Running...

I just read Niamh's last two wonderful posts and I am filled with pride, wonder, awe and love for her! What an undertaking this is, something that requires such dedication, strength of body, mind and will. She is truly an inspiration. Boston is gearing up for the Boston Marathon this coming Monday so our airwaves are full of marathon chatter and I have enjoyed the newfound perspectives and deep respect I have on the day to day life of a marathon-runner.

I have been quiet on here, I know. There are expectations that I feel unable to meet right now. I confess to being quite overwhelmed. It is all good, really, it is, but I have been struggling to find my center, to be grounded, to feeling "all-put-back-together-again". The needs of the children and of the upkeep and organization of the home seem to be constant and there is never enough time in the day to meet them all. It continues to feel like a positive move for us, there are no regrets in the least but, as Mam reminds me every week when we chat on the phone, there is such huge upheaval in moving, it takes time to settle...

I had another week of running (figuratively of course!) in and out of Boston to the hospital but finally, on Wednesday, I received my remicade infusion, only two days late! I consider it quite a miracle that everything fell in to place. The infusion went really well and the infusion staff were so lovely and kind that they made it almost a pleasurable experience! I usually feel quite tired for a day or two after and this time was no exception, it seems to take me until about day five before I start to feel the effects of the medication. I am so grateful that it all worked out and so grateful to Pulmo Doc for pulling it all together. There was an anxious moment just before the infusion when the nurse "read" my PPD to see if I had a reaction to the TB test that had been placed two days before. It looked like it was showing positive for TB exposure. The injection site was red and rashy. This would have been a complete show-stopper for remicade. After three different nurses looked at it, a call to the head TB nurse who reads these all the time and a consultation with Pulmo Doc they decided that I had an allergic reaction to the serum used for the injection and I got the all clear. Whew!

I will be thinking of you tomorrow Niamh: run well, run free, breathe deep and full, stretch those beautifully long and toned legs, enjoy the wind on your face, at your back, embrace the hills and love the straights and imagine us, all of us, running right there beside you, urging you on, loving you on, hear our cheers on the wind and whispering in the trees, run for us, breathe deep and full for us...

Bloom Where You're Planted

Every day sees a little less chaos, a little more organization, slow and steady wins the race!

One week ago today we moved in to our new home. The rain poured down unrelentlessly as we hauled in box after box after box. "Welcome to Massachusetts!" the neighbors cheerfully said from the puddles accumulating in the driveway. Then they came...with Irish soda bread warm from the oven, brownies and then more brownies and shyly smiling children looking at these strangers that came from exotic (to them) Arizona where they imagine permanent sunshine and cowboy boots. Can we be friends, will we be friends? And suddenly it didn't really matter that it was cold and wet and miserable and our house was freezing and the roof was leaking and there was water spewing from the laundry room faucet, and laundry couldn't be done even though we had a weeks worth looming.

Our roots have been ripped from the desert sand and blown like tumbleweeds across the continent. Yet it was fitting to be welcomed by the rain. We are ready to be watered and nourished and to bloom where we are planted.