Summer is nearing an end

Summer has always been a time for relaxing, enjoyment and growth. When the kids were small, it seemed that they would grow inches in just a few months. That isn't the case anymore, although Krista has grown since the spring. This summer, actually the whole year, has flown by. I can't seem to make it stop. Briana and Andrea are in college. Joanna is dual enrolled. So as the new school year starts, Krista is the last one left for me to teach.

Joanna still needs to get her drivers license. I do hope I survive that. And as I have seen with the others, when they get their license, they begin moving more to independence. I can't believe my Jo is already there.

That leaves me with my not so little anymore baby. We have big plans, she and I.....maybe I should rephrase that, I have big plans for her, I just hope she will follow. Shortly, she will move on to independence too

Her dad and I are changing our roles. We are becoming the support staff.

I am sad, but proud of my girls. They are moving into responsible adulthood with grace. They are facing challenges well. Most importantly, they have a heart for God. This is what I am most proud of. The choice to love God with all their heart is the one for which I am most proud.

As the nest empties, I will have to find new things to occupy my time. But until then, I think I will have my hands full with Krista.

Andrea's Graduation Video

This is the video we played at Andrea's graduation. Some of our friends have not seen it. So here it is.

Ahhh, What a Summer

I can hardly believe it is August. Well, the thermometer is making sure we are all aware that the dog days have arrived. Still, it is hard to believe how quickly this year has flown. Our summer has been very busy.

Krista spent 5 weeks working on her tennis at Flagler. Her confidence level has risen. She made friends and improved her skills. She has grown several inches. She has decided to learn how to play the guitar. Consequently, I had to learn to string a guitar. I already string tennis racquets, but I found there is a difference. We still haven't gotten the smallest string on as I broke 2 putting them on.

Joanna went to Michigan to help with an Arab festival there. It was a lot of hard work but she had an enjoyable time. She started her first college classes. This has been a little adjustment for her. Her goal is to have her AA when she graduates HS. We will see.

Andrea signed her tennis scholarship with FSCJ. Hopefully, this will be a stepping stone for her. She also received bright futures, so her college will be more than paid for.

Briana is finishing up her AA and Business degree. She has traveled to the midwest to see some of her friends from WOL Argentina. Ahead for her is looking for a college to attend next year.

Jimmy is still teaching in Spanish. He is running also, with a goal to run the Marine Corps freedom 5K while I run the Half Marathon. Running has been tough this summer with the heat.

Home improvements have been abundant this summer. Insulation and many plumbing repairs were made in attempt to lower our JEA bill. I hope to see improvements.

This summer has been a time of growth for all of us and we look forward to what the Fall will bring.

Lessons learned

It has been a while since I have blogged. I had a hankering, so here it is:

I have been consistently running for a year and a half. I have a few races under my belt, the longest being a Half Marathon. I ran the Marine Corp Half last October in 1:21:17. This has been a somewhat difficult process for me. There have been mental and physical battles. There have been lessons learned and some ignored. I hope you enjoy reading as I share some of them with you.

Let's begin with the scoffers. They are everywhere in our lives, with respect to running, mine were in my family. During our Beginning of the Year Family Gathering, I stated that I would run the River Run. My husband actually laughed. Granted, I had started AND quit running a few times during the years we have been married, but laugh. For some reason, I was determined this time. I found a training plan and completed the full 9.1 miles in 1:41. I was still running when I hit Heartbreak Hill. That was the beginning of my journey that has required persistence, patience, endurance...well the list could go on and on. Let's just say I silenced at least one scoffer in my life, in fact this scoffer has joined me in my running journey.

Some of the greatest battles I have fought have been mental. It hasn't been easy to determine what was mental or physical. My mind is weak. My body is stronger than I think. Being nearly 50, my old body does have it's limitations. I have learned to push it just a little farther. This brings to mind a spiritual analogy: Our flesh will tell us that we can't, God assures us that through the power of the Holy Spirit, we can. In fact God takes pleasure in doing great things with the most unlikely people. Still, great things are not done for God without proper nutrition we receive from God's Word. Likewise great things are not accomplished on the running trail without proper nutrition. I have learned that hydration, nutrition and sleep are very important.

