Casting for Reni's Stubbies

A few weeks ago while we were down in Lexington, Reni was cast for his first set of 'stubbies'.  His current set of prosthetics (just like his first set) are full length legs, but without articulating knee joints.  They make him taller (which he likes) yet it is difficult for Reni to be a typically active three year old; one who likes to climb up and down from furniture, go up and down the stairs, get and up and down quickly from the floor, and navigate playground equipment.  You and I with healthy knees use them thousands of times per day and probably don't even think about it.  But for Reni, it's not that different than walking around on stilts, and when he falls, I always gasp and wait to make sure he hasn't gotten hurt.  He's tough, but it doesn't seem out of the question that in the right circumstances, he could fall and break a wrist or arm.

We could invest in legs with knee joints as he's bordering that developmental age where they begin to transition BAK (bilateral above knee amputee) children to knee joints, but we've been told they would require intensive physical therapy to learn, not to mention, we think he would still need a set of stubbies for around the house.  Soooo, we opted to just go for stubbies right now and wait another  year or so on 'legs with knees.'  Given the cost, it's not exactly something you buy two of at the same time.

Complicating matters is Reni's extra tissue on his left leg.  We're opting not to remove it surgically because it has bone, muscles, and some supporting ligaments.  We're hopeful it might be useful for a robotic knee when he's fully grown.  The reason we say it's complicated is that Chris, the prosthetist, isn't designing a simple socket to fit over a stub (like he can do for Reni's right leg).  It was interesting to watch and hear him hash out the design while we discussed how we wanted these stubbies to function for Reni.

The first step in casting is to roll on the silicone liner sleeve and wrap it with saran wrap to keep it clean.  Then a thin sock is pulled on over the plastic wrap.

During the entire casting process, Reni was as quiet as I've ever, ever seen him.  Chris wrapped his legs in a quick-setting plaster cast.  And marked it with a special pencil to note the front/center part of the socket.

After it dried, he slipped it off and repeated the process for the other leg!

About thirty minutes later we were all done and so we stopped by for our traditional photo with Mike outside the therapy room.  Reni is mimicking his pose!

I can't really express how excited we are to finally be getting these stubbies.  You might recall how two summers ago Reni had devised his own "shoes", slipping plastic drinking cups over his stumps to protect them on concrete and rocks.  Alas, he's gotten to heavy for those, but these will be the 'real' deal and give him way more comfort and freedom than those cups ever could provide! 

Celebrating Nathan

Last Friday we celebrated Nathan's birthday.  It was pretty low-key during the day.  I ordered a game that we were introduced to by our friends, Ricky and Aiden, when we visited them in January.

What do you do when your gift wrap is in storage?  Give your children markers and let them have at it on the shipping box.  One of the drawings is supposed to be a tornado. 

We can't wait to play this game with our friends next winter in Albania! 

Later in the day, the kids spent the night at Mom and Dad's and Nathan, Stephen, Rachel, and I enjoyed a kid-free evening starting with supper in Manito and returning back home for coffee, dessert, and trying out Nathan's new game!  I had so much fun I forgot my camera!

Thankful for Nathan's life and the blessing of being his wife! 

Time for Growing

It's eerily quiet on the farm these days.  Ten, eleven days ago it was all hustle, 15-hour days, get the seed in the ground.  Then it started raining.  Dad suggested I get photos of the standing water.  Standing equipment, frozen until it warms up and dries out.  But that was too depressing.

But while the rains fell, something was happening underground and now we see it.  Life is emerging.

 

I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being,  so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge —that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.

Pack Like a Neat Freak For Your Summer Travels

Preface:  This is not a ministry post.  I am not being paid by e-Bags, L.L. Bean, or Amazon.com.  These are my opinions.  And as neurotic-ly organized as I may come across, I'm really not... just maybe an eensy-teensy bit in need of structure in my life. :-)  As some of you plan on summer travels, maybe this will be of help to you, too!

Sarah Weller shared that she packed her entire family of five's belongings for 7 weeks of living in Albania in 2 checked pieces of luggage and a couple rolling carry-on bags.  After gasping over her failure to use all of her allotted free pieces of checked luggage, I had to hear how she did it. Her secret?  Packing cubes! I did a search on Amazon.com and found these.  The colors were too pretty to look at any other brand.  I read the reviews and it didn't take much convincing for me to splurge with some saved up Discover points before leaving on our last homeland ministry trip in the RV.

