Spring break part 2

We took the first few days of Spring Break easy. 

Then Gabe flew to hang out with us and we drove to spend a few days beach-side.

First stop: a tiny town with an alien jerky store and the largest thermometer in the world.

Weird road name

We stopped to eat at Peggy Sue's 50s diner. 

This is in the woman's bathroom:

The older kids headed to the beach first.

 Claire and Iris used this strategy to lure their little sister out:

Sybil has a hard time staying on her feet

David has a hard time hiding his muscles

That night the Getscher family arrived. The teenagers hung out at a nearby mall and got funnel cakes.

The next day at Muscle Beach.

Mark vs Elijah:

The BFF cousin twins 

 

Spring break part 1

There's nothing quite like getting out into nature.

Elijah was working, and Red Rock reservations were full, so we went nearby.

Sybil started off Spring break with 2 new holes in her head 

and 4 new holes in her gums.

The extractions were definitely more traumatic. It was kinda amusing how they euphemized the huge needle going into her gums with "we are going to spray your mouth."

playdate at the park

 

Perspective on Productive Preparation

I have been heavily involved again in navigating the US immigration system. It comes in waves. This wave began again a few weeks ago when USCIS said that Daniil's case wasn't in their jurisdiction, but was in ICE's jurisdiction. ICE told us it was USCIS's jurisdiction = lovely. We've been waiting for 6 months for a solution. I've been praying for a solution. This isn't a solution. It's an impasse. Prayer doesn't always change outcome, but prayer softens perspective. 

Yesterday I visited a friend in the ICU. She isn't supposed to talk much to allow her lungs to heal, so I read her an article. The article was perfect for both of us. She was anxious about dying and I had this immigration issue on mind. One of the passages from the article was about Martha asking Jesus to heal Lazarus. Jesus waited until after Lazarus had died. The goal wasn't immediate healing nor comfort. This life is a preparatory state.

I remembered a little, frail, old patient I had. I can't remember why she came to the hospital, but we were afraid to send her home alone. It was during the thick of the COVID pandemic when the hospital was bursting at the seams and our patients had to share rooms. Sharing her room was a woman who worked with an NPO that helped little old people who lived alone. Not a coincidence. A godsend. It is what we do with our "coincidences" and waiting times that determines our preparatory productivity. 

picture dump:

This winter has been uncharacteristically wet. 

Omega Mart... 

our family reviews were unanimous: "weird."

Then we ate in the food court at The Aria

Mammoth shaved ice

Other happenings:

VIP breakfast at the elementary school. 

Sybil had to fill in a paper about the VIP she brought to breakfast. She wrote:

Best supporting role goes to..."Mom, because she was the only one to drive."

Warms my heart.

Claire had a day off school while the Juniors (including Elijah) took the ACT. 

So we went to the temple.

Beautiful sunset as David was coaching Sybil's soccer team. 

Elijah = 17

We went out for dumplings to celebrate Elijah's birthday. Hadley was in town and accompanied us. She and Elijah met at HXP in Zimbabwe last summer. 

Elijah went to the bathroom. 

Rookie mistake. 

We told Hadley about his 3 wives, 15 children (all named Hadley), and of course, the mounting alimony bills. This is a necessary tradition, a right of passage. It is in his blood. I'm pretty sure I didn't even know the meaning of the word "alimony" until Hector mentioned it after David and I came home from one of our first dates. And then I heard it many times after. I fully expect and encourage Elijah to use it with his kids someday. He definitely gets the most embarrassed of the kids, so it won't be as fun to use it on the girls. 

Now that Elijah is a working man, he had some extra dough to show Hadley around the town.

But he got into the aquarium free bc he knows that owners. 

Elijah's healing from his ACL surgery is still progressing. He still can't play sports, which he isn't happy about, but at least he can still go to the gym. 

Today, Elijah asked for his phone (it's hidden due to grades) so that he could ask Hadley a question. David said that he should be able to talk to her heart. Elijah challenged him and asked him what my heart was thinking at that moment. I was in another room when Elijah asked me what I was thinking. I said, "How much I love my boy." That is exactly what David said I was thinking= proof that in-love hearts really do talk telepathically. 

