Paris Beauty

I'm a reluctant tourist and thought nothing of hanging out in the Charles de Gualle airport during our eight-hour layover in Paris. I had my Kindle and they have good coffee. Tayta had other ideas, which she put into action via some internet searching and Facebook messaging the morning that we traveled. Dear Husband encouraged these plans by going to the money-changer and buying enough Euros to get us into Paris by train.
And so we enjoyed a Paris morning full of beauty.

We arrived at the airport at about 5 o'clock am after a red-eye flight from Amman, and arrived in Paris, the city, at about 7:30 am. The weather was beautiful: sunny and not too warm, and we were traveling light--no carry-ons to contend with. This is notable for us. Tayta even thought ahead for breakfast and so we enjoyed her homemade banana-walnut-chocolate-chip muffins in front of Notre Dame cathedral. And for the next three hours we enjoyed as much enduring Parisian beauty as we could.

We enjoyed Notre Dame from every angle, taking in its complete form.

And then we enjoyed the details...

We found more enduring beauty inside the cathedral. I had so many ponderings about the role of beauty in our places of worship as I enjoyed the magnificence of the cathedral's interior.

On our flight from Paris to Chicago, Tayta chose to watch a documentary on the Georgian-born French sculptor Goudji, who, it turns out, created a baptismal found and a candlestick which now reside in the Notre Dame cathedral. The theme of beauty continued and Tayta recorded this quote from one of the commentators in the documentary:

The basis of the Christian liturgy, and not only the Catholic liturgy, is beauty. we approach the Lord through beauty; not just the beauty of the text, but the beauty of gestures, the beauty of the objects we use. Of course there are the people who say, "but that money could have been used to do this...why Lord, waste this perfume on your feet?" It's Judas who says that. It's always the same question: Why? But nothing is too beautiful for God.

Happy and content to be surrounded by so much beauty, and looking forward to this:

We emptied our pockets of our last euros to buy a cappuccino for me and a hot chocolate for Tayta. 

The hot chocolate was served as a layer of  melted chocolate, decoratively arranged in the cup into which Tayta poured hot milk.

We had a little more time to walk-about after coffee, so we ambled slowly along the river Seine.

Art quilt inspiration?

With just about 30 minutes until we needed to head for the train station to catch our train back to the airport, we explored a few nearby blocks and marveled at the beautiful architecture on every corner. I've not yet had time to investigate as to what famous (I assume as other tourist-types were taking pictures) buildings we had the privilege of beholding.

Tayta has decided she would like to return to Paris. We'd both like to visit the Louvre, but that will require a planned, longer layover.  Another encouragement to return was the opportunity Tayta had to use her French. At one Parisian information center the woman spoke no English and so Tayta was had to ask for and receive directions in French. She understood and was understood. I was just impressed (Thank you, Carol!)

New Friends

It has been one week since Tayta's revision surgery and tonight we are packing our bags, preparing for our drive to Chicago in the morning and our flight to Jordan  tomorrow afternoon. Kristen had her post-op appointment with Dr. Siebert yesterday; he removed her stitches and told her that she looks great. I agree. Residual swelling should subside over the next six weeks.

At our last dinner in the Madison Ronald McDonald House, we met the Melendez family. Kristen, with her natural social astuteness, noticed them first, noting that their son appeared to suffer from Parry-Romberg Syndrome. We introduced ourselves and asked if they were here to see Dr. Siebert. When they understood the connection and we explained that Tayta had just undergone her second surgery with Dr. Siebert, an instant bond was formed. They were so happy to meet us. Though they had been in contact with other PRS families, they had never met another PRS patient in person, let alone anyone who had undergone surgery with Dr. Seibert.
Tayta talked with Diego--he was concerned about the pain he would feel and Tayta explained how all the nerves in his face would be cut. He would experience discomfort, but hopefully no pain.

