the hospital provides its services free of charge to countries experiencing health problems, and it has a distinguished group of medical staff.

Therefore, the SCA allowed it to cross for free and cancel all fees, saying: “It was not reasonable to take money from them.”

Rabie added that the Suez Canal is ready to receive various types of ships, whether medical, containers or passengers, as a message that Egypt is interested in reaching help facilitate all transport in food, drink, medicine and navigational services as soon as possible.

He explained that the movement of ships and their cargo and the total revenues of the canal increased by 11.2 percent during the period January-August 2021, compared to the same period last year.

Micah's Marble Marble Cake!

 

Micah tried something new on Tuesday.  She had a marble cake and decided to marble the frosting, too - making it a Marble Marble Cake!  Try to say that three times fast!

New Home

 

Sam, Aunt Lenore, Jeanette and Micah

Here we are in front of Aunt Lenore's new home.  From start to finish, she was moved in in less than four hours - mostly because David and Jeanette had done a lot of prior planning with her!

The Movers

We helped move Aunt Lenore to Kingsley Shores Assisted Living today.  I didn't recognize these two young men who were helping so I asked who they were.  It turns out that I had had these three in Sunday School from the time they were in third grade until they finished sixth grade.  Yup, that's Micah and the Terroristic Twins!  They even admitted today that they had been a challenge!  It was fun to see them together, now all seniors in college, and all majoring in business!

Micah, Jacob, and Joel

My Baby's a Senior!

 

Micah started her senior year of college at North Central University yesterday!

Heidi and I went out to lunch with her at Red Robin to celebrate. 

JanaBi

That's how "talk to text" writes my dear friend Jana Bacon's name.  I think we met shortly after I arrived in the neighborhood twenty years ago.  I remember her calling my name from her front porch as we were walking around the block.  

Jana's having her fourth brain surgery today to remove a tumor.  It was supposed to begin at 7:30 a.m. and when Russ texted me at 6 p.m., she was still in surgery.  It's been a long, hard day for me and I'm not Jana-having-the-surgery or Russ-in-the-waiting-room.  

I've spent the day "praying without ceasing" and trusting God that He will bring Jana through.
  

Thankful Thursday!

Twenty years after moving into our house, we finally put up new lights!  I AM SO THANKFUL!!!

Gone on the gold bar lights in the bathrooms!  Gone is the gold chandelier with missing glass in the dining room!  Gone is the gold chandelier with the broken glass in the entryway!

I should have taken pictures, but since I didn't, you'll just have to stop by and see the upgrades that have me so thankful this Thursday . . .   

Beware of the Bees

Monday night's storm brought a much needed 4.1 inches of rain along with a lot of downed tree branches.  We noticed neighbor Jill had lost a rather large branch on her apple tree and might appreciate some help cutting it down.  Normally, her husband would have dealt with it, but he went home to Jesus in January.

Sam went up to her house with his chainsaw.  Jill said, "Just put the branches back in the woods."  Little did Jill know that where Sam put the branches were a bunch of honey bees!  Thirteen stings later, he had no reaction beyond burning pain at the sting sites . . . 

At 6:15 a.m. this morning . . .

My friend Laura sent me a text yesterday asking me if I wanted to go swimming with her this morning OUTDOORS at Lifetime.  She'd even pick me up - an offer I could NOT refuse!

It was beautiful swimming outside - watching the clouds, the birds, the other people (Ms. Jiggles!), the sun come out . . . Thank you, Laura, for an amazing swim!

Thankful Thursday!

I was so thankful that when I got home from work yesterday that Matt had ordered us dinner from Cane's.  (Sam and Micah were in Iowa at his dad's.). I did not have to do anything but eat!  Unfortunately, he had ordered it for RIGHT NOW!  So we had dinner at 4:30 p.m. last night because HE was hungry! 

What a wonderful Wednesday!

There were sixteen people in my CPR class this morning so I figured after work this afternoon, I would be staying late to clean sixteen adult manikins, sixteen baby manikins and sixteen face masks, followed by putting new lungs in thirty-two manikins.

