Undone

All the tiny braids are out!

Well, almost all. I think there might be 1 or 2 or 3 or 4 still in there somewhere.

The wild hair season was short-lived as she jumped in the pool shortly after the photos were taken and it all went back to her natural straight. It was fun while it lasted :-)

Unraveling Heather

So it took 3.5 hours to get Heather's hair into this do. That was in the hands of an experienced Kenyan.

On this end of the deal, 2.5 weeks later, I've sat through 3 full length movies with Girl-Child in the last few days, working away with a tooth pick as we've taken in 2 of the STAR WARS films plus Little Women.

BREAKING NEWS--we still have 12-15 braids to go. That's at least one more movie!

PS I like the older STAR WARS films better than the more recent ones.
PPS I like Little Women a whole lot.

Quietly to Bed Now

So Jesse and Trevor are both gone now and we're back to 4 at our house.

It's funny because it hits me the most when I'm setting the table. Only 4 plates? How weird. And how odd was it to make tea in the medium sized blue pot this afternoon? I've been reaching for the GIANT Mother of All Brown Betty's all summer.

So I set the blue pot on the tea tray and I called down the hall to Heather, "Hey, we're eating chocolate today!" She came quickly :-) At least Heath and I know what to do in the face of this melancholy mood.

We sat on the porch and broke open our last bar of Trader Joe's fair trade milk chocolate (God bless Dana forever!) and sighed into our cups.

Tonight in the weird quiet of our home, I am thankful for so much.

I'm thankful for a full summer of unbelievable adventures. I'm thankful for many, many long conversations about all manner of things and life shared as a family. I'm thankful for the relationships the kids have and the way they speak into each other's lives. Some times we'll yell into each other's lives, but that's just they way we are. I'm thankful for the laughter and the dancing and the way we work together.

One of my very favorite things is to fall asleep hearing the boys still talking in the dark of their room. It feels like a sacred time as the 3 brothers discuss and share and wonder and plan. I can't hear the conversation--just the sound of their voices drifting softly down the hall.

I was just wondering how Colin was feeling about going to bed in there alone tonight. But I don't need to wonder any longer. He's just appeared and climbed in across the foot of my bed.

I don't blame him one bit!

Breaking Up the Babies

Trevor hopped on the shuttle for Nairobi about an hour ago. He'll catch the plane from there late tonight, have a monster layover in London and land in the States on Tuesday afternoon local time, early Wednesday morning his body's time. Jesse will leave here Wednesday night and get back to LA on Thursday.


I had to quickly catch a couple photos of the bambinos all together before Trev took off. (Silly butts.)


Yesterday evening, he took Heather on a little motorcycle ride date. They pulled back in all windblown and happy. Lucky little girl.

( Jesse took the photo of Trev and Heath, which is why the lighting is better. I need to learn my camera.)

Earlier today Byron asked, "Why do I feel like I'm about to be kicked in the stomach?

I said, "For the same reason I feel like I'm about to vomit."

This is the un-fun.

And, the Coast..... (Big Smile!)

Our team snuck out of town on 13 August at 5am. We pulled up at the hotel on the Kenyan coast at 1:30pm and for the next (almost) 6 days we RESTED. Ahhhhhhh. It was so good.

Heather and Sianna got their hair braided because a) they've always wanted to do this and b) it saved their mommies literally hours in time that would have been spent untangling their hair every night. Those girls can give some serious time to body surfing, I tell you what!

I mostly lounged and read. I shifted from one lounging area to another and sometimes got up for a cup of tea or a glass of juice. I read For the Beauty of the Earth, that book on Creation care that Jesse brought home. Excellent. I lingered through it. Then I read My Hands Came Away Red. I especially liked the parts about re-entry to home culture and the journey of healing after trauma.

Meanwhile, the rest of our party was engrossed in our ONE copy of The Shack. Fortunately for me, I finished it before we went to the coast and so I wasn't in a race to read it and then pass it on to one of the others. Byron, Jesse and Trevor read it there while Colin and Tammy both started it.

Oh, yes! Byron and I also celebrated our 26th anniversary while we were there :-)

Back to real life now. We have a team from LA here for 10 days. Good people doing good stuff. Very nice!

How the Music (and the exercise) Saved My Day (once again)

OK, this photo is not really from today. It's from a couple of weeks ago when our friend, Lisa P, celebrated her 50th. I include it here because I've decided that dancing with my kids should be a daily activity.

Too bad you can't see Heather, who was dancing beside me. Note the lovely dance moves of each boy and no, I was not doing a worship move. There was a part in the song when we would all raise our hands, though you won't believe me on that since not many others seem to be doing so. Whatever.

On to today, then.

We got to bed too late last night and the day broke grey, cold and dreary. Hhhmmm. Kinda matched the mood I soon settled into. I was just feeling so much stress about a long list of things to accomplish or write or sort out or plan or organize. I won't bore you with details.

I finally decided to take drastic measures and get into exercise clothes, don the headphones and climb onto the Nordic Track.
Eight minutes into the 35minute playlist and suddenly life, the day, my outlook and my muscles had all made a dramatic turn around. Oh I DO love those happy little endorphins.

So, just to let you in on the playlist that carried me through, this is an odd assortment of groovy songs on Jesse's iPod that never cease to cheer me up.

