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Tuesday, September 25, 2012

Remembering

A year ago we were in Washington with Josh's family. It was early in the morning, and I was still waking up. He came into the room and told me that Paul's plane had gone down. I'll never forget thinking thoughts that began with the words what, why, how, and the phrase that could have been...
 
That day in America we were trying a million different things to keep our mind off of things that we had no control of. We couldn't help our friends plan a funeral. We couldn't process this in an environment of people who knew Paul and his family. We couldn't cry with them. We wanted to talk to anyone that we could cry with. I'm thankful for Josh's mom, who just held me and let me cry when I walked into a room and burst into tears. There were no words to share, and she had so much wisdom in just patiently listening and hugging me while we mourned the loss of a friend and grieved with our friends who were far away. We phoned others who were stateside just trying to fit pieces together.
 
A year later, we remember Paul's life and the impact he had (and is still having) on those around us- both in Sentani, in local villages, and around the world. After a rainy week, we spent an absolutely perfect day at the beach. The Lord turned our mourning into laughter a year later. We chose to spend that same day a year later having fun with our "family". Friends, fun, food, beach, banana boats, and sunburns. Laughter filling the air, cheering when a group of five was flipped off the tube, and sharing time together.
 
I looked out over the blue ocean and thought," Paul would have LOVED this! This is exactly where he would want us to be a year later!"

Paul Westlund and crew

Banana Boat rides

Our banana boat ride
 
Memorial Service under the palm trees

Memorial Service- special song
 


LaVonne and her crew- before the banana boat experience
 
A year later- turning mourning into laughter, creating new memories

the first turn- wipe out!

LaVonne and her crew- after the banana boat experience

 For you turned my griefs into joy; you took off my sackcloth and you clothed me with joy!
Psalm 30:11

Tuesday, September 18, 2012

Kuh-nees

I've been delaying writing about this topic for a while now, just because we were unsure of the outcome.

Since our return to Indonesia in January my knees (pronounced kuh-nees when Indonesians say it in English) have been hurting. At first I just thought I twisted the right one in a game of soccer, so I took some time off from the game. It felt better, so I returned. There were days when it hurt just to walk upstairs. I began wearing some support braces on my knees, that would help "baby" it but it would still be painful later in the day.

This first week of summer, I played in a soccer game and fell. The fall wasn't hard, and actually looked pretty clumbsy. Pain shot up my leg, and I tried to fight back tears because I was afraid that I did something more serious to my knee. I hobbled off the court, with the help of the adrinaline that was flowing made it back to my house, and called the doctor. She said rest, ice, compression, and elevation (RICE) with lots of pain reliever.

Later that day we went to her house and she said it may be something with my meniscus or ACL but couldn't tell without an MRI. MRI machines are not available on the island, so we made plans for October 1 to head to Singapore for more information. She said there was no rush, so go when it worked out to go.

Two weeks ago we discovered there was a brand new MRI machine on the island at the hospital in the provincial capital, Jayapura. A friend had to have an MRI done previously, so we contacted her for the information. We met with the doctor around 8PM, he wrote a "prescription", and made the appointment for me on the following Saturday at 8 AM. The doctor said they had to knock out a wall to get the machine in.

The patient patiently waiting.

The MRI machine

The beginning of two hours of listening to 80's love songs
Us and the technician who insisted we needed a photo for memories

Result 1 of many


The local doctor called and said that I have a 30-40% rupture in my right ACL. I'm not exactly sure what that means, but he recommended we go to Singapore for surgery to repair the damaged ACL because "you're still young".

So we will go forward with a medical trip to Singapore on October 1. We will meet with an ortopedic surgeon on October 2 and go from there. I'm a little nervous about being the patient. Pray that God would give me peace and remove my fears of the "what if's" and the "that means this...". Pray that God would meet any financial needs that come up. Pray for a smooth, uneventful trip. I feel better knowing that you know now.

Wednesday, September 12, 2012

Birthday Bash!


Grilling out at the dorm
Esther in the kitchen


Birthday Dinner with Dorm 2
 
A cake with the great state of Texas!

XBox Kinect- plugging the holes in the water tank

XBox Kinect- Either dancing or plugging some holes, hard to tell
 
XBox Kinect- Dancing

Special Birthday Lunch from my favorite place to eat- Manna House with a DrPepper

A present from a great sixth grader!
 
Josh making a birthday apple pie
 
 
Images by Freepik