end of a two-month hiatus

It's hard to believe we have been back for nearly two weeks. We are having so much fun reminiscing. I would love to make some time to do a photo recap, but for now let's just say our trip began like this...

Continued in this fashion...

And culminiated like this...

Happy times.

And I have thousands more photos to prove it.

happy birthday dad!

One of the reasons Quincy and I travelled to Cincinnati at this time was to celebrate my dad's birthday. My mom is throwing a big party and after missing so many big family functions lately, this is a real treat. The Norway clan will sure be missed though.

His twenty-five grandchildren are giving him an album.

They each have a page with their photo and answers. Here is Quincy's...

It was so cool putting this together and reading all the thoughtful answers each of them (ranging in age from 2 to twenty-five) came up with. I loved seeing the many different ways he has impacted each one. I think he will too!

This time the paper comes from Jessica Sprague and everything else is from Designer Digitals.

bring it on.

Three different flights. Two layovers averaging four-and-a-half hours. Eight time zones. Six thousand miles. Twenty eight hours, (after last time, make that, twenty eight hours if I'm lucky), on my own with a two-year-old.

Bring it on.

In five sleeps...

we're off to the States! I've started packing and the line items on the to do list are slowly but surely getting ticked off, thanks in part to a cooperative little boy and a helpful husband. The washing machine has been running almost non-stop since yesterday. In fact, it's still going. We've had terrible weather for much of the last week, but thanks to some serious wind mixed with sun, I managed to dry every single load outside. The clothes we are bringing are now officially out of rotation.

Tomorrow I begin to tackle the five months of journaling that I am behind on on my Project365. Yes, five months, but that's another story.

Back to the trip anticipation... I've learned by now, not to share such information with a young child too early. But I have been dropping hints for a while. Throwing "Cincinnati" into conversation. Bringing up "airplanes" regularly. Showing him photos from our last trip just over a year ago. Talking about family members.

Not surprisingly, he has been studying these photos a lot lately.

Yesterday, I divulged all the details and today he got to begin his countdown.

Tonight as I was leaving his room, he said "And tomorrow we go on the airplane." I gently corrected him and told him tomorrow he got to tear off the yellow number 4. He seemed satisfied. As I was closing the door though, I heard him say quietly, "And then go on the airplane."

So, yes, he's excited. He is expecting Stef to still be at the Wellington airport. But he is also expecting her to be at the Cincinnati airport with Oma and Opa. He is getting mentally prepared for having his nappy changed inside the miniature plane bathroom. He has been warned that even though we are sitting in seats, we have to sleep on the plane. He has also been warned that it's a long way and that we will be in two airports before we reach the one in Cincinnati. We've been talking about using quiet voices on the plane and even though it might be uncomfortable we're going to try not to whine.

He is looking forward to feeding Norwin's piglet, Peter, a bottle. I think he will find a kindred spirit in his animal-lover cousin.

He talks about buying sandals in Cincinnati. (At the start of spring I told him we'd have to wait to buy sandals that fit him in Cincinnati so we'd have to make do. I guess that made an impression! In fact a few weeks later I mentioned needing something and he told me to get it in Cincinnati. Maybe he is expecting one giant mall!)

Oh, and he is talking non-stop about the airplane.

for ten years

Me: I'm going to go take a shower.
Q: Tinty stay with papa...for ten years.

Guess how long elephant babies stay with their mamas. Yup, ten years.

And then in a weekend mad rush to get the most out of our Entertainment Book which expires tomorrow, it was off to Wholly Bagel for lunch and to buy one dozen, and get one free.

We were not deterred by the swells that threatened to eat us, nor by the come-from-nowhere hail.

While at Wholly Bagel, Q played so nicely with a 4-year-old boy named Charlie. He was such a gentle, clever, and well-mannered boy. His parents were American. He reminded me so much of my nephew Thomas, in looks and demeanor. Imagining how much Q would love to play with his cousins made my heart ache a little.

apologies

So we've been working on the art of the apology around here. A hug, a "sorry so and so" and a brief explanation. We were off to a slow start, but Q seems to be catching on.

Lately he has been kicking me while I change his nappy. Not hard. But seriously annoying. I keep telling him to stop kicking mama but he thinks "keecking mama" is a hilarious game. And if I raise me voice and get all serious and authoritarian, it apparently becomes funnier. But tonight we made a breakthrough. I said sternly, "Quincy, it isn't nice to kick mama." He immediately stopped laughing and said, "saya mama" and pulled me down to give me a hug.

The last few days we've been hearing "saya digger", "saya fire onion", "saya guys", etcetera if he accidently bumps a toy during play or even if he has to move a toy in order to start playing with something else. And yesterday he fell and when I gave him a cuddle, he said "saya mama", so he might just be getting a tad confused and taking it all a bit far.

Tonight I was in the middle of a conversation with Jeremy. He was getting frustrated that I wouldn't read him The Snail and the Whale (Quincy not Jeremy), so he threw the book on the floor (again Quincy not Jeremy). I gasped oh so dramatically and told him with the straightest face I could muster that it wasn't nice to the book, the whale, or the snail, so he said "saya book" while giving it a hug. Jeremy, laughing, took it a step further, and well, have you ever seen someone try to give the floor a hug?

