Cush

...the land of whirring wings along the rivers of Cush, which sends envoys by sea in papyrus boats over the water. Go, swift messengers, to a people tall and smooth-skinned, to a people feared far and wide, an aggressive nation of strange speech, whose land is divided by rivers -
Isaiah 18

Present day northern Ethiopia is the Cush of the Old Testament. I have seen it with my own eyes and what a sight indeed! This was my first trip overseas and I was overwhelmed. Sure I knew beforehand what a fortunate nation America is and that we have so much abundance, but I was shocked at the real way of living for most of the 80 million people in Ethiopia. It is one thing to see something on TV when you are watching it from your air conditioned house in a comfy recliner. It is totally different when you are experiening it standing in the middle of Ethiopia looking into the eyes of one of its daughters.

I flew into Addis Ababa on a Thursday night and was one of the ONLY white (Farinjii) in a huge crowd of the Bole Internationa Airport. After passing through customs and picking up my bag I headed for the reception area straining to find the other farinjii (my Timmy) in a crowd of hundreds. What a welcome sight he was!

From there we went to his apartment that he called home for the past four weeks. The next morning I woke at 4:30am to the encantations from an Ethiopian Orthodox Christian priest. There must have been a church nearby and this church had a loud speaker with which the priest was able to broadcast the daily prayers. "Strange speech" indeed. The national language is Amharic and second to that is English.

That day I spent with Tim at Zewditu hospital where he worked for some of the month. Black Lion, the other hospital was the larger of the two and I did not get to go there. That night we went to a traditional Ethiopian restaurant with dancing, food and the whole bit. It was really awesome and eyeopening.

The next morning we began our journey through Abyssinia. Bahir Dar to Gondor to Lalibela to Axum and finally back to Addis Ababa.

I have so much more to share, but I will wait for another post. I hope to get pictures put up too. In the meantime, if you EVER get the opportunity to go to Africa - TAKE IT!!! Until next time...

Down in Africa...

Ethiopia. In the Old Testament this country was called Cush. Lake Tana is the headwaters of the Blue Nile that eventually feeds into the Nile. Tim is there right now working at Black Lion hospital and I am so proud of him. He will be there for four weeks teaching nurse anesthetists.

I just talked with a gal at church who has a three year old and just gave birth to her second child just four short weeks ago.

Her husband is deployed and has been for three months. He has six months to go.

So I have been without my husband for an entire weekend and I am complaining because...

Seriously. Lets give a shout out to not only the soldiers serving in the military, but to their wives and children. You inspire me. Blessings to you this Thanksgiving because I am thankful for you.

...proud to be an American

Yesterday I took the kids to a birthday party for a three year old girl at none other than...

CHUCK E CHEESE!!!!!!!!!

Ahhh, Chuck E. Cheese. In my humble opinion, the bane of American entertainment.

Is he a rat or a mouse?

So imagine, a Sunday afternoon, a RAINY afternoon at that.

Six different birthday parties all with at least 10 kids and some more.

Some grown-ups with WILD ink and piercings.

Some really cute, polite kids.

Some really cute, not-so-polite-it's-always-my-turn-kids.

All in all, it was complete mayhem.

My Eric and Paul loved and I mean LOVED it! I wanted to let Paul walk around, but in all the chaos he would have been trampled in a matter of seconds. Needless to say he was content to be on my hip most of the two and a half hours.

Amy...not so much. (That's my girl!)

Eric's first RACE!

The attached pic is of me and Eric (almost 5!) at The Man Run UTMCK annual event. He ran one mile!!!!! So proud of him.

Daddy ran with Amy and Baby Paul in the double jogger (GO SUPER DAD!) for the 5K.

What else is going on around here...Umm not too much.

Planning for Eric's campout birthday party

Teaching yoga and Pilates Tuesday mornings at my church

Living life to the fullest by enjoying Him

Paul's favorite activity is dropping anything into the toilet. My old cell phone, some Hot Wheels cars, one of Amy's bracelets and some crayons are just a few of the casualties that have ended up in the john. Sometimes clean and sometimes not (GROSS!)