The recurring theme running through all of the reviews was that somehow, someway, packing in these bags allowed people to get more stuff in their suitcases (think, how the Boy Sc*uts pack). At the same time folks seemed to appreciate having their belongings more discreetly organized during one of those famous TSA baggage inspections.

In our situation living in the RV, we weren't packing our clothes in suitcases but in overhead cabinets.  Nathan had discovered that some large baskets we had on hand happened to fit in the cabinets, but they were so deep, that it was impossible to see all of our clothes at once, and pulling something out of the bottom meant upending the entire contents of the bin.

Enter the packing cubes.  I bought four sets of large cubes (three per set), each set a different color assigned to a different member of our family (Nathan yellow, Cydil green, Reni orange and Ellie pink).  I also purchased one set of medium-sized cubes, so I could physically see the size difference and determine if it would be practical to buy smaller sizes in the future for our back-packs and carry-ons.  I definitely think I will.
The large size was on sale (score!): 3 cubes for $19.99 (regularly $29.99), but I was able to get them all for free using my credit card bonus points (those diesel fuel purchases add up!).  Lest that sounds expensive, you may want to consider buying them for one family member at a time.  I will say that  we opened and closed these bags several times per day, every day, for 7 weeks, and they still look as good as the day we got them. IMO, the quality exceeds their price. The YKK zippers are incredibly tough, and the fabric and mesh and haven't snagged or frayed.

Nathan and I packed shirts in one bag, pants in another, and everything else in the third. We got the kids' clothes (for two seasons, mind you) in two large bags each (one for pants and shirts, the other for undies, socks and jammies). The secret to making the clothing fit is rolling each item. I could easily get 6-7 pairs of adult-sized jeans or trousers in one large bag.  With the mesh windows on top, it was easy to see what was in each bag without unzipping.

On the occasion when we'd not sleep in Winnie, but stay in someone's home, we could grab our cubes and by sight know which bag contained which family member's stuff.  The handles on the long side made it easy to hold several in one hand at a time when carrying.

When we are not in Winnie, our luggage of choice has always been rolling duffle bags by L.L Bean.  They are lightweight, but sturdy, and take up very little storage space when not in use.  The variety of available colors combined with the optional monogramming make them easy to spot on the baggage carousel in a sea of black suitcases.  However digging for your contents within can be a royal pain, especially when the bag is extra large, I'm sharing it with Nathan, and the room is dimly lit. I seem to only find his stuff. This is where I think packing cubes are really going to show their utility. Now that I have experienced their space-saving capabilities, I hope to fit even more inside of our duffles (within weight limit, of course) when the time comes for us to fly to Albania.

And when we settle in our Tirana apartment where we won't have dressers but large, deep shelves in wardrobes, I anticipate these cubes will continue to function much like they did for us in the RV.  Not to mention, I think we'll also enjoy staying organized when we make overnight weekend trips to the village.  Yeah, it wasn't hard for me to justify buying these.

I found that the the medium sized cubes and Ellie and Reni's unused cubes were great for storing loose DVD cases, toys (when making unexpected stops for repairs to Winnie), swimwear, or dirty laundry.  The uniformity of size makes them easier to store on shelves or within a larger bag than my previous alternative: lumpy, easily torn WalM*rt sacks or old gift bags.

If I had to give one criticism, it's that the colors I ordered were awfully bright (grasshopper green excluded). The orange, yellow, and pink bags could have been runners up in a highlighter colors contest.  On the other hand, as one reviewer commented, they're so bright you won't forget your bag on the hotel room floor! 

I hope this was helpful!  Back to ministry and family-related posts soon!

A Visit to Slate Run Historical Living Farm

We found room in our schedule for a day long visit with Nathan's parents (probably one of our last in Ohio) on our way down to Kentucky...

The weather was made-to-order for a picnic.

Afterwards we visited this neat little farm, Slate Run Historical Living Farm, part of Columbus' (OH) Metro Parks network.  You really get a sense of going back in time given that you park a ways away from the buildings, and walk a long, curving, tree-lined driveway that opens up to a quaint gothic revival-style farm house (all it needed was a green roof and a red-headed teenager on the front porch to have passed for a famous house on Prince Edward Island).  There is no noise from traffic, no views of any other homes or buildings.

