Molly Piper

We had dinner last night with new friends who feel like old friends. The reason I say that is because their first child died four years ago in a hospital in Turkey, after she went into labor at 24 weeks while in a middle-eastern country. The medical technology was just not available to deal with her problem. She had an emergency c-section, and when she came out of the sedation, her child had already died. The hospital let them have him for about 10 minutes, and then they never saw him again.

We talked about loss, not just of our children, but of all kinds of things–hope, faith, dreams, naiveté. We also talked about restoration of a lot of things–hope, faith, dreams–but the naiveté doesn’t ever return. Once you’ve experienced tragedy and suffering like they have, you never live the same way, thinking, “those things happen to other people, not us.”

They now have a two-year-old daughter who is just a delight. She and Orison had a blast together. It was so amazing to listen to them playing together and laughing.

As we shared our pictures and mementos of Felicity’s birth with them (at their request, which felt wonderful to have someone ask to see her), she marveled, “I lived through that. God brought me through that.”

I am having one of the best days ever. It’s definitely one of the best days I’ve had in a long time. Today has been “Bless and Pamper Molly Day,” at least that’s how I feel.

It kind of began yesterday, when Abraham informed me that he was taking me out for breakfast without Orison. I love going out to breakfast, and we rarely do it. I don’t know why I like it so much, either. Most of the stuff on the menu is available at home–eggs, wheat toast, pancakes–but I never make hash brown, those are always a special treat.

So this morning, we get ready, Abraham takes Orison over to the Tong’s for babysitting, and we hit the road. We had a great time talking about the future, blogging, ideas, etc. Then we drove around for awhile. We were going to go to the Como Conservatory, but there must have been an event there or something, because we couldn’t find parking anywhere!

We just drove around, and eventually ended up by a Target, and we stopped in to buy me a binder and dividers and page protectors so I could organize my knitting patterns. This is a task I’ve been hoping to do for a long time. And I love practical, so this was special for me.

Then Abraham said, “I need to swing by home. I forgot something for later.” So we arrive home to find my friend Jenna and another girl at our house–there had been a cleaning brigade there while we were gone!!! Turns out the other girl, Jancy, is my good friend Amy’s cousin who’s visiting for the weekend from Georgia. And she was more than eager to be a part of the work, I couldn’t even believe it. So my house looked so clean, AND there were fresh flowers everywhere I looked.

Jenna told me that our friends Mike & Brian from small group had been in the kitchen earlier. I was hoping my wish had come true, so ran in to look–A SHELF!!! You see, there is this one cabinet in my kitchen that doesn’t have an upper shelf, it hasn’t had one since we moved in 3+ years ago. I’ve been telling Abraham how much I’d like one, and now it’s HERE! I don’t have a lot of cabinet space in my kitchen, so having just one more shelf feels like my whole kitchen life has changed.

They left, and there was lunch made by my friend Megan waiting for us! Megan is a “family and consumer science” teacher (what most of us know as home ec.), so pretty much anything she touches is lovely, delicious, pretty, etc. Needless to say, I was excited.

Then Abraham told me, “There’s another surprise coming at 1.” One o’clock rolls around and guess what it is…

a massage.

Yes, a massage. In my house. She brought her table in, her music, her wonderful rubbing lotion… it was fantastic. I had an hour massage in my sitting room upstairs!!!! I was just laying there, marveling, listening to celtic instrumental arrangements of some of my favorite hymns, getting a massage. I had so many knots in my shoulders that it kind of hurt at times, but it was a good hurt, you know? I told Abraham, “I think she needs to come every day.”

There are scads of people I need to thank for this day. Jenny & Amy, the brains and enthusiasm behind the project; Jenna, Jancy, Rachel, Christina, Shannon, Lindsey, Megan, for your incredible cleaning and cooking job; Brian & Mike, for the shelf that I love; Catherine, for caring for my son so all this could happen and doing my laundry; and Jessica, for the amazing massage. And of course, Abraham, who played along with this lovely scheme for making this day absolutely wonderful.

I am thankful to God for such fantastic friends. I am thankful to God for God. He really knows me, he really loves me, he really cares for me in all of this. I have been clinging to this with white-knuckled fists for 5 months now, asking him to help me believe it. Sometimes he sends peace that doesn’t make sense so I can know it. Today he sent friends to help me know it.

This is a totally random thought, just up from the kitchen. As a child, I could think of few things I hated more than Swiss cheese. It was so gross to me back then. But now I LOVE it! Is it a grown-up taste? Because right now I’m sitting down with a slice and some Ritz crackers (I know, that’s not a very grown-up taste, but they’re one of my faves), and I am totally psyched for the snack I’m about to have.

I read about this fad somewhere recently, but I can’t remember where. A couple minutes of internet research has yielded what I was hoping for–Nudie Jeans. They claim that jeans share your soul or something like that, and that you shouldn’t wash a pair of their jeans for the first 6 months, at least. You can read what they say here.

I just don’t think I could do it, no matter how much “personality” my jeans were developing. If by personality, they mean stench, then I’m not interested. Plus they’re like $200 a pair, so I’m thinking I’ll stick with Target.

The last few days, I have been editing and uploading digital pictures for printing. I have been watching a lot of videos we have of Orison. It shocks me that he can be so old. Here he is, Labor Day weekend of 2006, at the Archer’s place in North Dakota. His first two-word phrase was “Hello, people.” Seems fitting for our new location.

Since July 2005, when Danielle created and set up a page for me, I have been writing on a Xanga page. Now, I know that some people think of Xanga as kind of high schoolish and juvenile, but it really worked for me. It was an easy platform for a non-technical person like myself to navigate. I got used to it quickly and have remained there ever since.

I have been toying with the idea of changing platforms, but have been nervous to do so, just because there are so many of you who read and comment (and don’t comment, and that’s fine too) that I didn’t want to lose any of you by changing locations. But… after Abraham gave me a little tutorial on WordPress, I’m going to press into this new challenge.

So you should know that I have a link to the right where you can access my old xanga page that contains life from July 2005-February 2008.

And note that I will now be posting here–http://thepipers.wordpress.com