Cousin Christian's visit

When I told Lorna that we would have a nun staying with us for a week, she had images of skipping through the foothills singing "do-re-mi". Cousin Christian, aka Sister Igna, broke all stereotypes of Catholic nuns I ever had. She is my father's first cousin who grew up in England, was ordained at 22, and has lived in Zimbabwe and worked as a teacher ever since. As I got to know her and looked at her photos, it seems she has lived her life as a full-time Peace Corps Volunteer. She has photos of digging the latrines at her rural school, sisters playing soccer with the students and orphans she has helped to raise. Truly inspiring.

While she was here, we got her to daily noon mass. Lorna went with her all but one of those days. She LOVED it and learned all kinds of new facts about Christianity and her relative, Elizabeth Fry. When we were driving home from the airport, Lorna had already asked her, "what's it like being a nun?" Lorna was in awe. Lucy and Kai were won over very quickly and gave her hugs and kisses each night before bed.

Christian is totally approachable, ready for dancing, great with the kids and a peaceful presence. She wanted to learn as much as she could about Tibetans and Buddhism as well as genetically modified seeds and "the future of food". Will gave her loads of books. We learned so much about Zimbabwe, Africa's orphan crisis and life in a convent.

While she was here we had gatherings of family and friends, a visit from the fire truck, explored a beautiful chapel and Catholic center on the Peak to Peak highway, rode on the Carousel, hide and go seek games in the yard, puzzles, swimming, visited Pearl Street, etc., and even went to birthday party in Nederland.

When we gave our thanks the night after Christian left, Lorna said that she was so happy to have people she loves all over the world. We were all so sad to see her go, but gave us reason to fantasize about a family trip to Africa some day.

Firetrucks

Kai's pronunciation is fast improving although there are still some struggles. For example he can say "truck" just fine but when other descriptions are added to truck the "tr" turns into an "f". For example, a garbage truck is a "_ucky _uck" and a dump truck is a "_uck _uck" Like most boys his age, he is excited by such vehicles and comments on them many times a day. When Sister Igna was staying with us last week (more on this later), he would often pick up his garbage trucks and tell her what they were. Over and over. Finally the benevolent nun taught him the British word for truck, which is lorry. I guess it was a good compromise.

Last Thursday we had some big excitement on Orchard Avenue! As we were all watching the yard, a gust of wind caused a crack!, zzz! and as the limb hit the power line in the back yard there were some explosions and shooting flames through the tree and into the air. I ran to my cell to call 9-1-1 but as I was talking to them, the excitement seemed to be over and we were left without power, but unscathed. They decided to send the fire department over to make sure all was ok. OH BOY! The kids were all so excited to see the fucky fuck pull up in front of the house with its lights flashing and 3 fire people came out.

After they saw the situation was safe, they asked if the kids wanted some pictures, stickers, hats and a look at the truck. Kai was in awe - just quiet disbelief. Big day!