I can't believe this park is just a few miles from Mom and Dad's and we'd never visited before.  Better late than never!

There were blooms everywhere and I couldn't stop snapping photos.  This is just a fraction of the ones I kept.

The house and grounds were furnished with period games and activities for children to explore and play with.

There were caretakers in 1880s costume working a large garden and caring for the livestock (including cows, horses, sheep, goats, ducks, chickens, turkeys, pigs, bees, and probably more).  Ellie was told to enter the hen house and come back with an egg!

Silly us didn't pack Reni's stroller, or I could have lasted longer, but all in all, it was a beautiful afternoon.  I highly recommend this park for anyone who likes to have the sense of 'going back in time.'  This park is extremely well maintained and the details are abundant.  Click here for hours of operation and directions.

Thanks, Mom and Dad, for helping us make some lovely memories with you!

Travelogue: VT, NY, & OH

Where last I left off, we were in Vermont...

On our very last day we were privileged to share at my sister and brother-in-law's church in Bridgewater Corners.  Isn't it lovely?

Everyone was super friendly, so I'm afraid once church started, I didn't get my camera out again!  The sanctuary was cozy, but it was full!  And lots of kids!

We said goodbye after a Sunday afternoon that we didn't want to end and hit the road for Albany.  A little over two hours later, we were at Ben and Elisabeth's!  Elisabeth led worship for us at the student center for three years (our only female in that role during our stint) and I always appreciated her throughtful, intentional approach.  While it's true that we had a whole cabinet helping us run the student center ministry and all of them were amazing men and women, there are times when one individual's influence really has an impact, and I have always felt that about Elisabeth's time leading worship at Global Cafe.  I don't think it was a coincidence that our attendance numbers grew during that time to a new level as she had a giftedness in drawing us into the presence of God.

We are really excited to hear about Lizzy's new role working full time for PrayerCast.  She was introduced to the director of this ministry when it was at the ground level, and it sounds like it's really taking off.  Personally, we love the PrayerCast video for Albania and frequently show it when we travel and share.  Our visit with Ben and Elisabeth was short, but sweet, and after having to cancel our original plans due to the RV troubles, I was glad that it worked out at all!  Love you guys!

Yep, that's Niagara Falls!  When we looked at the map, Nathan noticed that our route would be taking us within 30 minutes of this famous site, so we squeezed it into our itinerary.  We literally spent less than a couple of hours there, but now we've seen it (from the American side)!  The kids were a little apprehensive when we told them about the boat ride, Reni in particular.  Notice us dry as we were departing shore...

Ellie saw all the seagulls (below) and exclaimed, "We're in seagull heaven!"

(If you know our girl, you know she LOVES birds!)

Then we got drenched.  It was fun. For all of us but Reni.  He wasn't amused. And I'm happy to report that while the camera got really wet, she kept on ticking.  Canons rock!

   We spent the night near the falls, then left the next morning for Ohio.  Along the way, we had another tire incident (documented here). We stayed the night with friends Matt and April, but sadly didn't get any photos. :-(  Too much fun talking.

   The next day we met Dad Waggoner for lunch, then headed over to the hospice floor of the hospital where he works to see his colleague, and our friend, Sally.  Sally's battling cancer herself and I hope we could cheer her up during a week when she was feeling quite tired from the end of a recent round of treatments.  The kids LOVED the saltwater aquarium in the unit.  It was beautiful and Sally, we're praying for you!  Thanks for partnering with us to Albania!

That evening we had the pleasure of meeting our friend Markettys for the second time.  She's been a loyal blog follower (dating back to the first months online!) and we appreciate her love for our family.  We met her for supper at Fazoli's and enjoyed meeting a couple from her small group (who also work in outreach for her church), Brad and Pam.  I love the instant affinity one has when meeting other brothers and sisters in Christ.  We shared so much in common, conversation flowed easily and before we knew it, two hours had passed!

It was a great way to wrap up our little 'layover' in Nathan's old hometown before we kept heading south to appointments in Kentucky.

We're Home

The grass withers

and the flowers fall

but the word of our God endures forever. Isaiah 40:8

Friday afternoon as we approached the farmhouse, we were greeted by a bright patch of poppies at the end of the lawn.  This is my first springtime in Illinois since the summer of our wedding (1999). I vaguely remembered this patch of poppies, which apparently was planted in the 1960s. 

