Happy Birthday Davie!

Dearest Brother, happy birthday! yay you made it this far. Thanks for being the best big brother in the whole world. I love you!

Elsa Joy!

Last Thursday I heard that Summer had gone into labor, hooray! I was so excited to see my newest niece and my (middle) namesake, Elsa Joy. But Elsa was not to be rushed. A full day later, Summer was still in labor with more hours to go. I went to crew banquet on Friday, and during dinner I was getting calls and texts from Mom, Dad, Kendall, David and Grandpa concerning Elsa and Summer. Dad said he was going to Albuquerque on the 6:40 am flight Saturday morning, and after asking me how rough a finals week I expected to have, he mentioned me coming along. Surprisingly enough, the worst of my schoolwork was over, and I didnt have any conflicting commitments, so I decided 8 hours before the flight that I would go to New Mexico with dad and surprise everyone there.
At 5:30 the next morning, I woke up to my phone buzzing and realized I was supposed to be at midway that very moment! Emily saved the day with her quick waking and efficient driving, and I made it to Midway just in time to hop on the plane.
What followed was a wonderful reunion with Mom and Heidi at the airport, and then surprising Summer and Oliver at the hospital.
Elsa is perfectly beautiful, and I am so glad I got to come see her during her first day out. She was so good that S&O were able to come home Saturday night from the hospital.
Everyone is sleeping soundly now, they are all pretty tuckered out from the last few days of hard work- 30 hours of labor takes a toll on the body for sure!
So goodnight, sleep well, and above all, Praise God from whom all blessings flow.

Dr. Jeromin!

Woo hoo! Our own Oliver J is now a Doctor! Great job buddy, we are so proud of you!

Life at the Coffee House

La Spiaza Observations:

“Have you eaten your turkey yet?” asked the lady with cane.
The old woman in the brown hat and blue sweater with colored spots in it (both items crocheted) replied, “yes it was delicious. Did you eat yours? I found shrimp in my freezer the other day and i couldn’t remember where i got it from. I asked my nephew to take some to his mother for me.”


I’m sitting at the round table by the bookshelf, drinking my cafe au lait and reading Wesley’s letters to John Newton, but I can’t stop from overhearing the two old women sitting by the window. The one with the cane has a slightly higher voice and is wearing typical grandmother clothes- a grey jacket, those flat soled tan velcro tennis shoes, and big glasses that magnify her laugh wrinkles. Glancing over there her eyes momentarily meet mine and she gives me a big hearty smile.

The other woman wearing the hat comes back with her sugar, sits down and leans toward her friend. “I keep telling him, ‘Kill em with kindness, but always beware, beware of your cousin, they’ll take your right teeth! Don’t tell em, don’t trust any of them!’ ”
Cane woman interjects, ‘Oh yes, I tell lots of things to my nephew that aren’t true”

The door swings open and two fashionable women in their thirty somethings clack by me and order- one asks for a chocolate mint latte, the other for a strawberry banana smoothie. The noise dies away and I can hear my two window friends again.

Cane woman: “You know, a merry heart makes glad. If I didn’t laugh so much im sure I wouldn’t be so healthy.”
Hat woman, “oh yes yes.”
Cane woman: “Oh look its snowing again! look at those little white flakes comin’ right down. We better get going soon.”
More customers stomp in and the ladies voices get lost again in the commotion.

Cane Woman: “Ohh its getting close, its getting real bad says the economist. Its coming real close I think.”
Hat Woman: “yep yep, real close, it gives me the shivers!”
Cane Woman: “well and you know they are building a mosque place down in glen ellyn. The economist said...(noisy) ... Obama..(cant hear them).. we’ve got to get going.”

The woman in the hat stands up and puts on her hand-sewn leopard print purse and her big fur coat. Her skinny legs clad in spandex stick out from under her puffy fur and make her look like a black dandelion.
They leave, the two fashionable ladies take their place. Soon they will leave, and someone else will come. I wish I could sit here all day and hear about people’s thoughts. All of these people in this little shop are brought here by their appetites for food, drink, comfort in a warm room. Each one brings with them history, memories, dead relatives, new babies, passions, hobbies, dusty collectibles. People are beautiful.
More Chai please!

