"normal"

Ever wonder what "normal" means? For us, "normal" means "the way we usually are". I find that sometimes I want to be "extra ordinary" and I tend to contrast that with "normal". Now just what is "extra" about extra ordinary you wonder?

"Extra" ice cream would mean a bigger portion. "Extra special diet" would mean more diet with a better taste, I guess. Life in general for Karl and Debbie is somehow not back to normal yet. It is however, extraordinary.

You know the way we usually are--flying just above the ground and in several directions, often different directions. Book projects, teaching, program supervision, planning. That would be in Indonesia, China, Philippines, Africa or possibly the US. It might find me doing a mediation or Debbie visiting a funding office in D.C. Probably it would be receiving special guests. Definitely it would find us in an international student Bible study every Friday and a church small group every Monday when we are in town.

So the way we have been in this last week is sort of like that normal, but a bit extra ordinary. We have not been flying around or supervising or teaching or writing. Nor have we been to California or Florida or Chicago (Karl did run off to Montana for a week though). The International students have still come and the small group met in our home for the last month. And we have been together for the last two months, and that is extra ordinary, and special.

Sunday after church we took a walking tour of the gardens in our "Charles Village" part of Baltimore. Mind you, in the city you tour these micro-gardens from the alley because that is the only place that has more than a 144 square feet without concrete (although our alley garden consists of a few green things around the base of a tree surrounded by brick and concrete). We have had a good supply of wonderful friends from many different eras of our lives come to visit us. That is VERY special and reminds us of God's love through deep friendships that pick up where they left off years earlier. Most folks don't quite know how to relate to either dogs or humans that run frenetically just above the surface of the ground, so when we stop we find that we still have friends who love us.

If you have not yet put the picture in your mind, then let me just say that Debbie is healing wonderfully and will start to wade through the 6,000 emails in her inbox (that is not an exaggeration). We had a wonderful planning meeting with a friend and colleague from Nairobi that might actually get us on a plane to Nairobi together in July. Karl's medication has been changed and he is well, a bit more normal. The new medication takes 45 days to get up to full blood level, so we will see what happens. Deb went to the doctor yesterday for some additional "filling" and came back complaining of the pain. Actually the pain was a good sign that at least sensation and feeling was starting to return to operation site. She "normally" does her three times a day exercises once a day. (NOT GOOD--can you tell who is writing this?)

I was starting to catch up on my email yesterday and settled to write a prayer letter when I noticed that the house behind us was putting in a new concrete parking pad, so I quickly went and asked if I could have a wheelbarrow or two. I was informed that there was just about that much left, so I carried a bucket into the basement to fill a trench cut for a new sewer line. Upon my return I found that the "normal" concrete left over had been placed in the middle of the drive area from which I had removed all the old concrete. I looked at the "normal" and my jaw dropped. It was a mountain. The driver said, "there was more in there than I thought, they must have weighed wrong, looks like about two yards". For those of you who don't know what that means, it is about the cubic equivalent of your washer, dryer and stove combined. But not to worry, I had no form boards, no concrete tools, and only myself to do the work. Not a problem? Concrete sets in about an hour.

Oh yes. Back to normal.