Dolphin Island

She's 10! AHHH! Katrina told me I can call her my baby until she's double digits. But I tried calling her that anyway on her birthday and she didn't mind, so Kendra Elise said I'm allowed to call Katrina my baby until she's "thriple" digits!
Bet you didn't know we have dolphins - or islands - around here. Well, we really don't, but Katrina's 10th birthday party wish was pretty easy to pull off with a little water and some imagination.

Octopus (4 girls tied together) in the middle, dolphin jumping for fish (candy bars), sharks & dolphins and other such games kept everyone moving on an summer-like day in the woods.

This is about the only kind of dolphin you can find in Morocco!

Boat (out of bark etc.) races down the stream into the lake. After this the girls had fun doing what they really wanted - GET WET! Girls in this culture don't really play much. So my goal with these little ladies is usually to get them out good and messy! Somehow their parents keep letting them do things with me, so it must be OK!

Wisps of Hope

Walking on cold, windy, misty Good Friday morning, the last thing I expected was to see something beautiful. But as I rounded a corner a line of brilliant orange just above the horizon caught my eye. The consuming mist had not quite conquered the sky and the glorious sun had found a chink in its armor. It was a real-life version of a black-and-white picture where an artist has added color to only one object.

The sun rises even on Good Friday.

I watched - delighted, knowing from the weather forecast that this might be the last sun I see before Easter. Then I noticed that a few wisps of joyful mist had caught the glow of the sunrise and were dancing along in front of the dark curtain of threatening clouds which were attempting to push out the sun.

With tears in my eyes, I thought of Gerald’s brother and family, refusing to shut out hope - dancing bravely along, catching the glow of the Son though the diagnosis of their son rises ominously up and threatens to envelop them.

The clouds resolutely continued their conquest until the color disappeared from the tableau. Even the most hopeful of souls knew this was a dark day.

But I cannot forget the sun.

And I cannot forget the hopeful wisps of mist reflecting the sun’s glow.

And so I wait.

Until Sunday.

A week of surprises

OK, so it's not really a surprise that Katrina turned 10. I even saw it coming but could do nothing to stop it! Today a teacher said to me, “Teachers want kids to grow up and parents don’t!” True! I’ll write more about Katrina next. Let me back up. A few weeks ago we heard that our nephew, Matthew’s brain scan came out clear. This means he does not have the cerebral (and grave) form of X-ALD. The very next day he was accepted into the Lorenzo’s Oil study in Baltimore which gives us all great hope. What a wonderful surprise! That Saturday we received wonderful news about a depressing situation we had nearly given up on and Wednesday we had even better news. I hope to be able to tell you more soon. The next Monday I was walking in the morning as I usually do when I saw a bright ball of fire pass before me about twice as high as the poplars and about 30 feet in front of me. I had no idea what it was, but I stopped in astonishment knowing I was seeing something truly amazing. I was completely hyper the rest of the day, barely able to concentrate on anything (just ask Gerald). Finally a friend wrote and said they thought it might have been the rarely-witnessed ball lightening. I looked it up and couldn’t believe my eyes – the videos and pictures looked exactly like what I saw! It seemed that a lot of reports about these were from dry, dusty mountain areas. That pretty much describes us this drought year. That day I told a friend that my faith was obviously too small. He replied, “It’s not that your faith is too small – because it can be as tiny as a mustard seed – it’s WHO you put your faith in that counts.” It was a good reminder for me after a series of miracles! Monday night was a less pleasant surprise. The wind began howling at 10 PM. It continued all night and through the next day. It screamed so much I felt like screaming with it! Gradually the air filled more and more with dust. In the early afternoon I finally figured it out – the wind was blowing from the opposite direction as it does normally, it was warm, and dust was everywhere – this must be the ‘shergi’ – the Sahara wind that we had heard about but never experienced with such ferocity. On and on it howled until it finally stopped 24 hours after it began. At least 7 large trees were uprooted or knocked down in town, a wall was blown down, and there was much other smaller damage. This was the same day our friends & family in the US got nailed by much worse storms. A week of surprises for sure. Thankfully the dust has settled and I can think back on the surprises that build up my faith so it’s all ready for the next storm that blows in.