The next battle is kin to the aforementioned. I have learned to listen to my body. There are times when I have not slept well and shouldn't go the distance. Running long distances has taught me to pace myself. I won't last the long haul sprinting. Remember the tortoise and the hare? Spiritually, our journey requires pacing and listening to the Holy Spirit. Just like physical cues can keep me from injury, the Spirits cues will also keep us from pain.

Currently, I am again training for the Marine Corp Half. Summer in Florida is not a great time to train, in fact, it can be downright miserable. All you can do is your best and hope that when the temperature cools (if in fact it does) you will run well. In the midst of this difficult time, I have to remind myself to enjoy the journey. Of course the results are most enjoyable. Running itself can be fun. I tend to be somewhat clinical in my approach. I like to see quantitative data. Some of my most enjoyable runs have been those when I just took off with the ipod and ran and ran. When I returned to the structured runs, the enjoyment was still there. I heard something recently that relates to this. Don't always look toward the goal, enjoy the climb. This is a great life lesson. We tend to look to better times, i.e. when we finish school, when the kids get out of diapers, etc., that we don't enjoy the present time. Investing in the lives of my daughters has been one of the long runs for me. That is coming to an end and leaves a little more time for running. It wasn't always easy to stop and enjoy it when times were crazy.

Will I still have the crappy runs? Will I fall on my face spiritually? Yes and more than likely. i have learned to get up and move on to the next run. I love accomplishing what most women my age won't even tackle. I love learning from even the worst runs. They teach me that I am not invincible. In my flesh, I can't do everything. I need the Holy Spirit to truly succeed.

Briana

4 am tomorrow morning will mark the 21st anniversary of a very blessed event in my life. We were the only ones on Blanding Blvd as we made our way to Orange Park Medical Center. 16 hours and a C-Section later we had our first daughter. We brought her home in a Christmas stocking. She was one of only 3 presents under our sparse little tree that year. It has been a blessing to watch her grow up to serve the Lord. She has a precious smile and a sweet spirit. We are so thankful that God blessed our lives with our "Sweet Baby" Briana.

I ran two Half Marathons (HM) in the month of October. I began training in July which, in Florida, is not a fun thing. The heat was unbearable. I plugged along with the hopes that it would be cooler in October and much easier. October arrived, but the cooler weather did not. I finished the race under my goal of 2:30. My time was 2:28:30. I am very proud of this accomplishment.

My second HM came as quite a surprise. We had a trip to Virginia planned to visit Liberty University. It was alumni weekend. We purchased an alumni package which included a 5K race. It was 2 weeks after the HM, but I didn't think that would be a problem. I received a call from the school asking if I still wanted to run the race and which one did I want to run, the 5K or the HM. This was Monday after my first HM, so I said I would run the HM. I was still on a high. I was feeling no pain not really tired, so this on should be no problem right?

To begin with, it was COLD. The high was predicted as only th low 50s. When I got there, I found out it was a trail race. The drive up the mountain should have clued me in. I asked the guys there if they thought I would be okay and showed them my shoes AND told them I was from Florida. They still said I would be okay. I still didn't know what I was getting in to. There were only about 80 people running the race. We all lined up and proceeded down a very narrow trail. I suddenly had a pinching sensation on my legs, then my arms and my face. There were huge black flies biting me. Fortunately there were ladies around my that got them off me. My hand was quite swollen at the end of the race.

