SO, I promised my sweet husband that I would be done with my blog post(s) (I say posts because there is another post below from our trip to Black Mountain--i haven't posted in a while...) before the game started tonight. Hmmmmm...the pre-game has begun. I feel like I have only 4.5 seconds to hit a three point shot to win the game. oh, the pressure...
Luckily, he knows me well enough to know that I won't actually be done. Nor will I ever make a three point shot. I suspect that as long as I don't read this to him while the game is starting our marriage will not suffer...(ok, I just read it to him and cracked myself up--I think I might be a bit tired--but it is STILL the pre-game).
Heath has become obsessed with hats--of all kinds. He wears my mom's cowboy hat and a hat that came from haiti with uncle jamie at some point--and last week he took Grandpa Strow's CAT hat and wore it for 4 days straight minus bed and bath. You think i am being dramatic--you should see how dirty it is! SO, mom decided that she wanted to go to the Duke medical center bookstore to find the kids some Duke youth-sized hats. A couple days after Heath's transplant (Dec. 2008), Mom, Jamie and Ella Brooks had an adventure to the Duke Med. Center bookstore to try to find Duke Med t-shirts (yes, everyone in our entire family wanted one--we were very proud of the fabulous care they had given us so far...). They had a wonderful experience with the woman who runs the store--who fell in love with EB (and vice versa). She called EB her "Christmas Angel." She was there when we pulled up on Thursday afternoon. They remembered each other immediately. She remembered Heath's story and couldn't believe that she was seeing him run around the store. Mom teared up. Heath tried on every hat in the store. Above is the picture of the hats that have not come off their heads since Thursday. In the crazy, fast-paced world that we live in, I am still amazed by the sacred moments that we can find if we just give ourselves a chance. You just never know when that moment will come. We were in the middle of a day of shoveling dirt--we picked up and unloaded THREE truckloads of top soil in our front yard!
We had a lovely, relatively quiet Holy Week and Easter. Chris even got to be home most of Good Friday and all day on Saturday--it was amazing. We had a fun evening and Easter egg hunt at my mom and strow's house on Friday. The kids got to have the traditional hunt that we had in our family when we were kids--with clues and sharing of eggs and a prize for all at the end. Adults get wine while helping the kids search for eggs, or in Heath's case, keeping him walking in the right direction without getting distracted. Really, it is a win-win for all. Ella Brooks did a great job of letting Heath "try" to find his eggs--and helping him. I was very proud of her big sister behavior. She got a suitcase--she is totally excited about having her OWN SUITCASE to go to Aunt Cindy's wedding in a couple weeks.
We had a lovely Easter--Grandpa came to stay with Heath so EB and I could go to church. It was a splendid worship! The music was so powerful--as always with the brass. Ella Brooks said, "that is MY Sunday School teacher playing the trumpet..." Chris' sermon was a really interesting "take" on the text--makes you think the next time you say "that is ridiculous." (you can read it on the church's website--he will be embarrassed that I am telling you this but he is so engrossed in the game that he won't know I am writing this...). I found myself looking around, thinking of all of the "new life" that we have experienced in this place. I don't thank God enough for all of the sacred moments--don't we always let them whiz past us? And then I suppose I let it whiz past again as I attempted to quiet Ella Brooks--why is it that kids seem to wait for the moments of silence in a service to start asking questions?
After a great service and then lunch, our dear friend, Shelley, and I were sitting on the couch in the living room. Ella Brooks grabs a piece of pottery, puts her other hand on her hip, and says in her most bossy voice, "We are now playing church. Which one of you is going to come up here so I can baptize you?" (there was a baptism in church--she was definitely paying attention!) "Come on!" Maybe we should try that in the Presbyterian Church a little more?
Last Sunday, I came down the outside stairs to find our friends Lindsey and Laura waving palm branches in the air in our driveway (somehow we ended up with extras in our car) and stifling laughs as they told me that they were "playing Palm Sunday" with Ella Brooks. Ah, she really is a preacher's kid. But really, I love that she loves the church so much. Shouldn't we all feel so comfortable in our places of worship? Shouldn't we be trying harder to figure out how to bring what we are learning on Sunday into our lives?
So, on that note: Happy Easter. I hope that you find some time to cherish all of the sacred moments in your life--cherish your friendships, your communities of faith, your childrens' moments of hilarity, your family, and even someone who is kind to you as you buy a t-shirt or a hat at the store--and cherish the new life that we celebrate in this Easter season.
Blessings and Peace.
