Life marches on!

My life is continuing to evolve with the marriage of my younger daughter and the chronic illness of my youngest son.

Danielle is very happy and feeling very independant.

My son, Daniel has been struggling to be healthy, we have had to struggle to find the support from his school that we need for him to be successful.

I continue to trust God in this journey and wait patiently on Him.

Shaken to the Core

One thing that we know is that writing is a wonderful exercise for a racing mind. When people find themselves in the midst of a traumatic event physically or mentally, there is a need to express all of the new found thoughts and fears.

As this college quarter draws to an end, I think about the chapter that we studied just last week in my Psychology class. Stress was the subject and within that subject was Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. This week’s closing topic of study is mental illness to include Anxiety and Panic Disorders. In light of the last 24 hours, I have turned to a blog that didn’t exist ten weeks ago. Here I can put all of the thoughts racing through my mind.

Although I have certainly not experienced the events of March 11, 2011 first hand, with the continued development of technology, we are all practically on Sendai’s doorstep. The video and audio are so vivid that we practically feel the shaking and we most certainly feel their fear. I also have the Spiritual Gift of Mercy, which means that I’m extremely empathetic and feel things deeply and emotionally.

To further explain my draw to the country of Japan and its plight is the investment of 6 years of my family’s life there. We lived on Misawa Air Base, Misawa, Japan. This Air Base is just North of Hachinohe and that city is about 2 hours North of Sendai. During our six years there, we were very active in a Southern Baptist Mission Church in Misawa along with a lot of other military families.

What we found was remarkable. Everyone was far away from home and yet babies were born, children became ill and military members left home for months at a time for temporary duty assignments leaving their spouses at home to function as single parents. Yet we were never alone. Military Service is a community, the Air Force is a community, and being a member of Calvary Baptist Church, Misawa, is a community. With the introduction of Facebook and other social networking sites, these communities didn’t close when we left. They are active, alive and interactive.

While living in Japan, in December of 1994, we experienced a 7.8 earthquake. The epicenter was just barely North of where today’s epicenter was. It hit Hachinohe hard and shook the snot out of us. It was after 9 PM, we were all upstairs in our military townhouse. The shaking started and we all went flying down the staircase, opened the front door and stood in that doorway. I stood wedged with my 4 month old baby boy in one arm, my 5 year old daughter in the other, my 12 year old daughter was right next to her and my 15 year old son stood facing us with his arms stretched across the doorframe as if to hold it up for us. My 12 year old was screaming, “It’s the Big One, It’s the Big One.” And me yelling over the crazy loud noise that a large earthquake produces, “Shut up, Delayna, It’s okay Danielle, Shut up Delayna, It’s okay, Danielle.” Where was my husband you ask? Well he flew down the stairs into the den to offer up a prayer to the great computer gods. As he held one hand against his heavy, off- balance monitor and the other on a clunky CPU, I could almost hear his prayer, “Oh god, don’t let them fall.” 

Besides the on- going emotional effects of that experience and the very common bruising that comes from being bounced off of the doorways, there is an unsteadiness on your feet that lasts for days. The doctors are seeing patients for weeks still complaining of feeling off balance.

We have dear missionary friends that serve in Sendai. My first thoughts went to them, Tony and Marsha Wood. I posted on Marsha’s Facebook page and then posted on both of their adult children’s Facebook pages to get a report. By mid day today, Marsha posted. They are safe and sound and actually in Tokyo. Shelves were cleared and drawers thrown about, but safe none the less. 

In closing, let me encourage you to be prepared for disasters. Do you know what to do if an earthquake strikes here? Does your family have a plan? Do you have a three day emergency kit? If not, go to the American Red Cross website to start your preparations. There is great peace in being prepared.

We are a strong and blessed people, love one another!

Food Family Traditions

Well this is much harder than I thought that it would be.
As far as the conventional sense of tradition my family, meaning my parents and my childhood, we had very few traditions especially around food. Being in a military family, we did not ever celebrate holidays with extended family. I'm sure that we had full meals, but I don't remember much about big turkeys and a table full of food. Thanks for the trip down memory lane.
I do remember my mom talking about eating something special for New Years Day, but she didn't cook it often and now I've been out of the family home for over 30 years and Mom's been gone for 12 years, I'm guessing that it was hamhock and black-eyed peas. It was definitly something terribly Southern and cheap. My mom used to say that it met properity for the New Year.

I will say that for my children, who have since grown up in a military environment, will remember not just the Japanese additions to the Thanksgiving table, but the single Airmen that we would have into our homes during the holidays so that they wouldn't be alone. Sharing the dinner table was our tradition.

Now that we have settled here in Washington, a far cry from our Tampa, Florida roots, we do celebrate our holidays as a small family (we just didn't have that many single people around away from their families) we have tried on some new traditions. Before our older children married we tried a pajama Thanksgiving dinner. It was funny and I have pictures. (I wish I could figure out how to upload them. This would be the perfect post to add pictures!)
Now that the children are older, my youngest son, 16, has started a new tradition this year, he made cheescakes instead of pies a tradition that we borrowed from a family that we have shared several Thanksgivings with here in Washington. This was also the first year that my daughter and her family hosted Thanksgiving dinner.

One thing that I have had that my childhood family never had, was the formal settings. I have nice china for Thanksgiving and a different pattern for Christmas. We have crystal glasses and very nice flatware all that is hand washed and put nicely away in their respective containers. So when we do sit down for family dinners around holidays, we lay out the nice tablecloth, get out he "good" dishes, eat a wonderful meal and then complain about who has to wash and who has to dry!

I hope that I have offered something for my children to build their traditions on.