When we left on April 2 it was 31 degrees and the trees were barren.  We came home on Friday to temps in the 80s, and full, green trees.  And poppies. 

The RV has been emptied and cleaned (no small feat).
I shared with Mom at a Sunday school class in Pekin on Sunday about the village women's retreat in March.
Last night we rode out some nasty thunderstorms, with the kids having a slumber party on the living room floor (closer to the basement).  We're all a little bleary from the late night.
Nathan's taking the kids grocery shopping this morning so I can get in a few hours of uninterrupted desk work. And he's buying a weather radio.

Yesterday we had a Skype conference with Pastor Lind from Calvary Bible in Rutland.  He and his wife, Dawn, minister to couples in ministry and they gifted us with a strengths evaluation which we completed a couple of weeks ago (I referred to this a bit in my last post).  Yesterday we discussed the results and he interpreted some of it for us.  The biggest (yet at the same time, least) surprising piece?  In managing change, on a scale of 1-10, I naturally scored a 7 in "structured" (the way God made me, I don't break the rules, I like predictability and systems). This was the area I scored the "strongest" of the four strengths analyzed.  So how has my natural penchant for structure had to adapt to our current lifestyle?  Well, an area of significant stress is indicated by a change of 5 points or more in adaptation.  My score?  An eleven point swing in the opposite direction (towards "dynamic") to compensate. To summarize Pastor Lind -- that "indicates an area of major stress." Uh- huh. He explained that to deal with the lack of structure in my life, I've probably become even more structured.  Nathan said, "That explains her weird, overly-excited obsession with color-coded packing cubes (more on that later, I'm still excited about them).

All that to say, it feels good to be home.  To be able to catch up. To look at poppies.
Posts forthcoming from the last two weeks of our time on the road.  Enough about me. :-)

Pushing Pause

   I don't know if I've said it here, but I've said it a lot to others in conversation.  Contrary to what I thought, I really didn't know what this lifestyle would be like.  Yes, we get to see friends (such an encouragement to our hearts, and hopefully we can in part encourage theirs).  Yes, we get to see a lot of different places... usually from the window of the RV while we drive by.  But I'm swimming in desk work to do. Ellie's homeschooling is woefully behind.  I think I thought that missionaries were busy on Sundays and could spend a few hours over coffee writing thank you notes on Monday, then the rest of the week was free for traveling to the next place. I didn't think of all the friends and team partners that missionaries know and want to connect with in between.  And all the rest of what entails their life.

   I've learned that one "missionary presentation" doesn't 'fit all' (in terms of time parameters, audience, and level of connection to our family or the country where we are going), and it's constantly being 'tweaked'.  I actually had a dream night before last that we were HECKLED in a church.  Sounds silly now, but it was very awkward in my dream! ;-) As much as we've done this now, there are still some nerves.

   I still have to do laundry, shop for groceries, make beds, and clean (albeit, the RV is much smaller than a house). Unfortunately, I still don't make room in my schedule for this, and sometimes feel like Ellie and Reni -- while sleeping mere feet from us -- get our leftovers while we're tired (physically and emotionally), trying to juggle all of our different responsibilities.  We're constantly introducing them to people they don't know, they make new little friends for a few hours, then have to say 'goodbye'. On the upside, they play with an amazing array of different toy collections at nearly every home and church we visit. But no two days are the same, and I'm waiting for them to finally melt down from the lack of structure to their life.  I really believe the RV has been a huge lifesaver in that regard -- it's been a consistent environment, even when everything outside of it is constantly changing.

   Actually, I think it's a lack of structure that perhaps makes this lifestyle more challenging for me too.  I recently took a personality test that was designed to reveal what kind of environments are best for me to work in, and my best 'management' style, of sorts. I learned that this season of life has pushed me WAY on to the dynamic side of the scale (where I usually am more comfortable sitting on the 'structured' end). Yet in spite of all of this stretching, we sense amazing grace and provision from God and from His people.  We've learned so much and I can't help but believe that this is valuable preparation.

Last week we had an hour to kill before a supper appointment and decided to stop at a park in Nathan's hometown that I had always wanted to visit, but never had time for before.  Reni was super excited about all of the "flowers" on the ground.

Yes. That's dandelion 'dander' in his hair and on his shirt.

