Monday Morning

I was going to blog, really I was, and write up my IHip and Quarterly Report, but someone unexpectedly came to take all four children until 3 o'clock this afternoon, and so we are flinging ourselves in the car and going to ALL the places its a hassle and challenge to take four small children. How far to New York City? Just kidding, we'll stay in town, but it would be a sin to waste this opportunity. I'm thinking coffee out, lunch out, something else to be determined, and then arriving home just at the same time as the children.

In Memorium

In keeping with my current Announcement Only Blogging Life, I just wanted to mark and honor the passing of my Glorious Cat into the presence of her Maker.

She had been sick for some time (I think I twittered, I can't even remember) and got to be much worse while I was in Kenya. Matt and the Cat Doctor determined that they couldn't prolong the inevitable any longer, and helped her gently out of this world last Tuesday while I was flying home.

I rescued this kitty almost exactly ten years ago from a dumpster on the University of Oregon campus in Eugene where she had been cast by some benighted individual who thought that they wanted a kitten and then decided they didn't. I reluctantly gave her away so that I could go to seminary, but when I married Matt, part of his present to me (besides a lovely desk) was reclaiming this beautiful cat.

This, I think, is really how Christ loves the church. Matt doesn't like cats, and neither does his dog, Maggie. But over the past 8 years, Matt has tended to this cat, and now two others, not only in the matter of kitty litter, and feeding, but finally in caring for her in her final days. I am told she slept next to him on our bed, food and water right there on a blanket, was carried down to be with him during the day and to sit in the sun, was carried down to the kitty box, was given medicine, and taken to the vet.

I am also very grateful to a very wonderful member of the Lady's Bible Study and Romulus's particularly important person for taking her to the vet several times and generally being there to comfort and sustain her.

I miss her very much and hope that God is taking jolly good care of her until I get there to be sure. In light of my present grief, I have two requests. First, I am not in any shape to acquire another cat at this time. Second, I would be most grateful to Clumber and Father Christian for refraining, if at all possible, from criticizing and mocking me, my cat or Matt in this matter.

All I'm doing is posting News

I have SO MUCH to say about our trip to Kenya, but it would be totally irresponsible of me to stop ordering my house and blog. There's just too much to do. So, you'll have to content yourself with snippets of news until the time is right.

That news being that this new baby looks very much like a girl. Couldn't be 100% sure, but through all the haze and stubbornness, it looks like we're probably in for a third baby girl and..............

What Are We Going to Call Her??!!!!!!

I'm not kidding.
I only have 19 more weeks to panic about this. The time is ticking away. Some of you should stop watching the ACNA Assembly Meeting and pray about it. On that note, I'm unashamedly delighted that Matt is not there and that he got to come to the ultrasound this morning and that later I'm going to bake tiny little beef pies and that he'll be here to eat them.

Just to wish Many Happy Returns of the Day

to my mother who will probably not read this message as she is laid up in bed with the flu. We've all had it over the weekend, she worst of all, which is why I haven't been blogging. However, we will celebrate when she's all better with a cake and maybe a balloon. In the meantime, blogging will continue light until I can get a grip on the laundry.

Home again, Home again...

Elphine is dropping off in the middle of her Bible Story. Romulus is talking loudly and squeezing drops of water out of a bottle onto his tummy. Alouicious is wiggling. Gladys is climbing on and off my lap. She's been throwing up all afternoon. In other words, we're all back in one place cozily together and SO GRATEFUL

1. That we traveled safely and that all the airplanes were sound and secure.
2. That we got to go and be with my mom at such a moment.
3. That so many of you took such lovely care of Matt and the boys (meals, a spotless house, many fun outings for the boys).
4. That we got to have a first hand encounter with the Anglican Church in Kenya and meet so many people who have prayed so much for us.
5. That my parents are this moment in the air and coming to be with us and that my mom is able to take a full breath through her own artery, 40 percent open.

Here comes the baby. This post will have to continue at a later moment.

Monday Morning

It is gray and threatening to rain and only 9 in the morning. Gladys drug me out of bed at what seemed like the middle of the night, but was really 6am, screaming for milk and kicking me or something. She was unwell over the weekend. She caught some throwing up bug and prevented us, except for her grandfather, from attending St. Francis Sunday morning. After being up with her most of the night, I did, however, manage to pull myself enough together to go downtown with my dad to All Saints Anglican Cathedral for the farewell service of Archbishop Nzimbi. Strangely and unaccountably, we ended up in the front row of the clergy (a very nice lady deacon from St. Francis lent me her extra vestments so that I could join in the procession) right next to the altar and able to see everything. It was extremely grand and wonderful. The organ alone takes church music to another realm. And the cathedral is beautiful. I am hoping to go back later in the week especially to take pictures of the bougainvillea such the like I have never seen before.

Saturday we did get to meet Bishop Atwood who is just as fascinating as I imagined him to be. My dad made chocolate chip cookies and we drank copious amounts of tea (at least I did) and talked for two hours. I'm not going to say anymore because it turns out the good bishop reads this blog regularly, and so I intend from henceforth only to be perfectly good.

Today I am hoping maybe we can check out the children's library and learn about something fascinating.

Thursday Evening

In another few minutes I need to go my gasping way back from the office to the house where sits my mother Very happy to be home, and breathing much more freely than I (we are up several 1000 feet and I am not used to it, also, this baby just seems really fat and big, even though it is apparently still only a few ounces). She has an artery now that blood can move all the way through. As the neighbor informed her this afternoon, in England 40% is a passing grade. It may not be in the US, but in this case, its well more than it was on Tuesday, and we are so so grateful, both that the doctors succeeded, when they felt dubious that that would be the case, and that she's home so soon. To open the artery more than 40%, she will require a diamond bit drill and a doctor to handle it, neither of which exist here in Kenya at this time. Indeed, the ability to do what they did this week is very new and special, and the doctor himself recently arrived from being trained in Dallas. So all things come together at the right time, and God is very good.

The girls and I are doing very well. For one thing, we're so happy to be here with my parents and see where they have lived the last four years. And for another, we are finally on the right hour, and so are not crying and fussing all the time. I've been taking pictures constantly, and will try to get them off my camera when I gather my wits. We hope to see the orphaned baby elephant reserve and Rift Valley Academy, and E wants Most of all to go back to the grocery store where they have child sized carts and she pushed her own. I am struggling to get my phone to take a SIM card so that I can text, which is what EVERYbody does here ('why don't you text?' my mother asked, 'I text') because its cheaper.

This Sunday, providentially, we will get to go to the Cathedral and see the goodbye service for Archbishop Nzimbi, and there are rumors that we will get to meet the Famous Bishop Atwood, about whom I have heard so much but have never yet laid my eyes on. AND there are so many children lined up to play and a library to go to, that we won't have a moment's peace as long as we are here.

An Update

Anne called with an update on her mother and said I could pass on what she told me. I am going to quote her aunt's summary since she seems to have a handle on things:

Joyce is resting in Intensive Care in the hospital, and will stay there a few days for observation. They succeeded in unblocking the artery (which had been completely blocked), but one place they were only able to unblock to about 40%. So overall, the procedure was "partially successful". The procedure was "very complicated", and Joyce was in the surgery for about 4.5 hours.

Thank you for your prayers and please do continue to pray for Joyce's full recovery