Angels

Part One
Sukkot 2006, Anderson Lodge, Cougar, WA

Several families drove up to the lodge for Shabbat services on Friday evening. One family brought a passel of sons with them and one of these boys "noticed" our daughter Sirena, who was 9 at the time. He dared his younger brother to ask Sirena a question. The family is nice enough, but it is probably a good thing that they had left before Bryan heard about "The Question".

He asked, "Did it hurt when you fell from heaven?"


Part Two
August 2007, Trout Lake Solitude, Trout Lake, WA

My extended family rented a guest house for the weekend. The setting was lovely and we were sharing a leisurely breakfast Saturday morning. The kids were in the loft, reachable only by a nifty ladder through a hatch in the ceiling. Madelyn was playing pool with her siblings and took a step backwards to line up her shot. She stepped into nothingness and fell 9', landing hard. She had stepped right through that hole.

By grace, she didn't tangle with the ladder during her descent. By the time she landed, I was moving towards her reaching her only seconds after the fall. She never lost consciousness and with a voice full of sadness cried, "I think I broke my arm." Only a quick glance was needed to confirm that her arm was indeed broken just below the wrist. Loverly.

After attending numerous births and handling life threatening emergencies, I knew that there was no reason for panic. I had a little trouble convincing the rest of the family. There were many concerned and helpful cousins, aunts, uncles and grandparents willing to do anything to ease Madelyn's suffering. In just a few minutes, she had swallowed a dose of ibuprofen, while an ice pack and a makeshift splint were applied to her arm. We were ready to head in to the hospital.

Daddy carried her out to the van and my cousin Rachael climbed in next to Madelyn. As we were driving in to White Salmon, I couldn't resist trying to sneak a smile out of Maddie. I turned and asked, "Did it hurt when YOU fell from heaven?"

It didn't rate a smile, only a groan accompanied by an expressive eyeroll.

The break was impressive enough to warrant a closed reduction under anesthesia. At the time of the accident, there was some concern that it might not heal right since the break was at the growth plate. Prayers were offered and answered with speedy and complete healing.


Epilogue
In the months that have elapsed, the story and even the question get smiles and laughs from Madelyn. She is growing a delightful and strong sense of humor! Sirena already has a well developed funny bone but remembering her question provokes a blush more than a smile. Girls. My girls. I love 'em so.

People Pics in Paradise

Pictures of people I love, taken during our vacation on Kauai,
in no particular order:

Sarah loved the water and would happily walk in up to her
neck! We only allowed her to play in the surf if she was attached to one of the adults.
Here she is with her daddy. Mara is snorkeling nearby.

Snorkeling
From top to bottom:
Gavin, Mara, Sirena

The water was quite shallow, less than knee-deep
even out where Gavin was snorkeling.

Mason hated the sand. He hated the water.
Every time a wave came, he said, "Stop!"
We finally reconciled him to the experience
by encouraging him to throw the sand into the water.

Not the best photo I have ever posed for, but I am in so few...
The Ergo carriers were wonderful!
On this outing, I wore Mason and Bryan wore Sadie.
We climbed up and down rocks with ease.

By the end of the outing Mason was a real grump.
This pic was taken over my shoulder, he is in the carrier on my back.

Here we are again, from a wider angle.
He was crying, "Stop. Give it to me, NOW!"

Madelyn with fins on our lanai.
This is the only place she wore fins as snorkeling wasn't her thing.

Sirena with fins. She hated to take them off and would
walk up the beach flipping sand everywhere.

Sirena and Gavin at a lookout point in Waimea Canyon.
(Note: these swimsuits worked really well. Modest coverage plus SPF 50!
This saved me from trying to apply sunscreen to ticklish places.

Mara being shy.

Sarah looks a lot like her daddy did at this age!


Sadie and Mason on one of the sick days.
Notice the very important blankies, cuddled close in 85 degree weather with high humidity. Ugh, too warm for me.
I discovered that leather furniture is a plus when you have barfy toddlers.


Mason in a rare happy moment. When he is sick, he is cranky.
This photo was taken at the Kamalani Playground
(similiar to our Imagination Station or Fantasy Forest), and
we made a trip to the park just to play on the playground.

Good feelings gone.

Of course, there are many, many more photos. When I have a chance, I'll post more with stories. Life was and is very busy now that we are home. Our focus turned to Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread, which concluded Tuesday night at sundown. Now we are counting down to the Feast of Weeks. April is also full of birthdays so we are preparing to party after the taxes are filed. As I have long maintained, nothing is certain but death, taxes and laundry.

Aloha

The view from our lanai, looking to the right.

Here I am in a little coffee shop enjoying a Kaua'i morning. Cup of mocha and sticky bun at my elbow, free wi-fi and that indescribable coffee-shop atmosphere make me feel right at home. Be prepared for a long post!

We are swimming and snokeling everyday. Well, the kids are. I am enoying my beach chair and unbrella. The company is fabulous- Aunt Dale, Uncle Larry and Bryan's cousing Damon are here from Texas and we celebrated Aunt Dale's birthday last night. It is great to be with family. We are laughing a lot. There have been whales and spinning dolphins playing outside the reef and we sit on our lanai (patio) watching them jump and splash. At night, we take our flashlights out onto the beach to chase crabs.

We survived the journey intact. I wouldn't want to repeat that day. Neither Mason nor Sadie slept on the 5 h 52 m flight. Oops. That's not entirely true. Sadie fell asleep about 10 seconds before the wheels touched down. Despite all our OTC help, Mason's ears hurt during the descent and he screamed for about 10 minutes. "Owie, owie, owie!" Our neighbors on the flight were very gracious and understanding. They repeatedly complemented our children for their behaviour.

