Flowers and Sunshine

Today has been a really nice day. To start with, I have THREE bouquets of beautiful flowers in my kitchen. Daffodils from church on Mother's Day, amazing brightly-colored roses from Bethan as a "welcome home" gift, and red roses from Kagi when I arrived last Tuesday. The sun is shining brightly, and after yesterday's frigid temperature today has been warm.

Kagi and I are having a friend from church over for dinner. I've been working on the meal, laundry, and cleaning the house (finally) for most of the day. I also got to exercise (a little) and went to the nearby tennis club to inquire about a part-time job. I've actually been really busy, and I'm not done with everything yet.

I have two thoughts for today. First, it is good to work. This has been on my mind a lot lately, but today was a great reminder. Sometimes working feels fun and sometimes it doesn't, but the rewards are always worth it. Mentally, emotionally, and even spiritually, it is good.

Second, I have continued to think about what I realized during last night's church prayer meeting. I was struck while we sang the song Bless the Lord how often I rejoice or despair in my circumstances -- hoping in God for good things to happen in my life rather than in rejoicing in Him. In fact, I even rejoice in His creation more frequently than I do in Him. I love people -- both specific people and people in general. I also deeply enjoy other elements of creation. I rejoice in animals and scenery and flowers and sunshine. I thank God for them, which is good, but there is so much more to it.

I think it's right to enjoy creation. Really, I think it's good and suitable. People are amazing. The rest of creation is amazing. I could never make any of it, it's so far beyond my creativity and ability to even understand. But it pales in comparison to the Creator. It's nothing in comparison to Him. He's more beautiful, intimate, majestic, complex, and the list goes on. The creation should make me more interested in the Creator. It can be delightful and wonderful, but it cannot replace my hunger for the One who made it all. It should never be the primary source of my joy. He should.

The beautiful thing is that the more I can keep that straight, the more joy I know, the more courage I can demonstrate, and with all the more accuracy I can live my life. I can glorify Him all the more, which is the best use of my life. It's exciting!

Encouragement

Yesterday a man who I met during my first trip to Bradford came up to me at church. He is a very gentle man who spent a little time with the team I was with in 2010. I was one of three women who ended up spending time praying for him one day -- that God would break into his situation and free him from oppression which was weighing him down. Particularly, he had been unable to play musical instruments, something which had been a great joy all his life. It seemed difficulty in his spirit prohibited him from expressing himself through his musical gift.

He told Kagi and me that he still remembers me because of that time of prayer. God began working toward restoration in his life at that time. He has been able to play music since and spoke of great intimacy in his walk with God. He thanked me for being a part of it.

To be honest, my memory of that day is vague. I was not the leader in that situation and I am very aware that whatever part I played was very small as God brought healing in his life.

What a blessing, though, to hear that from him. How wonderful to know that over two years ago God began healing which still growing and going deeper in him, which I got to be a witness to. What a beautiful thing that in the family of God we can have moments of joyful remembrance and praise for what He has done in our midst!

Friends

Last night Kagi and I went to Global Cafe, a ministry we have been involved with for years. It was so fun to be back in that environment and catch up with friends. A whole group of us stayed around after the cafe telling stories and laughing. Today, we had a "team day" where we spent time together preparing for the coming season.

After our meeting many of us went to a nice curry house.

Other thank Kagi (who took the picture), this was our lunch crew.

I'm thankful for the opportunity to be with friends and for lots of laughter!

This evening, I was in the kitchen when Kagi asked me if I was expecting a guest. I wasn't, but it was a wonderful surprise to see Bethan! She gave me the beautiful roses pictured below and we got to catch up a little. Kagi and I are really looking forward to an evening with the Greens tomorrow night.

Beautiful roses from Bethan:-).

Jesse

Today is my baby brother, +Jesse Fritz's twenty-second birthday. I guess he isn't a baby any more.

But I remember when he was. I have vivid memories of the day he was born, in fact. I was almost six at the time and remember how my friends loved him. It drove me crazy how when they came over they figured it was their turn to "hold the baby" since I could hold him anytime. It didn't seem fair to me... he was my baby, not theirs:-).

