Category: Personal

A Layne Post

Today is my 28th birthday. I could never have imagined this beautiful life.

Want a glimpse? Highlights from this week –

• Jovie falling asleep in the arms of Esperança at the hospital
• Making jalapeno lemon hummus
• Listening to Anaya through the monitor say, “Hi Pillow,” as she crawls around bed, putting herself to sleep
• A friend giving me a jar of xanthan gum
• Sharing dinner with my friend Lauren and her new hubby Luis and watching Anaya giggle in her Auntie’s arms
• Watching an old black and white Portuguese movie outside on the lawn of the most beautiful hotel and sipping coffee with my husband
• Anaya praying/saying, “Come on, Jesus” over a boy on the brink of death
• Butternut soup
• Crying as Jon and I chatted about the Lord’s work in our lives and the lives of our friends at the hospital
• Listening to Jovie cackle as I tickle her belly
• Emails from my sister
• Playing Cribbage and Yahtzee with Jon
• Finding out about Lord’s hand in arranging an earlier than expected CAT scan for Eliza
• Seeing my whole family on Skype at the same time and hearing them sing ‘Happy Birthday’
• Bible study with my ladies – cinnamon rolls, fruit smoothies, coffee
• Wandering a crowded Mozambican market as people shouted “Jesus!” at Jon,  and then buying some awesome 80’s clothes from Jon’s upcoming birthday
• Watching a man roll a wheel-barrel by me with a freshly cut cow head
• Getting a call from my besty, Liz
• Watching an old grandma who doesn’t speak English or Portuguese bounce Jovie in the air above her with a broad smile
• Drinking a blueberry, kiwi, banana, lemonade smoothie
• Flowers from a friend
• Encouragement from our mission board – Voices of the World
• Crying as I listen to worship music, reminding myself that God is faithful, even to Samuel
• The gift of the most precious crocheted sandals for Jovie

And I could go on.

Seriously?

I am blessed.

I am so grateful to the Lord and to you. Thanks for being a part!

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Ordinary Day

Today marks 2 weeks for our Jovie girl.

Yesterday we were all sitting on the couch, all four of us, and Jon wanted to catch a picture, a picture of ordinary life… well the new ordinary. You see, it seems like only yesterday Jon and I were adventurous young newly weds with a vision on our hearts and passion to fuel it. We took off traveling and searching for a home, a place to spend this God given passion within us. We found that home in Mozambique.

Now when we walk in the hospital we are greeted with happy smiles and familiar ‘Hellos’ by the staff and patients. Some hardly lift their heads from their crocheting and give a simple wave. Anaya is their little ‘Oncologista’ as she toddles around pointing at and naming the animals on the wall in the hallway. We’ve become regulars… ordinary.

When I roll out my tortillas or individually cut my chips to bake, when I make my own white sauce to substitute cream of chicken soup, when I measure in milliliters… it’s my ordinary.

It happens quick, this settling, this ordinary. Jovie has only been here two weeks, and yet my mornings and days have fallen into a rhythm. My mom came for three weeks, and she quickly slipped in. By the time she left she had become accustomed to making the coffee every morning for the three of us, she’d do afternoon dishes, take Anaya to play outside after lunch, she filled Anaya’s juice and milk cups at the end of every night, she’d make bubbles on Anaya’s feet in the bathtub. It became ordinary to have her around.

So I was thinking… I wonder, if this ordinary is so easy to slip into, if it happens so quickly, then what new life things would I like to become ordinary things? And what is the difference of forced adjustment and voluntary adjustment? Jovie is here for good, no options – we adjust. My mom came to visit – stuck in our house 3wks, no options – she adjusted. But then it comes to resolutions and goals and we just can’t seem to get in the groove.

Anyways, I don’t really have an answer, I just got to thinking. Thinking about the joy it is to have Jovie feel like one of us, an ordinary Heller. Thinking about how I miss my mom and hearing her door open in the morning, the lack of what became ordinary. Thinking about how I’d like to be more consistent about reading the Bible with my husband an about prayers with my daughters before bed… things I want to be ordinary.

Ordinary Day

Right Before We Left

A Jon Post

First comes discomfort,

8:00 AM hospital, waiting, waiting, 2 hours, doctor, nurse, smiles.

            Words fail at the beauty of my wife

Then comes waiting,

Drive home, nothing, bouncing on a round rubber ball, hope, questions, memories, playing worship music, 3 more hours.

            Breathtaking love displayed in my wife

Then comes ache,

Small pains, talking through them, worship together, looking at the clock, tears together, just one hour, back to the hospital

            Fire and purity in my wife’s eyes

Pain

Then comes pain,

“Oh it hurts”

            -My wife’s beauty, the glory of God’s creation, masked in pain, the sentence of Eve’s sin-

            A smile, a tear, eyes shut like thunderstorms before the rain,

            “Oh glory, oh pain… bring life, please bring life. Unchain my wife from her torment”

Then come groans,

First Seconds of Life

“Oh stop”

            Helpless trust, breathless trust, desperate trust

            “Oh Christ save, deliver, redeem!!!”

Then push

Then comes pain

Then push

Then comes pain

Then push

Jovie

Then comes pain

Then comes pain

Then comes pain

Then comes JOY

Then comes FAITH

Then comes my daughter

THEN COMES JOY

Family

THEN COMES FAITH

Then comes my daughter

…yeah… that’s her

My wife is glowing…

Welcome dear.

Welcome Jovie Fé

My Incredible Wife

…

Alive

…