Husband. Wife. Daughter. Dog. Dusk.

Today I’m doing something new, different, out-of-the-ordinary, novel, unusual and just downright extraordinary.

I’m driving to Greenville! Again. (Sigh.)

The plastic surgeon and the surgical center both need me to come in and look over some stuff and sign some papers (promising them our first born son, no doubt) and so off I shall go, over the river and through the woods, for another 4 1/2 hour round trip journey. When this trip is done, I will have traveled 1750 miles in the past three weeks, just getting to and from doctor’s appointments.

However, it could be much worse; I could be going to Norfolk for all these visits, instead of Greenville. (The two cities are both two hours away—just in opposite directions.) Now I have nothing whatsoever against Norfolk, mind you, but in order to get to the highway going to Norfolk, one has to drive down The Beach (as the locals call it) which is a 30-mile strip of the Outer Banks dotted with stores, shops, traffic, restaurants, congestion, and stop light upon stop light. (By the way, where I grew up in Wisconsin, they call stop lights “stop and go” lights. I just love that.)

However, when you turn your car east instead of west? This is one of the few stop lights you will see!

And the view’s really not all that bad.

If you like that sort of thing . . .

Since I’ll be making that trip many times in the coming year for ongoing reconstruction procedures and surgeries, I’m extra thankful for an extra lovely drive.

Yesterday’s church service was not too terribly difficult to get through, although I still felt myself tearing up at the oddest moments, like during the offering when a quartet was singing the offertory. I just sat there and quietly cried and cried—for really no reason whatsoever. Next thing I knew, Sarah had reached over, grabbed my hand and held on tight.
So nice to have a built-in comforter in the pew next to me.

Steve made the announcement about my upcoming surgery in a low key way, and then moved right on with the service. We hate to draw a lot of attention to ourselves and our situation, and yet we know that our church family wants to stay in touch with what’s going on. I was surrounded by hugs and tears and words of encouragement after the service; we feel blessed to be in a community of believers that is stitched together by prayer and compassion and kindness.

And speaking of kindness, Steve and I have been given the opportunity to get away for a couple days before the surgery date. We have the (free) use of a million dollar, 5-bedroom home on the ocean for two nights! There will be many stresses and adjustments ahead for him, for me, and for our marriage as we navigate these waters; this time away for just the two of us will provide a healing oasis and give us the chance to gather up our strength for the battle.

As for the house situation? We did counter offer, with a price $1,000 less than the asking price. She can take it or leave it. There’s just not a whole lot more we can do at this point.

Steve is going to be in touch with the person who wants to buy this house (if we aren’t able to buy it), in order to see what he might be thinking about charging for rent. That will go a long way toward deciding if we can even afford to stay here on a rental basis.

Steve and I were even thinking about seeing if we could delay my surgery a little, because we’re so stressed about the possibility of a move right after the surgery; however, we’re hesitant to do that because you never want to give cancer any more ground than it already has.

And so life continues to be interesting. And stressful. And blessed. And challenging. And scary. And full of surprises and joy and tears.

But thankfully, sometimes life mercifully takes a break from throwing complexities our direction and offers instead the chance to go outside on a perfect Sunday evening and take a stroll through the evening’s golden hour.

Husband, wife, daughter, dog, dusk. Peace.

Troubles seem just a tad smaller when gazed at under the expanse of a sapphire sky; they seem a little less complex when compared with the intricacies of the dogwood blossom displayed along the journey.

Right now, our time spent together as a family--this Before Surgery time—is extra precious and extra special. Yes, a health crisis is looming. Yes, a house crisis is looming. But towering over the crises lined up at our doorstep is the knowledge that we can lean hard on the love of family, and the support of friends, and the faithfulness of God. We can be assured that somehow, someway, we will get through this choppy chapter of life.

So enjoy a few pictures that show the peace of our evening walk. And know that your prayers and kind words have helped contribute to that peace we are experiencing, even in the middle of this the storm.

And after we come through the storm, we know our home will always provide for our family a safe harbor--wherever that home may be.

Post Travel Hangover

I've spent the morning dealing with Post Travel Hangover, a serious condition which seems to especially affect 47-year old frail and fragile females named Becky. The only currently known cure is naps and chocolate.

Don't ask me how I know.

I also did some more organizing of Sarah's books and materials this morning and spent some time teaching. So far, the school year is coming along nicely.

Yesterday's service near Charlotte went well, although I was having a lot more trouble breathing than usual. I don't know what that was all about but I just snatched a few extra breaths between a few extra words and kept right on singin' and smilin'! My voice wasn't in the best shape either, but thankfully I was able to sing the whole concert; maybe not wonderfully, but at least I made it!

And we all know what this coming weekend holds--plenty of excitement, plenty of nervousness, and plenty of Manteo-izing.

Here's the schedule:

Friday night, we will attend a dinner at the Chairman of the Board's home. There will be a group of about twenty people for us to meet, comprising the leadership of the church (board members, youth pastor, day care director, etc.) and their spouses.

While Steve and I are doing that, Sarah will go off bowling with the youth group. When you think about it, that's a pretty scary thing for her to do but I know that she's more than up to it. She's really looking forward to meeting some of the teens in the church.

At some point on Saturday, Steve and I will meet with the drummer and the singers and rehearse a worship set for the service Sunday morning. On Saturday night, there will be a cook out for the whole church so we'll have a chance to eat, meet and greet. Of course, since people usually eat meat at a cookout, we could actually say that we'll have a chance to "eat meat, meet, and greet!" (Try saying that three times fast!)

Sunday morning, we'll sing, lead worship and Steve will preach; Sunday night, we'll do the same. And then after the Sunday night service, the congregation will vote and in the space of just a few moments, our whole future will be decided. Pretty big stuff!