Right off the bat we went up 2 very steep inclines, I was almost on all fours. I looked at the elevation chart from the race, during the first 2 miles the climb was 400 feet. That is much taller than any bridge(our mountains) in town. We crossed little bridges, the first was made of branches, a few of which were missing, it was precarious at best. I even crossed a 5 inch wide culvert. Sounds like disaster for a clutz like me. It had rained and the leaves were wet. There were places where I couldn't tell where the trail was, it looked just like the rest of the woods. I was concerned about getting lost, but was told that was no problem. Just follow the pink ribbons. Oviously, they didn't know who they were talking too. At one point in time, I stood in the middle of the woods looking for the pink ribbon. I got off trail twice. One time I looked down the hill to my left and saw a kid walking and a pink tape, fortunately I got back on course fairly easily. We were going down so steeply at times I would slip and fall. I took a pretty good tumble with about 2 miles to go. I was so tired, I guess I wasn't lifting my feet very high and there were rocks, roots, trees everywhere. We had to climb over several huge fallen trees, that was hard at the end. I got of trail again with about a 1/2 mile to go, there was a guy behind me that had done the 5K and was hanging out to cheer the racers on, helped me find my way. I had actually realized I was off trail and was heading back and he saw me. I was able to run around the lake to the finish line.

I was alone in the woods for most of the time. This was very difficult for me. No mile markers and only 3 water stations. There were times I was yelling at myself for getting into something as stupid as this. I was 70 out of 75 finishers. There were only 3 in my age catagory and the other ladies finished ahead of me. My time was 3:21:03. Almost a full hour longer than my first. This was a task more difficult than childbirth, but I have survived both.

My Very Long Dominican Post

I attempted to post this in the DR, but it didn't work. Everything was in Spanish and mine was in English and it didn't merge very well. I will post all here, I hope it is not too long to enjoy. It begins with July 9,2009

We landed in the Dominican Republic approximately 1:20 pm on July 9, 2009. Our day actually began at 2 am as we drove to Orlando to catch our flight to the Republica Dominicana via Miami. MIA is not one of my favorite airports. When MIA is the first place we land when returning to the states, it never feels like home, more like you are still in South America. This time we were heading in the other direction and we had a little time to kill. We logged onto facebook to let everyone know our status, did a little texting and set out to find Starbucks. The garbage lady, and I am not being unkind, that was her job told us it was at gate 36, downstairs. I was a little nervous about leaving the area and not getting back in so I asked someone else, who, consequently, did not speak English very well. He said “Don’t have Starbucks here”. Briana really wanted a Starbucks so I checked with the garbage lady again and she didn’t understand why I was asking again, but she told me again. We checked the wall and gate 36 was still in the yellow area so we wouldn’t be leaving the safe area.

Before I left the states, I emailed Andres with the time we would be arriving. I did not receive a reply. Since I am always worried about something, I was slightly concerned that there would be someone there to meet us. He was there with a crowd and that was a blessing.

The area around the airport was different from other places I have been. At one point we actually saw the ocean. There didn’t seem to be as many people. We arrived safely at the Herreras and had a snack, some of the best pineapple I have ever eating. We fellowshipped then took a little nap. Jimmy and Andreas borrowed a van to get us around in. We went for a ride, this is when all the excitement began. Now things were looking like South America….mass chaos. People everywhere walking, riding bikes, mopeds in cars and busses. Andres was driving in all this mess while texting. Jimmy said he was driving his truck, which is standard, while texting. Now that is skill. We went to the supermercado. It was more like Walmart, they sold everything. We stopped for gas. Here gas is $5. They put gas in the tank and there is another tank in the back of the car. It looks like a propane tank, you fill up that tank with cheaper propane like stuff and if I understand correctly, you alternate the two. I am sure that would fit right in with our cap and trade. It would be all cap and no trade.

We made it back to the Herreras and had the best meal. Mercedes made arroz y habechuela y carne. Fue muy bien. Briana even approved.

Tomorrow we will see our friends in La Vega. Andres had set up a visit to Casa de Campo where Sammy Sosa and J Lo have houses.

