Pushing a boulder

Had a rough day Monday. With Karis' party coming on Saturday, out-of-town relatives arriving Wednesday, both cars needing maintenance, and outstanding move-in tasks, I have many things stirring in my head. I had a tight schedule on Monday with being places to pick up things and drop them off. When I ran out to lunch (actually to run errands) I had to hurry back so that someone would be in the office when an attendee arrived.

After loading a few folding tables at the office, I stopped at my friend Peter's to pick up a patio table. All things would be dropped off at my house and I'd swap cars with Lena to get the more urgent "check engine" light checked out. The patio table was about 1" too big. I couldn't get it in the trunk nor the back seat (at least with the seats folded down for the folding tables stretching from the truck) of the Hyundai. As I was processing ways to get it in the car, a stranger and her daughter approached me. In broken English, I understood she needed a jack as she had a flat tire.

My initial response, in my head, was "No way, sorry, I've got to be somewhere." And then I thought, "Is that how I would hope someone would treat Lena and Karis if they had a flat?" Then I recalled changing a flat tire with my late brother-in-law on the way to catch a flight home... we did it in about 10 minutes. It was amazing. So I thought, maybe I can quickly help this lady and still get my tasks done. We walked a half block to her car.

The tire had blown out and was off the rim. I had too use the half-turn method on my jack because the mini-van was sitting so low the handle couldn't spin in a circle. I got it started successfully and stopped before the tire left the ground (easily to loosen the lug nuts with the weight of vehicle keeping tire secured). Then thought I had better check to ensure there was a spare tire to replace the existing flat before I go through the trouble of taking the tire off. It was stored underneath the back of the van. I gave the holding mechanism one twist and it dropped down so that you can loosen and remove. Things were looking pretty good...

The short version is that with two others helping, we couldn't remove the spare nor loosen the last lug nut. The other two guys she knew and asked to help called their boss in to see if he could help with his tools. At this point, I bowed out.

I left very disheartened that I couldn't help more and that she was in no better shape than before I started to help. And I was also frustrated as now I was late to the office. For someone who likes structure and happy endings as I do, it was quite an unsuccessful day.

As I was sharing with friends later that day, many had good things to say. They definitely had a better attitude than my attitude after the fact. They applauded me for putting my needs second to be the hands of Jesus. They said I encouraged them to be more of a servant to others. I later remembered the story about pushing a boulder.

The short version is that there is a guy who is next to a big boulder at the bottom of a hill and God asks the man to push on the boulder. The man expends great amounts of energy and for a long period of time, but the boulder never budges closer to the top of the hill. The man's spirit is broken and he finally quits. Then God congratulates him for pushing so hard. The man still dejected, shares what God already knew about the boulder not moving. To which God responded, "I didn't ask you to move the boulder. I can move the boulder. I asked you to push on it. And that's what you did."

I guess I am perhaps also guilty of placing false expectations on myself. Maybe I was simply supposed to try to help her to show her that there are people out there willing to help.

Thanks for reading this lengthy post.

Things for which I am thankful...

For the heck of it, I'll share 39 things for which I'm thankful. I am thankful for:

1. God calling me into relationship with Him.
2. Choosing to accept that call.
3. God giving Lena to me to marry.
4. God giving us a healthy and wonderful and beautiful baby girl.
5. God providing us with another baby girl due March 26.
6. My extremely giving mother who has provided and sacrificed so much for me.
7. My sisters whom I love greatly even if I was a spoiled youngest child.
   
8. The work opportunities I have been given throughout my life (desirable and less desirable).
9. My overall good health.
10. The 30+ years my brain worked pretty well.
11. My passion to ride motorcycles.
12. My desire to put safety first (not only with #11 above).
13. Never being in any serious accidents (includes #11 above).
14. My friends. I have great friends. And I have a bunch of them. Thank you all.
15. Nysha being a Cowboys fan. I logically became a Steelers fan and they have the most Super Bowl Championships of any NFL team. =)
16. My financial troubles early in life that helped me be much better with them later.
17. God never leaving me wanting.
18. Never having to experience poverty firsthand.
19. Serving the people of both Mendoza and Buenos Aires (Argentina).
20. Serving the people in Bombo, Uganda.
21. Being able to live in a nice as well as big home in the community in which serve/work.
22. The influence my grandparents had on me.
23. The memories of my dad.
24. Our big screen TV.
25. Our big screen TV being HD.
26. DirecTV's HD signal that is projected on our big screen, HD TV.
27. My wife who doesn't squelch my passion for motorcycles.
    
28. My wife who may even encourage my passion for motorcycles.
29. My wife who is a far better shopper than me (the deals she gets are unbelievable; and she doesn't have to work at them like I do).
30. My wife who bakes phenomenal treats.
31. My wife who also cooks well (and often).
32. The baked treats in #30 not going directly to fat around my waste.
33. Living so close to work (so close that I have actually walked home and that I desire to ride my bicycle to work at least once a week).
34. The way God created my very detail-oriented mind.
35. The people that can appreciate my detail-oriented mind.
36. The ways I learn about God's character through being a spouse.
37. The ways I learn about God's character through being a parent.
38. That I am still willing to learn.
39. The cross.
    

