Happy Pappo Day

June 19, 2016


MY FAITH Comes From My Pappo

I received an early birthday present from my seriously cool granddaughters and their parents last weekend.  There were a couple brass bracelets, among other things, with one engraved, "My Faith is Bigger Than My Fears".  After the 6 months we've had, these are powerful words engraved in my soul.

See, it's because of my Dad (Pappo) that each of us kids have the Faith we have.  It was his dedication and determination that we be raised in church and taught about a God that loves us...unconditionally....even during those hard times.  Yes.....those times when Fear tries to take over and shove Faith right out of the way.   But if our Faith is Bigger than our Fears, then Faith WINS....every time!

Thanks, Pappo, for instilling Faith into each of your three kiddo's.......it saved our lives.

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY.

"I'mmmmmm Okaaaay....."

“I’MMM OKAAAY”

If you’ve lived around someone with MS for very long, more than likely, you’ve seen them take a tumble or two.  Whenever my Charlie takes a tumble, his favorite thing to say is, “I’MMMM  OKAAAAYYYY.....”  I can’t count how many times I’ve heard a “crash” in another part of the house or garage......I stop what I’m doing.......stand very still......until I hear his voice yelling, “I’MMMM OKAAAAYYYY...”......I then know its safe to continue what I was doing and stop holding my breath.  

We’ve had many, many of these tumbles throughout our marriage and so far, none have been too serious.  Well, unless you count the time he walked into an exterior metal stairway at his favorite italian restaurant and broke his neck.........but I would consider that more of a “Hunger” issue opposed to a “Balance” issue.

Anyway, one such incident was when we were traveling in our motorhome.  We were visiting some old friends of ours and had just arrived at their lovely home in the country. They were standing in their yard waving and watching us pull in..... I pulled the motorhome as close to the edge of the road as I could to allow cars to go by.  As Charlie prepared to step out of the RV, his legs failed him and down he went; he rolled and rolled down the hill and into the drainage ditch.  It was like a “sloooooow mooootion” movie as we stood by, helpless, for what seemed like an eternity before his body came to a stop. We then hear, “I’MMMM OKAAAYYYY”  and then followed with, “Hey Norm, you sure need to clean out your drainage pipe” as he proceeded to pick himself up and dust himself off.

Another time occurred at the halfway point up Pikes Peak in Colorado.  We were traveling on our motorcycle trike and had stopped to take a break and rest.  While there, we met another couple, an older couple, from California who were intriqued with the trike.  As we were talking with them, Charlie decided to take his jacket off, unfortunately, he was standing too close to the edge of the mountain at the time.  As he was pulling his arm out of the sleeve, he lost his balance and, as if some invisible force pushed him backwards, he was gone.  As we all rush to the site where he had been only seconds before, we see he didn’t fall too far and fortunately, we heard those beautiful words, “I’MMMMM OKAAAYYY”......The older lady grabbed his hand and pulled my Charlie back up from the clinches of Pikes Peak.

Last June, we found ourselves just outside of Mt. St. Helens in Washington state.  Just beautiful!!  We found a wonderful little campground for the RV and were elated to settle in for a few days.  There was this large hill just in front of our RV that separated the campground from a creek with a nice little walking path on top.  We hadn’t been settled in very long when I hear Chuck yell out, “Murphy needs to poop.  I’ll take him out.”  I didn’t think anything else about it until a few minutes later, here comes Charlie and Murphy; Charlie full of grass and dirt on him and Murphy looking like he still needed to poop.  I guess by my befuggled look, Charlie decided he better explain he and Murphy tried to climb the large hill (we’ve since named it Mt. St. Helens, Jr.) and didn’t make it.  Charlie rolled all the way down the hill with Murphy in tow the entire way.  But, he was “OKAAAYYY”.....thank goodness.  People pointed and smiled at us in the campground after that.......

Never Get In A Canoe With An MS Patient

NEVER GET IN A CANOE WITH SOMEONE WHO HAS MS

Here’s the deal:  If your MS “loved one” suggests a nice, slow, romantic canoe ride, take their hand in yours, gaze into their loving eyes and softly reply, “NOT ON YOUR LIFE!”

We live in a nice, quiet lakeside community and have the most wonderful neighbors.  It was decided over dinner one weekend to have a canoe/kayak race between us and two other couples.  I’ve got to tell ya, while they were discussing the race, I was starting to worry....some might say, even panic.   Although we were the youngest of the three couples, we were the only ones with a canoe and I was the only one with an MS “loved one”.  