Diego's dad and I took pictures of our PRS kids together. Tayta and I were touched by their family's story: Diego showed signs of PRS when he was two years old, and soon after Diego's father moved their family from their home in Puerto Rico to Orlando, Florida, so that they could find a treatment for Diego's PRS. Their long and persistent search and research ultimately led them to Dr. Siebert, and they are filled with hopeful anticipation as they prepare for Diego's first surgery on Monday. Diego's bone and tissue atrophy are quite severe so he'll likely have to undergo a few surgeries; he will need bone reconstruction as well as the free-flap tissue transplant that Tayta had.

Please take a moment to visit the blog which Diego's family has set up on his behalf. You can read more of his story and meet his family (in Spanish). While God has provided for most of the expense of Tayta's surgery via our insurance coverage, not all families enjoy this benefit and must raise money via donations to cover the cost of these expensive surgeries. Please consider donating and praying for Diego and his family on Monday as he undergoes his first surgery. We will be praying and cheering for him back in Mafraq, Jordan!

Not Just Another Pretty Face

For nearly a year, Tayta has been sporting the look of someone who just had her wisdom teeth removed on the left side of  her mouth, and she has done it with grace and confidence; confidence that came not only with knowing that the extra tissue in her face would eventually be removed, but confidence that God has called her His child and has given her a purpose for living, a purpose which did not depend on the symmetry of her face.

Many of you know of Tayta's diagnosis with Parry Romberg Syndrome, a rare autoimmune disease which causes the tissue, and sometimes the bones, on one side of the face to atrophy. I have written a few posts about Tayta's journey with this disease and about her free-flap tissue transplant surgery which took place last August. You can read those here, beginning at the bottom of the page. (I include these again as these posts have put me in touch with others who have children with PRS and I'd like to share information about Tayta's treatment which might be helpful to others.)

Tayta expected that she would have to wait until next summer, our regularly scheduled time to visit the States, to have the revision surgery, in which the surgeon would complete the cosmetic aspects of her treatment, but God provided the means for Tayta and I to travel to Madison, Wisconsin this week so that she could have the surgery sooner than later. An extra bonus of our trip was a visit with Oldest Daughter, living in Evanston. She treated us to a wonderful performance of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, but the best part was spending time together and being there to help her move out of her apartment for the summer. God has been very generous with us!

Here we are, packed and ready to fly out of Amman's new international airport. We're also trying our hand at taking pictures with my tablet--I like my camera better.

Tayta's surgery took place yesterday morning: it was a three hour surgery in which her surgeon "de-bulked"  her cheek, took  a couple stitches above her left eye to correct the pulled skin, and filled in her left lip, using tissue from her right lip. The picture below shows just how great Tayta is looking several hours post-op.

One day post-op, the eye and lip swelling have increased and there is more discoloration of Tayta's skin, i.e. bruising, but that is to be expected with such a procedure. Her surgeon predicts a six-week recovery period. While this surgical intervention isn't technically a cure for PRS, it has arrested the affects of PRS in every person who has undergone a free-flap live tissue transplant.

Our hearts are overwhelmed with gratitude to God for providing this surgical option for Tayta and for the many friends, old and new who have helped us, cared for us, and prayed for us along the way. Thank you!

I will leave you with some wise advice from Tayta, given to me this afternoon: "Don't ever have plastic surgery unless you have to."

Wildflowers of Summer

Yesterday Active Son needed a ride to Jerash where he was meeting up with a physical therapist to do some shadowing. Jerash is about a 40 minute drive from Mafraq and the bus was a hot, lengthy possibility for Active Son, but since I love the country back-road drive from Mafraq to Jerash and I love spending time with Active Son while he is home for the summer, I volunteered to drive. I took my camera as I had noticed a couple previously unobserved species of flowers along this road the week before.

Though summer doesn't officially begin until June 21st, summer weather has arrived and is here to stay without much variation: No.more.rain. We've had some temperatures in the high 30's (100 F) and look forward to the pleasantly cool days in the high twenties/low 30's (mid 80's). The landscape of the countryside now tends toward shades of brown, with a few spots of sage green  and even fewer spots of color. Though many of the thistles have dried up, the purple Echinops is now beginning to bloom.

Echinops polyceras

This is my first observation of the Spotted Golden Thistle, which was blooming for about a half mile stretch along the road.

Scolymus maculatus

Golden Spotted Thistle

Riotous clumps of pink Convolvulus produce flowers that appear out of place in a harsh summer landscape. Their delicate pink blossoms belie their sturdy, drought resistant nature.

Convolvulus dorycnium

Convolvulus

And the caper bushes are blooming--there is no doubt that summer has arrived.

Caparis spinosa

Caper

The caper flowers, with their beautifully tinted, showy stamens always convince me that one photo is not enough. 

Flowering Jordan Calendar~June 2013

Wildflower spotting: Wadi Dana

Art Quilt

I'm not sure how it happened. I think it began by pinning a couple art quilts which caught my eye on Pinterest. First they went on to my Quilting Board but I soon created an Art Quilts board as I found myself drawn to pin more and more art quilts. I had never seen quilts like these before; their colors, textures, and designs captivated my imagination and gave me courage that I could play with fabric and principles of design as I ventured into new creative avenues with recycled fabrics.

After a couple months of admiring and pinning, I decided to attempt my first art quilt. The boys bedroom was slowly morphing into a guest room and I needed a wall hanging to replace the baseball poster. The room already had some bold colors, including a dark red Bedouin rug with some orange and black accents. I wanted to make this art quilt entirely out of recycled fabrics and decided to begin with my felted wool, which I felt would give me the textures and colors I wanted to go with the bold, minimalist decor of the room.

I knew that I must be gentle with myself and begin simply, and so I chose to do uneven Log Cabin squares, imitating this scrap quilt design by textile artist Victoria Gertenbach. I used scraps and then pulled pieces from some other sweaters to achieve the color scheme I wanted.

It was very easy to cut the pieces for this 3 feet/1meter square quilt--I didn't measure as I used my rotary cutter and quilting ruler to cut a collection of strips of varying widths and trimmed these strips to their required length as I created my squares. The seams don't show here, but they are completely flat as I butted the edges of the wool together and zig-zagged them.

 I found a used denim curtain panel at the second-hand market, which I used for the back of the quilt. The middle layer is a cotton flannel sheet, also recycled, and the binding is fashioned from denim shirt scraps. I quilted all three layers as I zig-zagged the finished squares together, so it only has four actual quilting lines. I made a three inch sleeve that runs the length of the top of the quilt. Dear Husband engineered the rest of the hanging apparatus using a scrap piece of wood (from an old bookshelf) Much to his delight, was able to hang it on the nail/screw which held the baseball poster, as he doesn't like to put too many holes in the wall. Drilled concrete is not easily patched.

When Artist Son arrived, I enjoyed discussing the color and design principles of this quilt. I think there actually are some, though I don't know how to talk about them well--I'm learning. I've noticed that the "random" look is not randomly achieved and that I choose colors carefully, even for a design that sort of looks thrown together. I find one of the greatest satisfactions of finishing a project is, besides the finished project, the permission I give myself to begin dreaming of and plotting the next project...

Garden Journal~May 2013

Last month I did my first Garden Journal post as I thought it would be interesting to document the progress of our gardening efforts and to begin a record of what blooms when. Below is the right side of our garden, one month later. All my bulbs have finished blooming and now the perennials are taking the stage, though many of my seedlings are still too small to provide any visual pleasure. I'm just trying to keep them alive by giving them enough water and protecting them from snails. I've lost a few small plants, but most of them are thriving.

Dear Husband added four teucrium  bushes, drought resistant plants with silver/green foliage and lavender flowers.  They should grow another foot or two, providing a visual wall between the garden and the front concrete wall.

My tomatoes, which were three to six inch seedlings a month ago, have produced their first blossoms this week. Lesson learned: I had a few extra seedlings, which I threw out after I planted the garden. I should have saved them as pests destroyed a few of my seedlings. The basil is doing well, too, and I'm trying to resist picking it too much so that it can really take off. I know that pinching off basil encourages new growth, but I was hardly giving mine a chance to grow!

