Gabriel Lanai

After posting Gabriel’s pictures, I thought, for those of you who don’t know his story, I would tell it. Gabriel was born April 1st in Boulder Co… on the front porch, but not by choice. Ruthie had been in labor for 30 hours and her contractions had slowed down, she was exhausted. Jared and she had decided to have their baby at home, there were 2 midwives present along with a nurse midwife, friends and family. Since her labor had slowed down the midwives suggested that they go out on the front porch for some fresh air and new scenery. It was a lovely morning but at 4:30 it was still a brisk Colorado morning of 20 degrees. Ruthie was wrapped up in a blanket enjoying the lovely CO sky with all its stars and freshness. Not long on the porch, she had an intense contraction. She told Jared she thought the baby was coming, Jared unconvinced, stood behind her holding her through her contraction, immediately 2 more followed with Ruthie informing Jared this it! Jared moved around to the front of Ruthie, trying to catch Gabriel as he slipped out of Ruthie’s hands moving on past Jared’s outstretched hands, gently landing on the front porch. Don’t worry; Ruthie was not far from the deck. Jared of course put Gabriel on Ruthie and wrapped mom and baby up while everyone in the house ran outside responding to Jared’s hollers.

Gabriel Lanai (for those who don’t know Lanai is Hawaiian for porch) was born with phenomena and stopped breathing about 45 minutes after birth. He spent just over 2 weeks in the hospital, and 3-4 weeks at home on oxygen, until his lungs were strong. Carey and I stayed in CO until all was well. He is now strong and perfect traveling with his parents around the country. I see him on Skype but long to hold him once again, hopefully in August. (Being born with phenomena had nothing to do with being delivered on the porch!)

Again, thank you again to all who prayed for him.

July 21, 2010

I have been thinking about the best way to update you, the reader, on our plans. This may sound like a simple task one that includes data, facts, and photos. But in reality any information I post needs to be interesting, humorous and hold your attention… sounds a bit daunting on my part. So forgive me if this does not meet at least my expectations, although I am hoping yours are met, somehow.

This past year has been an amazing one for us. There are truly no words that can explain, or really describe what has gone on with, or more accurately, in us. That’s just it; most of our changes, our experiences, and our life, have been in the realm of the unseen, the hidden or the unobserved. These are the things that I can’t and probably should not, try and explain to you, you will just have to use your own imagination. I will pass on some thoughts which demanded a moment for pause in our life:

Consider…
How He loves us. How He gazes into our eyes. How He walks before us to make way our path. How He calls each by name, knowing each hair on our head. How He saves our tears and considers them in His heart. How He came to walk the life of a man. How He came to suffer, so we may call Him friend. How He came to die so we may live. How He rose so we may be free. Oh How He loves us!
Consider how He loves.

We just got back from a trip to Long Beach CA where we spent 8 days meeting and working with Carey’s business partner. Carey will be designing and building a three wheeled lightweight (as light as an electric vehicle can be) electric vehicle. This is a great opportunity for him and he is so excited. We will tell you more as we can, for now things are top secret.

We may have a place to live in CA, up by Idyllwild. Mountain Center is the area and from what I can tell it’s rather isolated. I suppose having lived on the boat, and being in rather isolated places has prepared us for this next step. Carey will have a large garage and shop to work in plus 5 acres which will allow him to make any noise he needs, without the worry of neighbors. The house is huge, so visitors will be appreciated. We are so used to being near each other I imagine we’ll feel a little lost trying to find each other in such a big house and acreage. We feel lost sleeping in a king size bed!

As we wait for all things to fall in place I am reminded of all the friends we have met here in St Augustine, people who we now consider family. Lasting relationships, and quick friends seem more of a rarity these days in our fast paced society. I say society and not world because I don’t believe the world is like this, yet. “Westernized cultures”, “civilized cultures”, cultures where all the conveniences rule lives have fallen victim to a faster pace. We are now a society that is based on a relationship built on text messaging, voice mail and email as the first, and most often, form of communication. I don’t knock these things, I find them quick and easy, and I suppose that’s just it, quick and easy instead of long and lasting. I wonder what things will be like for my grandchildren and great grandchildren. Hard to know.