I'm actually able to find the time for this post because we were gifted two more days in Kentucky before heading home to Illinois (actually, both places feel like home). It feels like life has hit 'pause.' Reni goes into Shriners in a couple of hours to be casted (they didn't have the right size of liner in stock to perform the casting during our visit on Tuesday) for a set of "stubbies" -- Yay!  We hit the interstate again tomorrow, but this time we drive familiar roads, where we know the exits and interchanges as we go HOME.  Right now, the 'familiar' is good.  Really good.

He Did It Again

If you say, “The Lord is my refuge,”
    and you make the Most High your dwelling,
 no harm will overtake you,
    no disaster will come near your tent.
For he will command his angels concerning you
    to guard you in all your ways;
 they will lift you up in their hands,
    so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.

Psalm 91:9-12

Tuesday afternoon we were driving west on I-90, not far from the Ohio/Pennsylvania border.  The roads were rough.  Probably all that lake effect snow.  Then we heard that sound.  You know the sound. A bang, bang, bang of the tire tread hitting the wheel well and falling off.  Nathan immediately slowed down and eased the RV into the shoulder.  A guardrail hemmed us in on the right and the shoulder was just wide enough for our vehicle.  Waiting for a break in traffic, Nathan hopped out into the interstate and walked around to quickly assess the damage.



The tread had stripped off, but the tire was still inflated.  Given Winnie's size, flat tires are not something we can deal with by ourselves.  We needed a tire service, but there was no way a tire service could assist us at our present location with the affected tire blocked by the guardrail.  Nathan said he thought, "I can't wait to see how God provides for us today!"

We looked on our GPS and saw there was an exit just a mile and a quarter ahead, so we slowly, slowly crept up the road to the exit while I jumped on our Facebook page and solicited prayer.

Within just two minutes, our Epaphras Team prayer partner for the day had commented, "Praying!"  She lives in a time zone 7-8 hours ahead of us, and in spite of the late hour of the day, she was awake and on Facebook!

We reached the top of the exit and spotted a truck service business with a large, empty parking lot.  We pulled in and I called AAA.  They were nice, but told us that they were unable to help us because our plan did not include RV coverage (oops! -- thankfully they had helped us earlier in our trip!).  They offered to call us a truck tire service, but we would have to pay out of pocket.  And after having used a tire service when our rear tires blew in Kentucky in January, we knew it would cost us about $200.



Nathan decided to inquire of the trucking company about a recommendation for a tire service, but the business was closed.  At the end of the property he spotted another building that appeared to have a bit more activity.  He introduced himself and described our problem.  The three guys at work dropped what they were doing and invited us to bring Winnie down to them and let them help us.

They drove their forklift over to pick up Winnie's front end, then Tom got his tools and slipped off the affected tire.  Nathan brought him our spare and it was quickly put on.  Kevin came back from the break room with a box of Little Caesars pizza which he offered us to eat while we waited.  Ellie and Reni had fun playing with their two boxers, Wyatt and Dixie.

We tried to give payment, but they refused.  We were humbled by their kindness and generosity.  But it didn't stop there.  Kevin had left and returned a few minutes later, not with pizza this time, but a lightly-used tire to replace our spare!  Wow.  It had been left by another individual who had sought similar assistance on a previous day.

Thank you, Steve, Tom, and Kevin, for showing such kindness to strangers!  It was a joy to see how the Lord provided for us through you!

We got back on the interstate and would you know, we immediately entered a construction zone with no space to pull over for a break down for several miles?  Can you imagine if our tire had lasted just 1.25 miles longer?

During our incident in Georgia when we discovered that 6.5 of our lug nuts had sheared off the rear right tires, I told someone we must have had an angel holding those tires on the Winnie while we barreled down the interstate.  After a third tire incident on the Winnie (each one affecting a different corner of the RV), I can't help but believe we've got angels, fueled by your prayers, on all four corners of our vehicle while we travel. Thank you, dear friends!

I have to tell you, building our Epaphras team has been such a faith building experience for me.  I've tried to put specific prayer requests for each day on the reminder e-mails.  Wouldn't you know, God has answered those requests?  If you would like to be a part of this team, please e-mail me (cydilwaggoner@gmail.com) and I'll get you set up!  Just like all of those individuals who went out of their way to help us in our adoptions of Ellie and Reni, those of you who are holding up our family through your prayers and finances to help us get to Albania, you have a special place in heart!  We thank the Lord for your generosity!