Now I am pondering how these blogger couponing masteristas have time to take pictures of all of their projects, download them to the computer then post them on the blog and type a super detailed explanation of the experience! Seriously! I just read three only three blogs of some women around here in K-town who do couponing and crafting. THEY HAVE KIDS! Do they not get interrupted while on the computer. Do they just have kids who play contentedly at their mother's feet while the mom just types away and share all of her awesomeness with the world wide web?

At any rate, there are goods and bads to blogging. Good to share ideas and make this world a better place. Bad - because I tend to compare myself to others and when comparing myself to the blogging world of coupon master crafter moms, I am a total loser.

At the end of this day I am comforted by this

All too soon this life will pass, only what's done for Christ will last.

Eric

I am a doctor's wife

When I read that I think...how stuffy. How conceited. I don't get my identity from being someone's wife. I have read other blogs by women whose husbands are docs and I don't know why but I cringe a little when I read them. It is like their very existence revolves around their husband's profession and they pride themselves on their catch.

Whatever stipulations come when I say 'I am a doctor's wife' it is just the plain truth. I am married to Tim and he is a medical doctor.

When I was about 13 I went to see our family's pediatrician for a cold or something. I remember thinking "WOW, he is a DOCTOR!" I idolized him as this super smart, incredibly busy man who shouldn't spend time with measly old me. I don't know why, but as a girl, I put doctors up on this pedestal of grandeur. They were men and women of super natural intelligence that went far beyond how my simple mind worked. In this particular visit I felt guilty that I was even there taking up valuable time of this learned man.

Years later I met a boy just my age who was in college just like me and taking lots of science courses just like me. Then I watched him study for the MCAT. I walked with him through the med school search and application process. I listened to him as he read aloud the acceptance letters. I watched him go to class, study, eat and sleep those four years of medical school. I clapped and cheered as loud as my lungs would let me the day he graduated. I got up with him early to see him off to his first day of residency.

All doctors are human and I am glad that I have been with Tim through this entire process. I think I needed to be in order for my original ideas or idolizations to change and see them for who they really are. Humans just like me.

We are two days away from celebrating nine years of marriage. We are also into our ninth year of residency. It has been hard at times and rewarding other times. I could go on and on about how he has dragged me and the kids through all of this residency crap, but I won't. Instead I will remind myself to 'consider it all joy when you encounter various trials'.

Being a wife is hard trial sometimes. It is lonely sometimes. It is grueling sometimes. It is a trial and most of it I have rebelled against the fact that his chosen profession has any effect on the challenges of our life together. Pastor's wives have it hard, military wives, the list can go on and on. So I have just continued to deny that the fact that being a resident doctor has nothing to do with hardships in our life. Well, I don't think that is so healthy. I have to face the facts and see my husband and his profession for what they are.

I really am so very proud of Tim and all he does for the greater good of health. He is caring, compassionate, a team player and a people pleaser. He gives so much of himself to those people over at the hospital.

I often forget that we are a team in making this world a better place. You see, even though I don't have a degree in medicine and I don't work at a hospital day in and day out, I can have a small impact on those patients that Tim sees. We are a team and I am a worker behind the scenes. I must do whatever I can to serve and nurture him in order that he is at his optimum.

That is way way harder to do then it is to write. Alas, that is where my journey is of late and where I will close out this post. Lord, give me the strength to serve him with a smile, give me the grace respond to him in a loving way and help me through this last year of residency.

He is a man whose profession is a doctor and I am his wife. A doctor's wife, I am.

I am SAHM. SAHM, I am.

Amy 3, baby Paul 10 months, Eric 4/12 at Fort Kid. May 2010
I recently filled out a form for something and it asked for my occupation. This time instead of writing out the entire phrase, 'stay-at-home-mom', I just wrote

SAHM

I wonder if the person who read it knows what I am saying.

The recent celebration of my fourth Mother's Day as a mom has caused me to reflect upon my current occupation. Yes, I change diapers, do laundry, brush hair laden with syrup, give piggy-back rides, tie shoe laces, do laundry, tell lots of make believe stories, kiss boo-boos, do laundry and cook/heat up lots of food. To be honest, I get so focused on these tasks that I forget the real reason for my job and that is to nurture these precious creatures from heaven so that they might live life to the fullest, give God the glory for it and one day share this message with others.

