Preparing for Ecuador

July is fast approaching.....

I am preparing my heart for a missions trip to Ecuador with Visiting Orphans.

I have never traveled to South America before.  I have traveled Europe many years ago and lived in France for a time, but never been on a missions trip.

I've always thought about going on one.  I just didn't know when God would ask me to go.

This is my year.  Despite my fears of leaving my folks who are in a retirement community, I was given the green light to "go" by everyone there in charge of my parents' care on a day to day basis.  I knew when that peace came, that sweet peace that whispers, "Yes, you are doing the right thing." that this is what the Lord wanted me to do.

These are 2 photos taken by my sister in law.  I give her all the credit for the photos.  She has been to Quito on missions many times over the past decade.  They would wash feet and give new shoes and socks to folks that needed them.  This photo speaks to me.

Shoes  Something so simple as shoes.  Everyone needs them, but not everyone has them.

Photo by Joanne Ghoens

What are the stories behind these shoes?  Where have they walked?  What have they experienced?

I don't pretend to know.  Just as I don't pretend to know how the orphans of Quito feel day to day knowing they don't have parents there to support them.

It feels good to have something new.

Photo by Joanne Ghoens  Ecuadorian children sporting their new shoes.

I pray as I prepare my heart and our team prepares their hearts for our trip, that we too can show these children the love of Christ while we are there.  Sometimes they might see it in something as simple as a new pair of shoes. Sometimes it is in other ways.  Lord, no matter what, just let me show them your love.

19 days to go.....

The sunflowers are growing

I am realizing this year that this particular spot by our deck may no longer be sunny enough for the Mammoth Sunflowers.  The first ones I planted had skinny stems and were not like ones in the past.  The roofers that came to build us a new roof last week also damaged some of them unintentionally, so I replanted last week.

This is what is coming up now. 

They look healthier than the last batch.  The seeds were also not inundated with rain as the last ones were  before sprouting.  That makes a huge difference too, I believe.

The ones in our sons little plots which are from the same bag of seeds, are doing very well.  They are in full sun however and I'm seeing this is what makes the sunflowers grow to greater heights.  The more sun, the better the plant will be.  So we may be moving our plot from the deck to another spot next year.  The years of sunflowers surrounding our deck may be over.  The Black Eyed Susans have taken over and they are perennials and I love them.  They will come back each year.  I don't want to pull them up.

This is the boys garden bed right now.

It is small, but their sunflowers are doing well.  So is Philip's mini sugar pumpkin.

Joseph's sunflowers

Our first colored sunflowers of the year..... burgundy and an autumn mix of color.  The neat thing about these is that I didn't plant them.  They just came up in the flower beds.  Thank you bird friends!

 We're waiting on the Citrus sunflowers and colored autumn mix to grow.  They are coming up too.

I'm thinking right now it will be late July when they bloom.

Watch Out For That Boneless Chicken

I have been cleaning out under my dresser today, while listening to the "booming" and "hammering" of a new roof going on above my head.  I'm trying to organize this bedroom which is a catastrophe and has been for some time.  I'm tired of it and am tackling places which have been collecting dust for months.

I pulled out a gift box, the size of a shoe box from under my dresser. I had not opened it in a long time, but I knew there were cards and letters in there I'd saved. 

I love cards.  I love hand written notes.  I keep them.  Probably too many of them.  I'm just like my mother.  She keeps all of her cards too and has over the years.  I'm especially glad that I have kept some of these though.  Why is that?

Well, when you have parents that have varying degrees of memory loss and one parent that is slipping away before your eyes, it's hard.  Sometimes I so long for my dad to be like I remember him 20 years ago.  I'd take even 3 years ago.  I wish I had a time machine. God didn't mean for life to work that way.  We must keep moving forward.  However  the more we move forward with Dad the faster the inevitable comes for him.  The future I see when I look at my dad is one that means less and not more.  It means possible suffering and heart ache for everyone.  It is a long goodbye.  I know I can't dwell on this fact much, but I still must be realistic. God is preparing me beforehand for what is to come, though I really don't think in a million years I'll ever be ready for the day my dad does not recognize me.  That day may never come if we are blessed, and my prayer is that it doesn't come.

