Fine on the Outside

I wrote last year about carrying on with a smile even when things aren't going exactly the way I'd like.  I call it "fake it 'till you make it," and there is definitely a time and place for it.  But the last few weeks I've been uncovering some areas that I've been ignoring in my life, initiated by our Sonship homework. 

I came across this quote in one of our reading assignments, and it got my attention.

“A sham spirituality of pseudo-repentance and pseudo-bliss eventually fashions what modern psychiatry calls a borderline personality, in which appearances make up for reality.”

 

 I know there is a balance somewhere in learning to be real with people and yet not sharing the depths of my heart with the grocery checker when she asks “how are you?”  Am I closing off so much of myself to others that I'm depending on appearance to make up for reality?  

 

So I have been trying to answer these questions for the past few weeks, digging down deep and finding shaky walls I have propped up to "protect" myself from others. 

 

Lucky for you, I just so happen to have some Willis family dirt on the matter to illustrate my point.

 

No, really.  I'm about to share with you some slimy, slick, deep, unforgiving mud. 

 

Are you ready?  Driving up to our house, you would never realize this (and we didn't either until a couple days ago).  It really reinforces the advice to deal with your problems while they are little. 

 

Are you still reading? 

 

So. 
We started draining the pond today via a secondary pipe so we can access the leak under the culvert and repair the damage under the road.

And I've been working on my heart as well. 

Three more Saturdays

After today, we just have three more Saturdays before we leave.  I guess it's time to get serious about packing!  This is one of those situations where procrastinating until the night before isn't going to cut it. 

 
Part of the plan is to carry these backpacks instead of suitcases for our clothes and toiletries, etc.  We will be spending 2 days in Brussels on our return trip, and anyone who has ever rolled a wheelie suitcase down European cobblestone streets knows that there is a better way.  I don't know how many cobblestones we will come across in Brussels, but we'll be prepared either way.

 

These, of course, are the adult backpacks.  Henry will probably have our smallest pack like this, and the other three will have their small school packs for carrying a snack, water, and headphones for traveling.  Eika might also be in charge of a dvd player and the dvds.

 

All the extra things we are bringing for the hospital and our friends will be in these bins.  It looks like we will have 7 or 8 of these.  Here, Eika is drilling holes for zip ties. 

 

For each thing we cross off, a few more things appear on our "list of things to do before we leave."  We are getting so excited!

Sister Salon

The number one question I am asked about my brown-skinned beauty is whether or not I do her hair myself.  Up until yesterday, I could always say yes.  I have learned so much since I first put little bows in her silky infant wisps, and I know that I still have at least that much more to learn!  Thankfully, her big sister loves to play beauty salon, and she enjoys helping me braid sometimes.  This time though, she did a lot more than helping.  I had taken out braids Sunday and Monday and it was time to deep condition, detangle, and part into twists. Eika was on the job! 

 

First she used the amazing Wet Brush on sopping wet, conditioner-saturated hair.  We started at the sink, but halfway through we moved to the bathtub.  Working together, it took the two of us about 20 minutes to brush through her hair section by section. 

After gently towel drying, we moved to the living room and started a movie.  I showed Eika how to do the parting, and away she went. 

 Eika worked by herself for about an hour and got half of Eva's hair in what we call bunti buns.  I'm not sure how and when we started calling them that, since I think the real name is Bantu knots.  

I took over and parted and twisted the other half, which finished up pretty quickly (40 minutes, maybe).  Here is the happy girl!  There is always a big smile when we are DONE!

We will leave these in for a couple of days, and then we'll undo the twists without combing or brushing to have a bouncy, curly "twist-out." 

Hooray for a hair apprentice!  Nice work, Eika!

Travel Junkies

Last week we had a fun family trip to Georgia to see half of my family.  It was an opportunity to see my brother, sister, and each of their families.  Living so far from the others, my kids haven't grown up knowing all their cousins.  But finally we were able to arrange some good time together!  We all stayed together at a house near the beach, and hanging out in the sand and sun was one of the highlights. 

 

 

 

We ended the trip with a marathon 20-hour travel day on our way home, which was just the thing to get us prepared for our next trip.  It's just a little over five weeks until we head to AFRICA!!!

Packing Limbs

It's a little less than 8 weeks until we head across the world!  A couple weeks ago, we began collecting things from the request lists of the McCropders as well as other missionaries in Burundi.  For our family of six, we are allotted 12 checked bags.  We are planning four of those to be suitcases for ourselves (clothes, etc), and the remaining eight to be large plastic bins of everything from duct tape to school books to cinnamon. 

Here is Hank adding the newest arrival to the growing mountain in the corner of our bedroom.  When Jason (the surgeon) asked Hank if we could bring these external fixators, he added something like this:  "If you can't, we can have them sent in the next shipping container, which will come in 6 months or something.  It would be great if you can, though, so I don't have to do so many amputations."

A Shot in the Arm*

Hepatitis A, Polio, Hepatitis B, Tetanus.  Yellow fever, Typhoid, Malaria.  The name of the game this week is "get six people up to date on routine vaccines."  The last two weeks Hank has been working on tracking down the yellow fever vaccine, which has proven to be an adventure in itself.  This coming Tuesday, the whole family will travel 100 miles to the nearest pharmacy carrying YF-Vax.  Did you know there is a national shortage of the vaccine?  Yeah, neither did we.

Thursday we spent a healthy chunk of time at our doctor's office.  Each of us needed one or two immunizations to get up to date--all except Henry, that is.  Somehow, he managed to just perfectly be in that window between having had all his early childhood shots but not yet needing any boosters.  He was crushed.  All morning he had been planning on going first, determined to bravely be an example to Eva and Jude.  I guess he also had something to prove to himself, since we have some colorful memories of multiple nurses, complicated wrestling holds, and blood-curdling screams.  Here is a photo of one of our previous trips for vaccinations:

Anyhow, this time Henry was resolute:  this trivial prick of a needle was no match for his fortitude now!
So when the disappointing news came (that he was current on all vaccinations), Henry's face fell.  What could I do?  Here I had a whimpering, worrying ten-year-old beside herself with dread over the looming punctures, a four-year-old who was suspicious and apprehensive but easily distracted, a three-year-old who had no idea what was coming and was busy opening every drawer and touching every surface in the room, and now on top of it all an eight-year-old stripped of his opportunity to prove his heroism. 
Since the doctor's office was fresh out of a supply of placebo injections, I knew I only had seconds to come up with a solution before the entire assemblage of Willises was reduced to tears!  Ah, yes! The flu shot!  We hadn't gotten those yet! 
Phew!  Disaster was narrowly averted.  Henry got his shot, proved his stoicism (he barely winced!), and gallantly paved the way for his younger siblings to receive their injections in stride. 

Stay tuned for next week's installment:  "The effects of a two and-a-half hour anticipatory drive preceding THE YELLOW FEVER VACCINE."

*Bonus points for anyone who can name that alternative country/indie rock reference.

Rooted

 For only crazy people would think they could complete by their own efforts what was begun by God.

Gotta remember this.  I knew when getting into this Gordian life (marriage! kids!) that I couldn't possibly thrive, let alone survive one day, without a supply of some kind of superior fuel.  Who gave me these kids, this life?  

Gotta stay rooted in Him.