Because Charlie is 6’2” and has legs like stilts, not to mention no feeling in his legs and feet,, it took a little work to get him in the canoe without it tipping over.  As we lined the canoe and two kayaks up at the starting point, I remember Charlie telling me to just follow his lead.  He said to listen to him and we’d win this thing hands-down; we could take these older couples!!!  Before I knew it, instead of following the shore like the other two contestants, we were heading out into the middle of the lake with little to no control of this darn canoe.  Chuck’s yelling “LEFT” then “RIGHT” then “STOP ROWING” then “ROW ROW ROW”....it was a total disaster and I believe we arrived at the Finish Line about 10 minutes after the last kayak arrived.  Oh ya, we showed those older couples alright!!   All I wanted to do was get the heck out of that canoe cause I was starting to lose faith in my ol’ boy Charlie, not to mention getting nascious from the constant rocking motion.

But no; they all wanted to continue this journey down a nearby creek..........so off we went down this canopy, tree lined, snake pit of a creek.  I could just imagine the “water rats” living in this creek and possibly even an alligator.  I SOOOOOOO didn’t want to go there...... So I begged Charlie to not tip the canoe over; pleaded with him to stay still; told him how bad it would be if we fell out.......he laughed.  

And then it happened.   All I remember about that moment is the canoe rocking; me yelling; Chuck moving his lifeless legs around and laughing; me screaming.  I then felt myself falling into the water and my feet unable to touch the bottom......the water was cold.....I shoot out of like a bullet desperately trying to find solid ground to land on....all the while, imagining the snakes, water rats and other critters that must be living in this swampy creek.  I finally find solid ground to sturdy myself on and notice that all I see of Charlie is his cowboy hat lying on the surface of the creek.   Turns out, he had already made his way over to the two neighbor kayaks and they were all having a good laugh on my account.  

It was a very quiet trip out of the creek and back home.  I remember begging a neighbor to switch places with me so I wouldn’t have to ride back in the canoe with Charlie, but I had no takers.   And to this day, five years later, I stand firm on my committment to never find myself in a canoe with my Charlie ever again.  

Keeping Our Heads Above Water - Chapter 30

“Father,
Break my heart for what breaks Yours
Give me open hands and open doors
Put Your light in my eyes and let me see
That my own little world is not about me.”
― Matthew West

The sun is coming up...the misty fog is lifting off the lake and I'm sitting here....on our own dock....at this very moment.  The chi-chi birds are nose-diving Kruger-the-1-claw cat beside me as we both sit here watching the sky change colors. 

 

WE - ARE - HOME

I won't lie.  I silently questioned whether this day would ever come. A week ago today,  in the rain (of course!), we moved for the third time since the end of December....but this time, back into our own home...with floors, walls and a toilet.

I've struggled over this past week with how to describe this monumental moment to you.  There's so many things I want to share with you....the anxiety, the tears, the anger, the FEAR, the toll its taken on my husband's health.....but then I realized these were all things from Me and not from God.  It's too much about us and not enough about Him.  I think that's why I will be painting this Matthew West quote on a wall somewhere on our brand smackin' new sheetrock:

"Father, break my heart for what breaks Yours.

Give me open hands and open doors 

Put Your light in my eyes and let me see

That my own little world is not about me."

When your life gets displaced for a moment in time.....whether its the loss of a job, a death, or even a dang flood.....it's so easy to justify carrying the badge of "Whoa is me".  We say to anyone who'll listen, "Poor me....how will I ever get past this?"  We make it all about us.  But it's not.....it's really not.  This 5-6 months of "inconvenience" for us is a simple bleep on the radar in relation to our eternity....our month-of-Sundays....our forever. 

Trust me, it's been a roller coaster ride reminding myself daily this won't last forever....I have cried tears of "Whoa is me" most all of the 157 days since The Flood.....and like the chapter of a book you can't wait to end, we can see the final paragraphs of this chapter we are living coming to a close.

Our chapter isn't quite finished yet, though......there is still a lot of work to do and we are living in only 1/2 of the house right now.  If you drew a straight line down the middle of our house, we are living in the almost-completed West Wing.....the East Wing is still under construction with sawhorses, paint cans and boxes of 350' of left-over wood flooring.  It's not at all uncommon to race from the West Wing to the East Wing in your pajamas, while dodging wood-sawing-contractors, to get your underwear out of the master bedroom closet.   We are strangely feeling like Shelley Long and Tom Hanks in the movie, "The Money Pit".......

There is still beadboard to paint (ughhh).....cabinets to clean....light fixtures to hang.  But we are closer today than we were yesterday.  And tomorrow.....yep...we'll be a couple sentences closer to the end of this chapter than we are today. 

Thank you for praying for us.  Thank you for sharing how our Flood has helped you in your own flood and thank you for continuing to live this chapter right alongside us.

The sun WILL come out tomorrow......