Sunday Contrasts

Yesterday we spent in the misting rain, shivering at times, cheering most others, back and forth between 3 football (soccer) games for Jack's JV and 5 for Caleb's Varsity in the annual RVA football (boys) and basketball (girls) tournament. It is a community event, with seniors selling grilled burgers and chicken and pizza and salads, parents meeting up with kids and old friends, faculty mingling. The best moment for me was Caleb scoring the tying goal in the first round against the team that won the whole tournament in the end. The final game came down to overtime and then a penalty shoot-out, which we lost 3 to 2. But it was valiant and muddy and crazy and tense. And followed immediately by Acacia's pizza party for a handful of her classmates, celebrating her 14th birthday. A great thing to be able to host this with Karen. Due to rain we had to be mostly inside, but the girls' chatter and the candles on Karen's home made apple pie were cheery. At Acacia's request, Karen and I made a breakfast this morning of crepes with strawberries and whipped cream, before they went off to Nairobi for the day with family. I love our blended family here, the extra mom and dear friend staying under our roof, the shared Bday fun.

About the moment the party was all over Scott starting shivering, and within the hour he was knocked over by some infection. The last few days (weeks? months?) really wiped him out anyway, a complicated patient with unusual neoplastic tissue only a few weeks post partum, a difficult surgery, and then a long hard phone call which was the culmination of a week's worth of sorting out a conflict. I think his body was just over-the-limit, so when an infection hit, it hit HARD. He's not spent a day in bed like this in ? I can't remember. So he missed the early morning visit to plant a tree with our friends who lost their baby. I sort of invited myself when I heard they were commemorating her birth and death, and they were gracious to let me come. After days and days of rain there was a moment of sun, fresh earth, a simple scripture, tears, memories. As we talked it struck me that I was glad to be there on so many levels. As a fellow mom who lost three babies of about the same size, the lonely mourning of miscarriage now shared. As a doctor, closure to walking through this week with the frightening bleeding and shock and transfusions and ICU. But mostly as a person who misses the intimacy of our small team, someone peripheral to the massive intricate complexity of Kijabe/RVA, in this small moment we were able to delve deeply into a life, and I'm thankful for that.

Birthday and burial, all within the hour. Life is so like that. Sickness and crepes. The clouds part for a few hours of sunshine, and then return. A toddler giggles as mourning parents weep. All true no matter how incongruous.

Prayers for Scott's healing appreciated. I am just emerging from almost two weeks of intestinal issues, still not sure if the disease or the cure caused the most problems, but it wasn't pretty. Hope he doesn't take that long to improve . . . we need him.