My parents flew in on the 14th of June, the same day as Toby's violin concert, hailing the onset of our somewhat unusual family reunion.
The day after their arrival, we took possession of an AirB&B rental that Amy had coordinated-- a 160 acre farm bunkhouse in the Shenandoah Valley, with space for camping tents next to the house. I lost the kids in the woods within an hour of our arrival. They had gone looking for me down a barely discernable foot-trail in the adjacent George Washington National Forest, unaware that I was wandering the property with Gigi in the opposite direction. I saw them go in and followed them shortly, but as they were trying to catch up with me, or so they believed, they were walking briskly. The louder I called to them, the closer they thought they were getting, and the faster they would run into the thick woods. I was running behind them whooping and yelling, though nervously scouring the woods for signs of coyotes or the bears that had been sighted by the owner on the previous day. When they reached a fork in the trail a mile in, they began to have misgivings and, praise the Lord, decided to stop and turn back. I was pretty frazzled when I found them; it was starting to rain and we were all short of breath. So began our Shenandoah adventures.
Family trickled in every day, including Melissa and her family from Pennsylvania, and Danny who arrived Saturday from his week-long training in Alabama. We spent the days exploring swimming holes, and the evenings pulling ticks off each other and enjoying Brandon's repertoire of campfire games from his Boy Scout days. We took turns staying in the tents and in the air-conditioned comfort of the bunkhouse, where we would risk a wake up call by one of Gio's toothless pugs leaping onto our pillows to investigate our faces. At the end of the weekend, we began to say goodbye. On Monday, with my parents and Amy and Brandon the only ones left, we tried to hike to Great Falls from Riverbend Park. For the third time this summer, I got stuck babysitting a straggler that "couldn't make it," just shy of the waterfall overlook. On our way back along the 2 mile trek, we got caught in a torrential downpour that had us running at full speed along the muddy track with fireflies glowing like fairies in the dark recesses of the woods. We were drenched. It was surreal.
Every weekend since has been booked solid. The kids finished out their year with their respective scouting organizations. Tovi won the Walk Worthy award in his troop and Noemie passed her board for the Sacagawea Award. Our days are now filled with errands and appointments. Our pack out has officially been rescheduled for July 24. August hasn't quite taken form. We crossed the threshold of having any semblance of control of our lives... which is great because then a person realizes God is the only one who can sustain him and direct his paths. So we have given up trying to control everything. It's peaceful. In three months we will be on our way to live in a country we have never stepped foot in before. That's crazy! We can only rock it if Danny stays in this spirit of abandon. If not, he's going to drive me nuts. Like the kids downstairs having a pillowfight instead of finishng their chores. My parents stuck around till my birthday which was helpful. I began preparing the dining room for pack-out while they were here: cleaning, sorting, purging, organizing, repairing, labeling. I was a little disconcerted at how long that took... I couldn't feel my feet by the end of the day.
The day after my parents left to return home wasn't quite as peachy. After a rough day of readjustment, exhausted with the labors of the day, I stopped for dinner at ChickFilA on my way to a church service I did not have the strength to go to. But Danny told me to muscle through it, so I did. I found at the drive-thru register that I had left my wallet at home. After retrieving the wallet I had to wait through the restaurant line, and returned to the car to find that the workers had forgotten part of the order. With the kids waiting in the car, I waited through the line a third time, fighting back tears. When I got to the front of the line, the boy at the register looked extremely uncomfortable. I got back to the car to hear the complaints of four irate children whose meal bags were missing their drinks. I positively lost my mind. I had a classy nervous breakdown on the phone with Danny who insisted I come to church so that at least I could take a break from the kids. Danny came and got the kids from the car and I spent that hour sitting in my car, watching deer graze in the field beside the church parking lot. God's got me, though. I'm going to be ok. Two people out of the blue called me that day to let me know God had brought me to their minds and they were interceding for me-- people I hadn't spoken to in months and had no idea what was going on. It was as if God was proving to me just how aware and attentive He is to my circumstances. This week, God has provided again. The kids have been attending Vacation Bible School at the neighborhood church. It is the first time I have had my kids at a VBS where I was not volunteering. It was totally a God-send since this was the most crucial week for packing prep. It's one of those occasions where God provides for a need you didn't know you had-- or at least you hadn't realized how great the need was till he met it. Kind of like when Gigi bounded out of the car this morning and I felt an impulse to grab her shoulder without any reason, then watched a car rush through the very spot she would have been running through, one second later. He is faithful in his watch over us, and so good to remind me of that protection when I forget.
On a final note regarding our speech language pathology adventures... despite my turbulent child showing many indicators of a language processing disorder, the pathologist could find nothing wrong with his language skills besides a "tongue thrust," itself an indication that he's a mouth breather. It was suggested we see a Ear Nose & Throat specialist (ENT). An audiologist also found significant pressure in his ears and suggested an ENT. The pediatrician had blood labs done which showed low thyroid levels and low iron levels... and suggested an ENT. The ENT said there was nothing wrong with his E, N, & T, and said he had allergies. She suggested a sleep study. Yeah, no. I had had enough. We started Child on an iron supplement, and let him eat whatever he wanted, so long as he was eating. Color came back to his face, he started to put on weight, he gained confidence through his new music lessons, and we saw a dramatic decrease in his violent mood swings and tantrums. Looks like he was just exhausted. The human body is a complicated thing.
The pre-pack out prep is at 60%. Just keep swimming, just keep swimming. Danny's in training in West Virginia next week and my kids tattletale all day long and I just want to go to the beach. Yesterday we had a house showing (as if I didn't have enough stress already) and I told Gigi to go upstairs to put on her socks so we could leave. When she came back down (still without socks) she told me she had locked all the doors to the closets and bedrooms. I had to send Noemie upstairs to pick all the locks. When she returned she also commented that Gigi had pooped in the toilet and left it for the house shoppers. It's like sabotage. Can I just say, right now, I'm more excited about hanging out with my besties in South Florida than I am about moving to Bolivia.
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