The long flight was from Portland to Honululu. We had an hour layover before catching an island hopper to Kaua'i. Everyone was thrilled to be running around even though it was very, very warm and the humdity must have been 102%. Mason loved seeing the planes until we boarded. I think that the ear pain was still fresh in his memory. Once the engines started, so did he. He cried for about 10 minutes of the 20 minute flight. Lovely.

Landed in Kauai, finally. I was starting to get a nice vacationy feeling when we were informed that our luggage hadn't made the transfer at Honululu. "It should be here in an hour."

We decided to pick up our rental car(s). Check in went smoothly and the lady told us, "The minivans in the first row by the fence." Nope. There was nothing there. When we asked, we were informed that they were all being washed and would be around shortly. So there we waited, for almost an hour, for two clean vehicles. It was around 3 or 3:30 Kauai time, which was two hours behind Oregon time. In other words, I had 6 children who had all been awake for 12 or more hours standing in a shadeless parking lot. The rental care people are lucky I am such a nice person. In fact, everyone was lucky I was a nice person. Let's just leave it at that.

Back at baggage claim, we found 3 of our 8 bags. The others would be in sometime soon. Maybe an hour. Island time.

Drove back to the condo with our carry-ons and the kid's luggage. The missing bags included 2 carseats, the portacrib, some snorkel gear and Bryan's & my bag. This was one of those times when my family rose up and called me blessed for packing an "emergency" bag that had swimsuits and underwear for all- just in case they lost our luggage.

The condo is beautiful and the view is even better. Mason was in full meltdown mode as we were settling in. By the time we had found dinner and fed everyone, it was 6 pm (8 pm home time equivalent.) He was still un-napped and definitely unhappy. Still waiting for his bed to arrive, we laid him down on a towel on the floor of our bedroom. He fell asleep instantly. Poor baby.

A very, very poor baby woke up crying two hours later. He had vomited all over himself and his bed. Yes, ladies and gentlemen. He had a stomach bug. The barfies lasted 12 hours but the runs held on for 4 days. It was embarrassing to call housekeeping and say, "My son had diarrhea -again- and we need towels, sheets and pillows -again." So far, Sadie is the only other child to catch the bug and it only lasted 24 hours.

Please pray that this bug doesn't spread. We are having a lovely time and I could write forever but Bryan reminds me that life is waiting beyond the computer screen.

I'll try to sneak away later and post some more pics.

Update(s)

Update1: Mason will be receiving his little blue card in the mail sometime soon, and he may be eligible for a passport after all. Here's hoping.

Update2: We are leaving for 14 days in Kauai on Thursday! My house is one large staging area, with suitcases and laundry everywhere. I am washing, folding and packing the necessary items straight into the suitcases.

I have listsmania. There are lists for packing. Lists for chores yet to be accomplished. To do lists broken down by days; lists of food to take and food we'll purchase there. Red list, blue list, one list, two lists. Which brings me to another important list- the list of books to read to Mason en route. I have been telling everyone, "If we can just get there, we'll be fine." Traveling with a one year old for 5 hours in a plane makes me a bit nervous, so say a prayer for traveling mercies Thursday morning.

"See" you in a couple of weeks.

Aloha!

Camping

As I mentioned in the comments, we had planned to go camping as a family last weekend but decided to stay home. The dear friends who had first extended the invitation to go camping, extended a further and most generous invitation to take our four eldest children camping sans parents. This family has two children, a ds 10 and dd 6, so this was quite a courageous undertaking.

When they arrived to pick up the kids, their eyes popped when they saw the pile of things to be loaded into their already full utility trailer. Higher, we must pile it higher! So we did. When they drove away, it looked like their suburban was towing a tarp-covered mountain.

Bryan and I were glad for the kids to have this weekend at the beach and happy to have some focused time with the two littles, but we found that we disliked having our family split apart. We weren't concerned for their safety (any more than normal) or about the company they would be keeping. We simply love having all our chicks under our wings.

And, I will admit that we were a bit surprised to discover that two toddlers is just as much work as the six children combined. The major difference being the size of the meals I prepared. (One chicken, I only had to wash, roast and season one chicken. Amazing.) It has been 9 1/2 years since our family was in the two kids, both toddlers, stage. Don't think I'd like to go back there.

The kids arrived home, sunburned and sandy just in time for supper on Sunday. (How's that for a little alliteration? *grin*) The father of the other family had only positive things to say about our children. In fact, he said that our eldest daughter, Mara, deserved 5 gold stars! Evidently, she was an exemplary leader this weekend and the other 3 were exemplary followers. Whenever there was the beginning of a bad attitude, "she just looked at them crosswise and they jumped into line."

Pleased and proud, we said thanks and goodbye's, hosed the children off and tucked them into bed. With a satisfied feeling in our hearts, Bryan and I walked down the hall to see a blanket covered lump in each bed. Sleep came easier knowing our brood was safely home.

Beach Photos 2005

Bryan and I with Mason, our youngest, at the beach last August.

Not my best photo, but at least I am in this one! More often than not, I am the one taking pictures. A few photos of the kids from our trip to the coast this past summer. We spent part of the day at Battery Russell, Fort Stevens. August is just before the "fall birthday season" at our house, so the kids whose ages are listed as almost are now officially the ages listed. (This is very important to Gavin and Sarah, especially. Sirena isn't too excited about 8, but Gavin loves being 10, and Sadie tells anyone who will listen that she is two.)

Mara Anne, age 11 going on 25

Gavin, almost 10! (in this photo)

Sirena, almost 8 as of this pic

Madelyn, 6 1/2

Sadie Eleanor, almost 2 (in photo)

And finally, my favorite picture of the family from the weekend...