This is a funny, personal response to the discussion board not the Formal Tradition Blog

I wrote out such a great response to the questions from the discussion board and then realized that I had made it too personal. I started to delete some of the personal comments and then decided that a mind (and a good joke) are terrible things to waste. If I remember correctly, the instructors said that this is our blog to post in addition to our assignments as we choose, so I decided thaqt I would post my full answers here so if someone wants to read them, they can and my time will not have been a total waste.
Enjoy your weekend!

I believe that traditions are absolutely a guiding influence. I also absolutely
believe that they are limiting. I think about some of the family traditions
when I was a young child (about 100 years ago) most of them based on the family
religion - Catholicism. I didn't mind the formality of the Catholic church. For
me, it truly become a spiritual matter. I think that the tradition of
Catholicism was a guiding influence to my spirituality although it was
extremely limiting. Becoming a Christian was my own little rebellion, the
interesting part was, that my dad responded well and didn't take it as a
personal rejection of his faith. I absolutely laughed outloud as I read
Garrison Keillor's, A Wobegon Holiday Dinner. The way that the writer made light of his
family's faith, The Sanctified Bretheren, and his Uncle Carl praying at
the dinner table. I hope that we all can enjoy the faith of our families as he
did. In reading,"Scripture said, "Pray without ceasing," and he
almost succeeded." (116), I found myself thinking of the family
member that would be voted "least likely to asked to pray over a
Thanksgiving meal" and it made me laugh even harder. I have found that
although I didn't "embrace" Catholicism, I do respect it and in my father's
mind, rebelled against it.

I think that we should question everything, as not to be like sheep, led to the
slaughter. As an adult, including as a student at EvCC, I find myself saying,
"I'm not a sheep, I'm not a sheep!". I want to know why, I need to understand.
For me things need to be logical. How funny that as a Christian, I don't
question my Creator. I do however question my instructors :D. I think that we
get caught up in doing things the same old way because it is just easier and we
hate change. There are easier and better ways to do things these days, but it
absolutely takes away from the beauty, pomp and circumstance that traditions
provide.

I don't think that I can answer what should take precedence. I know that our
identity is vital to a clear sense of who we are and what we want to be. I also
believe that our culture and traditions shouldn't be lost to the value of
identity. I am drawn to Sarita James' essay, Let Me Find My Own Husband,
"I couldn't let my parents arrange my
Indian marriage from Indiana. I would have to find my own suitable boy. Or
perhaps even an unsuitable boy." I wouldn't want to go so far as to
arrange my children's marriages, but I sure would like some input. I have
always told my children not to bring home a possible spouse without their
degree in hand - both of them. My two oldest children complied, and it hasn't
made their lives perfect or even easy. I think that my 21 year old daughter is
planning to "buck my system" though. We struggle with a young man
that has been out of high school for years and hasn't been consistantly
enrolled in college or employed. He has now come to us and explained that he is
now enrolled in college  and has a plan and our sweet daughter is
continuously working to finish her degree. I see "posturing" for our
daughter's hand taking place.............

"Shun" is a very strong word, like rebellion. I am far less concerned about the
shunning of traditions that I am the thought of shunning each other as
people. We need to love on each other at all cost. We don't even have to
like the rebellion, but we have got to love each other. We are all we
have. If this "boy" decided to take my daughter off to marry her
(notice it's all his fault), without a conversation with her father or myself we
would not be happy, we would be dissappointed, but we would not shun either of
them. Then, we would show the boy where Jimmy Hoffa is! ...just kidding...

Our society is definitly becoming more accepting of transgressions and non-
conforming behavior; much to societies detriment. We see how we were being
conditioned to be desensatized to the sex , language and violence that we never
expected to see on television.

To my young classmates, this is to remind you of a tradition you should always
hold dear, your mother is always right. (tongue in cheek)

My Church Is A Community

Northlake Christian Church is a community because it gives its members a
place to gather. It’s members are in agreement with what they believe. They
share the common belief in the Old and New Testament and what constitutes
belief in Jesus. We believe that Jesus is the only son of God and that he came
to earth as a human as a sacrifice for our sins. Through our belief in Him, we
will live in Heaven for eternity.

Our common belief is in Jesus’ works, holds us together. Our belief is that we are called to gather together to honor God, to seek Him and to Worship Him.

Our common interests are to show others the love of Jesus.
To bring them to a closer relationship to Him. Our needs are to belong to a
group that seeks to serve Jesus and lead others into His Kingdom.

The values that we share are that we are humbled by God’s
sacrifice of His son.

The tensions or differences that work against the cohesion
of our church, is how we interpret scripture. The fact that we are so human and
we get wrapped up in our own interests and lose sight of others and what is
important.

I fit into this group because I have professed Jesus as my
personal savior. I fit into this group because I seek to serve others in this
community and I want to serve the ones outside of my community. I want to
belong to this community because I have invested my life in service and
Northlake Christian Church is working in the same direction as I am. We are seeking to serve the
Snohomish County Community and to meet the needs of the community outside of
Northlake.

What does my purse and wallet say about me?

Hmm, You will find a driver's liscence, credit cards, Doctor's business cards and insurance cards; vehicle and medical. You will find my Social Security card and some receipts.Because I change wallets and purses rather often you will find that I don't keep a lot of excess items in my wallet. It looks very organized.Unlike my wallet, my ourse if full of "important" papers and receipts.  I have a nail file, nail clippers, pens, pencils, change, a zoon, a sansa clip, earbuds and a comb.  I also have guitar picks and a tuner.The purse reveals that I am rather unorganized, that I love music and play guitar.