2020

On March 1, while I was driving home from a church meeting, a black cat crossed my path. I wouldn't call myself superstituous, but I noticed the cat. I noted the color. And I wondered if, on some plane, it could be a bad omen. An hour later my dog got run over by a car. While driving to the veterinary hospital I told Randy: "I'm not saying it means anything, but a black cat ran in front of me while I was driving home earlier." Later I told a woman about the cat. "It's only bad luck if he is running from the right to the left." "He was," I said. "Oh," she replied, suddenly serious. We made more trips to the hospital -- both to the veterinary hospital and the human hospital -- in March of 2019 than we have in the entirety of our 5 years together. Cinnamon spent a week in the hospital, undergoing hernia surgery because her insides had more or less been torn in two. The week after she was released we were back at the h...

One of the things I love about this 40-40-40 project is learning about local organizations that my friends support. There are many well-known organizations that do great work around the globe, but the more well-known an organization is, the more likely they are to have large sources of funding. It's great when an organization can impact a ton of people, but it can at times overshadow those organizations that are grass roots, right here in our communities, doing just as good (or even better because they are able to focus their services) as those big names.  I learned about one of those organizations when I asked my friends Shane and Buffy Rider about Wounded Warrior Project. Shane and I went to high school together, and he later met his wife while serving in the military. Shane served in the army from 1998-2004, and Buffy from 1999-2007. They were stationed in Ft. Polk, Louisiana. Buffy was also stationed in Hawaii (where my aunt was stationed years ago!). Shane spent t...

Peter Benchley is the inspiration for today's donation. Who was Peter Benchley? Everyone knows him, even if they don't know his name. Peter Benchley was a speechwriter for President Lyndon Johnson. Peter Benchley was the first host of Shark Week. Peter Benchley wrote "Jaws". And Peter Benchley later became an advocate for environmental preservation, regretting the fact that he was famous for making one of God's creatures a villain rather than a victim. I just finished reading another of Peter Benchley's novels, " The Girl of the Sea of Cortez ." It's about a girl, Paloma, who lives in Baja, and whose father taught her to love the sea. After her father dies, Paloma struggles to fit in with her family, her community, society as a whole. While her mother would rather she help with housework, Paloma would rather go diving. While her brother sees fish as a means to a profit, Paloma sees them as an essential part of God's creation. Benchl...

I'm reading a book called " Fierce Convictions ." It's the story of Hannah More (1745-1833), a poet and abolitionist during the 18th and 19th centuries who worked with William Wilberforce , among other reformers of the time. Hannah was a devout member of the Church of England, yet many of her fiercest convictions (to abolish slavery or at least improve conditions for slaves, and to educate women and the poor, for example) went against their teachings. While many people whose views were in line with Hannah's were dissenting from the Church of England (including the Quakers), Hannah held firm. She insisted she could be both a member of the Church of England and a reformer. She repeatedly received criticism and public defamation of her character, causing her deep distress, both physically and emotionally. I thought of Hannah when an online friend of mine told me about The Reformation Project . The Mission of The Reformation Project is: The Reformation Proje...

One of the blessings of living in San Felipe for the past 15 months has been the incredible friends we've made. Friends we can celebrate and lament with, go 4-wheeling with, out to dinner with, relax at their house with, call upon when we are in need of bagels or toilet paper or baby wipes. One of those couples are Don and Katie. While at their house one afternoon, Randy and Don were outside working on cars while Katie and I were talking and organizing things inside. When our conversation settled on family, Katie shared with me: Our grandson was recently diagnosed with schizophrenia. The only thing I know about schizophrenia is that when people go off their meds they end up killing people in schools and movie theaters. I don't want to think that about my grandson. It was perhaps the most honest thing anyone has ever said to me. Especially in light of the school shooting* in Parkland, Florida, this week, in which 17 were killed by a young man with a history of mental i...

Most mornings our children have a time of devotions before they eat breakfast. They like to sing songs, followed by a time of Bible reading, and then ending in prayer. Today Mama Imelda, our administrator, led devotions for the children. She titled the devotion: "The Heavy Backpack." The Scripture she used was Salmos 55:22, Echa sobre el SEÑOR tu carga, y El te sustentará; El nunca permitirá que el justo sea sacudido. Cast your cares on the LORD and he will sustain you; he will never let the righteous be shaken. -Psalm 55:22 Mama Imelda explained that when we try to carry all of our burdens ourselves, each burden is like adding another book to your backpack. The kids could relate to this because their backpacks are burdens! Any time I pick them up from school, one or more of them try to pawn their backpacks off on me to carry on our walk home. And I don't blame them! They weigh a ton! She explained that when something hurts our feelings, we have...

This week we officially became card-carrying residents of Mexico. We celebrated with street tacos and binge-watching "Santa Clarita Diet" on Netflix. It was as anti-climactic as it sounds. "I thought I'd be more excited," Randy said, when we sat in the car staring at our green cards. Which really are green. After 7 months of time, money, and paperwork, we were worn out. Only to be told we'd have to start the process all over again every October. More paperwork. More money. More waiting. Randy and I are very clear that this is where God wants us to be at this point in our lives. But that doesn't mean it is all easy or all fun. It's a lot of waiting. It's a lot of paperwork. It's a lot of doing things wrong first, so that we can be corrected and then told how to do them right. It would be easier to just pack up and walk away. But we are committed to the process. For better and for worse. Until God tells us othe...