I remember when Jesse was three and we had a Pumba and Timone birthday party for him. My mom made a cool Lion King cake. He remained three in my mind for a long time. He was so funny, playing outside in the snow in shorts and galoshes. He was the topic of conversation for my dad at work every day -- I guess he was funny from the start. Boy was he cute!

Halloween

Christmas Morning

I have a few specific memories of him in elementary school, going through hard things. I remember trying to take care of him. I remember being protective of him as he grew up. It seemed to me that being a boy was more dangerous than being a girl. Especially when you are a boy like Jesse who knows no fear.

When I came home from college one time, Jesse took me to ride bikes in the greenbelt near our house. I thought I could do anything and was a pretty brave person. Let's just say I was terrified the whole time as he went through the dirt path with ramps and jumps everywhere. At that point, I was more scared for me than I was for him. He seemed to really know what he was doing. And how did he get so cool? I wouldn't have been eligible to talk to guys that cool in high school!

I remember when I was living and working in Maryland and +Jennifer Fritz was staying with me for the summer. We woke up early one day and drove down to Dullis Airport to see Jesse and his friend as they were traveling home from six months in West Africa. They told us stories and we drank coffee. Jesse was 18 and I was so proud of him. Truth is, I've always been proud of him.

I was able to go with my parents to Jesse's graduation from Army boot camp the following spring. He earned an extremely prestigious award and was clearly loved by the other soldiers and the drill sergeants alike (although they tried hard not to show it!). It was so special to hang out with him for a few days and see how life had been for him. I wished I could shield him from how hard life in the army can be, but there was no way. Jesse doesn't take the easy road, and the reality is he doesn't need his big sister's protection.

Saying bye.

Pops, Jesse, and me.

There are lots of other memories, like the times Jesse took me on dates when I was lonely, when he was the life of the party at my wedding, came to my rescue during my recent visa troubles, or when he was my primary partner to inspire the family to clean out our parents' basement. Or when Jesse and I were "sniper running" through a crowd right after the New Year was rung in when our paths quite literally collided and we almost took a few other people down as we fell.

New Years

So here's to the best brother I could have ever asked for on his birthday!

Goofing around at my wedding.

I love you!

Our Kitchen

I spent most of the day today in the kitchen, cleaning and getting it back to being the way I like it (things tend to move when you're gone:-)). Then, much of the afternoon was spent grocery shopping. Since we don't have a car, I have found that it is much easier and more cost-effective to have our groceries delivered in the UK. I'm not the best online grocery shopper, though, so it takes me a long time to think through what I need and find a way to compare prices. This is easier for me in a store.

For dinner, I found that we had almost everything needed for Shepherd's Pie, which is one of Kagi's favorites. I have made a few modified versions of the one shown on this video and we have really liked it. http://allrecipes.com/video/577/irish-shepherds-pie/detail.aspx.

Our house still isn't totally presentable. I still need to finish cleaning up our living room, which has a few odds and ends and my suit cases and our second bedroom which is also Kagi's study and the room with all of our closet space. But we're getting there, slowly but surely.

Note as I post -- I wrote this last night and thought I published it! While getting to work on today's post I just found it, so here you go.

Unpacking

Today I have not followed my usual "get over jet lag fast" routine -- I slept until 1:30pm! So I haven't unpacked and gotten the house back into order yet. I feel very differently about that job than I do packing. I LOVE unpacking. It is literally one of my favorite tasks.

However, I think it'll be best done in the morning. Kagi finished his exam and we are planning to get pizza and watch a movie tonight. I'm looking forward to it, and to finishing unpacking tomorrow.

So I'm off to have a nice relaxing night with my husband:-).

Irrational Exhaustion

I am now in Bradford!!! I'm working to stay awake at least until 8pm and also trying not to distract Kagi because he has a very big exam tomorrow. I did take a nap today but think I'll be fine tomorrow -- I'm plenty exhausted to sleep through the night no matter what the time difference!

