post-transplant UPDATES
05-17-09 10:15 PM - I was just about to retire for the evening when a conversation I was having with Kelli brought me back to a moment late this afternoon. I never grow tired of thanking the Lord for the blessing he bestowed upon Kelli. Little things like today serve as a reminder of God's goodness in our lives.
I set out to mow the lawn this afternoon and I was not quite half way through when Albert, the youngest of the bunch at 11, (who has been agonizing for the past several years over the day when he is big enough to mow the lawn with the riding lawn mower. He gave it a shot last year, but wasn't quite heavy enough to keep the kill switch trigger on the seat from kicking in every time he hit a bump.) came walking down the yard my direction and I knew what was coming....it was time to try again! But I was in a hurry and just wanted to get the yard mowed and on to the next project. Albert approached me and asked if he could try and see if he was heavy enough now. I told him no, I just wanted to get the job done. He told me that he weighed 80 pounds now and thought he could do it. I cut him off and said, "80 pounds isn't enough...." and went on my way.
As I made the next couple rounds, I noticed Albert had started shooting hoops on the back patio by himself. I found myself drawn into my own past and caught a glimpse of memories that made my heart smile. I saw myself, riding on my grandpa's lawn mower. I couldn't have been much more than 6 or 8 years old. (Granted, back then they didn't have kill switches on seats, but nevertheless, I was much younger than Albert when my grandpa taught me to ride the mower.) I could hear the sound of that old mower. I could even smell the exhaust. Then I realized that I wouldn't have had that memory to glance back upon had my grandpa brushed me off and told me he was too busy to teach me. I never heard those words come out of his mouth for the 21 years I was blessed with him in my life.
So, I stopped that lawn mower and called out to Albert. He came running down the hill to the back yard and I said, "Ok, let's see if you can keep this thing running. " It took only a second or two to see that he had grown enough this past winter to keep it going. So, with a few safety instructions and pointers, I told him to go for it. He buzzed around the backyard and I watched a sparkle of pride glisten in his eye as he watched himself operating this machinery and mowing the lawn all by himself. I even noticed how quickly he studied what he was doing and developed techniques to maneuver the mower efficiently around the paths.
Then came an even greater reminder. I happened to glance upwards toward the house and I saw Kelli standing on the back sidewalk looking down at her son who was mowing the lawn all by himself - she was smiling and beaming with that same pride that showed from Albert's face. And I thanked God at that very moment that Kelli is here to see this; to experience this moment in her son's life. I know it doesn't sound like a big deal, but oh, it is....for a young boy this is a huge deal! A glimpse of responsibility; of being trusted by an adult with a job and a machine! A taste of manhood! I know it was a big deal in my life. It was such a big deal that I remembered the moment some thirty years later so that I could pass it on to another generation.
Someone I admire very much once shared a story that impacted me very much and it fits right in with what I have shared so I will close by sharing this story with you.
One night a father was tucking his young son into bed. The father pulled the covers up to his son's shoulders and kissed him on the forehead and told him goodnight. As the father was getting up to leave the boy said, "Dad, can I ask you a question?" "Sure", answered his father.
"How much money do you make?", asked the boy. With a sharpness to his tone the father answered his son saying, "That's none of your concern, go to sleep."
The next night, the same scenario played out, again ending with the father telling the son that such things were not any business of his.
The son asked again the next night and the father started to lash out at the boy when he saw a tear welling up in his eye. The father paused, caught himself and asked, "Why is it so important that you know how much money I make son?" "The boy answered, "It is really important, please won't you tell me? The father paused for a moment and then answered his son saying, "I make $20.00 an hour." The boy joyfully thanked his father for sharing this with him and went to sleep.
The next night the father came in to tuck the son in bed. As the father turned to leave the room, the boy called out to his father and asked if he would come back. The father turned and came back to his son's bedside and asked what was the matter? His son reached under his pillow and pulled out a wad of crumpled up bills and some coins and placed them in his father's hand.
