I Pray in the Bathroom

So the secret is out....I pray when I'm in the bathroom. I'm not really sure how the habit got its start, but I know that it has to do with the fact that the bathroom is one of the few places in my life where I get to be alone. It's hard to quiet my mind and heart to listen to God in the middle of teaching Mango the finer points of long division, listening to Monkey read about Snuff the Snail, or helping Lily deal with her ever flucuating emotions. As goofy as it sounds, the bathroom is one of the few places where I am still and quiet long enough to really pray from the heart and to listen to what God wants to say to me. There are prayers for my husband, my children, the children and villages around the world that we sponsor, and for 2 young pregnant women in Haiti that I have the privilege of being a "prayer doula" for. There are prayers for a friend with cancer, for a niece who lost her daughter to cancer, and for a young pregnant mom at our church whose husband was recently deployed. There likely have been prayers spoken in that room for each of you at one time or another. I know it seems like a crazy place to pray, but I'm sure God simply overlooks my location and meets with me there.

The BAHA

Today, we had an unexpected blessing. Eleven days ago, Lily had the second of two surgeries for her BAHA sound processing system and for a last surgical attempt to get a prosthetic ear that works for her. We saw her surgeon this morning for her post-op check and he gave the go ahead for her to get the BAHA fitted today. We went to the audiologist's room and the BAHA was immediately put on Lily's head, allowing her to hear from both sides of her head. Up until now, the only time she's ever been able to do that is during a bone-conduction hearing test. Below, the audiologist is running a few hearing tests through the BAHA to adjust it for Lily's needs and preferences. She thinks things are kind of loud now, but the audiologist assured her that she would get used to it - that her brain needs to learn how to hear on that side. They said the hearing part of her brain will actually re-structure itself over the next few weeks to adjust to the change.
Afterwards, we were given instructions on how to use it and care for it at home. On the way home, we listened as she talked to her aunt and cousin on the phone; hearing her say "I can hear things I've never heard before!" brought tears to my eyes. We take so much for granted!

This is a picture of what the BAHA actually looks like on her head.

It's very, very tiny and will completely hide beneath her hair. The other two posts that you see will be used for a prosthetic ear.

Another cool thing is that the BAHA comes with a special "Share the experience" plastic post. We connect her BAHA to this post, plug our ears, hold the post to our head, and we can hear through it just like she can! It's meant to help the parents be able to trouble-shoot any problems, but it also gave her a chance to share her experience with her family.

Tianyu

These past 2 1/2 weeksweeks we have had an exchange student staying with us. Each summer a group of about 60 students comes from a Japanese University to take classes in ESL and American Culture. They all live in host families.

This year, we were lucky enough to have Tianyu stay with us! She is actually Chinese, but lives in Japan with her family. She can speak 3 languages!

We started e-mailing each other near the end of June and I immediately knew she was someone special. We have done a lot, shared a lot, and laughed A LOT these past weeks together, and the thought that she will soon need to return home is making all of us very sad. Please enjoy these few "snapshots" of her stay with us.

Waiting for the student to arrive:

Meeting a real horse for the very first time:
Playing croquet at my dad's 70th birthday party:
The Rainforest Cafe:

Meeting SpongeBob and Patrick (very important day!!)

Visiting a Native American museum:

She told us she wanted to do some work, so DH taught her how to mow the grass! Unfortunately, we all discovered she has an allergy to grass....

After months of preperation and traveling half way around the world to live with strangers for 3 weeks, she gets her program diploma at graduation last night.

Celebrating at Dairy Queen after the Graduation Ceremony.

We are all really, really going to miss her. She has fit into our family like she belongs here and it is going to be hard to say good-bye on Monday. We are trying hard to remember the saying by Dr. Suess, "Don't cry because it's over, smile because it happened."

Tianyu- THANK YOU for coming! We've had such a good time with you and hope this is just the start of a lifelong friendship!

Cooper's been "tutored"

Cooper went to the vet today to have his "little boy dog" surgery. All went well and he is happy to be home, but is feeling rather sorry for himself.

He has been given his "cone of shame" to prevent licking and doesn't really like it much at all. Thankfully, Mango has a great deal of empathy for him and decided to join him. I'm sure it helps him feel better. (He looks at her rather funny anyways!)


Another funny story from the day...the vet gave Cooper a certificate of bravery. I handed it to Monkey when we got home and told him the vet said we should put it on the refridgerator. When DH got home about an hour or so later, we told him he had to see the certificate, but when he went to look, it was no where to be found. We finally asked Monkey where he put it, and he walks over to the fridge, opens it and pulls the certificate off one of the shelves! Never a dull moment here!

Vacation 2010 Day 6: The National Museum of American History and the National Archives

After eating breakfast at our hotel, we once again boarded the Metro for the trip into Washington D.C. The train was more crowded this morning, but where else can you sit next to a senator's aide or someone who works at the Pentagon, and come up out of the subway to views like this?
We were the very first family through the doors at the National Museum of American History that morning. It's one of the many Smithsonian Museums and there's far more to see and look at in there than you could ever hope to see in the few hours that we had, but we gave it our best shot!

We saw Dorothy's ruby slippers, Kermit the Frog (who is much smaller than he appears), Fonzie's coat, Archie Bunker's chair, and many, many exhibits on the American presidents, transportation, science, and wars.

Monkey sees how he measures up to one of the greatest American presidents...

Lily gets ready to give Ronald Reagan's speech with the famous line, "Mr. Gorbachov, tear down that wall".

And of course, no American History museum would be complete if it didn't have some reference to the Star Wars movies that are such a part of our culture.

In the early afternoon, we made our way over to the National Archives. It started to rain lightly on our walk over there and continued to rain as we stood in line. There's security at the entrance to just about every building, so nothing moves very quickly. Once inside, we were again lined up and eventually allowed into the Rotunda where the Magna Carta, Declaration of Independence, Constitution, and Bill of Rights are on exhibit. The Declaration is getting very faded and thin, and as we stood there looking at it, I asked each of my kids to take a "brain picture" (the only kind allowed in there) to remember it with, as it may not last long enough to be seen by their children or grandchildren. However, the part of this building that impressed our younger set the most was the Declaration that was engraved in the doors of the elevator!