Julie Gumm - Author

Breathing Easier

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So I feel like we are finally breathing a little easier around here after our accident, lice and surgery week. We have amazing friends and family who were praying for us and helping in any way they could.

I will admit to having a total breakdown on the phone w/ Stacey on Thursday night of that week as I drove to the hospital to see my mom. I totally vented to her for about 30 min on my way to the hospital. I felt much better after. Days later I discovered she had actually been in Bible Study that night and walked outside to take my call. Never once did she indicate to me that she was busy or needed to go. Now that is a true friend.

The insurance company did total out the van which was a bummer and left us in a bit of a bind. Thankfully however they extended our rental coverage for a week to allow us time to look for a van. Of course that’s not very much time when you are looking for an older used van, with low miles, that you can buy for $4700 🙂

Last Sunday our dear friends Dustin and Jen (w/ whom we shared our Ethiopia journey) stepped in and offered us the use of their old van, which they had been using at their company, for as long as we need while we’re looking for a replacement vehicle. Praise the Lord! It is such a tremendous blessing to relieve the pressure to find a van fast and later feel like we made a bad decision. It was just the encouragement that I needed – to know that God really did have a plan and would provided.

Then Monday Mark had a really cool experience while he was out running errands. He ran into a woman from our church who we haven’t seen in about a year. To make a long story short she gave him check. I can only imagine what a sacrifice it was for her but she said she clearly felt God’s direction. Again, a huge encouragement.

That night as I was doing my Bible Study homework I finally had a chance to go back and read the rest of the notes from the video. Karin had filled in the answers for me after I left to get the kids and Mark. The study is Beth Moore’s Living Beyond Yourself which is about the freedom of a life filled with the fruit of the Spirit. The part of the video I had missed….

My purpose is beyond me.

My seasonal circumstances are often beyond me.

My unrelenting daily demands are often beyond me.

Through the infiltrating power of the Holy Spirit, I can…

  • Do things I couldn’t
  • Feel things I didn’t
  • Know things I wouldn’t

“Beyond me” pretty much sums up that week doesn’t it. Gratefully I am not alone but have Christ to get me through.

Seriously?!?

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(For you Grey’s Anatomy fans you know exactly how I am saying it. “Seriously?!?”)

This has been my day…

Woke up extra early to attend the first week of a new Beth Moore Bible Study. Despite not being a morning person I really wanted to do this study and the fact that it was before work, at the office, meant I didn’t have to take a night way from family.

But it was “Crazy Day” for school spirit week and the girls wanted me to do their hair. Which meant I got up even earlier and had to get them up a little early as well. Got that done and off I went.

About 40 minutes into the study my office mate peeks her head in and says “Julie, Mark’s on the phone.” I knew that couldn’t be a good sign. He and the kids were rear ended on the freeway on the way to school. Traffic stopped suddenly, so did he. The big work truck behind him, not so much. Seriously?!

Luckily everyone is okay – shaken up but okay. So I ran out of there was able to get to him in a round about way and get the kids (who were fine by then) to school. He was able to drive the van home (good thing since we wouldn’t all fit in his car).

It’s debatable as to whether or not the insurance company will total it out. It’s an older van but still pretty low miles. But they said because the back wind0w and the sliding door window are broken that may put it over the total limit.  Seriously?!

If you know us, you know that we don’t go into debt, especially for cars. Last time I totaled a car (2.5 yrs ago) we took the insurance money plus a couple thousand from our savings to buy the replacement.  Well the adoption pretty much emptied our savings so if they total it, what they give us is what we got. Seriously!?

Did I mention that this is the only vehicle that fits our entire family?

Did I mention that technically not even all 4 kids and a driver should be in our other car because it has an air bag in front and no “off” switch. Seriously!?

So then about 11 a.m. I get a call from the school. I was half expecting that – figured someone was sore from the accident.

Nope, it’s lice. Seriously?!

It’s been kicking around the kindergarten for a month and so far we had avoided it.

By the time I arrive 10 minutes later 2 more kids are wearing plastic bags on their heads. Seriously?!

So I cart everyone home and we begin the wonderful process of delousing our kids. Some suggested mayonnaise to kill the live bugs but then you still have to pick out the nits. I don’t like the smell of mayonnaise anymore. Seriously!

So we spent 10 hours delousing the kids, washing sheets and blankets, sofa pillows, vacuuming. Last time Mark went into the laundry room I hear him say “Did you spill something in here?”

Seriously?!

Our washer is leaking. Seriously!

Now I’m hopeful that it’s because I had a weird load of pillows in there. It kind of does that sometimes. The next load will tell. But honestly I’m too tired to try it tonight.

You thought I was done, right?

I can’t find my laptop.

Seriously?

Seriously!