What I did with the superbowl

Don't worry mom and dad, I'm still doing my homework, but from time to time I just gotta release my creative juices in some way or another. Being that its too cold to walk outside and enjoy God's green earth for very long, I've taken up exacto-knifing valentines. So far I haven't cut off any fingers, but I'll keep you updated.

Summer time.

When you got married and I said my toast, I told you that you were the one who put magic in my life. Its still true. You hid letters from the fairies to me at the base of trees, you read George McDonald’s “At the Back of the North Wind” and “Lillith” and countless other fairy tales. You sang the “lion song” to me, and taught me the words to simon and garfunkles “sound of silence.” At the farm under the willow trees I remember laying down in 3 feet of soft spring grass and singing “If i had a hammer” at the top of our lungs.






you taught me how to do my hair and to embrace the whispies. You showed me how to enjoy nature and go camping and to snowboard like a pro.
You listened to my complaints about Grace Christian, my highschool/homeschool drama, my blabbing on and on about horses. You wrote me letters and sent me packages at college and camp, you taught me how to write.
Thanks sis, thanks for caring and loving and sharing. I miss you mucho. Happy Birthday.
Love, the Elf

Kendall Bethy, and Ricky too

Dear Kendall, this post is three days late, but better late than never, right?, Happy Birthday! You made it another year, woo hoo! I was looking through pictures to post one of you, and I realized in the past three years you have changed so much. You have become a wife and mother, such grownup sounding words for my sister who I remember loving Where's Waldo and Angelina Ballerina. Being 7 years younger, my eyes were always on you, watching to see what you did so I could follow– sorry if it got annoying at times, especially when you had friends over.
Some of my favorite memories of us together was while you were at home during my sophomore year of highschool. Remember getting egg rolls at China Garden and eating them in the park? oh and the weekly runs to TJMaxx, sure were a good use of time :-)
Thanks for listening to all my hopes and dreams, for playing volleyball at the beach, for sending me all those sweet packages labeled "bootle tootle terhune" to my college post office, and for calling me. You've been there from the very beginning... literally my birth...so thanks. and happy birthday!








And happy early birthday Ricky! Im so glad you married my sister, you have been such a wonderful addition to our family. You have also learned how to be a big brother to me, thanks for teaching me fun stuff, like how to surf (I could use some more work on that- as evidenced by the picture) and snowboard and make sweet ramps off our back porch out of snow. You are always up for playing and having fun, and I love seeing you impart your passion for life into a passion for fatherhood. you're a great dad. And you're a great doctor!
Love you both, hugs and kisses to the kids,
Boo

In Christ Alone

Church today was really good. Our pastor spoke of the impact death has on life. He said that for a Christian who has Christ in their life, death is merely a passageway on to true life, eternal life, life healed from pain and sorrow and sin. It is a path towards Christ, that place where we can be in a right standing with God. We have hope in the midst of death, regardless of how much it hurts and how bad we miss those who are gone, there is joy beneath it all.

I end up crying whenever I go to church, especially if we sing In Christ Alone. I sang that song in Athens, the day after I heard about eric’s death. We were in a Greek evangelical church, and it was all in greek, but when we sang that song we (wheaton students) sang it in english while the locals sang it in greek.

 

In Christ Alone"

Words and Music by Keith Getty & Stuart Townend

Copyright © 2001 Kingsway Thankyou Music

 

In Christ alone my hope is found;

He is my light, my strength, my song;

This cornerstone, this solid ground,

Firm through the fiercest drought and storm.

What heights of love, what depths of peace,

When fears are stilled, when strivings cease!

My comforter, my all in all—

Here in the love of Christ I stand.

 

In Christ alone, Who took on flesh,

Fullness of God in helpless babe!

This gift of love and righteousness,

Scorned by the ones He came to save.

Till on that cross as Jesus died,

The wrath of God was satisfied;

For ev'ry sin on Him was laid—

Here in the death of Christ I live.

 

There in the ground His body lay,

Light of the world by darkness slain;

Then bursting forth in glorious day,

Up from the grave He rose again!

