Divided Heart

With half my immediate family and all of my extended family out of this country . . I go through the day bouncing between thinking of tragedies like the little girl in red polka dots, and then about my loved ones far away, calculating time zones in Virginia, California, North Carolina . . .  Kevin had an automatic defibrillator surgically implanted yesterday, which sounds rather intimidating, praying it went well.  I heard that my mom had a fiasco with a dead car battery and then a claustrophobic 2 hour MRI of her back. Luke sounds great in Kenya, using his pottery class to design nose cones for the rockets he's making in AP Chem.  Scott and Caleb have had a great weekend with the Myhres of California, were warmly received by the Half Moon Bay Methodists, and yesterday soaked up renewing sunshine in a strenuous ridge-top hike and an afternoon of boogie-boarding in the surf.  And back to my loved ones here, today is Miss Ashley's birthday, and her devoted fans have been working hard on a lovely card.  By evening the shipment of 50-some goats should arrive by truck, to be given to HIV-affected families and orphaned babies.  It is the technological experience of simultaneity (not a word I'm sure) that can be jarring, interrupting our breakfast here to say goodnight to Caleb on a cell phone!