Nick, Joe and Kevin Fever

They came toward us flowing with the crowd leaving the concert. The princess was sobbing, bangs plastered to her forehead, damp with sweat. I hugged her and asked her what was wrong. "I saw Nick".

Nick JONAS, that is: the cute, sensitive one from the Jonas Brothers band. The princess and her best friend from school had been anticipating this big concert for months. At the last minute I bailed out and only acted as chauffeur. Our 25 year old friend accompanied them in my place. Happily, Katie is a much more accomplished concert goer than I am. She knew how scope out the best spot by the stage. The girls were all three close enough to claim, "Joe looked right at me; so did Nick." As a bonus, another Disney star, Demi Levato was the opening act. Evidently it was stinking hot in the Zenith that night. Plus they were all squeezed together in the crowd. Security men were passing out water. Young girls were just passing out. This is where Katie's skill was most appreciated. During the final song, "Burning Up" little Rose passed out--and the Princess was on the verge. Katie successfully navigated them to the first aid section to join all the other girls who had "seen Nick" and were recovering from the experience.

After all they had been waiting a couple of hours outside before the doors opened--standing in the sun. When we dropped them off Luke took one look at the thousands of girls and said, "I'm starting to think maybe I should go to this concert." But Amy had the best quote of the night, "This is the second happiest day of my life--just after my wedding."

1. I sure hope she marries some day so she has something to live for now.

2. Where did I get a daughter who screams, cries, and passes out over a musician?

So Close and Yet So Far Away

Yesterday Will took his SAT exam at the American School in Paris (which is actually in the posh suburb of St. Cloud). If there is anywhere in the world where he should feel at home one would think that a High School, in France, where Americans go to school would be it. So close and yet so far away. He felt very different from the kids in the exam room; felt strange answering questions by filling in little ovals; didn't have enough time to finish his essay on the topic of "must there always be losers; or is win/win(/win) possible. He got deep into philosophers and religious ponderings through the ages and ran out of time on his very last sentence. So close and yet so far.

I had four hours to kill ; so I drove around looking for a place to plug in my computer to finish some urgent stuff. Whilst cruising around Paris looking for a friendly Starbucks, I saw police presumably preparing the route for Obama and Sarkozy to get out of Paris and to their helicopters for the D-Day commemeration. Probably the only time I'll be in the same city as the Obamas. So close and yet so far away.

On my way to pick up Will after his exam I drove right past Rolland Garros while the women's final match was beginning. So close and yet so far away.

I watched all the ceremony held at Colleville sur Mer for the 65th anniversay of the Normandy invasion. My mom was only a few 100 km from where all those veterans in their 80s and 90s landed so long ago. So close and yet so far away. It was a beautiful ceremony.

Blessed are you when they persecute you . . .

He sat at the table across from us, smiling, comfortable, friendly, dressed in a dress shirt, tie, jacket. Since he has only been a France a couple of years and does not yet speak French or English fluently an Arabic friend joined my colleague and me to translate for the job interview. Since the job involves spiritual work like answering letters and e-mails about Christ, the first question was to ask for his testimony. My colleague asked in French, "When and how did you come to know Jesus?" Ali translated the question in Arabic.

His eyes softened. He relaxed in his chair and spoke to us of his wife. He was not a Christian; she was a devout Christian. She never argued with him, but was always sweet and patient with him. Ali struggled to translate--she was the odor of Christ to him. They couldn't have children; yet he was obviously a devoted and loving husband. After 10 years of marriage he embraced his wife's faith--making it clear that this was his own decision. He began to attend church with his wife and even started to attend at times without her. This caught the attention of the authorities in his country. He was arrested. After some time he was released and they arrested his wife. For one month they tortured her. She died. He was allowed to come to France as a refugee. He has not stopped trusting and loving the God she introduced him to.

He took out a tissue and touched his moistened eyes.

We paused a long time, weighing the cost this man has paid for his faith, sharing in his grief, awed by our God. How do we go on to question 2 of the interview questionnaire?