This morning I woke up and the first thought on my mind was to get load of laundry going and empty the dishwasher. How sad. I am so ashamed of myself. I look to Jesus Christ as an example of how I ought to live my life, and I bet He NEVER had a first morning thought about unloading a dishwasher. I wonder what He did think about when he first came to consciousness in the morning. Even before He opened His eyes... what did He think about?

Did He praise His FATHER, did He think about His carpenter chores, did He ask for "five more minutes, MOM!"

So anyway, I did get a grip on my thoughts and while I was making my bed I thought about what I could do to make an investment in the Kingdom this day. I thought about my children and how I can be proactive in teaching them more about Jesus. I thought about my neighbors, friends that I might see during the day, calls I would make. Yes, I have lots of mundane responsibilities as a SAHM, but they don't have to be purposeless. This place that I am in now is a good place. This season is busy, but precious and will be over in a breath. I really want to make every moment count. To be mindful of those teachable moments when my kids ask me something and I can use a somewhat routine experience to set in their hearts heavenly purpose. I guess this was a day in which I was somewhat dismayed with my present calling in life. I lost sight of the importance of what my job really entails. Now that I have gotten this all out for the world wide web to read, I feel better and encouraged.

I like being SAHM, SAHM I am.

Happy New YOU

Amy was singing this precious song just yesterday and I had to get it down before I forget.

"We wish you a Merry Christmas, we wish you a Merry Christmas, we wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New You."

It was just so cute and made me laugh. Why she broke out in this Christmas carol is not too shocking. We still have our Christmas tree (a real one no less) up and I just put all of our other decorations in the boxes today.

As I reflect back on this holiday season, I smile and I am glad that I have lived to tell about it. We left our glorious little house here in K-town on Christmas eve to join Tim in Nashville (''Mash-a-bill" as Amy calls it). He has been working at the Vanderbilt Children's Hospital for the past two months and so if we were to have any family time, we had to go to him. We went to church that night at a wonderful intimate church that is Pastored by Ray Ortlund, Jr. He was our pastor in Augusta and it was absolutely wonderful to see and hear from him again. We got home to the house we were staying at and 'Santa' came and brought the kids their Christmas presents!!! Then the next day we just played while Daddy worked and after naptime we all went to share a glorious Christmas dinner with Daddy in the ever so beautiful Courtyard Cafe of the Vanderbilt Medical Center. It was your quintessential hospital cafeteria holiday fare and it wasn't all that bad.

Next, I drove with my three young, active, wiggly kids down to Williston, South Carolina for a night.

It took me seven hours to drive what a single guy in a sports car would do in 4 and a half.

After a sweet visit with my cousins we left and finished our journey to Jacksonville, FL.

It was a nicer drive. Only six hours with a nursing baby, wiggly two year old and a four year old whose only words that day were "when will we get there?"

Did I mention that my husband, Tim, flew down to Jax?

So we get to Jax and Tim meets me in the driveway of his grandmother's home with a glass of wine. Hey, I made it and we were all alive.

After a few days of fun together family time I got on a plane with the three offspring of mine and we flew to Phoenix. The flight wasn't that bad except for the part when Eric passed out three minutes before landing and WOULD NOT WAKE up when it was time for us to get off.

Great! How was I supposed to carry my sleeping baby, hold hands with my willful two year old, Amy and carry this four year old lug off of the plane? I was so desperate, I asked the guy sitting across from me just to carry Eric, but luckily, my Eric woke up and with a groggy disposition sauntered off the plane.

Phoenix was great! Warm sunny days and grandparents and my sister who were more than willing to do a LOT of babysitting while I went out.

And got hammered!!!!

JUST KIDDING. I went to Holy Yoga a lot, walked a lot, got a pedi, and hung out with friends!

Then mid visit, we flew over to LA for a few days to visit with Tim's dad and family. He had never met our little Baby Paul and so it was great to visit with them and get reacquainted.

We ended our visit by flying in to 'mash-a-bill' so we could hang out with Daddy for a day before we jumped back into life in Knoxville.

So that's it. NUTTY, huh? You may think I am crazy. I think I am crazy. Nevertheless, my children know their great-grandparents, grandparents, aunts, uncles and some precious friends and to me, it was well worth it.

I do think it will be a while before we go anywhere again, though.

Happy New You, everyone!