The trip really went well and Kagi and I are very happy to be back together.

I was given some extra time today during which I wrote what you see below:-). I actually found my extreme emotional reaction to a series of things a little comical at the time, I hope that comes across.

Exhausted Fit

You know when kids get to that point where they start weeping and scream, “I just want to go home!”? 

Well, I almost just did that right in the middle of Manchester Airport. If I had caught Kagi on the phone I would have burst into tears and done just that. But it wasn't that easy – the phone company doesn't like my American credit card and therefore I have no way to get online or to call anyone.

Kagi will call me when he gets out of his class at 11.

But wait. Wasn’t I supposed to be home by then? Didn’t I have dreams of being showered and maybe even having lunch made by the time Kagi gets home from class? Yes, yes I did.

But alas, after about 20 hours of travel and my body running on about 4 hours of sleep since Saturday night, it didn’t go that way. In my exhaustion I have been quickly unraveling over the last several hours.

First, I’ll acknowledge that my travels went really well. So I know this is irrational. As I’m experiencing the crazy irrationality I kind of think it’s funny, so I’m writing about it. So for the record I do know that things are fine. They just don’t feel that way at the moment.

First, I got held up for questioning at the border again. Yes, even with my visa, I got stuck in the “further questioning” section, wondering if they were going to reject me again. Not a huge deal… I’ve been there before, but I have grown an irrational apprehension for those borders and so the level of impact it had on my emotional state was more than necessary. Apparently I will continue to need further questioning every time I try to enter this country for quite a while, even with all my paperwork squared away. Once blacklisted you’re blacklisted. Awesome. At least the guy was nice.

The last from my flight to clear customs, I went to claim my bags and immediately noticed that something was wrong. They were both there, but one of my bags was slightly opened. The smell of one of my brand-new, expensive, skin-care items permeated from my bag. At first glance I could tell that my closure of the bottle was still in-tact, but the smell and sight of my brand new, wonderfully clean-laundry smelling sheets covered in this toner. Apparently it was not sealed at the bottom of the neck. Great.

Then I began trying to walk with all three of my bags. They total well over 100 pounds and don’t fit together very nicely. I don’t know where I have pounds, so instead of getting a luggage card I began dragging them as best I could. It didn’t work well, and in normal conditions the walk is about 15 minutes. At one point, the bag I had stacked on top of another slipped off, narrowly missing a man’s foot and causing him to dodge it like a meteior aimed at him. “I’m sorry!” I exclaimed. No response other than ticked-off walking away.

I did have a hero appear soon after that, though. An African lady passed me and then said, “Do you need this?” with a cart. “You don’t need it?” I asked. “You need it more than I do,” she said as she took her bags off and gave it to me. I felt bad, but I couldn’t reject her offer. As the situation was I was likely to kill someone.



Finally, I made it to the bus station. I knew I had missed my hoped-for 9:05 bus, but was hoping for a bus in the next 15-30 minutes for about 10GBP. The guy told me that it cost 13.40GBP. “And when is it?” I asked. “11:50,” he said.

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I almost screamed it in the airport. What I actually said was, “OK, I’m going to go check on my train options and I’ll come back if I want to take it.”

As I stood in line, I knew it was hopeless. I can’t move all of these huge bags around a train transfer. I checked anyway. The result was that for about 30GBP (a CRAZY amount of money) I could get a train with one transfer. For a more reasonable fee, I could take a train to Manchester Piccadilly, take a trolley to Manchester Victoria, and take another train to Bradford (which might also require a change in Leeds). On a normal day that would be fine. With these bags, no way. So 11:55 it is.

This is when I frantically tried to put money on my phone so I could call Kagi crying. No go. And worse, the guy selling bus tickets found me right before I started weeping so instead of throwing my temper tantrum I calmly bought the ticket.

The agent must have read me right and told me to come upstairs to a nice café and get a cup of coffee. That was a really good idea—I can kind of pretend I’m not still in an airport. I am here in the coffee shop now, writing. I’ll post once I’m home with internet access

I am really excited to get home!