Sort of a Funny Day

I am at the start of a busy week for me - lots on my list for the next 6 days!

Today was sort of a funny day.

I went to a long overdue appointment with the ENT doctor, where he confirmed what I already suspected - that I have significant permanent hearing loss in my left ear. I apparently have Otosclerosis and my choices are a) Do nothing about it and it will eventually progress until I am deaf in that ear b)Wear a hearing aid c) Have surgery to install a prosthesis. My doctor and I agreed that doing nothing about it would be sort of lame, especially considering that I am young and would have a lot of life left to just pretend that I can hear people, and since I don't really want to wear a hearing aid it looks like I will choose to have surgery at some point. None of the diagnosis surprised me, I knew I couldn't hear , so when I tested really poorly I was not that upset. I'm really ok about the whole thing. I did, however, just read on a website that this condition is most common in "white middle-aged women" and I will say that makes me feel slightly un-cool since I am not yet middle-aged. Oh well, for a girl who had gout at the ripe ol' age of 21 I should have been prepared for more premature aging - am I right? Sheeeeesh... tomorrow it will be "Off to the nursing home!" for me ;)

After my appointment I went to the post office to mail a LARGE package of clothes to my brother Reed - who by the way returned to Germany from deployment in the middle east last week - welcome back to the western world!!! While Reed was away, he gave me the very fun task of selecting some new clothes for him and today I finally sent off that heck of a big box! While I waited in line at the post office I experienced a sort of sentimental event. The line was long and I had the giant box at my feet, nudging it forward here and there as the line moved forward. As I waited I studied the pictures that Evie drew all over the outside of the box and just missed my little bother - a lot. After about 10 minutes in line I realized that I recognized the man being served at the counter - my high school technology teacher. I was in his class on the morning of 9/11/2001. I sat in a desk in his class room on the morning of 9/11/2001 and watched live as the second plane hit the South Tower. Everyone remembers where they were that morning, who they were with, exactly what they were doing, everything about those moments when life changed forever. Nearly 10 years later, those moments are still so vivid - yes? They are for me - clear as glass. And this afternoon I found myself face to face with the adult who guided me and my class mates through those first hard realizations... this is not an accident and life will never be the same. We didn't speak to each other in the post office today, but we did smile. I'm not sure I could have spoken to him if I'd tried because I really needed to cry. 10 years later here I stood with a package for my baby brother who just came back from the war... the war that started while I was in computer class that day... that day when my baby brother was just in seventh grade.
And... because of that day when the war started I had to cut open my giant box in the middle of the post office in front of a million people and remove the shoe polish that I bought for Reed's new boots because it was "in violation" of one of a thousand new rules put in place since that day when the war started while I was in computer class and my baby brother was just in the seventh grade.
Phweeew! Can't a girl send a soldier boy some shoe polish (spoken with some serious attitude) Ummm Hmmm?!!!! Anyway, it was all so surreal. I wonder... if we had talked... what my teacher might have told me about his past 10 years...

I'm not really sure how to wrap up this post or how to tie it all together. I could say something cheesy like "Lord I'll gladly be deaf for the rest of my life if you'll only grant us world peace and send my brothers back home to live close by again!" But that was not really the direction I was trying to go here ;) So I will instead end with a favorite verse - a promise...

"I thank my God every time I remember you. In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this, that HE who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus."
Philipians 1:3-6

P.S. The picture in this post is from my brother Neal's wedding. It is the only photo I have of my whole side of the family together - Anabelle is in my tummy :) I am so not trying to be a Debbie Downer by sharing it this way. It's just precious to me.