Yesterday was a day of doctoring. My grandma had surgery in Ohio. One of our kids went to the doctor with a sore throat. And Jovi met our new vet for the first time. Any time you move, you have no choice but to find new things that you like: new restaurants, new walking paths, new directions, new friends, new entertainment. And new doctors. Of course you don't actually have to move for this to be an issue. Your doctor could move, or retire. Your insurance could change, or you could have to see a specialist for the first time. Regardless of the reason, finding a new doctor can be challenging. Whether it is for you, your pet, or another family member, it can be stressful. Sometimes you are lucky enough to find a good one the first time around, but other times you have to shop around. Jovi spent a TON of time (and money!) at the vet's office in California last year. Months of searching for what was causing her pain. But in those months, I came to trust our veterinarian....

On New Year's Eve, lines at the gas stations were 30 cars deep. We had no idea why. Until we woke up on New Year's Day and discovered that prices jumped by 20 percent. Prices in Mexico were already well over the cost of gas just over the border into California, but now they are even higher. Gas prices in Mexico are controlled by the government. Which is good, because all the stations charge exactly the same. But it's bad, when the government feels threatened and skyrocketing prices are the result. The peso has been declining in value. Trump has convinced U.S. auto manufacturers to renig on their plans to bring jobs to Mexico. And, while minimum wage just went up, it's still only 80 pesos -- about $4 -- A DAY. That barely covers the cost of a gallon of gas. Imagine if you had to do a full day's work for one gallon of gas?  But just when you the think the worst has happened, it gets worse. Due to rioting, looting, violence and protests, on Sunday the gas st...

We woke up Friday morning, feeling confident that our second day at the Border Crossing would meet with instant success. They might wave us straight through, or ask for a small fee, but either way we anticipated having lunch in San Felipe with our kids! Jovi and I walked around the city of El Centro in the morning, and when we returned to the hotel saw Randy shake hands with a man in the parking lot. What could that possibly be about? The night before, while searching for a hotel on my phone, I found several advertised at $17, “for adults only,” so I wasn’t exactly excited about Randy doing any dealings in the parking lot. But when I approached, Randy introduced me as his wife and the older gentleman shook my hand with glee and called me “sister.” He drove off, and Randy told me that the man had grown up in a wonderful children’s home after his dad died and his mom couldn’t afford to take care of him. We have stickers on the side of our car that say “Sonshine Hacienda” so he had...

On Thursday morning, Randy and I had a short two-hour drive to El Centro, where we would return the U-Haul and transfer its contents into a trailer pulled by Gary and Karen, the directors of Sonshine Hacienda. We were so excited to see them! Even though we hadn’t yet crossed the border into Mexico, it felt like we’d arrived. During the morning drive, a semi-truck kicked up a rock and cracked my windshield in two places. So, while Gary and Karen ran errands, Randy and I found a local glass repair shop. They were so nice, quick, and did great work. We took their business card and promised that if we couldn’t get all our needs met in San Felipe we would return to them. We met up with Gary and Karen again and went out to lunch at Sizzler. I was craving something healthy, seeing as we’d been grabbing fast food for the last three days. The Sizzler salad bar was just the ticket. We had an opportunity to talk and reconnect and share all of our excitement over our arrival. Kare...

Randy and I have very different packing styles. We’ve know this since about day 3 of walking the Camino, and yet still we haven’t quite figured out how to mesh our styles. Randy is a hurry up and get it done packer. I’m slow and methodical, making sure everything is in its perfect place. Dusting it before it goes into a box, maybe conjuring up a couple memories, feeling all the feelings that go along with that particular item. The one thing we do have in common is that we are both procrastinators. So even though we’ve known since August that we were moving to Mexico, even though we’ve known since August that we would have to pack up our entire house and put it into a 16-foot trailer, even though we’ve known since August that we would have to itemize every single box in order to satisfy Border Patrol, we still waited until 3 days before we had to be out of our house to start packing. We were busy! We had a party to plan. Work to do. A yard sale to have. Friends to ...

I have to admit, life has been pretty stressful the past couple of months. We're excited and we're busy and we're happy, but we're also tired and overwhelmed and are struggling to find time for just the two of us without a to-do list in our laps. We tried to have that day on our anniversary last month. We booked a room in Dayton, Ohio, and had big plans to hit up our favorite restaurants and theaters and whatever other adventures we could find. No budget conversations. No packing lists. No calendars and organizers. Just the two of us.  Only we were sick. Achy flu-like symptoms. Rand napped all afternoon while I curled up in a hotel chair and read. We forced ourselves to go downstairs for the complimentary hotel dinner... hot dogs and macaroni. Not exactly the day we had planned. But it all made this past Monday that much more special! Last Christmas my brother bought us a "Culinary Walking Tour of Sacramento" and we decided to cash it in this week...