Tea with Hope

Last Saturday was the long awaited "Tea with Hope". My sister Jean donated this to the benefit auction held for Hope back in March, and six lucky women contributed a goodly sum of money to purchase tickets for this event. Jean included Hope, four of her daughters, and her mom to round it up to an even dozen. It was a lovely August afternoon to sit in the shade by the creek in a gazebo and enjoy an elegant tea party in Harrisburg farm country at the home of Jean's parents-in-law.

 A purple ribbon connecting tin buckets of flowers lined the way to the gazebo. We servers walked properly down this way instead of cutting across the yard with our various courses.

 This is Trudi's seat. I detect a bird house theme.

 Hope's daughter Adrienne and darling son Kenden came from the far reaches of Ontario, Canada for this even.

 It was a delight to see cousin Becky Boone, who made the trip from Salem.

 Hope and her girls, from left to right: Jenna (from Virginia), Hope, Adrienne with Kenden, Janelle, and Camille. (Daughter Brianna was unable to make the trip from Pennsylvania as she is nearing the due date for her second child.)

Jean and her sister-in-laws and mother-in-law, (the Baker girls who are famous for the spectacular teas they put on), worked smoothly together with efficient coordination and skill preparing the lovely delicacies, many of which require last minute popping in the oven or assembling.

I demanded a group photo of this fabulous group of ladies, including my SIL Carol who helped serve. Now I could tell you that I chose the artsy looking photo below, which blurs the faces of these lovely ladies, to honor the fact that they are all very humble, modest women who are not seeking any glory for the amazing work they all did on this event. Or I could tell you the truth, which is that I have no idea why in the world this picture and several immediately following turned out weird like this.

 Here is the first course, Grapefruit Mint Sorbet. 
 You can read the menu on the right (if you put on your reading glasses or click on the photo to make it larger or maybe both) to see the corresponding items on the plate below (starting with Cucumber-Avocado Tea Sandwich).

The Blackberry Lemonade was incredibly delicious, as was everything else. Up in the house, we found opportunities to sit down and sample these elegantly wonderful treats.

 The spun sugar birds nest atop the cupcake was quite a work of art.

Most of the ladies took several of their dessert dessert items home with them to enjoy later.

Here's another fabulous artsy photo, this one of the attendees. Trudi Gregory (who organized the auction), cousin Becky, Bonnie Smucker (a long-time friend), friends who are sister-in-laws Vicki Ropp, Vonda Ropp and LaDonna Stutzman. I listened in as everyone shared how they heard about Hope's accident. Vonda's recounting was especially touching, as she herself suffered a broken neck two years ago from a motorcycle accident and knows what is involved with the recovery process. When she and her husband visited Hope in the hospital and prayed with her, Hope asked them to pray for her son Micah who was on her heart, not knowing that on that very afternoon he was involved in an accident which potentially could have resulted in serious injuries, but he was miraculously spared and has recovered.  I wasn't able to stand around and eavesdrop all day, because of course I took my serving duties very seriously, and I also got to take care of sweet Baby Kenden for a bit. There was much laughter and everyone appeared to enjoy themelves greatly.

 Such a lovely setting.

 I forgot my camera but used my cell phone until I realized the battery was very low, because I hadn't saved and closed my Runkeeper activity from my morning run. So I requested that my darling niece Janelle to take various pictures and send them to me. I'm still waiting, even though I sent her a very nice text last week. "Dearest favorite beautiful sweet niece, could you please email me some tea pics?.. I want one of the lovely scone platter for sure!"  The reply came swiftly, "Uh...Bruce???" I reread my text.  Sure enough, it actually said, "Dearest favorite beautiful sweet Bruce.." We got that cleared up then I received a long list of her upcoming activities for the weekend which meant she had no time to sit in front of a computer. I'm going to call her nothing but Bruce until I get them. In fact, I may just change her name to "Sweet Bruce". I'm always getting in trouble because I call her the wrong name anyway. The names Janelle and Camille are similar enough that my tongue gets mixed up sometimes and Sweet Bruce always gives me a really dirty look. Anyway, I'm sure she'll send them soon and then I'll post them.

But I digress.

So how is Hope doing now? If you see her, you might think, as many do, that she looks like she's back to "normal".  But she still can't comb her own hair, lacks stamina and tires easily, often has pain in her neck, and still has constant tingling in her hands, among other things. She posted this on Facebook a few days ago:

"Another first for me today. I made the bed by myself, including the sheets AND pillowcases. It took awhile, and it wasn't easy, my fingers and hands don't work like they used to, but yes, a great accomplishment for which I am very thankful! 
I just keep thinking about disabilities and limitations. We as humans are so programmed to think we need to be "normal", to have all body parts functioning as they are supposed to, and when they don't, we make every effort and sometimes spend lots of money, so we can function normally again, so we can be physically "whole". I was thinking about the phrase of a song the other day, "Lord Jesus, I long to be perfectly whole.." thinking about only the physical, because of pain and what I'm dealing with. Just this morning it hit me, Wow, I am slow sometimes! Do I spend as much time and energy .. and prayer .. becoming spiritually whole?!?! And what's the rest of that song, anyway?
"Lord Jesus, I long to be perfectly whole,
I want Thee forever to live in my soul,
Break down every idol, cast out every foe,
Now wash me and I shall be whiter than snow."
"...Unto Him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in His own blood." Rev. 1:5b"

She continues to challenge and inspire me. Let's keep praying for physical healing for her as well as spiritual wholeness for all of us!