Sybil at 100

Original spelling and punctuation: "When I'm 100 years old, I will be very different than I am now. I will have grey hair, wrinkly skin, and will wear glasses. I was able to achive retiring from my job, and going to college, and moving to Arizona. I would have a family with no husband and would adopt twins a girl and a boy. I would like to sleep for four hours or more a day, and make blankets while watching a movie. I would not like loud noises, large crowds songs and fighting. they are going to have flying vars and a chair that would turn into a car."

A few weekends ago, we had a window of about 40 minutes (including commute and hair-curling time) to get baptismal pictures taken. 

This is the one we chose:

First half of February

We traveled to AZ for the marathon. David ran the full and the pictured group ran the half. I hadn't run more than 3.5 miles since our 10K for Thanksgiving, so it was ugly. Time was not my focus--I was enjoying a nice therapy session with Lex's therapist friend. I think my time was 2:15--I ran bandit-style, so it was not official. 

Pupusas for the post-race meal:

The girlies getting ready for church:

They traded dresses.

Cool cousins

February 9th marked 54 years since Hector stepped onto US soil. 

We celebrated with Burger King which was Hector's first US meal, the most delicious the 14-year-old had ever had. 

Hydrogenated oil and hormone-laced bovine were not on the Cuban menu. 

Elijah was working and Sybil was mad that I wanted her to share the food:

Sybil's dress-as-your-future-profession day:

She dressed as a nurse because those were the props we had at home.

Bottom left (clown face):

The big, bad news:

about a week before Elijah's birthday, our refrigerator bit the dust, my 205,000-mile van got several repairs, Elijah's phone was stolen at school, 

AND...

an unfortunate parking job, to say the least:

Elijah's first accident: I had asked him a few times that afternoon to please take my van, not David's car. 

If he would have totaled my car, it would have solved more problems than it caused, 

except for the biggest problem: 

mommy vans are not cool. 

Thankfully, the only fatalities were a bush, a small tree, the car (we are pretty sure it's totaled since the front axle is snapped), and Elijah's access to any vehicle with a motor and more than 2 wheels. 

We arrived at the scene with David joking, laughing about all the cars he had totaled as a teenager. I threatened him with domestic violence, which silenced him for a few minutes. 

I will never understand teenage boy brains: When David walked into his 16th birthday party without the family truck (which he had totaled on the Huey P. Long bridge), he tried to tell his parents that his brother had the car. His brother was on a mission in France.  

Humanity

 Today my patient found out that he had stomach cancer that had probably metastasized to his lymph nodes. I went in right after the doctor had given the bad news. His eyes were red. I had to will myself to keep it together. Those moments are raw. It's hard to to describe what they feel like. They are horrible, but  they make life valuable. Not just his, but mine too.

I had moments like those much more often in the hospital, but they came in different forms: a mean man who realized alcohol had ruined his life, was in withdrawal that made his hands shake, he couldn't even walk to the bathroom, but in the next breath was begging for alcohol. A man who told me he had won the lottery, but it had ruined his life. A woman who had to be put on a high air-flow device and cried because she was afraid to die. A family deciding whether to put their father into hospice or place a feeding tube. A woman who hadn't eaten in a week because of a bowel obstruction, but was still cracking jokes. A woman whose abdominal skin had been eaten away and she cried for pain medications to dull her agony. How a new diagnosis of multiple sclerosis had lead the family to the brink of divorce. A young woman with a chronic, painful condition who came in for an abscess created by dirty needle drug use--drugs were her only relief. A man who lived with an ostomy that shot out yellow liquid like a geyser after every meal. The wound nurse scraping away dead tissue from a foot, so deep I could see the ligaments and bone and the patient didn't feel a thing because of neuropathy. A mother and daughter huddled on a bed, trying to decide how to proceed with life after the diagnosis. So many people dropped off by family members who simply couldn't  or wouldn't care for them. An anxiety attack, which exasperated Covid-induced breathing problems. A man with several toe amputations who lamented not taking better care of his body and tried to teach me what it meant to love someone. 

Oh man, the memories are rushing back. Healthcare is a raw place and I had almost forgotten it for the past few months until today. They are painful, but they open my heart. I have applied to start working in a low-income clinic. I don't doubt I will encounter many more raw, human moments. 

Humanity is found in sorrow, but it is also found in joy: