Reya

We welcome into the family Reya Mckenzie Aune-Scheetz.   Born on February 22, at 11:19 pm, she weighs in at 7 lbs, 4 oz..  She is now home and things are progressing smoothly.  Ben and Penny are such loving and caring parents.  Reya is a calm and content child, sleeping, eating, and seemingly enjoying her new environs.

Vigil II

We await baby Aune.  So different is this vigil than the other four.  It ranks no larger in importance but it ranks no lesser, also.  The defining difference is proximity.  This time we do not hunker down at our home awaiting texts from our kids or kids in law.  This time we hunker down in our kid’s lake home, 60 miles from our kids in Atlanta who are soon to birth.  It is not our home.  It is not our neighborhood.  Yet we have spent so many meaningful days here in the last 8 years, and have made such great friends here, it feels like home.  News from Ben and Penny show some progress toward birth.  Meanwhile, we rekindle our friendships with neighbors Kenny and Maxine, and Ronnie and Cindy.   Friendly people are everywhere.  Kenny and Maxine, who visited us in 2013 are very special.  We are very comfortable here.  But, baby Aune, please come, please come. 

Georgia Vigil

February 17, 2005

We are off.  Gordon picked us up at 6 am and our flight left to Atlanta on time.  This, again, is going to be a trip of a lifetime.  It is another momentous event, a dream we had never dreamed, a wish that we had never wished for.  Nonetheless, this ultimate of blessings is playing out before our eyes.

It was that first day in Oslo when Ben and Penny announced that they have “a situation”.  They are expecting a child.  Now, seven months from that announcement, Barb and I gather near Atlanta to be here for Ben and Penny as they welcome their baby.  We do not know the gender.  We do not know precisely when.  But today we sit, at one of our favorite spots on God’s green earth, their lake home on Oconee, just 60 miles from Ben and Penny’s home, and wait for the call or text that their child is on the way.   Praise God from whom all blessings flow.

Christmas 2014

Under construction.  Far behind on my blogging.

Writer's block

So I haven’t blogged since September 17.  I left it in Bergen, with Barb’s cousin teaching us about the native costumes of Norway.  I left it there because I do not want it to end.  The trip was so profound, so meaningful.  It fulfilled our utmost dreams.  It beat out walking on the wall in China, standing at the precipice of Niagara, gazing at the amazing specter of the Taj Mahal, sitting three rows back at 16 at Augusta, experiencing the sunrise over Everest, or staring at the ceiling in the Sistine Chapel.  How can one put this story to end?  Our children and their mates have blessed us by going with us to the soil that gave root to our family.  And they did it with such eloquent fashion, two of them announcing in our ancestral homeland that they will give birth next spring.   They eagerly took on every challenge and expense, basking in the glory of the Norway landscape and culture, and readily mixing with our cousins there.  They gush with reports of their experiences there.  And so I struggle to find words to give this trip true meaning, so deep, spiritual, and endearing it is.  So I now will try.  Soon, I hope.

Last Two Days in Norway

I have been trying to write this entry for months.  I want to do it well and I am still  struggling in finding the right words describing those two incredible days along with summing up my thoughts of this pilgrimage.  It was such an incredible experience, I so want to do it well.  More will come, I hope.