His dad asked, "What is this for son? Where did you get this?" The boy said, " It's twenty dollars, it's for you. Can I have an hour of your time?"
We adults are so busy with our lives and with "raising our kids" that we forget what it means to really be a parent. Parenting isn't about buying our kids gifts they won't remember two weeks after you gave them. It's all about the little things. The quiet moments shared together. Taking the time to let your children know that they are important to you. That they matter. That what they think matters. I've always clung to the saying, Car pe diem! (Seize the day!) because we blink and suddenly we realize ten years have past! It won't be long before Kelli and I are "empti-nesters". Today was a good reminder of that reality and that we only have a certain number of years to make those memories that will see the kids into their own adult lives. Memories that will guide them and sustain them in their lives and will hopefully influence their decisions in a positive way.
05-11-09 9:45 AM - As I type, Kelli is in having her biopsy. She breezed through the first part of the morning and the biopsy shouldn't take long. The preliminaries are good. They are pleased with numbers and stats. Tomorrow will reveal the results of the biopsy which I will share when we get them. Thank you again for your prayers. God Bless.
05-05-09 7:30 PM - I apologize to all of you who faithfully visit this website and have only found blank space for close to a week now. Kelli is doing well. I thank you all for your prayers as she went through all those tests last week.
This will seem to have nothing at all to do with anything pertaining to this website, but I want to share it anyway simply because I believe each day is a learning experience. I don't care how young or old you are, you can always learn something each day, even if it is only an enhancement to what you already know.
Today was one such day. Interestingly I didn't feel like I was learning much today except how to make one wrong decision after another. Work was very busy today and I got called to drive today (tractor-trailer). I had a load of palletized scrap metal to deliver to a local scrap yard that I had never been to before. While I was there, waiting to be unloaded, I gazed at all the "junk" surrounding me. Pile after pile, stacked so high I couldn't see over it from my elevated position inside the truck. As I studied all the stuff that made up these piles of scrap I saw bits and pieces of our daily lives. Buried in these piles of junk was everything from washers and dryers, old metal shelving, appliances to automobiles.
All the treasures of modern life all crumpled up in piles. I looked at the cars that were compacted in the mix and thought that once upon a time, those cars were someone's pride and joy. Someone drove that now crumpled automobile off the showroom floor (probably after paying way more than it was worth) and drove immediately to the nearest friend or relative to show it off and to let others savor that new car smell. Then someone else might have owned that same car after it was traded in by the original owner, giving another a moment of pride and satisfaction in owning an automobile. Now, this once multi-thousand dollar vehicle, once cared for and pampered like a new born baby, passed on to another owner who cared for it and drove it until it wore out, now sits as a mangled, twisted reminder of the vanity of our modern lives. What once cost someone a monthly payment to possess, now sits as rusted junk worth only what the going rate of scrap metal might be today. Yet, we place so much value on these material possessions
I could see refrigerators, washers and dryers, dishwashers, that once were the envy of every household. Friends would come over and just rave over how nice that new refrigerator looked and how they just had to have one themselves. After months, maybe years of credit card payments and high interest rates, the pride of someone's kitchen, now sits buried beneath someone else's Maytag.
Matthew 6:19-21
19 Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth
and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal:
20 But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth
nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor
steal:
21 For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.
The truth of that passage of scripture rang with such clarity this afternoon as I gazed upon these piles of worthless treasures we have heaped up for ourselves upon the earth. And it drove home to me how truly trivial these things are. Certainly they are "necessary conveniences" of life as we live it in this modern age, but we should put our priorities straight and realize that these are just things that should be part of making our lives easier so that we have more time and more resources to focus on the things in life that really matter - family and friends and reaching out to those in need, using our resources to help one another.
This was one of those life lessons refreshed and expounded up in my mind from the frantic stresses of my day. I always enjoy it when I can look back at the end of the day and be thankful for the experiences and walk away from today having learned something to bring with me into tomorrow.
Thanks for visiting. God bless.
