Lymph Journal # 29

2/16/2012

Well the Internet has been down in our home over the last few days shrinking things for us just a bit more.  Three days phoning back and forth with Deutsche Telekom has yet to yield a positive outcome although they have promised to send a technician between 8AM and noon today.  I began writing this at 11:21 – promises have been made and broken over the three previous days.  I don’t mean to sound whiny and there is so much I appreciate about getting by in the culture of Germany but “customer service” is rather a novel concept here.

I’ve made it through the expected physical crash following the last round by not experiencing it.  I did have a few days of mental fogginess but never reeled under nausea and kept my appetite throughout.  I strictly kept to the anti-nausea pills (I swallow so many pills!).  That and the concerted prayers of many people have seen me through this usually unpleasant window.

Today is our thirty-second anniversary.  I’ve got to say, I married well. 

A few entries ago I wrote of the beauty of “normal”.  That was really only in relation to how one physically feels and normal is so good in that respect.  But normal in other contexts is not always the most beautiful way to approach life.  Our life together has been far from normal and for that I am very grateful.  And that life together has been energized by the steadfast love of Diane for me and for her God throughout all the less than normal chapters of our lives together. 

As I reflected in the early morning today I remembered how her love and faith have endured as we built the unique family we have and enjoy.  Nine years of “challenge” in getting a family started (which also moved Diane’s instrumental role in getting CareNet RI started as the South County Crisis Pregnancy Center), our first being a seventeen year old niece from whom we learned child rearing from the opposite end of the chronological order, two adopted beauties, one miracle birth, one foster child, a second miracle birth, and all the adventures, joys and hurdles in that litany – Diane was loving and faithful and wise throughout.  Yup, I married well.

Multiple career choices for me – public school teacher, fisherman, carpenter, missionary – Diane survived them all and thrives as a full time missionary herself today pushing the Language Services envelope for TeachBeyond and I couldn’t be more impressed by how she’s taken on this responsibility.  Yup, I married well.

Multiple strange physical health issues with me (we were taking inventory a few weeks back and it’s hard to find a region of my body that hasn’t had some weird circumstance occur – I’m a modern medical miracle!) including the present condition and we’re still good.  Yup, I married well.

Rebuilding our first house literally around us – you, if you haven’t seen the pictures, how squalid things were for a time – (Brief, I hope, time-out – D-Telekom is here!) (We’re back online!) Moving back and forth from the USA to Germany as well as moving five times in Germany – she was game for it all.  Yup, I married well.

Those are some of the things on the short list of not so normal.  This chapter of life certainly ranks as an unexpected chapter but we are as close or closer than ever and, even though it won’t be a fancy restaurant tonight (but I did buy some steaks) I can say with all assurance that it is another happy anniversary and that I, indeed, married well.  I’d do it again in a heartbeat!