What's new...

I noticed we hadn't posted anything in almost two weeks. When I asked Lena "Why?" she answered, "Because we don't have any photos." She clearly likes adding visuals for y'all. I'm okay with simply text. ?What happened to our camera?" you ask. Well, I tried to get a group photo of the Steelers fans that were over to watch the Monday Night game. I used the auto timer and just as I slid into the photo fan, the camera tumbled off the TV and onto the floor. No biggie, Karis drops the camera all the time. Lo and behold the one time I drop it, I bend the telescoping lens. Great! So it went off for repairs. Thankfully, God gave me a wife who gets the best deals. It looks like it'll be repaired for free! Woo hoo!










On other notes, I was called upstairs in a serious tone by Lena recently. She asked me to rid us of a bug that was making noises. Ends up it was water dripping to the floor from the clothes iron that was hanging up high on the back of the door. I wanted to laugh really hard, but I recalled a time I was "attacked" by a spider while in a waiting in hunting blind. That spider was actually a drop of water that had fallen from the ceiling. David loved telling that story about me.

I had a sore throat for three days that is just now going away. It helps that I took a 2-hour nap concurrent with Karis' on Friday. Typically, I have a sore throat for one night and then it turns into a sinus cold. I'm hoping that doesn't happen with this one....

Lena has been a trooper at keeping us on track with cleaning up the new-to-us place. Packing is almost completely done. As is the painting. We (read Lena) still has lots to do for Karis' 1st birthday party. I cannot believe she will be one on Dec 10th. Wow! Wow.

Still praying for an ideal roommate to share this home. Prayers are appreciated.

Not All Fluffies Are The Same

Karis' little blankie is affectionately called Fluffy. She has been sleeping with it since she was a few months old. I think she knew who we were referring to when we said "Fluffy" before "Mommy" and "Daddy." She has grown to love this little blue dog. It makes her smile whenever she sees it; it calms her crankiness when she is in the car seat; it lulls her to sleep at nap time and bed time. Whenever she gets a hold of Fluffy, she hugs it, sometimes stuffs its head in her mouth to give it a big smooch and her two fingers always go in her mouth.

When Karis started to take Fluffy out of the crib to play with and when Fluffy started to come along with us on car rides, I knew it was necessary to find a second one lest we lose the original. Derek and I, and even Grandma, spent a lot of time looking for a new Fluffy. We searched local stores and on the Internet, but with no tag, it was hard to find one.

After a couple of months of looking, I was ready to give up. One day I decided to check eBay one more time. To my surprise, I saw a "Fluffy" on sale by a lady who collects lost and hard-to-find lovies. I was shocked and called Derek right away to buy it.

So we were all quite thrilled to know that we had a 2nd Fluffy. It looked just like the original, but with a slightly larger head and softer. We gave it to Karis, but that little buggar won't buy it. She knows it isn't her Fluffy. Here is a video of what she does when she sees the 2nd one, which we now call Fluffier.

So now we're still in the same predicament. If we lose the original Fluffy, we are due for a crisis. We leave Fluffier out for her to play with and I throw it in the wash whenever I do laundry. We're hoping it'll start to grow on her.

Getting the Hang Of It

The other day, I watched the video of Karis taking a few steps when she just started walking (click here to see video). I can't believe how much she has progressed. I took another video to capture how she's walking now, just a few weeks later.

She loves to walk and now prefers it over crawling. She is pretty fearless, as she often walks around with her arms up trying to keep her balance (think orangutan) and often lunging forward and falling flat on her face. But she just gets back up and tries again.

Baby #2 Update

We had another doctor visit this week. We had a detailed ultrasound where the doctor was able to measure organs, check out the plancenta, blood flow, heart rate, etc. Everything is looking good for this little one. The doctor was also able to get a good view to determine the gender of the baby. She confirmed that it is a girl. Yay for sisters!

We're in!

We had a very successful move. Thanks go out to so many helpers.

• The Lee family and Chad C. for boxes.
• For painting, thanks to Julie, Peter, and my wife.
• Our small group, co-workers, friends, and church attenders for doing the moving and loading of the truck.
• A special shout out to Herb and Peter for not only building the garage shelves but also making sure all the garage items were on shelves so we could actually park in the garage our first night in our new-to-us rental home.
• Another special thank you to Peter for having the ceiling fans installed, buying the garage shelving, garage wall cabinet, and the washer/dryer combo.
• FINALLY, THE BIGGEST THANK YOU FOR MY WIFE FOR PACKING NEARLY EVERYTHING. LITERALLY, NEARLY EVERYTHING!! (I would start to think I was a completely absent husband if I hadn't moved the boxes to the garage, lined up helpers, transferred utilities, got a smoking deal on the rental truck, etc. Notice that I feel that I am now only a slightly absent husband, not completely absent.)

Throughout this whole process, we have realized that God is really taking care of our needs. He puts things in place before we even know we'll need something down the road. Our prayer is that we'll find an ideal roommate to whom we can minister and love. We also hope to utilize our home to serve others. We appreciate your prayers for these last two things. Thanks.

Now hurry and come visit while there is an empty bedroom and bathroom downstairs!