My First and Last Half Marathon

Pleasantly exhausted. There are worse ways a middle-aged female could feel in the evening after running her first and last half marathon in the morning. (Not to mention spending her afternoon walking up and down a gentle slope in a backyard, serving at a tea party!) What a satisfying accomplishment, after training for more than three months. I've been running for about a year now, and I had so much fun running the Maui Oceanfront 15k back in January, I figured it couldn't be too much harder to add another 4 miles and do a half marathon. Well, I don't know about other people, but I found it much harder! I had been surprised at how easy it was to go from 5 mile runs to the 15k (9.3 miles) on short notice.  After the 15k, I went back to my longest runs being 5 or 6 miles on Saturdays. In May, I started adding about a half mile to the Saturday run every week (and continuing my regular routine strength training and Zumba twice a week plus 2.5-4 mile runs three times a week) in order to be ready for the first Albany Half Marathon which took place today. I found that after about 9 miles, running became much less enjoyable! Oh, how the toes hurt! I grew annoyed with taking about 2 hours of my summer Saturday mornings to run. But I was amazed every time that I could do it!

So here's the story of my one and only half marathon. Let us backtrack a few days. My current favorite sister-in-law Anisa asked me Thursday if I would like to use an extra ticket to see Carrie Underwood on Friday night at the local music festival in Brownsville, understanding that I might not want to be out late the day before my big race. It took me about 5 seconds to determine that the lack of sleep was definitely worth it! Last night, I arrived home about midnight after this fantastic concert and decided I needed to get her Blown Away album on my iPhone before going to bed so I could listen to it during the run. Well what do you know, I had some technical difficulties. In spite of my determination to overcome them, I had to go to bed about 1 a.m., albumless. Amazingly, this morning my incredibly helpful husband overcame these technical difficulties with scarcely more than a slight roll of his eyes. Album downloaded, I made sure I had my headphones attached to my phone so I wouldn't forget them and drove off, quite pleased. I was a little worried because I barely dragged myself back to the car a few weeks ago on my 11 1/2 mile run on the race loop. But if I poop out today, I can blame my late night and I'll have new music to listen to. Life is good!

I met my awesome friend and co-worker Kilee, who was at the park to support her runner husband and our friend and co-worker Kerrie, and she said she would be driving the route during the race to check on us and see if we needed anything. Just as we were lining up at the start, I realized my headphones were no longer on my phone. Hmmm, did I absent mindedly detach them and place them in the pocket of my sweatpants, which I had removed and left in my car? I quickly sent a text to Kilee asking if she could bring headphones to me and we were off! The bitter disappointment over the lack of my new music faded as I listened to the chatter of some ladies running near me. Three of them were planning to try to run the loop twice to train for a marathon and then drink a lot of beer. ("10 more miles til beer! Oh no, actually, 23 miles!") They wanted to run five minutes and walk a minute but were a little disorganized. Before long they were behind me as I gracefully sprinted down the road.

About an hour into it, the sight of Kilee's smiling face behind the wheel and her hand stretching out to me containing a pair of headphones cheered me considerably. Around mile 9, I was wishing the end were a little closer as we were heading up a slight hill, when I came up on a runner and read the back of her shirt. "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. Phil. 4:12"  I repeat that to myself frequently when I run, and I hadn't thought about it for a few miles. When I passed her, I told her that her shirt made me cry. And it was true.

I finished strong, feeling great, listening to tunes and passing people who were pooping out. I marvel  again at how blessed I am that I feel no knee, hip, or back pain even at the end these long runs, and that I can breathe easily. My toes are the only painful part during the last miles of a run.  We are indeed fearfully and wonderfully made.

It was with great joy that I came to the finish line and saw my two fans, Anisa and Will, cheering me on, along with thousands of strangers. Well, maybe hundreds. It was fun doing this race in Albany, visiting with friends and acquaintances before and after the race. I met my goal of finishing in less than 2 1/2 hours with a time of 2:27. Good thing I didn't stop to take a clear picture of the shirt above!

 I love chocolate milk at the end of a run. And water of course.

 I wasn't able to hang out long because I had people to see and places to go. My brother Dave was at another area of the park at a Veteran's event with the group he's a part of. When we got to their table, he was AWOL.

 I was only able to spend a few minutes with Dave when he showed up, but he invited me to sit on his bike. Pretty awesome.

Then I hurried home, got in the shower, dressed, and was picked up by another favorite sister-in-law Carol to go down to serve at the Tea with Hope that my sister Jean offered at the auction. I put on my makeup in the car on the way down and didn't even forget anything.

The tea party was lovely in every way. (I will blog about it after my favorite niece Janelle sends me some pictures. I have a few but my phone died.)  I must have walked another half marathon up and down the gentle slope of this huge backyard to the gazebo by the river, serving water, tea, and too many assorted delicacies to even count.

I was pretty proud of how good my body felt, until after I arrived home this evening after a half hour in the car. I have to admit to some slight stiffness and soreness in the upper legs. 

I still can hardly believe that someone like me, who two years ago was overweight, suffering severe foot pain from plantar fasciitis, and unable to run for more than a minute, could run 13.1 miles without stopping for almost 2 1/2 hours, and not feel like she is going to die. I used to feel like I was going to die after running the distance between two telephone poles! It is only by the grace of God and his marvelous design of our bodies to respond to healthy food and strengthening and conditioning efforts.

I feel good! I don't ever plan to run 13.1 miles again! Oh, how sweet those 5 or 6 mile Saturday runs will be! I look forward to running some 10ks and maybe a 15k now and then, and I love to walk 5ks with my non-runner friends too. It's always good to have some sort of challenge to work toward!