Flu and Other News

After

16 consecutive days of treating at least one child with a fever,

12 combined school absences

4 bottles of children’s ibuprofen consumed, 

3 co-pays at the doctor,
1 prescription for amoxicillin,

loads of packets of Emergen-C consumed by yours truly,

and gobs of stress from trying to balance work and home,  

finally (crossing fingers),
we are all done with the flu.
Ironically, this was the first year we got flu shots for the boys. 
They were NOT-SO-EFFECTIVE for us.   

In other news...

Sorry for the completely vague blog post about Jonah (see previous post).  I got some concerned emails and texts from people wondering if we were okay.  Thank you!  Yes, we are fine.  I just needed to process a really hard day and writing a quick and short blog post seemed like a good way for me to do that.  I’ll try to remember that in addition to this being a place for me to process and record life, it’s also a place for friends and family to stay connected.  Hard to stay connected when you have no idea what I’m writing about, right?

So about that.  Quick version is this:  Jonah had been having many, many unsuccessful days at school for several months.  We had tried everything we could think of to make it better.  We’d given it (his classroom, his teacher) many chances.  But it just wasn’t getting better and we felt that it probably wouldn’t change if he stayed in that situation.  So we made the very hard decision (after many conferences with teacher and principal) that we should switch him to a different class.  I had misread Jonah’s cues and thought he was going to be just fine with switching classrooms.  I was wrong.  It ended up being very hard for him.  He was really, really sad about leaving his teacher and his friends.  I think there was probably some leftover sadness from moving last fall mixed in there, too.  He cried a lot about it, which then made me cry.  Steve and I knew we had made the right decision.  It just was hard for me to see Jonah so upset by it.  I tried to teach Jonah that sometimes in life, we have to go through hard things.  But we shouldn’t be scared of them.  We need to have courage and walk right through the middle of the hard things.  When we are in the middle of the hard things, we can’t see what’s on the other side.  But, we can take comfort in knowing that if we are brave and we keep walking, there is hope just on the other side.  (And by the way, his new class and his new teacher are about 1000 times better.  We are very thankful).   

Some of you may also be wondering about the hiring process at The GreenHouse.  We did in fact offer the ED position to the person I alluded to in an earlier post, and he accepted.  His name is Brian Heller de Leon and he will start April 1^st.  In a word, Brian is wonderful.  He is a very clear answer to prayer.  You always hope that God is going to be clear and that he will answer your prayers.  But you never know, right?  Sometimes you pray and pray and pray and you still don’t know what God is saying.  I’m incredibly thankful that God was clear on this.  My faith has been strengthened so much during this process.  I know that God is REAL because I’ve seen Him at work through this process.  I know that He is LOVING and KIND and GENTLE because He has been all of those things to me.  He has given me just the right amount of time to keep working at the GH after my move so that I’d be more able to let go.  He’s provided a person that I have full confidence in and someone who will be kind and gentle in our interactions.  He’s allowed me to stay on and complete, or nearly complete, a project that I’ve been working on for five years (our Clubhouse renovation).  He knows me and He loves me.  WOW! 

There are still swelling waves of sadness that hit me when I think about leaving The GreenHouse.  But each day, it's getting a little better.  I wrote my farewell letter to our supporters last week (it went out in the mail today) and while it was hard to write, it was another important step in the grieving/healing process.  I now know when my last day at the GH will be (April 24) and when I will get to say my good-byes during some farewell events (May 3 and 5).  All of that helps.  There aren’t as many unknowns anymore. 

There are other things, too, that are making this seem like a particularly full season.  There's Steve's avalanche of work this past month that's keeping him up til the wee hours of the morning for nights on end. There's my work overseeing a major construction project at The GreenHouse (it's pitfalls and successes), fundraising for a capital campaign, and finding time for my regular job duties as well.  And there's the sadness, shock, and confusion surrounding the loss of teenager who held a special place in my heart and who was just way too beautiful, talented, kind, and young to die.

Is this too much for one person to carry?  Yes.  Trust me.  I tried last week to control all the madness in my own strength and I failed miserably.  Was I ever intended to carry the load?  No.  That's why God created community.  Right on time, community has stepped in to help carry the load, send an encouraging email or text, pray for our family, remind me to keep my eyes fixed on Jesus when I've lost my way.     

Thanks for being part of our community.  We're especially thankful for you during the ups and downs of this season of change.