Anya and I finished up in the pool at 3:45 and walked back to our classroom to start cleaning manikins only to discover Teija had cleaned them ALL!  We were free to go!  What a wonderful Wednesday!

Toddler.

One of the staff I'm working with this week at ISD 196 is named "Todjer".

I send off a text yesterday to someone regarding Todjer.  His name was autocorrected to "Toddler".  We've been having fun with that ever since . . .    

And Julie.

Teija and Anya are cool names.  They're by no means ordinary or usual.  Sadly, their oldest sister is . . . Julie.  It doesn't quite fit.  We call the sisters, "Teija, Anya, . . . and Julie."   

"Is she your mother?"

When our kids were little, they loved a book called, "Are you my mother?"  

Today, while Anya and I were teaching the Water Safety Aide Class for ISD 196, one of the students in our class looked at Anya, then looked across the pool at her sister Teija and then looked back at Anya and said, "Is she your mother?"

When we finally stopped laughing, Anya said, "No, that's my sister!"  They're seven years apart, but Teija definitely does NOT look old enough to be Anya's mother!!!

The House Is . . .

 BLUE!!!

We're not quite finished - the bottom boards on the back of the house and on the north side need to be painted along with painting the caulking by the chimney, and we have behind the tomato plants on the garage left to do, but we're are almost officially done wearing Smurf blue!

Tentmakers

A year after college, I joined an organization known as "Tentmakers".  Through them, I was placed at Granite Falls Lutheran Church where I worked part-time and was the youth director part-time, following the example of the Apostle Paul who also worked part-time as a tentmaker while sharing the gospel.  It was a lovely experience and I formed several life-long friendships. 

Fast forward to Sunday.  One of the girls I worked with at ISD 196 left for Tentmaker training and I'm going to be on her prayer team.  I checked out their website and Tentmakers has really changed since I was there in the '80's, except for one thing - the founder Dick Amundson is still in charge!  I told Ally to give Dick my greetings!  I'm sure he'll remember me - I was at his sister's church!    

Girls Night Out!

Our adoption agency, New Life Family Services, held a fundraising event on Tuesday night up in Bloomington, "Girls Night Out!".  Micah was contacted a few months ago by NLFS, asking if she wanted to have a table there selling her baked goods.  Naturally, she said, "YES!"

I volunteered to go along with her and help out.  Little did I know my job would start way earlier than 4:45 p.m. on Tuesday!  But we got it done.  Bribed a group of girls who had arrived early ("will work for cookies") to help us carry our stuff in and got it all set up.  And waited . . . and waited . . . and waited . . . and then . . .

Before the event actually started, Micah had sold out of all of her chocolate chip cookies!  She was excited!  Our favorite customer was the woman who's daughter had just taught her how to use Venmo.  She came back three times to practice, each time spending more than the time before!

We also loved seeing all the NLFS staff that we've gotten to know over the years.  Our social worker Brita was there and sadly, her Venmo wasn't working for her at all.  Micah said, "I trust you.  You can send me a check."

Micah did well, bringing home just a few cupcakes and cookies.

Two Days at ISD 196

This week, I worked two days for ISD 196, teaching CPR on Tuesday and First Aid on Wednesday to two different, but delightful groups.  

I walked in to work on Tuesday "mask ready" with a face mask in my pocket.  Sam's district (ISD 191) had already sent out notification that beginning August 8, no matter what your vaccination status was, face masks were now required for everyone.

I laughed when the assistant aquatics director told me to hide it.  They're hoping that we can make it until next Thursday without requiring masks so that we'll have a summer "mask free"!  That's when summer programming ends.

Thankful Thursday!

After thirty-five days without a truly working washing machine, ours FINALLY got fixed this afternoon - twice!  The new control panel arrived on Tuesday and that got put in right away.  Then the machine began flashing "F5".  We knew that meant the lid wasn't locking. The  repairman, of course, didn't have the part we needed for the lid lock, but he could get it up in Coon Rapids, so he took off and came back a little over an hour later with the part we needed.  We are so thankful for everyone who helped us with laundry during this time and we are even MORE thankful that our machine is back in business!