So,  either I didn’t actually put it in my bag in my rush to leave work. Or one of the kids took it out of my bag sometime this afternoon and has put it someplace really strange that I can’t find.

Or someone stole it out of the car during the 10 minutes I was parked at the school to pick up the kids.

Seriously!

I will be totally honest here and confess to throwing up quite a few “Really God?”s today. There’s a lesson in  here somewhere I’m just not sure what it is right now. Of course we are ever so grateful for his protection today. That is evident. All the other stuff is really inconsequential compared to that.

So I’m calling it quits on today. Oh, as soon as I change the sheets on our bed.

I will fall asleep praying my laptop is sitting on my desk at work.

More from Ethiopia

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I had a good six straight hours of sleep last night and it felt good to wake up at 6:30 a.m. Breakfast was eggs and a orange smoothie. Their oranges taste different here. Not bad, just different.
We were waiting to hear back from Getachew about meeting the kids grandmother so we really did not have any plans for the morning. So we kind of took it easy. I got on the guest house computer to check email and post to the blog – took me 2 hours to accomplish really very little. We made contact with both Getachew and a family friend of Grandmas – we think perhaps the same friend that brought the AWOP representative to the kids house over a year ago. They are going to pick us up at 3 p.m. tomorrow and take us to go meet the family. (We’re not sure who that is besides Grandma.)
We decided that since we had no other pressing needs for today to see if we could go back to Hope for the Hopeless, even if it was just to play. (We had already made plans to have a party and Bible lesson on Saturday.) We arranged it with Fekadu for 3 p.m. when the kids are back from school.
One of the other adoptive families, Krista, Jeff and little Eli, were leaving today to return home and so the guest house did a traditional coffee ceremony for them. They spread long grass on the floor and bring out a small table, small coal burning stove and incense. They also make popcorn out of maize and serve that in a basket. It is very good – sweet and salty – a little like American kettle corn but not quite as sweet. Over the stove they    first roast the fresh coffee beans for 5- 7 minutes. They then take some of the coals and start to burn the incense. The coffee is ground (they actually take it and do it in the kitchen in an electric grinder 🙂 The grounds are put in the pot/pitcher w/ water and it is put on the little stove until it boils. The coffee is then poured out for each of the guests. They had sugar but no milk and so I wasn’t sure how I would like it, but it was REALLY good.
Jen was feeling a little queasy today – not sure if it was something she ate or perhaps still the altitude adjustment. So they decided to stay behind so just Mark and I went. First we picked up Fekadu at the Drop in Center and we saw my friend Mary that I told you about yesterday. There is another amazing story that evolved out of our short 10 minutes but I will have to share that another day when I have fully processed it. We got to the orphanage about the time the kids were getting home from school. We dug into the big black bag and brought out the games we had brought – Memory, Connect Four, Battleship and a couple of puzzles.
Akki helped us explain the concept of Memory to them and then I took the Connect Four and set it up. They know Tic-Tac-Toe so they caught on pretty quickly to that. Once I had them going in that I went over and helped one of the older girls who was working on a puzzle. That quickly grew into a crowd and they were so excited when it was finally done. There was much cheering and clapping.
Even though we only had about 90 minutes to spend there, we had such a blast. The kids all asked about Dustin and Jen and then learned “See you tomorrow” when we had to leave. Coming and going is quite an ordeal as you get a handshake and hug from each of the 36 children. Some kisses and “I love yous” too.
Tomorrow, besides the Bible lesson and party we had planned to play football (soccer) with the kids. They team up the kids from the orphanage against the kids in the drop in center. Akki talked to a few of the older boys and they told him that they have the footballs but their air pump is broken so they asked if we could get them a new pump – and also gloves for the soccer goalies. So we started our shopping list. Akki suggested a couple of volleyballs for the girls.
We asked Fekadu what would be the best thing to do for the kids – pizza or something else. We wanted to do something that would be a treat, but would also be a wise use of the money that everyone so generously donated. He explained that Ethiopian Christmas is coming up in two weeks and it is customary to have meat and so he would like to use some of the money for that. They also try to buy each of the kids one new complete outfit at Christmas. Clothes and shoes are expensive here – mostly because they are imported. It costs $30 to buy an outfit for the kids with shoes being the most expensive part. To buy one new outfit for each child they need $1410. We have about $800 of that to give him, as well as some clothes that we brought over.
So the final decision was to do cake and sodas as a treat for the kids tomorrow, as well as the sports stuff. We can’t wait!
Update: The internet was not working Friday night or Saturday morning, so I realize a whole day has gone by since this post that I still need to write about. I will tell you that we meet Grandma today and it was a wonderful visit – we learned a lot about the kids. More to come!!!
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Coffee Ceremony