Simple, Natural and a bit like a Fairytale...

Our first child...married.  Lots of emotions went into that big day.  For us, the emotions started several months before...more specifically, when a certain phone call came from a certain young man.  Since he lived three hours south of us, and since he didn't want to have such a life-changing conversation over the phone, he simply called to ask if Nate could meet him at a half-way point near the Lake of the Ozarks, so they could "talk."  We knew immediately what "the talk" was going to be about; we'd been expecting it.  No matter how much we expected it, however, we couldn't hold back those first few tears that evening.

The months leading up to the wedding were quite a roller coaster ride - as most big, parenting milestones tend to be.  There was the fun and excitement of wedding dress shopping, picking bridesmaid dresses, seeing how many decorations we could buy on holiday clearance, etc.  Yet there was the stress of SO much to do (especially since she wanted the wedding and reception to be here at home) and the fact that she was three hours away at college.  She tried her best to be easy-going about all of it, and yet, she had very definite opinions and ideas about how everything would be.  It proved to be quite the balancing act - trying to get her to tell us exactly what she dreamed  her wedding day would look like...and figuring out how to make that physically possible.  (If only Peter Jackson would have created Rivendell on our back 40, then we would have been ready to go!)

With lots of work and creativity from everyone, it finally came together and the big day arrived.  For me personally, the wedding day was a whirlwind...one that I didn't have the chance to savor and cherish like a mother would want to do.  Later, as friends shared photos on Facebook and continued to comment about what a beautiful wedding it was, the savoring began to take hold.  I needed it, so I wouldn't continue feeling so overwhelmed with those "my 1st daughter is married??!!" emotions.  I loved the day when we finally got a look at the photographer's pictures...now I could truly relish!  Then, much to our delight, a neighbor surprised us with a DVD of video footage he had taken at the wedding.  The wedding day was so crazy, I had no idea he was there with a video camera.  How fun it was to re-live the day (at least, about 20 minutes of it) by watching the video.  I missed the music, however.  Rachel and Kyle had done a fantastic job of choosing music for the ceremony - all of it fit so very well with the setting, mood, etc. - the nearly silent video just didn't seem to catch the feeling of the day.

But now...two years later...I've pieced the day together again.  Thanks to some fun and new software and lots of time, I can now cherish and savor that day to my heart's content.  The setting, the people, the live footage, the pictures and yes, even the music.

Now if you'll just turn your thermostat to about 100 degrees - you could truly imagine you were there on that very special day!

So helpless, but I've gotta do something...

Is there a single person on earth who has not been touched by cancer in some way, shape, or form?  If so...I doubt they will remain untouched for long.

My first "touches" were in childhood - a grandfather with colon cancer and a grandmother with breast cancer and several occurrences of skin cancer.  I was fortunate at that point - cancer did not take either of them from me.  There were other acquaintances after that - but no one I knew very well.

Then it reared it's ugly head a little too close to home...my friend and (near) neighbor, a young mom about my age, with children the same age as mine...died of lung cancer.

"Helpless" is the word that I now began associating with cancer.  After watching this  young mother go through all the treatments and suffering - after praying and pleading and praying and pleading with God some more - then seeing her 4 young children and husband suffer the loss to cancer in the end...it's just such a helpless feeling.

There were soon others that also lost the cancer battle - a couple of young dads in our community, uncles on both sides of the family, and a cousin only a few years older than myself.  It was getting vicious.

The next touch was more of a body slam.  The unthinkable happened when our friends called in tears to say their 15 year old daughter had just been diagnosed with a rare form of bone cancer.  She was my daughter's best friend and "bosom buddy"...and also cousin by marriage.  They had been friends before they were cousins (her mom-by-marriage was my husband's cousin.)  Her biological mother had been my friend, the one who died of lung cancer just a few years before.

Could I loathe cancer any more than this?

A few days before my daughter's high school graduation - cancer took her life-long, best friend away from her.  Now when she comes home from college...she goes to a cemetery to visit her.  There will never be anything right about that.  As a mom - I feel so desperately helpless as my daughter heads out the door to go visit a grave.

"Good haircut, mommy!"

And then, less than a year later, cancer touched us again.  My sister-in-law, younger than myself, is battling stage 4 breast cancer that has also moved into her liver.  She's the sister that never forgets a birthday, the one who is always so loving, supportive and positive.  The one who always seems thrilled to open her home to our large family, so we can have fantastic vacations in places like Orlando, Austin and Houston...or so we could hang out for a few days with the young girl receiving weeks of radiation treatments in Houston.  Her and my brother have a beautiful, 6 year old daughter.  And I, once again, pray and plead and feel helpless.

I'm so sick and tired of feeling helpless.  It's time to do something more.  It's not much of anything, really...but it's something.  First and foremost - I have to keep praying and believing that cancer can LOOSE!  Secondly - I'm joining in the bigger fight.

I've given to the American Cancer Society occasionally; supported others that take the time to participate in a "Relay for Life," but that's about as far as I've taken it.  Now, I'm stepping up.  I may not be able to kick cancer myself - I may not be able to kick cancer together with all of the whole American Cancer Society - but by golly I'm going to do something. 

Thus, in honor of my sister-in-law, Jennifer Cox, and in memory of sweet Amanda Joy McDaniel, I've formed "Team Jennifer and Amanda" to participate in an upcoming Relay for Life.  After the first day, over half of the goal had been raised, so I doubled the goal.  We still haven't made that goal - but I'm hopeful.

Obviously - others feel strongly about this cursed disease and the lives of innocent people it has touched.  If you're one of them, feel free to visit that team page and give a donation, purchase a luminary in honor or memory of a loved one, or just be thankful that there are so many fighting this battle.  A battle that we all hope and pray will some day end victoriously, so "helpless" will no longer come to mind when the word cancer is breathed.

So Proud of That...

 Nate has such a big heart - a heart for the world.  He's given months of his time over the past several years to go serve overseas on lots of different projects - most of them on Engineering Ministries International (eMi) teams.  eMi is a fantastic, world-wide ministry that is as near to a perfect match for Nate's big heart as anything he's ever come across.

Nate has worked on eMi teams from Guatemala to India, doing everything from surveying how deep a lake was in Rwanda to hijacking a taxi from their drugged driver in order to keep the team safe while traveling in India.  Most of these trips have involved helping children...a children's home in Guatemala, a site for a school in a remote village of Ghana, an orphanage in India, etc.

One of the neatest projects he's been a part of was in Rwanda - working for Kanukuk Kamps on their Kids Across Africa Camp.  For anyone that's watched "Hotel Rwanda" or heard the stories of the terrible genocide that occurred there...it's hard NOT to get excited about a camp where these children can be carefree kids for a few days, have 3 nutritional meals a day and enjoy having lots of staff to love on them, share the Good News with them, and make sure they have the experience of a lifetime.

In one week's time, this eMi Rwanda team was able to do an amazing amount of work.  I love to watch the video they produced by the end of that week.  Considering that they started with just a leveled off top of a hillside by a lake, clueless as to  where the property boundaries were - and finished with a conceptual video and plan for a well-designed facility made to fit perfectly on the less-than-ideal, limited hill-top...I can't help but feel proud.  Proud to be the wife of a man who loves to donate his time to such projects...proud to be the mom of amazing daughters who love to "tag along" and help...and proud to be a child of The King.  A King who has a heart for the poorest of the poor in this world, and shares a portion of that heart with mere little, insignificant people like us.  It makes me smile from the inside out.  :-)