July 10, 2009

I have coined a new phrase, “When in La Romana, do as the La Romanans”. It was quite an interesting day. We left this morning at 8 am for La Vega to see our friends the Brockells. They are missionaries there. La Vega was about 3 ½ hours away. Almost exactly midway was the capital, Santa Domingo. It is a very large city. One very interesting sight was a Nissan dealership with a huge sign on the building that said “Big Blow Out Sale”. A Japanese dealership with and advertisement in English, go figure. You never can tell what you will see in a third world country. We stopped on the way to use the bathroom and of course we got a snack. It is a wonder that everyone here isn’t obese, food is central to their culture. We had an interesting cheese and crackers which were actually more like garlic toast.

La Romana is on the coast but it is impressive that not very far away are the mountains. They were beautiful.. We met up with our friends and ate at a Dominican restaurant. Afterwards we went for ice cream. Crossing the street is always an adventure for an American. In the United States, the pedestrian has the right of way, well here they are on the bottom of the totem pole. The motorcycle has the right of way. We were crossing the street and one turned the corner and BARELY missed Joanna and actually touched Briana when I reached for Joanna to get her out of the way. The guy on the motorcycle yelled “ te cuidado, mi amor tea mo” as he zoomed by. In English it sounds like this “watch out, my love, I love you”. Steve and Julia showed us their church and then we went back to the house and fellowshipped. They had a friend from the states visiting with her son. It was his birthday and we made a cake for him.

Andres wanted to leave so we could be back in familiar territory by dark. The car wouldn’t start, it was out of gas. Yesterday I explained the gas ordeal. It took some time, but we got the car started and were on our way. He took us home a different way from the way we came. We went through the city in Santa Domingo. We ended up in quite a traffic jam, all due to a stinky garbage truck. Traffic in South America is interesting at best, but when there is a problem, it is really something else. We were completely stopped and this bus was driving towards us and it didn’t appear that it was going to stop. Thankfully it did or I would be smooshed.

We were almost home and I thought we were lost. I had just seen the La Romana sign. We turned in the other direction and drove through a town. Andres asked directions a few times and we ended up at Amable in San Pedro, Sammy Sosa’s hometown. We ate pastele en hoja. When Mercedes told me the name I thought she said “pastele enojada” which means mad.. It is made with platanos and chicken; it was pretty good with ketchup on it. After a few interesting encounters with the locals, we made it back to the road to La Romana. I am glad we had Andres and Mercedes today, we would have really stood out by ourselves. I have been forced to speak my horrendous Spanish, hopefully it will improve. I am also learning to roll with the punches just a little more.

July 13, 2009

I skipped a couple of days on the blog, not because they were uneventful, but just not as many events and I was very tired when we got home. Here things get going a little later, consequently, things end later. This is almost opposite of how our days go at home, but….when in La Romana…..

Saturday, we went to La Playa. It is very beautiful. Different from ours in that it is in the Caribbean and the water is green. The water is also much warmer than our Atlantic. It is very interesting; there is only a small area that is available for the Dominicanos. Most of the beach is owned by the wealthy or hotels. We did walk in that area to take pictures. We were stopped by a couple that asked us in English to take their picture. They were not Gringos, but they knew to speak to us in English. We came home and ate and fellowshipped again. Mercedes made the best fish and potato salad. Jimmy ate at least 5 pounds of it.

Sunday morning we were at Iglesia Biblica Cristiano. Jimmy preached in the main service. That evening we were at there mission church. I have never in my life, heard music so loud. I thing young man in charge had the same solution for all problems, turn it up louder. Afterwards, we ate more authentic Dominican food, Keepers ( I am spelling it like it sounds because I don’t know how it is spelled), and empanadas. The restaurant we ate at was owned by a couple, the husband was Arabic and the wife was Dominican. The wife spoke to us, her name was Yolanda.