And as He stands in victory,

Sin's curse has lost its grip on me;

For I am His and He is mine—

Bought with the precious blood of Christ.

 

No guilt in life, no fear in death—

This is the pow'r of Christ in me;

From life's first cry to final breath,

Jesus commands my destiny.

No pow'r of hell, no scheme of man,

Can ever pluck me from His hand;

Till He returns or calls me home—

Here in the pow'r of Christ I'll stand. 

These lyrics comfort me with the Truth, and yet they sting with the pain of those close to me whom He has called home. Weeping doesn’t go along well with singing, but even the fact that I can’t sing reminds me that I can’t do anything on my own, that I have to stand in Christ power and not on my own.

God has blessed me with good friends and family who help me through these days, who cry with me and abide with me even when I’m not very much fun; who let me know its ok if I’m not particularly jolly every day of the week. *Thank you Jesus for my dear sweet friends and family. Thank you.*

 

photo journal of the last three months.

Yeah yeah, I know its been a long time. sorry. So many big things have happened in the last 3 months that time for blog reflection has been scarce. Right now I'm sitting in my happy little apartment- we have 5 couches in it, so it has a very cozy feel. This morning I got up at 4:25 to go out to the river- despite not being on the crew team this year I've gone to practice twice this week to help the girls out. they needed a coxswain for the 8 girls boat, can you imagine me, the tallest one there, scrunching up to sit in stern? Its a funny picture, especially when the microphone doesn't work and i have to yell coherently to 8 novices. Its been really fun actually, and it makes me miss those early mornings when all the world was quiet, and our blades splashed into the pink water reflecting the sunrise. The point of all that was... that I'm sitting at home eating ramen noodles (stereotypical college student food) and using one of my chapel skips to blog and do some homework. 

This is our apartment when we were just moving in- ill have to get some pictures up of what it looks like now. 
I want to tell you about my apartment. Last year eight of us girls wanted to get a house together, but we weren't able to, so we split into two four-person apartments right across the hall from each other. Its really fun, I'm rooming with Emily and Elizabeth and Rachel are also in my apt. We usually keep the doors open, enabling us to roam freely through both apts. Its been so wonderful to have our own place to have people over, to study together, and to just abide together.  Each piece of decoration is from someone- the jerusalem star lights are mine, the quilt was made by elizabeth, the couch is from the mindrebo home, as well as a painting that Mrs M did for Ems. It just fits all of us quite nicely, and its a place I love coming home to. 

Well, Im going to get on with my studies... i have development psychology class in a  half hour. 

Shalom Y'all

I feel as though this blog is a testament to the times of rest... to the times that I can actually sit down and write about what is happening rather than doing what is happening. Right now I can sit and enjoy this short moment of rest before embarking on yet another journey for the summer.
This time I am going to the middle east to study abroad with Wheaton in the Holy Lands for 6 weeks. I leave tomorrow with 48 other people. I feel a little like Jaxon- about to jump into the ocean again.
Now I'm sitting with Elizabeth and Brittany in the Terrace apartments. We just finished 3 days of intensive study on Bible and Theology, and today we had two tests. After writing for three hours straight we were able to relax for the rest of the day. We saw Prince Caspian tonight, which I absolutely loved ... at least the first 3/4ths of it. It left me wishing so hard for the trees to move and the animals to talk.
Well, thanks to the faithful few of you who check this every once in a while, my apologies for not being as prompt as I would like.
I'd love to write while I'm gone, hopefully I'll get a chance. See you in 6 weeks- June 29.
Love to the fam, kiss the babies for me!

February Fun...

This February has brought lots of good things to my life. On the 5th, new precious memeber of the family was born to Kendall and Ricky: Penelope Jane.


On the 15th, I visited Kendall and Ricky in Virginia to meet Penny and spend some quality time with Jaxon. He and I had some good talks about displacement and not being the youngest in the family anymore. He really liked my phone.





On the 23rd I was able to see my big brother David! I went home to be with him and my parents for a short time of family bonding.
And now its the 28th, and I'm working hard to finish my homework before spring break, keeping in mind all the good things God has given to me.
Thank you God.