Senior Madness

It is really, really hard for me to believe, but my firstborn is 25% of the way finished with her senior year.  We are a mere 8 months from graduation.  How can this be?  I try not to think about it too much as rocking in a corner is not the best way to spend my time.  I know it is the natural progression of things, but I am not looking forward to the time when I am on one side of the Atlantic and she is attending university on the other side.  For now, I've just determined to try and enjoy as  much of her senior year as I can.  

As I've shared before, there are many things about our decision to enroll the kids in school that I have struggled with.  The awesome community they've found there is not on of them.  I love that Abby has such great classmates and that they are able to share this last year of school together.  The school the kids attend helps the students work towards having a senior trip each year.  Basically, every year of high school, each class holds 2-3 fundraising type events and the money is banked until the last part of their senior year.  Whatever they make over the four years is the class budget for the trip.  

It really is a win/win situation.  Because there are so few recreational opportunities in our city/country, people typically come out in droves to support the events.  Most people are thrilled to pay for a meal they don't have to cook and the entertainment that typically accompanies the meal is highly anticipated, especially by their fellow students.  The kids learn to work together, as well as some basic budget and business principles.  Of course, the parents are also involved at some level, especially on the day of the actual event.  You can imagine, with three high schoolers this year, we have lots of opportunities to be involved!

The seniors have the most rigorous fund-raising duties and two of the events are back to back, only about 3 weeks apart.  I am really sad that I missed the big one they had in October, where they run a concession stand all weekend long for an annual softball tournament in our city.  I would have loved to have been there, but instead I have been trying to keep from losing my mind here in South Africa.  

Fortunately, I did get to be a part of the first fundraiser of the year the weekend before I left.  The seniors chose a western theme and they initiated the school's new outdoor pavilion with a giant square dance.  They served dinner and held a pie auction with 20+ pies.   Because I had taught our house helper how to make corn dogs, they hired him to make 400 corn dogs the week of the event.  Honestly, I smelled like a diner waitress all week long from living in a corn dog factory.  But, they were a hit, as were the other yummy foods that they pulled together.  It was a fun time and I am so glad I got to stick around and be a part of it!

All of the seniors, getting ready to kick of "The Barn" event.

They may have had to improvise a bit on the "hay" but the kids still loved the hayride!

Just a few of the yummy pies!

Swing your partner round and round.  Never mind that it's 90+ degrees as the sun goes down!

 Who knew that our brilliant school music teacher could double as a square dance caller?

Notice I have no pictures of my boys dancing?

My favorite senior!  Time flies when you're having fun!

I've Been Thinking...

I've had some free time on my hands this week and I've been thinking.  As I type this, I am sitting in a guest house at the bottom of Africa.  It's cold here for my little West African body, so I rest in a recliner next to the space heater that is surely keeping my toes from frostbite.   I'm not complaining because it's been many months since I've been cold and I know it's 100+ back at my house.  

This week, I am in a waiting pattern. You see, I started having these crazy swollen lymph nodes and after about 10 weeks of them, I decided I'd better visit a doctor and ask if they were anything I needed to be worried about.  The doctor confirmed that they were a bit worrisome, so after a bit of an exam and a few follow-up tests, we had no answer for the issue. Because of the very limited healthcare options available there, we had run out of diagnostic options.  So, I was sent down south where the medical care is far better in the hopes that we could get a diagnosis.  I have a test in a few days which we are hoping will give us some answers.  For now, we wait.  I wait here and my family waits back in West Africa.  

I'm gonna be honest, the waiting stinks.  I am tempted to feel sorry for myself and the fact that saying yes to my call to Africa means that I am navigating a scary time like this without my husband and family by my side.  But, I am trying hard to take captive every thought instead and think on things to be grateful for.  Things like good healthcare, the fact that I work for an extraordinary organization through whom I get to live a really cool life, children who love me and long to be with me, a husband who has been so kind and whose sweet daily e-mails I will treasure for years to come.  I am thankful for the spring weather and flowers I am experiencing.  Not to mention, after eating out only 5 times in the last 6 months, I have now eaten out 5 times in the last week.  Hooray for no cooking!  Most of all I am thankful that no matter what comes through that biopsy needle on Weds., I know that my future is secure and nothing, nothing, absolutely nothing is a surprise to my Lord.  I am thankful for the hope I have in Christ!

During all of the waiting, I have been indulging in lots of chick flicks, which I haven't done in years.  Meg Ryan, Julia Roberts, Sandra Bullock, and their friends have been keeping me company each evening.  One of my girlfriends back in Niger was kind enough to pack me up a case full of DVDs and I have laughed and cried through lots of romantic comedies over the last week.  But, as much as I have enjoyed many of them, they have me wondering, why do they all end at the wedding?  A few go so far as to show the "One Year Later" scene where the happy couple is shown in a cozy scene with the bride sporting a baby bump or holding a baby or the like.  But nothing beyond that.  

Well Sandra and Julia, I'm here to tell you...I'm 40 something now and I'm searching for a story that's a bit different.  Where are the romantic comedies about the couples who were wed 20 years ago and are knee deep in parenting and college applications and trying to keep the "spark" alive while driving their SUVs?  That's the story I want to see.  The one where the bump on their waistline is not from a baby on the horizon, but is leftover from the babies that are about to graduate from high school.  I want to see the romantic comedy where the magical date looks like actually getting to have a complete conversation that doesn't involve work or children and instead it focuses on remembering why they  chose one another all those years ago.   Or how about a story where a "tropical getaway" involves recruiting grandparents, leaving meals in the freezer, two weeks of coordinating carpool solutions, and more than likely a meltdown in the swimsuit department before boarding the plane.  What about the stories where romance involves cellulite and wrinkles and reading glasses and the fact that sometimes the best kind of love is the one that's endured a whole lotta mess and yet still chooses to be committed and electric after all that time?   Where are those stories?  

Because, I've been thinking, that's the one I wanna see.