Monday (if the vote goes the way we hope) we'll spend some more time looking at houses before returning home.

We got a call last Friday that someone was coming by to look at our house between 5 pm and 6 pm and so, at the appointed time, we vamoosed, vanished, and vacated the premises. When we returned to the house at 6 pm, we saw that there was still a car parked right in front of it.

Not wanting to disturb the clients, Steve drove across a nearby road and parked at a business that was closed for the night. That became our official stakeout spot since we could see the house and the car out front and know exactly when the people left.

Well, we sat there. And we sat there some more. We sat there for half an hour and the car never budged. Of course, we were excited about that, because we all know that the longer someone looks at a house, the more interested they are. Finally though, Sarah and I got kind of impatient and decided that we would put Snowy on his leash and do a reconnaissance mission, walking by the house in the most nonchalant way possible, while all the while trying to peer in the windows to see if we could spot any movement.

We strolled by the front of the house and then turned the corner and walked far enough so that we could see in the back windows. There was no sign of nothin'.

Finally, we put our heads together and decided that if we walked really close by the car parked out front, we could look through the window and see if there were any materials or papers that looked like they would belong to a realtor.

Lo and behold, on the passenger seat, we saw a manila file folder with papers inside, which looked very much like the folder our realtor had given us when we were house hunting.

Our mission had been successful. We had scoped out the situation, secured the perimeter, gathered the intel and returned to the stake-out area to report to Steve, our commanding officer.

After saluting, reporting, and climbing back into the surveillance vehicle we continued to wait. And wait some more. And as we waited, we got even more excited, because we just knew the people must really love the house since they were spending so much time in it.

Finally at about 7 pm, Steve decided that he just wasn't very sure that there was actually anybody in the house. (He had done a "reconnaissance mission" of his own and hadn't seen any movement, either.) He finally moved the van back over to our driveway, stuck his head in the back door and hollered, "Hello?"

There was not a sound. The house was empty. The house had BEEN empty since 6 pm. Or even longer.

All that excitement for nothing! All that lurking, loitering and lingering for no reason.

Sigh.

We're still not quite sure why the car would have sat in front of the house all that time; no one ever parks there unless they're coming inside so it seems odd that a miscellaneous car would just show up at the very time there was supposed to be a showing.

But there is good news! Today we got a call that the people who saw the house (obviously it was before we arrived back home at 6 pm) are interested in our house and two others; they are meeting with their realtor today to narrow down their choices!

In ten months, this is the closest we have ever gotten to anyone putting our house on their short list of possibilities. I had left out fresh chocolate chip cookies for the clients so that's probably what did it. We all know that chocolate is a powerful motivator!

Before I close, here are some pictures of Snowy on the Charlotte trip.

Snowy is no doubt lurking behind Sarah's head because he thinks that if he stays back there we won't notice him and he won't have to go to the kennel. (Actually, we were able to take him along with us this trip because we were staying with Steve's parents, not at a hotel.)

Can you tell that Snowy has a mind of his own?

Trying to control the 6-pound ball of fluffy, ferocious fury.

A little bit of Rest Area Exercise for Sarah and her canine companion.

It's kind of hard to look at that happily running dog and not smile.

You know, maybe staring at those pictures will be better treatment for my Post Travel Hangover than naps or chocolate!

Or not.

Pulmonology and Leftovers

Hi all!

I'm still hard at work on the Charleston Story but I did want to let you know that my Pulmonology appointment went fine; there were no actual pulmonary function tests that had to be done this time around (they're only done every other visit) so it was mainly just a matter of reviewing symptoms and meds and a having a physical exam.

I continue to have a "fairly severe, non-reversible, fixed obstruction form of COPD." It's not really asthma because she said that with asthma, the breathing can be restored to normal with the use of albuterol. In my case, the meds make some difference in my breathing but not much; that is where the "non reversible" part comes from. Still no clear idea of what caused it (for a life, long non-smoker) or where the disease is headed but for the moment at least, I seem to be fairly stable at my 60% lung capacity.

Although I felt like it was, all in all, good news, it's still a sobering thing to even have to visit a Pulmonologist twice a year and be reminded that I have "sick lungs." I was already wiped out from the weekend when I drove to the appointment so I'm definitely not feeling overly perky at the moment.

I never did get up the energy required to go and get groceries and so our cupboards (along with Mother Hubbard's) are bare. I'm in the process of contemplating the leftovers in the freezer and wondering which one I can thaw, throw some grated cheddar cheese on and re-bake. (Cheddar cheese covers a multitude of leftovers!)

In other news, Steve talked to our realtor late last week to see where we were on the sale of the house. She said she has our house on FIFTY Internet sites and we have still have had only two showings in six months! She also said buyers are offering ridiculously low prices, sometimes $30,000 less than the asking price and then also demanding the seller pay the closing costs.

Can you say, "Buyer's market?"

The other reason that Steve called her was that our "For Sale" sign keeps disappearing from our yard. A couple times, he's found it in surrounding yards but Saturday it was gone completely and he couldn't find it anywhere. However, when we arrived home Sunday evening, it was right there, lying on our front lawn.

I guess some people don't have anything more exciting to do in life than remove For Sale signs. Hmmm. If they're THAT bored, I could have them come cook dinner for us tonight so I could take a(nother) nap!

Okay. I'd better sign off so that I can work a little more on the Charleston Story and also continue to ponder what delightsome icy lump of leftover I shall deem worthy of being crowned with cheddar and reconstituted, re-baked and re-presented as dinner.

I'm so glad Steve and Sarah aren't picky eaters!