Learning Phonetics

Everything I learned about Phonetics I learned in Byblos. This charming ancient fishing village on the coast in Lebanon is the place where the Phoenicians invented the first phonetic alphabet. The Greeks later named the village "Book" (Byblos). So you can thank the amazing Phoenician people for the fact that you don't use hieroglyphics to type, write, tweet or text. Cool.

Ponderings from the Sewing Machine

Working on a quilt affords me plenty of time for pondering. This week I've been on a roll making a flying geese quilt out of a collection of African fabrics. It's looking pretty wild. Anyway for a while I was praying for the young man for whom I'm making the quilt. Then my mind wandered.

I thought about hope. Hebrews 6:18-20 speaks of hope. Verse 19 says, "This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, a hope both sure and steadfast and one which enters within the veil . . ." In what do I really place my hope? Is it in our High Priest, holy, innocent, undefiled, separated from sinners and exalted above the heavens? (7:27)

I thought about the French high school girl that died in the bombing in Cairo, the nine people who perished in a Turkish air flight in Amsterdam. We don't control very much in life, do we? God is sovereign. I am not.

I also thought about the next quilt; sneaking peaks at the fabric and pattern that will one day be more than an image in my mind. Better get back to the machine.

25 Random Facts about my trip to Turkey

1. A kitty sat next to me on a flight

2. Turkish Air has good service and decent food.

3. A film about the inventor of the intermittent windshield wiper is as interesting as it sounds.

4. I sat in a middle seat that split down the center. When the girl on my left leaned back to sleep half of my seat went back with hers. No, it was not comfortable.

5. My friend Hiroko speaks at least 5 languages and reads 4 kinds of alphabets.

6. She reads right to left, left to right and up to down.

7. and plays piano and sings beautifully.

8. I'm not jealous at all.

9. Hazelnuts are a gift from God. (learned from an ad by the Turkish Hazelnut Producers)

10. No one in the world should be denied the benefits of hazelnuts. (from same ad)

11. People love to sing in their own language

12. CNN scares me. I've grown accustomed to subdued European news reporting

13. I was paged at the airport as Mr. Augustine Nancy

14. 3 times.

15. My duffle bag ripped open right after I checked in.

16. The plastic bag they stuck it in also ripped, but nothing fell out

17. I wish I spoke Turkish (and Arabic, and Farsi, and Russian)

18. Mark and I passed each other going opposite directions in planes somewhere southwest of Istanbul.

19. Our brilliant plan to switch places being home with the kids by flying on the the same day fell apart when I missed my connection in Istanbul and had to stay the night there, leaving the kids alone.

20. I learned my kids don't need me as much as I need them.

21. It is hard to enjoy a free night in a hotel when you are thinking about your kids being alone.

22. It is also hard to enjoy a free night in a hotel when the wake up call rings at 2:30am, 3:30am and 4:00am when you really wanted to get up at 4:30am.

23. The Istanbul airport has 2 Starbucks. Is that right?

24. Turkey leads the world in pickled products

25. It is good to be home.

Will the Gaffs Ever Cease?

Okay, so I was at Will's high school, outside the homeroom teacher's door, waiting with other parents and students to go in and receive report cards. Will was a few blocks away at the music conservatory about to perform with a jazz piano group. As the wait grew longer those of us in the hallway got antsy and started complaining about how much time the teacher was taking. I mentioned that Will had a concert now. The chatting stopped. One mother gasped and put her hand on her mouth. A young girl cried, "No!". I thought their reactions were somewhat overdramatic. Actually, I had mispronounced "concert" and said instead, "Will has a cancer, now." We cleared up the misunderstanding. But I still missed Will's concert.

Two weeks ago at church we had put up blank sheets of paper on the walls for people to draw little pictures of things they are thankful for. As I was explaining the exercise I wanted to say, "You don't have to create a work of art". Instead I said, "You don't have to creat a goat of art."

I don't really speak English that well either.