This reminds me of a story about Max, one of my nephews. To preface, they have to give four-step apologies... "I'm sorry for such and such because (insert reason it wasn't a nice thing to do). I promise not to do it again. Do you accept my apology?"

So Eddye was trying to cultivate a beautiful rare plant. Max loved to play with his guys and dinosaurs around said plant. One day he knocked the big red blossom off. Lisa told him he needed to apologize and here is how it went down...

Max: I'm sorry for knocking off your head. It must have hurt. I won't do it again. Do you accept my apology?
Beautiful rare plant: silence
Max: (with a hint of frustration in the voice) I'm sorry for knocking off your head. It must have hurt. I won't do it again. Do you accept my apology?
Beautiful rare plant: silence
Max: (totally frustrated) I'M SORRY FOR KNOCKING OFF YOUR HEAD. IF YOU DON'T ACCEPT MY APOLOGY, I'M GONNA KNOCK YOUR HEAD OFF AGAIN.

a few more layouts from cincinnati

Still about ten to go. Even though I am enjoying working on these, it'll be good to move on!

Oh and mom, now that I know you are all computer savvy and reading, maybe this will jog your memory...

seven more

Seven more digi layouts to share from our recent trip to Cincinnati. Once again most everything comes from Designer Digitals.

Still quite a few left...

cincinnati layouts part 1

In order to actually get a vacation album finished, I am scrapping my recent trip to Cincinnati/Gulf Shores digitally. Over the course of 11 days in September, I created 22 layouts! And that was without neglecting Q or letting the housework slide (too much anyway.) Two still need journaling, but the rest are finished. I have a bunch more in my head that I want to do and I'm going to get back into it tonight.

I will share half of the layouts here. If you want to see the others, go to my Flickr photostream. Clicking on one of the images will take you there.

(Most everything comes from Designer Digitals, with a few of my own designs thrown in.)

(this next one is a scraplift)

Once I get the rest finished, I'll do another share.

wishing i was four

If I was in Cincinnati, I'd be at the lake celebrating Memorial Day. But since I'm not, I have to be satisfied with a recap phone call from my mom and some photos from Stef.

This one makes me smile. I wish I remembered what it was like to be four. Each with their precious can of soda, reserved for special occasions. Frances with her pin stripe capris and purse. Simon with his wedgie and gun. In their own world. No worries. A great glimpse into four-year-old-hood.

passport to meeting the fam

We got Quincy's NZ passport photos yesterday. Obtaining an acceptable baby passport photo isn't always an easy task. They can't be smiling, must have their eyes open, be looking at the camera, and not squirming. We got lucky with the first shot. I guess being the son of a scrapbooker pays off sometimes!

We have to wait 'til a US consular officer visits the area before he can obtain a US passport, so I guess the little foreigner will have to get fingerprinted in LA. I suspect that's going to mean more hassles and longer lines at customs. Exactly what I want to hear as I anticipate travelling on my own for about 24 hours with a 5-month-old!

So the trip back home is becoming more of a reality. :)

me & my mom

It's interesting how often I have thought about the similarities between my mom & I since I moved here 7 years ago. Among many other things, we both ventured off to far away lands with the intention of staying only about 2 years.

At the moment, though, the similarities run a bit deeper.

When my mom was pregnant with me, her mom in Germany became very sick. Sadly she died when my mom was about 7 months along and unable to travel. My mom wasn't able to see her before she passed away and couldn't attend her funeral.

With everything that has happened with Eddye, I think I might understand how difficult that was for her. For me, it's not going to be totally real until I go there next Christmas and feel that gap firsthand. Similarly, it wasn't until my mom visited her mom's grave and experienced Vreden, her hometown, without her mother's presence that it really hit home.

Sometimes I think we are living parallel lives.

(pure sadness)

Eddye sadly passed away at about 3:30 in the morning on Thursday, 14 December (EST). He went peacefully with Lisa, his two older boys, his parents, and one of his brothers by his side.

To say he will be missed doesn't accurately describe the hole in all of our hearts.

Here is a link to an article about him in the Cincinnati Enquirer...
Eddye Adarve, soccer coach and promoter

A few misprints... It says "it was unclear what he was doing on the roof" which sounds weird. He was doing routine household cleanup and was just on a flat second story roof. It also says he fell to another roof which is wrong. He fell on a concrete walkway below. And Lucia is not 6-weeks-old; she was 5-weeks-old when the accident happened and is now about 17-weeks-old.

A very beautiful tribute to a very humble man.

His infectious smile will forever be imprinted on my brain.

wow, who knew?

Over 200 people turned out for the candlelight vigil! Amazing. Eddye is a quiet guy who definitely never sang his own praises, so it was unreal, even to those close to him, how many lives he affected.