I planted a few  varieties of tomatoes, and their plant shape/height is quite different.

My healthiest coneflower is slowly blossoming--the flowers are slow to open, but they do last for a long time. I planted a number of coneflower seedlings this spring in two different colors, but I don't know if they'll mature enough to bloom this season.

The Russian sage has bloomed. It was already established before Dear Husband erected the canopy--it's sort of half in/half out, but unless it gets a lot bigger, I don't think we'll have to relocate it.

The left side of the garden has a few mature perennials and lots of seedlings.

The Grosso lavender plant that I stowed away in my carry-on luggage last September has survived and I'm enjoying its first blooms this week. The mature French lavender has finished its first bloom and I've cut it back. The Hidcote, begun by seed a few years ago is blooming, too. I used to be proud that I started these from seeds, but I've since learned that you "shouldn't" start lavender from seed as the plant quality in unreliable. It's better to propagate from an existing plant or buy a plant that has been started that way. 

The Leonotis has just begun blooming, providing a nice contrast to all the purple blooms I seem to favor.

Below is one of of the salvia plants I began from seed. While some garden pest has gnawed away at a few bottom leaves, the plant is otherwise thriving, albeit with a weird half-albino leaf thing going on. I've searched around on the internet to see what the problem could be but haven't yet come up with anything. If anyone knows, please inform me. I have a couple other seedlings grown from the same pack of seeds but none of them are affected. Ironically, this is the biggest and otherwise healthiest seedling of the bunch.

Artist Son's Birth Day

May 16, 1994 was Artist Son's due date, but with no imminent signs of labor, Dear Husband cautiously proceeded with his plans to spend the day in the northern city of Irbid, about one and a half hours from Amman. A neighbor and dear friend was standing by to watch Oldest Daughter (4) and Active Son (2) should I need to go to the hospital. It was lovely May afternoon, the children were playing here and there, in the house, and in the garden, and I was stationed in the kitchen, my in-between house and garden world, as I often was these days. What better time to prepare a large pot of fasulia--green been, beef , garlic, and tomato stew--a favorite family dish which I prepared more often in the spring when the green beans are fresh and tender.

I recall stirring the stew and calling Dear Husband when I felt my first mild I-think-that-might-have-been-a-contraction. Maybe. Given my previous labor experiences, that was enough to bring Dear Husband back to Amman posthaste.

I can't remember if I called my doctor before or after Dear Husband arrived home, but either way we headed to the hospital together to meet him. At this point I still hadn't really had many contractions but the nurses in the labor room confirmed that yes, Artist Son would be arriving soon.

At this point my doctor entered the labor room to inform us that there was no room for us in the inn, and if I stayed at this hospital  I would have to recover and possibly sleep in the labor room, and all this without my baby by my side after his delivery. He had done some checking, and there was a suite available at a neighboring hospital, the new maternity hospital, so we made the easy decision to go there. I was already "dressed" for delivery, so had to redress in my street clothes, after which Dear Husband and I walked the three blocks to the alternate hospital and checked in.

Artist Son was born a couple hours later, troubling me with only a handful of mild contractions before the big ones took over and quickly brought him into the world.

Artist Son in his flannel hospital gown

Upon looking through our photo album, I see that we're improving a bit in documenting our children's arrivals in photographs...

...and we even managed a family photo in which it appears we did our best to look nice. 

Artist Son's nineteenth birthday finds him traveling between his two worlds, from Gordon College in Massachusetts where he has just completed his freshman year, home to us in Jordan. Homecoming preparations are underway and we so look forward to his unique presence among us again. Happy Birthday, Artist Son! We thank God for you and for all the ways in which you are a blessing to each one of us, and to our family. Godspeed! Tayta will have your birthday tiramisu waiting.

Flowering Jordan Calendar~May 2013

Wildflower spotting: along the road between Irbid and Um Qais during a particularly lovely Jordan spring.