Remembering our last visit.

June 2010 was our last visit with Sandi. When we went out to Colorado to visit her we really didn't know what we would be able to do together. We knew she was no longer getting treatment for her cancer and that she was on oxygen. She had already lived eight years with a cancer that upon diagnosis she had been told that she had only an 85% chance of living one year. And did she ever live. Every day she lived her life fully present. I have never met anyone who could do that. She never borrowed trouble or wasted time with worry. Like I said, when we went to see her I didn't know what to expect....but I didn't expect this!

 

Sandi enjoyed being a crazy shopping cart driver.

Sandi just carried that oxygen all around town. She was like the energizer bunny. Once I had to go back to the hotel for a nap. After a bit, she called me and asked if I was done and ready to do something. She had so much energy! I asked her if she took a nap. Surely she must have needed one. She said no. She wasn't tired so she gave Misty, their corgi, a bath. Of course she did. That was Sandi.

 

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Looking Ahead

The Sandi House

The new 88 bed dormitory.

Some of the beautiful smiling faces We can't wait to meet.

Lunch time!

2008

Sandi and I enjoying a night at Maranatha on Lake Michigan.

I'm pretty sure we went up to the sweet shop for ice cream after this as was our tradition every night!

 

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Heading to Africa...again.

At the request of some friends and family I am reviving this blog for my upcoming trip to Uganda. I'll be taking it for a test drive these next few days to be sure everything is in working order with my apps and devices.

Here is a photo that says most everything. Sandi and I had a very special friendship for over 25 years. Cancer claimed her life here on earth in 2010. I am traveling with her family to Uganda to celebrate the Sandi House. A dormitory built to house 88 girls at this school. It was built completely from donations given in memory of this wonderful lady. She would love this.

 

Sandi in 2008 with Jeremy and Bethany.

 

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Cultural Whiplash

A friend recently asked me if I was suffering from cultural whiplash from AAA? Traveling in the last few weeks from America to Africa and now Austria. I was wondering what was going on inside and I think that pretty much nailed it.

The contrasts are so vast. They can't be ignored. I still have all these pictures on my phone and as I scroll through them I see children from Korah with HIV, orphans from Chapa, then a castle, magnificent church, huge plates of food and decadent pastries. Every country has histories of war, takeovers, and communism. Everywhere there is a story.

We sit at night in the hotel lobby and watch the unfolding of horrors back home. The Boston Marathon bombing, the poisoned letter and now the fertilizer plant in Texas. It seems strange to be observing from a distant lens.


These contrasts are just a plane ride away but in my mind they are all stirred up together. I wonder how it will sort itself out.

Here is a picture I took in front of the opera house in Budapest. I realized I could choose to see what I wanted to see and show what I wanted to show. How much of what we see is edited that way? How much of our world do we edit or is edited before we even see it?

My friend also said it might be time for the ER.....meaning "home." I think the pun was intended:)