There were heaps of neighbors, friends, and relatives, but kids made up a huge number of the crowd. Eddye was a great soccer coach. It was his passion and he always went above and beyond, even for neighborhood teams of 5-year-olds. I mean how many people can even remember the name of their coach when they were 5? He coached his older boys' teams over the years and also a high school team of international students. At the vigil, the high school students asked everyone in the crowd who had ever been on one of Coach Eddye's teams to gather around. Knowing that Eddye always encouraged younger siblings to come and join practices too, my sister asked anyone who ever practiced with one of Eddye's teams to also join in, and the crowd of soccer players pretty much doubled. They did team cheers for Coach Eddye. What a tribute to a man passionate about his soccer.

It was an evening that will always mean so much to Lisa and her children. Knowing that Eddye made such a difference has to be a comfort to them. The kids should be very proud of their Papa.

---

Eddye's parents and brother arrived from Columbia last night. It seemed Eddye was fading--taking fewer and fewer breaths each minute. But somehow he's still holding on. The doctors just don't get it. He has too much to leave behind. Only his heart and his will remain strong.

candlelight vigil for Eddye (you can never have too many candles)

Way back when, Eddye always gave me grief about all the candles I owned. I once defended my collection, saying in a very serious tone, "you can never have too many candles." Since then, most of them melted while living in New Orleans, but anyway, that became a phrase he repeated to me on many occasions. Just a random, dumb joke we shared.

---

A candlelight vigil is being held outside my sister's home on Tuesday evening at 7 pm. Friends and family from around the world are joining together in this vigil. Candles will be burning tomorrow evening at 7 pm (EST) (1 pm Wednesday NZ time) in North and South America, Europe, Asia, Africa, and Oceania . If you cannot be with us in person, please join us in spirit by lighting a candle and having a moment's silence or saying a prayer for God's mercy and peace on Eddye, Lisa and their children.

Watch, O Lord, with those who wake, or watch, or weep tonight, and give your angels and saints charge over those who sleep.
Tend your sick ones, O Lord Christ,
rest your weary ones,
bless your dying ones,
soothe your suffering ones,
pity your afflicted ones,
shield your joyous ones.
And all for your love's sake.
Amen.

---

A bit of a catch up...

It became clear last week that Eddye's organs were failing and there was nothing left for the doctors to do. My sister decided to bring Eddye home to peacefully live out his final days surrounded by his loved ones. He arrived home Friday night and has been resting peacefully since. He is being cared for around the clock by hospice nurses. My family is also there offering Lisa and the kids much-needed support. It is very comforting for her and the boys to have him home with them, at least for a little while.

not the update i'd like to be giving

On Saturday, Eddye was discharged from the acute care facility to a nursing home because he did not meet the criteria for rehabilitation. Upon arrival at the nursing home it was apparent that they were unable to give him the care he needs. He was spiking a fever and within 2 hours of his arrival he was transfered to the hospital where he began 10 weeks ago. He remains in a coma, is on full dialysis, is unresponsive, has lost significant weight, and continues to fight multiple infections (both old and new). My sister and her family really need your thoughts and prayers.

he certainly is a fighter...

Eddye remains in serious condition in the ICU at the acute care facility. He is still in a coma but is showing some evidence of "waking up"...a very slow and gradual process. He is opening his eyes, holding a gaze, tracking sound, yawning, coughing, moving his mouth, and responding to pain. However, he is not yet responding to commands which is a concern. The sooner he does, the better the prognosis.

He has pneumonia and is still dependent on the ventilator and remains on full dialysis. There are no plans in the near future for repairing all his broken bones.

Reportedly he has at least some vision in both eyes and is hearing at level 2 on a scale of 1 to 5.

His brain damage is sadly pretty extensive, so this recovery process will be a long one.

cause for optimism

Eddye has been fairly stable for the last week-and-a-half. They haven't found any evidence of the fungal infection, which had been one of the major causes for concern a week or so ago. Also many of his bacterial infections have already or are clearing.

He still remains in a coma and very sick, however they hope to wean him from the ventilator in the coming days. A move to an acute care facility seems to be around the corner.

Finally, a bit of good news.

pride

I think this photo might be in the dictionary next to the word "proud".

This photo was taken in 1997 on Max's first Christmas, but Eddye is the one who looks as excited as a little boy on Christmas morning!

update: Eddye underwent emergency surgery last night on his sinuses to clear up an absess and infection. He continues to surprise everyone as he pulled through the surgery well. However, he remains in a coma, in critical condition, and on full dialysis (a result of the treatment for the fungal infection in his stomach).

waiting for good news

I love this photo. It is of my nephew, Norwin, showing his parents and one of his brothers some of the loot he scored at the annual pirate treasure hunt that my family has at my parent's lakehouse. Notice the scars on his face, the temporary tattoos on his arm, and the lollipop in his mouth. I love it!

I have six nephews and now one niece who have their birthdays at the end of summer (August/September), so it's fitting to combine the treasure hunt with a joint birthday celebration. All the kids get so decked out in costume. And one of my brothers-in-law and his three grown daughters make up this elaborate pirate story and a cool treasure hunt. One of them dresses as the pirate and seriously goes all out.

Last year I was lucky enough to be in town for it. It's always such a fun day.

Unfortunately no significant updates on Eddye. He remains in a coma and continues to fight the bacterial infections as well as a very rare fungal infection in his stomach. We need some good news this week.