One Year!

I can hardly believe it has been a year since we left our home in Minnesota for our new home in Indiana.     It has been QUITE a year. 

October 2017

  Tiny, baby steps forward - only to be followed by a huge setback last Spring made me wonder if we would be moving again.   For a time, it looked like we would.   But just within the past 4-5 weeks, things have started to turn around and I am hopeful that the coming year is going to be one of larger strides and real healing.    Because of the ongoing trauma, I haven't done a good job at updating our blog.    But we have a couple of fun corgi events coming up this month, that I'll want to share pictures from.   So I thought I should first give a brief update on our summer.    In spite of the challenges, we did have some fun.


Much of the fun involved company!    We had a lot of it!    My brother Dan came home from China for five weeks.   He spent a weekend with us in Indiana (Zak still goes and sleeps by "Dan's" bed) and then we celebrated my Aunt Wanda's 90th birthday on July 22nd.   I saw cousins and other extended family and friends I hadn't seen in years.    It was a wonderful day celebrating a truly remarkable woman who is still taking college classes, drives and makes calls on the 'elderly'!

Sleeping late every morning was a treat for all of us!

Tim, Dan and I spent a wonderful week together at the cabin, hanging out on Au Train Beach, kayaking the Au Train River and spending a day in Marquette.     Zak and Scarlett loved the beach and Dan was wonderful about taking them over there every chance he had. 

We stopped at the Mackinac Bridge both coming and going  .... I never tire of the view of the beautiful bridge that connects Upper and Lower Michigan. 

A couple of grown up kids! 

The two weeks after returning from the cabin brought more company!     My best highschool friends (sisters), Betty and Ardis were here for a long weekend and we enjoyed seeing the Mennohof Museum at Shipshewana together.      The following day was a HORRIBLY hot day but I really wanted them to see DeFries Gardens so we went over there for a short walk and headed home.    The dogs were with us, but I was so preoccupied with trying to find a cool place to sit that I didn't pay much attention to them.    A couple days later, I developed a HORRIBLE rash on my chest, up and over my left shoulder and down that arm.    I could not imagine what it was!    I went to the doctor and she said it looked like poison ivy but since I  hadn't been walking through any wooded areas, we ruled that out.    Over the next several days a couple other people mentioned that it ALSO looked like poison ivy.     To make a long story short, we found out that DeFries Gardens has an abundance of poison ivy and Zak apparently got into it.     Because he has a double layer of fur protecting his skin, he had no symptoms, but he transmitted the toxic oil to me when he slept next to me - right up against my left side!     What a crazy ordeal that was!

The weekend after that, my friends the Kidders came to visit from North Carolina and Tim came down to join us on Saturday.     On Sunday, we met Kelly & Brian and Dan's parents in Plymouth for the Blueberry Festival, that I'd heard so much about.     I have several things to say about that.   1) It was HOT.  2) It was HUGE.    3)  It was CROWDED!   4) We had fun anyway, mostly because of 3 year old Elsie who loved the kiddie rides and everything else that makes life through the eyes of a 3 year old so much fun. 



Now we are more or less into our Fall routine.   Scarlett and Zak both had their teeth professionally cleaned yesterday.   I'm becoming very involved in my church in South Bend and loving it there, and also am starting to get back into stamping.     I volunteer Sunday evenings at a homeless shelter and have found that to be meaningful and rewarding.    I am on a long road of healing from traumatic loss, but when I compare my life to that of the men and women who do not even have a place of their own to call home, along with the many other challenges they are facing, it is a good place for me to gain perspective.     Life is STARTING to turn around, and for the friends who have hung with me for the past 2-1/2 years plus a group of four people in ministry who have accepted me, are committed to walking this journey with me and are supporting me in many ways,  I am immensely grateful.