I will miss our friends, the experiences we have shared, the laughs and sheer joy of being in His presence. His, Him, He, yes the God of the universe that has so deeply touched our souls and our relationships during out time here.

The skies are beautiful here on the Florida east coast and we love going to the beach. No crowds, yellow crabs of some sort that are quite entertaining, and warm waters... I will miss this ocean. I will also miss living on the water, marina life may not be my idea of a good time but floating on the water is the best. Big seas never sit well with me but I have found seasick pills that do their job. We have debated hanging our bed once we are back on land, so maybe we can rock a little.. wondering what it would be like in an earthquake... hmmm...

The funny picture with the teeth is a manatee that was here in the marina chomping stuff off the docks. He was huge and full of scars from prop blades. Manatees are slow and not fearful so don't always make it out of harms way when boats are speeding by. I love the birds here and have enjoyed taking pictures of them. They seem to be staying away from our boat more this year, maybe it has to do with Carey's pop gun...

The boat is still for sale and we will let you know when it sells. Really not much I can say about that except it’s all in His hands. We are now in the throes of summer in Florida and hot she is. We try and stay out of the heat, cooking is an issue and laundry is… well just a dirty job that has to be done. The funny thing is, I don’t remember many nice days at all, it seems it went from cold to hot in 2 short weeks with confused temperatures in-between.

We have seen some great wildlife this year in the marina, which is surprising because so many animals died from the cold this past winter. Fish were floating all over the marina, dead from cold water temperatures. Manatees died and turtles struggled. We saw our first Manatee close up this year and I have seen more turtles than anywhere so far. They are not big but they are here and that is a good sign. The wildlife at our local restaurant seems to be more lacking, to which there is no complaint. I like it peaceful.

My children are fine, although I have not seen them in some time. As you know I am a first time Grandma and again want to thank all of you for praying for Gabriel. He is doing great and is beautiful of course. I am thankful for Skype so I am able to see him once in a while, although I look forward to the day I can again hold him in my arms. I’m not sure what a Grandma is suppose to feel like, but for me, I again experience that sense of protection, as I did with my own children, along with pride that he is the most perfect thing around. I look forward to being with him, I look at his picture often, he is often in my dreams. I miss him, I long to kiss him and hug him and tell him I love him. I want to spoil him and let his mom and dad worry about instructing him. I long to hold him again.

Jared and Ruthie are headed to Maine to visit friends and will be returning to VA where their boat is. They are trying to make their plans and decide what direction they are headed. My guess is they are also tired, new parents in all of it.

Jeff is currently in Africa; he spent 6 months in Sierra Leone and has been in Uganda the past month after which time he will return to Sierra Leone. He plans on being back in the states in September, as things stand now. He sounds great on the phone! I miss him.

Well, that is life for now, holding steady, working on a big project and walking in faith, awestruck by how He loves.

Time

Time at sea…

Ah, Friday… or is it Thursday or Saturday? Time has a new meaning these days. We are no longer pushed by the clock, controlled by meetings and appointments. While watching “The Gods Must Be Crazy” the other night, I couldn’t help but wonder how we as a society became so lost… Lost in time, lost in meetings, lost in appointments and lost in traffic. What makes and keeps us so busy? Are we missing something? Where is life within this vastness of lostness?

Sitting in the middle of an ocean, OK so the Caribbean is not quite the middle, but work with me for a minute… time is of no significance. We don’t to need to shoot the sun at noon for navigational purposes, though it would be a good exercise. We move according to weather and sea state. We have no appointments, no meetings and no traffic. I can’t help but wonder if this is life as God intended. Don’t get me wrong, we work and we have a routine but we do not have the pressure of time. The element of chasing time that makes us forget that we are human, that our neighbors are human, that the guy we pass on the street is human, and that the man begging for food is human, is not after us in this place.

We have to live within the parameters of the culture we choose to live in, or are wedged in, but do we have to succumb to the control that time so adamantly demands? It raises it head to control us, if we are not being productive with our time, time tells us we are to get up and hurry up, so its wicked hand can once again control us. The hands of time reach far into our minds twisting our thoughts and priorities.

Escape to the sea where time has no hold.