Here we go:

That Thing You Do (from the film with the same title)
Save Tonight (Eagle Eyed Cherry)
Send Me on My Way (Rusted Root)
I'm Gonna Be (The Proclaimers)
Brown Eyed Girl (Van Morrison)
I Wanna Dance with Somebody (Whitney Houston) (It's kind of an inside joke)
I'd Go the Whole Wide World (Wreckless Erik)
Day-O and Jamaica Farewell (Harry Belafonte*)
Kiss the Girl (from The LIttle Mermaid)

I often like to top it off with Trevor and Heather doing their cover of It Ain't Me.

As I said--kinda odd and groovy.

'Twas a miracle of transformation that happened to me with these songs and our trusty old Nordic Track.

Good thing, too.

*Belafonte's 1962 album, Midnight Special, featured the first recorded appearance of a certain young harmonica player named Bob Dylan. Wild!

Team Time :-)

Our team of 2 families is slipping away for some down time before the next group of volunteers arrive and the older Borden boys depart for studies in the States. We'll be back on the 19th.

Sue, I owe you a long email. I haven't forgotten!

Strength and Beauty (or Learning from My Little Girl)

Last night the boys were out and Byron and I were home with Heather and her best buddy, Sianna. After dinner, I picked up my book and joined Byron on the front porch by the gas burning heater in the glow of the lanterns. It was peaceful to sit there reading.

But through the window I could see the girls, 9& 10, dancing in the living room.

As previously mentioned, we just saw the new Narnia film. The girls had the soundtrack playing and they were dressed in long skirts with their hair flowing out from beneath wreath crowns on their heads.

Through the glass, I could see that their dancing was not like the party kind of dancing that we had done the night before at a friend's 50 birthday celebration. There we had giggled together, a mom and her 4 kids, dancing to the band with a bunch of other moms and teens and even a few of the men (!)

No, Heather and Sianna were dancing with imaginary swords in their hands, looking graceful and lovely and strong.

I was so taken with the scene, but I didn't want to disturb it so I didn't get up and let them see me watching closely. I simply let them do their Narnian dance in their princess clothes with the somber faces and their regal steps.

It's interesting, in Prince Caspian (the book) Susan does not go to battle. In the film, she does. I read that they felt this vision of women fit better with Lewis' view of women after he came to know and love Joy Davidman Gresham. The book was written before his relationship with Joy and scholars feel that his view of women grew and changed through the friendship and brief marriage with her.

All I know is that I was moved to see these little girls dressed so finely and fight-dancing with such beauty and strength. I wanted to get up and cheer them on, to tell them not to lose this feeling that they can be fully feminine and fully bold and brave and strong.

But I didn't want to shatter the scene. They didn't need a pep talk. They seemed to already know what they needed to know.

I went back to my reading, encouraged by the little girls and their big vision of themselves.

"It started out as a feeling..." (or Oh, Narnia!)

We're a little behind the times here in Arusha, but this week, The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian has finally come to our one cinema complex.

This is not a hefty review. This is just me saying that I went to see it twice, 2 days apart, and I liked it both times. I enjoyed it more the second time around as I was not distracted thinking about all the ways that the film diverts from the book that Lewis wrote. It does take a rather major detour into new territory.

There's been a lot of anticipation in our house for the film because Jesse already had the Regina Spektor song The Call on his iPod so we've been playing it for weeks and weeks. If you've seen it, you'll remember that Regina's lovely voice breaks into a dreamy song right at the end as the 4 English kings and queens of Narnia take their leave and head back to Jolly Old.

I liked the film, even though it's not the quality of Lord of the Rings and even though it departs from the book. But in all honesty, those closing scenes with the lilting loveliness of Regina mixed in, formed my favorite part.

The longing, the leave-taking, the re-entry to another world, the whole goodbye and cross-cultural adventure thing, all set to perfectly poignant lyrics and music, ahhhhhhh... it was sweet.

I love Narnia. I can't help it. I've read the series through more times than I can remember, starting when I was about 8 years old.

C.S. Lewis was a genius... And Regina sings like an angel.

24-7 Prayer and The Global Gathering

Yes! We're getting together again!

"Last year we gathered to Feast; this year we're inviting you HOME...

If you’ve ever prayed in a 24-7 Prayer Room, visited a Boiler Room or 24-7 Community, read Red Moon Rising or simply wondered what this insane prayer experiment is all about, then this gathering is for you.

‘Home’ Southampton, England
Friday 12th – Sunday 14th September 2008
www.24-7prayer.com

Each year the international 24-7 Prayer community gathers to hear from God, pray and celebrate all He’s done. This year we have more than ever to be thankful for with over 5000 prayer rooms spread over every continent but Antarctica, contributing to a wave of prayer that is breaking out into fresh expressions of mission, mercy and transformation.

Nine years after our accidental beginnings, people are traveling from across Europe, Africa and the Americas to meet together again and consider what the words of Isaiah the prophet mean for us today:

“My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations”
Isaiah 57:6

Home is where our Father is…

Home is where we belong…

Home is where the lost are found…"

For everything you need to know to register etc go to 24-7prayer

PS Byron and I will be leading some of the seminars at this gathering. Hoping to see you there!