Finding these notes and cards I found today just reminds me that even though today is different and my dad is no longer completely like I remember him,  he is still my dad.  Deep down he is still the man God made him to be.  Those deep personality traits he's always had which have become muted and diluted like colors in a water color painting are still a part of him.
Even if I can't see some of these all the time in the way they used to be manifested, they are still manifested never the less.   I know if you took away this degenerative brain disease, my dad would act the same way he always has.  Some parts of him also have not changed, like his love, loyalty, a longing to look out for others, his crazy fun loving sense of humor, and his desire to serve and help people.  He is very service oriented and likes to stay busy. 

Well you'll understand then how much this card meant to me today when I found it. It is Dad's sense of humor to the tee.  He has never sent me lots of cards, like Mom.  However, the cards he has sent me on his own I cherish.  He sent this one to me in college.  1987.  I would always tell him that the cafeteria food in college was not as good as Mom's.  He would joke about that. Thus the card....  He also is happy about me getting my class schedule settled and lets me know the family automobile situation for that moment.  Cars, believe it or not, was an interest I shared with him. 

I laughed so hard when I read the beginning of the card and then the last line.  Oh Dad, I just love your sense of humor!

I needed to see a bit of  that humor today.  I've already talked with Dad this morning and he has made me smile. He's laughed on the phone and chatted with me about his day.  Seeing a bit of that humor from yesteryear has left me smiling.  It has renewed my spirit.  Thank you God.  I needed that today. 

Front of the card:  Gary Larson "The Far Side"

" Just wanted you to know where your BONEless chickens in your ARA meal program  come from. "

"   Well got to run -- But watch out for that boneless chicken...."  

I'm going to start laughing again.

Thanks Dad.  For making me smile in more ways than one today.

Now I just showed the card to my son.  I told him Granddad sent this to me in college.  Look at the front of the card.   He did not read the sign of the ranch, which said "Boneless Chicken Ranch".  He was just looking at the picture.

"What is that?  Dead chickens?  Hurt chickens?"
"No, " I said.
"Sleeping chickens.  Fallen down chickens.  They are everywhere!"

"READ the sign."
"Bon lesssss.  Bon...." He's sounding out the word, it is in cursive.
"Ohhhhh!  Boneless chickens.  I get it!  (BIG smile)  No bones!  So they can't walk anywhere! Ha ha ha!"  (BIG grin still on his face.) He knows Granddad's antics.

Oh to laugh.... it is good for the soul.  This reaction is better than Granddad's words.  I just love it!  Thanks Joseph!  Maybe he'll wind up with some of Granddad's sense of humor yet!  If he stays around me long enough he will.  Ha ha!

Well back to my piles in the bedroom.  And yes, I will keep my cards.  I just can't seem to put them in the recycle bin.  The Boneless chicken one is a keeper!

Coreopsis Tinctoria

 

 

A sweet admiration

Who is hiding in there?

All photos by Judith Crovi 

2011

The Flowers of Late Spring

I have what seems like a mini meadow of wildflowers around part of our deck this June.

A single packet of mixed wildflower seeds from 2009 has taken over the flowerbeds two years straight.

I can't believe the surprises I have received the past two years.  Flowers which are technically annuals keep coming up, obviously reseeding themselves each season.

It is a wild free for all airy look for the moment, but I must say, even though I love the look of an organized garden, these random and chaotic flower arrangements, which I did not plan out at all, are quite beautiful to me.

 

I've got more Black Eyed Susans this year than ever before.

 They are coming up everywhere!  I am not pulling them up.  I'm just letting them bloom wherever they are.

The one, yes one Daisy I had last year that bloomed is a nice sized cluster this year and has plentiful blooms.  What a pleasant surprise!  I'm hoping these are perennials and not annuals.  I will have to look that up.

My favorites for some reason are these Coreopsis plants that must be pretty hardy.  They are in fact annuals.  They reach about 3 feet high and have the prettiest yellow-orange petals with burgundy/maroon centers.  They tend to want to fall over after heavy rains, but I am in love! 

Coreopsis tinctoria, an airy prairie wildflower  These are coming back each year.

 I will clip off spent blooms all summer to keep the Coreopsis blooming.  I hope they reseed themselves again for next year.
I did absolutely nothing to this flower bed last year.  Just let the wildflowers grow and kept watering them and feeding them.  I wish these lasted all summer.

By the time they have bloomed out hopefully the zinnias and sunflowers will be blooming by then.  The sunflowers have just started coming up.

I just love to watch things grow....