Today, we were at Compassion International. Jimmy taught the older kids, the age range was 13-19. This group was very helpful with his Spanish. It was a lot of fun for him. Briana and I were on the internet finally, and the teacher of the young ones came to us and said we were teaching that class, here is the lesson. She handed it to Briana. It was about Joseph, only I didn’t understand exactly where in the story they were. I saw the word esclava and thought it was the word for imprisoned which is encarsa. (I am sure I did not spell that word correctly) Well, Joseph was imprisoned and enslaved. I was supposed to tell about being a slave and I told about Joseph in prison. No problem, the kids told the story because it was basically a review anyway. Briana was translating but I was able to tell some in Spanish, it was humorous, the parts I did know in Spanish I still paused for Briana to speak so she just repeated what I had said in Spanish.

Finally, we went to the park and played games with the kids. Jimmy made a ton of balloons for them. There were even adults that hung around to watch. I am not sure what the rest of the day will be like but we will see.

July 14, 2009

Today was a day of opposites. I will explain later but I must tell a story from Sunday that I forgot to tell. After the morning service, we took church to one of the ladies in the church that could not attend the service. Her name was Rosa. She had ice on her leg and it was wrapped. I thought that was the problem. In actuality, she had cancer of the spine and had received treatments but the cancer was still there. Rosa was so happy to see us. Joyful would definitely be an adjective to describe her, albeit, not adequate enough. Andres had Jimmy share words of comfort and Mercedes sang for her. It was such a blessing to see the happiness of this family in a not so happy situation.

Now to today. Briana and I had a little better idea of what was expected of us. We actually had a written lesson, in Spanish of course. The plan was for me to teach in English and Briana translate in Spanish. They thought it would be good for the kids to hear English. These kids were the rowdiest kids I have ever dealt with before. I don’t think they have any discipline in their lives. I think they are much more comfortable with chaos than I am. The ministry the Herreras work with is Compassion International. It is really a very good program. They reach out into the poor community and evangelize. I received a lot of hugs.

From there we went to have lunch at one of the deacon’s homes. I always get a little nervous eating and drinking in the city, but we have done so much of this here that I just received it with thanksgiving. They were so excited to fellowship with us. The one thing that stands out here is the conveniences we have in America that are not here. Andres and Mercedes house is nice for here but things like flushing toilets, water pressure, washing dishes, electricity, they aren’t the same. We Americans are very spoiled. These people that shared with us today live in a home that is very poor by American standards. They had no electricity; there were lights that were powered by batteries. Even in the home we are staying in, they loose electricity, but fortunately they have the batteries for those times too.

After lunch we went to Casa de Campa. This is the place where Sammy Sosa and J Lo have a house. We did not go to that part, we went to a very scenic area, walked hundreds of stairs down a mountain to a lake and back up again. This area was built in the 70’s but looks ancient. Sammy Sosa and Michael Jackson both had weddings here. There was a huge ampitheatre.

I believe this evening is prayer meeting. I have just found out that I need to share a devotional tomorrow evening. I guess Briana will be translating once again. She asked me not to use any words she didn’t know so that will limit me a little.

July 16, 2009

When we leave a country, I always wonder if we will be remembered. As we left the Herreras, I think we were remembered BEFORE we arrived. This is a very special family and we were treated royally. They were genuinely sad to see us leave and even though I miss my girls in Los Estados Unidos, I will truly miss the Dominican Republic. Andres and Mercedes are a family serving the Lord in the same manner we are. We gave Andres the nickname El Presidente. Everywhere we went he knew several people. Often we would stop while driving down the road to talk to people. Mercedes gift is definitely serving. She cared for us like we were her own children. Manuel, the serious one, practiced his English with us. He is a caring intelligent young man, pasturing a small flock and leading his family to serve the Lord. Erika is a gifted lady, using her skills to guide the less fortunate through Compassion International. She misses her brothers a lot. Andresito is a much loved little boy who I am certain will grow to know Jesus Christ. What a blessing this family has been. As I sit 38,000 feet in the air, it doesn’t matter if I will be remembered; I have been blessed by a family who I will always remember. In total, we spoke and shared seven times, Jimmy 4 and Briana and I 3 times. It was a short week packed with activity.