See You in Heaven!

 Sam's Uncle George passed away peacefully in his sleep yesterday morning.  Since he and his wife, Lenore, moved up to the Cities, we have been able to spend several holidays together.  We saw George and Lenore just last week . . . 

Cousin Phyllis, Sam, Lenore, and George

Farmer's Appreciation Day!

 For years now, my hometown has had a celebration the first Saturday of August known as "Farmer's Appreciation Day"!  We weren't there, but this year was special because of the man in the blue shirt riding in the parade waving at us:

That would be my dad!  He's riding in a wagon being pulled by the first tractor ever fixed by Jaycox Implement in Lake Park, Iowa. He would know.  He was one of the original three employees at Jaycox.  He has since retired (say twenty-four years ago!), but on the wagon with him are several employees of thirty-years or more.  The tractor is being driven by the new owner of Jaycox, Chad Jaycox.  We go way back - I used to babysit Chad and his big brother, Bart. Here's a better look:

Thankful Thursday!

 We had a wonderful day at Dad's yesterday!  Micah drove us there and back as well as baked two types of cookies for us to enjoy.  I got to paint and clean in the bathroom while my sister cleaned the living room carpet.  That left Dad, Sam and my brother-in-law Ray power washing the house!  I am thankful that we could spend that time together and that we could help Dad.

Sail On!

 

Bon voyage Global Mercy

The Global Mercy recently slipped her berth from the shipyard in China, and now she's underway. We are so excited for all that is ahead for this vessel of hope as we prepare to serve twice as many people as ever before!  Join with us in wishing the crew 'fair winds and following seas' as they make the long voyage to Europe to undergo the installation of the hospital equipment and IT systems.

Fatmata.

 

With bowed legs that bent more severely every year, even walking the short distance to the local school had been out of the question for Fatmata.

As the only child with an this type of condition in her area, the young girl also struggled with bullying by the other kids her age.

Despite these hardships, Fatmata’s family never lost hope that her future could be brighter. Her Aunt Mariam would return home from her job every night and spend hours teaching Fatmata, making sure that she did not fall behind in her studies.   ​One day Fatmata's family heard about an orthopedic surgery program onboard the Africa Mercy, a visiting hospital ship. Her aunt brought her to the ship for evaluation and soon she was walking up the gangway for her operation. Fatmata’s family was at her side rejoicing when the young girl took her first steps in her casts.  “She is full of curiosity — she wants to know everything there is to know,” her father, Hassane said. “Fatmata has a great destiny ahead of her.”

Now able to walk with ease, Fatmata has returned to school. It’s impossible to imagine Fatmata not going far in life — and while her straighter legs are a piece of that possibility, it’s the love and commitment of her family and support from friends like you that give her the ability to stand tall.

One.

 Sadly, that is the number of days Micah did NOT have to wear a mask to work this summer.  Her two weeks of waiting after her second Covid shot were up at 9 a.m. this morning.  She asked yesterday if I thought she could go in to work without a mask a day early because at Cub all unvaccinated employees MUST wear a face mask.  Always the rebel, I said, "Sure.  You're only nineteen hours early . . ."

She came home last night so sad.  "Cub said all employees have to start wearing face masks tomorrow whether or not they've been vaccinated."  Bummer . . .

From the Mouths of Babes . . .

STORY ONE: Friday night, Sam and I went to Faith Church in Minnetonka to see my co-worker and our friend, Tracy Holcomb, perform as the Fairy Godmother in "Cinderella".  The theater went silent went Prince Charming kissed Cinderella.  Then a small voice spoke up, "Ewww . . . ."  I don't know who was laughing louder - the audience or the cast!

STORY TWO:  Sunday morning in church, the pastor showed on the screen a picture of two men pulling a cart with SQUARE wheels that was full of round wheels.  He asked, "Who would pull a cart with square wheels"?  Once again, in a moment of silence, we all heard a small voice say, "Not me!"