Vacation recovery, VBS, and Vertigo

We came home and spent a week recovering from our trip. Doing laundry, cleaning the house, finally doing my home school curriculum order, and spending some much-needed time with my husband filled the first week back. Then last week we had VBS at our new church. It kicked off on Sunday night and lasted through Thursday night, averaging 200 people each night. I helped in the Craft Shack, and had a blast. It was fun, if exhausting, to work with the children. I also had a great time getting to know the people I was working with. We are blessed to be at a church with a lot of people who have a great sense of humor and who enjoy laughing together.

The one blot on my week was on Tuesday morning when I woke up and the room was spinning. This condition, which is called vertigo, has plagued me a time or two before, and it comes from my having too much fluid in my inner ear canal. I usually take Zyrtec every day, and had forgotten to do so. Twice before vertigo has hit me in the evenings, which is not really a problem since I can just go to bed. This time it hit as soon as I got up. I couldn't keep my eyes open, or walk around without becoming nauseated. I spent the entire morning lying on the couch as perfectly still as I could. I took decongestant as well as Zyrtec, and by about 2 p.m. I could at least get up and walk around slowly, holding my head as steady as possible. I didn't go to VBS that night. On Wednesday I still felt a little dizzy, but by Thursday I was up'n'at'em.

On a very sad note, I read an e-mail today from my friend Denise, to find out that a little boy I've been praying for, Jair, has gone home to be with the Lord. He was fighting cancer and seemed to be doing great when, after the doctors tried an autologous bone marrow transplant, he reacted badly and became very ill. His parents, Teo and Lety, are now grieving the loss of their little boy. This hits me pretty hard. I can imagine their pain.

Also, this last week I tried to e-mail my friend Hilda in Puerto Rico, whose husband passed away in May due to cancer, and have not heard back. Nildi, I tried to write to you--did you get it? I love you!

HOME

The children and I arrived home Friday evening, along with Eric's mom, after two long days of traveling. We are all still tired but we're thrilled to be home. I missed Eric so much while we were gone, and I definitely don't do the "single parent" thing very well. Saturday night a family from our new church had us over to eat dinner with them and some other friends, and that was great--I didn't have to cook, and the food was outstanding! (Thanks, Heather and Kenny!) Then today we went to church and were invited to another family's house for Sunday dinner. (Thanks Mrs. Leola and Mr. Donald!) It was another wonderful meal. What's even sweeter is the fellowship that we have with our new church family. It makes me thank the Lord again for bringing us to Chevis Oaks. This morning we all shared in the Lord's Supper together, and at the end we sang:

Blessed be the tie that binds
Our hearts in Christian love;
The fellowship of kindred minds
Is like that to that above.

Before our Father's throne
We pour our ardent prayers;
Our fears, our hopes, our aims are one
Our comforts and our cares.

We share each other's woes,
Our mutual burdens bear;
And often for each other flows
The sympathizing tear.

When we asunder part,
It gives us inward pain;
But we shall still be joined in heart,
And hope to meet again.

What a privilege it is to share in communion with other believers.

Seventeen Years...

...ago today Eric and I were married. Words cannot adequately describe how blessed I am to have Eric as my husband. God has given me a godly, sweet, caring, intelligent and funny man to be married to for life. During our marriage we have lived in three states and the country of India, had three children, gone through a cerebral aneurysm with one child and cancer with another, and seen Eric's profession of school psychologist change to the calling of being a minister. The foundation that has kept us solid through all of this is our relationship with the Lord. I don't know how anyone who doesn't know the Lord can go through some of the things that we have endured. But because the center of our marriage is God, the center holds when other things seem to be spinning wildly. The Lord has promised good to me, His word my hope secures. He will my shield and portion be as long as life endures.

Eric, I love you! Happy anniversary.

Who is the extra boy?

I just looked at my previous post and realized that most of you would have no idea who the handsome young man (not Bobby--the other one) in the photos is. No, Eric and I don't have a secret child that we usually hide, and no, Caroline doesn't have a boyfriend who is younger and shorter. That nice young man is my nephew Kevin, who flew up from Texas to be on vacation with us. He's lots of fun, likes to laugh, swims like a dolphin (literally!) and generally keeps us laughing. We are thrilled to have him here with us.

Some scenes from our trip so far....

We've been at the lake for almost a week now, enjoying the water and the beautiful relaxing scenery. The kids have gone tubing, we've had campfires and s'mores, and we went to see the movie "Wall-E." It's been fun so far--and here are some of the pictures we've taken:




On Tuesday we traveled to the Corning Museum of Glass to see the collections there and play in the Innovations exhibit:


These glass fruit are much bigger than they appear--the pear in the middle is about three feet tall:







This was the first reflector cast for the Palomar Observatory. It cracked, and they had to make a new one:
You can take your own picture upside down with the magic of mirrors!
The kids inside the large, black, glass egg at the museum:
Beautiful sky over the lake: