It’s 4am, I’m jumping out of bed to the not alarm because one of the youngers turned the phone (aka alarm) on silent, and racing to start a cup of coffee. Ran the water through yesterday’s grounds to get slightly colored water – oops. Christina had to catch a flight out of JAX at 6am (Actually, 6:15, but you know) for her Women-In-Aviation conference in Nashville. Louis goes, “it’s only a 45 minute drive, you only need 30 minutes at the airport, not an hour.”
All my ECO-Ride experience and I’ve never left less than an hour of time from airport drop-off to plane departure, but you know, he drives now, not me.
Grandma, Christina, and I load up, ride to JAX, and she’s there before 5:10am. Sweet.
Not.
TSA stopped her for a box of business cards. Released from that line five minutes after her flight left.
She’s now on standby for the next flight to Baltimore because there she could possibly catch a standby for Nashville (the next direct to Nashville was at 9pm). Next possible to Baltimore is after 10am.
I go to leave for gym and Grandma sees Christina’s CAP cover in the yard. I start check-in, tell my boss we have to go back to JAX, wait til Grandma cleans said cover and loads the youngest two passengers, transfer everyone to the 4Runner, and we drive the CAP cover up to Christina with Thea singing in the backseat, “no job too big, no Thea too small.”
Two adults in the car allows for Grandma to race the cap to Christina and I’m not leaving the car unattended for a few seconds in the departing lane… Christina gets back into the airport.
Flight time comes, TSA says “we don’t like your lotion.” (It passed through inspection 4 hours ago??)
She misses this standby by 12 minutes.
Third standby… oops, we forgot to deep check your foot powder that passed inspection at 6am and at 10am… so TSA pulls her out of line again!… but for this one, she makes the plane with 1 minute to spare.
Thank you, Jesus!
She’s in Baltimore, next possible to Nashville leaves at 1645. Take a breath. A nice lady there helps her, upgrades her from standby to boarding and makes sure she gets on the plane.
Finally, I get a text at 1917. She’s in Nashville and has to find her luggage that arrived at her original arrival time of 0635.
Delays and coincidences? I don’t believe in coincidences. Everything happens for a reason. Maybe it was just to make sure that my CAP pilot had her cover so she was in full regs… maybe it was to teach her patience… to teach us not to worry… to show my fully independent young woman how capable she is… for whatever reason, through more than a long workday at Jacksonville International Airport and a short shift at Baltimore, she made it to her destination intact.
Originally, I was very upset with myself because, even with the TSA delays, she would have made the first plane if I hadn’t taken the extra time to brew a real cup of coffee… but then how would we have gotten her cover to her?
First passenger I’d ever driven to the airport who had missed their flight – I’d even had a woman who had to have a potty break every exit and we got turned around in GA headed for the JAX airport and she still made her flight. My brain screamed at me about that…
God’s timing. He knew the cover didn’t make it in her carry-on. He knew it was important. He knew who would be watching, who would be encouraged, by this story both as it unfolded and as you read it now.
CAP Pilotcover…
I take a breath, remind myself to always move forward and never beat myself up for the past – If we can trust God to keep the world spinning what is hard about trusting for tiny things like airport timing and CAP covers? (oh, and my books showed up in person while we were out!)
Thank you, Jesus, for little adventures like this that remind me how everything always works out just as it should when we keep calm, move forward, and trust.
Christina has been in Civil Air Patrol for a little over two years now. She got to fly an airplane before she could legally drive a car. (This freaked mom out a bit!) Now, I have two cadets!
C/2nd Lt Tart and C/Airman Tart
Yes, my little spunky Kimberly has been dreaming of the day she would be twelve years old for over two years (she got to hang out each time we stayed as a Civil Air Patrol unofficial “junior cadet” aka little sibling close to joining age who participates). She discovered gymnastics and loves it! She’s even planned to save Tuesdays (Team girls get one day off a week) just for CAP.
Kimberly wants to be a large animal
veterinarian specializing in genetic research, reproduction, and
rehabilitation. Although this doesn’t
have much to do with flying planes, rocketry, space, or cyber-security, she
wants to be in CAP for a while. She
wants to do any medical training, explore the education they offer, and do UCCs
and other fitness related competitions.
She may discover her second love is really fitness… someday.
That being said, part of our educational philosophy is to encourage the students to explore all experiences they can…
Including my just twelve year old,
been officially in CAP two weeks, airman to try her excited, scared, jittery
hand at flying.
Yes! (Mom is less freaking out because C/2nd Lt. Tart was with her too, but still!) My twelve year old has flown a plane – and my just-sixteen-at-the-time had “run out” of o-rides.
This one, like most of my posts
lately, is a little bit delayed.
I’m so excited for my eldest
though!
She participates actively in Civil Air Patrol – what does that mean? Well, let’s just say my GPS thinks that’s “Work” because other than “Home,” that was the most frequented place when she first joined! She treats CAP like a job. Seriously. She wants to be a pilot someday and CAP has opportunities to help her achieve that goal. When she first joined, she was rather shy and if someone had suggested leadership, she would have laughed.
A First: Christina in her AF Blues
Now? This young woman exudes confidence (even though she may still be privately terrified), she gives presentations in front of her fellow CAP members (while her mind keeps track of every “uh,” “um,” or “so” to make sure it’s a lower tally than last time), and she served as a Flight Sergeant until she just ranked out. A lieutenant can’t be a flight sergeant. I know maturity and general life experiences help to build self-confidence, leadership, and other such traits, but I credit Christina’s Civil Air Patrol as a major factor in her character formation.
Major Milton presenting Christina with the Mitchell Award. (promoted to C/2ndLt)
I’m actually sitting in the side
seat, typing a blog, while my lieutenant is flying the family van – driving,
the wheels were on the ground last time I checked – up to CAP.
For over two weeks, little sisters and brother have been constantly saluting or saying “ma’am” to try to ruffle her feathers. (She keeps saying, “I’m not in uniform and y’all aren’t in CAP!”) She got to fly the cessna again…
One of the Civil Air Patrol cessnas she has flown
I’m smiling because I love watching
her grab life by the horns and hold on tight!
We went to Vystar to do some banking
chore that she needed my signature for – and the woman didn’t believe she was
underage until she actually loaded her account details. I thought, and she isn’t in uniform, you should see her in her AF Blues.
This semester brings newness again: Christina’s got a full load of classes but managed to have them all on two days, she’s got a regular, steady job, she’s participating in Cyber Patriot again, and she’s a cadet lieutenant.
Next semester will bring new changes, but for now, I’m enjoying watching this video of life play out as my independent young woman blossoms.
Christina is jumping up and down
with excitement in front of my bedroom door as Louis, Thea, and I are laying on
top of the bed after church and lunch. On
Sunday, we usually talk about stuff and share a bit about each others’ week
while he powernaps (how can he do that
with his eyes open?) and I feed Thea.
“The Flea Market is open until 4!”
Christina announces. She’s been wanting
to go for a few weeks now, yet we’ve always been too busy & yesterday we
built the middle girls their new bed.
So we get to the Flea Market and she zooms to the one spot we always get our games from (always… I haven’t been there in over 2 years). This guy has been in business for over 14 years – sold Becky her second PS1 and our current PS2. Christina has been slowly building a game system & game disc collection of her own. Today both Christina and Becky pull out their debit cards. (This feels weird, as my teens are buying stuff with their own debit cards with their own money!)
I’m a bit proud, a bit sad.
Proud because Christina is managing college, CAP (2nd Lieutenant now), homeschool, work, and friends mostly on her own and doing a good job at it Proud because Becky raises sweet, lovable Guinea Pigs (Kimberly and Jillian are also partners in this venture), juggles college classes, gymnastics, and her interests well.
Sad because this additional sign of
independence just shows me how quickly they are growing.
Usually Sunday is a no-tech day, but
since we spent yesterday building the bed and deep cleaning, we allowed video
games today.
That’s how we got home, have all 7
children on the couch watching Christina and Becky “test” the two Lego Star
Wars PS2 discs, enjoying the four slushies Becky bought while I got gas. Sharing treats, laughing at the games, and
enjoying each other’s company – I love this!
Then out comes Christina’s reason
for going in the first place… she displays the original PS1 frogger game with a
flourish and jumps up and down. “Remember
this game, Becky?” And they laugh.
It’s the first game they remember Uncle Buddy playing with them when he brought in their first PS1. They played that one as a 4-player for years (with the special “L” shaped extra Christina didn’t find this trip). They played that with Aunt Mary and Aunt Stacy at the little house behind the Winn Dixie.
Christina says, “Mom, the memories
attached to this game are priceless!”
I smiled. So true.
I remember playing this with my brothers and sisters (the only 4-player at the time) and the
crazy laughter that happened with “bees bees all sorts of bees” and “racing
cars” and “the hippos and crocs” and all the other fun nicknames for the levels
we had.
I’m watching now as they do another
popular big family thing with fast games – pass the controller around after
each “death” – taking turns and laughing…
Oh, now they’ve changed frogger’s
name to “Gerald” – and keep lauging… “Off the rock, Gerald!” “Not there, Gerald!” (occasionally tossing in other lines from Finding Dory too… my crazy,
fun, family!)
We’ve been planning toward our next step – home ownership. We are grateful for the place we are currently renting, but because of the black mold infestation (it’s under control, but we don’t own the house, so can’t remove it) we are actively looking for a place to own. Somewhere that hopefully, we are smarter about and keep (I still miss my grapefruit trees that had just started fruiting after 7 long years!) forever.
Right now, we are still in the “finish paying off debt” stage, but with end-of-business debt down from over $14K to $800, we are seeing the light at the end of the tunnel after a little over 2 years. (Yippee!!!!) Next step is to have 6 months of expenses in the bank. Then we start saving for a home.
We’re being really picky this time so it will be a while, but it is fun to discuss, think, and plan!
We have learned that the primary item isn’t size or neighborhood, but location. Driving isn’t pleasant for Louis (I don’t like the “wasted time” either, but I use it to dream up stories, interview fake people in my head, and pray.) so we thought about what type of location did we want. We wanted to minimize driving. But what are the constants in our life?
Not work… (Although I hope I keep these jobs until I retire – my plan as Operations Manager is to eventually shift to a few hours in the early mornings or two or three days a week and be available the rest of the time remotely.) Remote is awesome. I get more done in the mornings (like now, at 5am) and I really can’t stand being gone from my family this long (9.5 hours for my 8 hour day – 1.5 driving).
Not hobbies… because we love beach, tennis, walking, bicycling, surfing, swimming, watching nature, growing things… anything active and we usually make those things happen depending on what is around us or in our own yard.
Not even church… seriously, that’s once a week and most of our lives we spent driving an hour or so one way to the church we were called to.
School was it.
Don’t laugh! Yes, we homeschool. I mean St Johns County. The kids will be going to college at St. Johns River State – Christina and Becky are active now, but based on normal college-bound years, we will be driving to and from that campus for 20 years (if we aren’t blessed by any further editions of Tarts). We love St Johns County (yes, it’s extremely pricy and super hard to rent or buy land here, but it has been awesome home-schooling here and we love the people!). St Johns County has a fascinating, amazing array of trade school and college opportunities for our children – I mean, seriously, our teenagers are college-course-takers. Christina’s credit hours mean she’s entering her sophomore year of college as she enters her junior year of high school! Several young friends I know have graduated FCTC and entered directly into the job force at 17 & 18 years old. Two make more than me! So, educational opportunities are our standard constant that won’t change for quite some time. Plus St Johns County puts us equidistant from Embry-Riddle in Daytona and University of Florida in Gainesville (the goal schools of the first three).
This means, proximity and ease of driving to and from the campuses of St Johns River College and First Coast Technical College is the “location” part of our choice. SR 207 out to Hastings, up behind Masters just along the city boundary, over 16 and north along US1 to the old trash road east of Palencia: any open-rural or agricultural property in that range is fair territory.
Both of Louis’ grandmother’s houses are in this range (Wouldn’t one of those be so awesome? To live in your grandparent’s house!) and the house we currently live in is just off that perfect spot, but close enough that yes, we’d buy this land if we could (build a cozy house in the other corner of the land and knock this rotting thing down, but we love the land!) and I like Wildwood Drive. While driving Christina to CAP one day, we saw a “for sale” sign in the yard of a beautiful concrete block house off of Lewis Speedway & Woodlawn on a bit of land. Nice location. Louis pointed out that one was near CAP, which three more plan on joining.
Anyway, location, location, location: OR or AG in easy driving range of St Johns River & FCTC.
The realization that we will be driving students back and forth from one of two college campuses for 20 years… wow, just wow. That’s pretty cool.
I’m just coming in from work. Thea’s diaper bag and my purse is on my left shoulder, Thea in her carseat is in my hands, and my shoes and phone on top of her blanket.
I maneuver through the gate as Jillian opens it and tell the dogs to back up. They go about their normal business of sniffing everywhere on Thea’s blanket and clothes where my office dogs left a trace of an odor while I try to shoo them away and Thea giggles.
Lucas and Jaquline start telling me excitedly about their day – it seems Lucas wrote ones and twos today with Daddy. Jaquline fixed her bicycle by herself. Jillian rushes the dirty diapers to the laundry. I ask about Becky; she’s “hiding” in the playroom making doll movies. Kimberly is bouncing around like she borrowed Tigger’s bottoms.
The sweet chaos of returning home is silenced by Louis’ one sentence from the kitchen. I smell yumminess.
“She’s in the air now.”
“What?” Time stopped. The air didn’t smell like anything. Silence as I puzzled out that meaning. Louis is grinning. Fresh rolls get pulled out of the oven – or was it one long French loaf? I can’t recall.
“Who’s in the air?” I ask.
“Well,” Louis smiles, “Christina’s major called and they went up today.”
Oh. My. Goodness. Great gravy train and gollywompers! My 15 year old is in a Cessna!
This tiny thing. Seriously. (Yes, I always wanted to fly one too!)
Actually, there were two cadets who went flying. They went from Saint Augustine to Jacksonville and back. It was just an O-flight, and they each only got to fly for a few minutes, but still… she’s dreamed of this for years!
Christina came home so re-energized to dive into physics, more math, and an enthusiasm to continue toward her goal of pilot because, “I never wanted to come down! That thrill was so amazing!”
I haven’t even been in a plane yet ~ likely, Christina will be my pilot the first time!
A birth story of our little angel (and a slideshow of proud siblings & family!)
February 22, 2019
The Story of Baby Thea
If you’ve been following my blog, you know I was growing my seventh little angel.
Today, I get to write the story of her arrival!
On February 19th, a beautiful Tuesday morning, my day started normally. During my 32 minute drive to work, the Baby started thinking there was not enough room and my body did the stretching contractions (Braxton-Hicks) that is very normal for me in the last month or two before birth. I didn’t think much of it, really. After my boss left for appointments, one of my office companions, Lily, a beautiful brown and white pittie belonging to my boss, started laying at my feet and wouldn’t let me go anywhere without her! This was a bit of a warning to me because Sheba (my Aussie mix) always does this to me when I’m in active labor. I left at one (normal time) to get to Christina and then my midwife appointment.
Christina had been babysitting, finished some errands at the college so she would be ready for the summer semester, caught the bus to 207 (the road I take into town), and was waiting for me. Along the way, my midwife texted to reschedule the appointment to Thursday and I laughed during my voice-text because I was very tired and that worked great for me. I added, “or when Baby is ready,” as a joke because my babies have all come on or after the due date. Everyone had been rooting for a February birth since the official “due date” was February 24th, and except for Lucas, my wee ones were between 9 and 13 days “overdue” so I usually ignored the due date and just gave a general month (in this case, I’d been saying March).
I got Christina, teased her about driving (she’s recently received her learner’s permit), and we headed home. Sheba was acting odd, I was starving; Louis had made lasagna Monday so I ate a huge plate and took a short nap.
When I got to gym with Becky (her class is on Tuesday, the others are all Wednesday), the contractions were still there, but, like I said, that is normal for me. It had been happening off and on already for about a week and a half, so I just went about work because they were easy to ignore. Some friends and I chatted about babies as I was leaving, and someone said, “you know about your body by now, right?” I laughed, “each is different, but I’m still thinking March.”
Wow, was I wrong.
As Becky texted Christina and Louis to tell them we were off & headed to pick up Christina at CAP, Becky said, “Mom, I can’t drive us home, but if the baby keeps contracting like that, maybe Christina can.”
We laughed. Part of the driving restrictions on a learner’s permit forbid night driving for the first few months; but we always teased Christina that she’d have to drive home in the dark if I was in labor.
Home, I was starved, but my belly felt full after four strawberries. I took a shower and crashed. I kept waking up every couple hours, but I’m a light sleeper so that’s also normal. Each time, though, I noticed contractions. I’d check my phone just to see what time it was. Midnight. 1:40. 2:30. 3:50. At almost 4, I realized I was sweating and I decided to wait for fifteen minutes (so the water softener cycle was finished) and take a shower. The next glance at my watch showed 4:19. I took a shower and the first contraction after the water hit was very strong. I felt movement inside me. “Wow, you sure you’re ready?” I asked. I was sure that was just a fluke and usually the warm water calms contractions down. When the next two made my legs feel like jelly, I got out of the shower and crawled back into bed. The phone said 4:35. I wasn’t about to wake anyone or call Misti for three oddly strong contractions.
I tried to sleep. I had about two hours before I had to get ready for work.
At somewhere before 6am, I tried getting ready for work. I had to stop and breathe through contractions that were easy to time and I felt the baby moving slowly down inside of me. I was about to wake Louis but ended up stretching through a contraction. We have a mind link, I think. Louis woke up as I was stretching. He goes into mega cleaning and question mode. This is his serious mode. He has been through it enough to know we were going to have a baby this morning – or at least today. He told me to call Misti, he woke the kids up to help clean (normally, we clean before bed, but they had been in a non-cleaning mood the previous night), and directed the house with efficiency. I was restless, so kept walking around in between. Christina and Becky didn’t want to get out of bed. I went into the barracks to find out why not.
“Mom! You can’t have the baby in here!” Christina shrieked, covering her head.
“So, get up please and help Daddy with cleaning. Y’all should have done that last night. Once you finish, you can go back to bed, but he’s really stressing about the house and people coming so please help.”
No answer. I could feel another contraction creeping up. “Okay, you have about 20 seconds before I get another contraction and…”
Christina bolted, “MOM! I’m up! I’ll help Dad! GET CONTRACTIONS OUT OF MY ROOM!”
Becky was up too. Kimberly was definitely awake. Mission accomplished. I went back to the kitchen table. My “leave” alarm reminded me to text or call my boss. 6am though, I figured I should just text – plus I didn’t want to talk to anyone at the moment.
Misti showed up (can’t remember if the house was clean, but based on the voices and giggling and a movie being on, I’d guess it was straightened). Mom was on the way, she told us she had to be at one of my brother’s promotions at 8am. The girls had turned on “The Two Towers” and as Louis walked by during the Uruk-hai production scene and he ordered, “Turn that off, you can see a real birth soon enough.” I can’t remember if the result was “Wild Kratts” or “Dumbo” but there was something far less messy on the tv a minute later. (I did hear one of the teenagers or preteens quip, “Mom will sound like an orc.” Louis and I laughed. We’re nerds.)
By 8:30, I was immune to the world. I heard Misti’s voice, smelled Louis (I was leaning on him), and faintly heard background voices. I was focused on this job.
8:42am and our little one came into the world, veiled. Misti took the bag off and the Baby screamed to test the limit of her lungs! (We didn’t know Baby was a “she” just yet!) Baby opened her eyes fully and stared up at me. Then she screamed to rattle the roof again. The dogs were barking. We discovered our Baby was Thea!
Welcome to our crazy world, Theadora Taliesyn Tart. You are loved and cherished!
Theadora (after her great-grandfather Melvin Theodore Pearson) means “gifted by God” and Taliesyn (feminine form of your grandfather’s favorite character from a Celtic legend) means, “one with the shining brow, one who sings wisdom.” And Daddy chose the nickname “Thea” because he likes it. (Your uncle texted that he’d call you “3T” – yes, Daddy searched for two “T” names we both liked!) I kept both names the same length, since that’s what we’ve done – all of the children’s names have the same number of letters in the first name and middle name. Theadora 8 letters, Taliesyn 8 letters – told you we are nerds.
Mom (Grandma Joanne in the pictures) came back with a shower of baby girl goodies! (And, yes, this is why she’s in such cute clothes once we managed to get them on her!)
Theadora, I pray you always feel the love of your family as you wiggle your way up to adulthood. I pray you feel the warmth and see the light of God’s love reflected in the faces of your sisters and brother, mother and father, aunts and uncles, grandparents and cousins. We have accepted the honor of being your guides to lead you to Jesus, to raise you in love, and to give you room to find, develop, and follow the passion of life God has rooted within you. You are a daughter of God, a precious gift to us, and chosen to bring light through your smile.
Becky said I can’t post a baby story without her pictures! So here is a little slideshow:
Lucas kept trying to “pet” and “kiss” Baby Thea
Christina & Thea (oldest & youngest)
Lucas said “you are my love, Baby Thea!”
Grandma Joanne & Thea
Christina and Becky are already vying for who gets the baby
Who else is excited for 2019? Who else looks at the new year like a child on Christmas morning looks at presents around the tree?
December 31, 2018
Fresh New Year
“It’s still 2018, right?” asks Kimberly, working on her History.
“Yes, it’s the last day of 2018,” I respond. Christina pipes in with, “and our Aunt’s birthday!” (One of their aunts is born on December 31!)
This makes me think: (uh-oh, I just heard two kids say “Mom’s writing another blog in her head.”) Yes, my children know me!
Tomorrow starts a fresh new year. We are given a new beginning each day as the dawn warms our skies and the sun rises to dry the dew.
In the service industry, all days blend together and all the New Year has meant for me in the past 8 years was a barrage of people calling to order reservations at 1am on New Year’s Day from the Bayfront downtown or 11pm from the Saint Augustine Beach peir (two locations at the times we can never promise) so then it turns into irritated people who don’t understand the simple line, “I can’t guarantee that time at that location, you can try to call us at the time to see where our cabs are.”
I’m so glad today does not involve dispatching! I’m only answering questions from the school table – awesome!
In 2018:
I started working at WGV Gymnastics as a coach (LOVE this job).
We closed our taxi company in December. It feels awesome to be able to shut off my phone and not worry about missing a reservation call!
I’ve rejoiced with the addition of my best friend’s 10th baby!
I’ve rejoiced with my sister who is due about the same time I am! (They will be close cousins!)
I’ve mourned and rejoiced with my family after my Daddy passed.
I celebrated the first Christmas ever without him – that was his favorite holiday.
Christina achieved CAP rank of C/CMSgt, become Red Cross certified, started officially babysitting, started working as needed at what she calls “my somewhat part time job,” and completed her third college semester.
Becky completed her second college semester, bred and raised a few dozen chicks up to “independence” for clients, raised her batches of “babies” (aka Guinea Piglets), joined gymnastics classes (finally finding something to encourage her fitness!), and has taught most of her siblings the Latin terms for every body part since she’s been dissecting animals in her biology labs!
Kimberly joined gymnastics classes with her gung-ho attitude and is expecting great things from herself, was gifted a bunny (she’s been saving to adopt one for almost a year but her awesome big sisters beat her to it) and Minuit has never left her side.
Jaquline discovered the amazing world of Geometry and everything is now interpreted in shapes or gymnastics skills!
Jillian started losing teeth, is studying sketching (she’s getting rather good actually!) and digital art along with Becky, and getting herself lost in the world of reading!
Lucas started trying to write his name!
We are all expecting amazing things to come in 2019. God has paths lined up for us that we may not even be able to see yet – if you’d told me at the start of 2018 that I’d be teaching gymnastics for an awesome Christian boss, be pregnant again, and have no taxi company, I would have laughed.
But (positive!) God knows the desires of our hearts! He knows I love children, love teaching, and that gymnastics has always been a dream. (Dream job come true? YES!) He knows Lucas loves babies and is super excited about getting to “take MY BABY home from church.” (All the other babies he’s been around are those of church family, so he can’t take them home.) He knows that rebuilding hybrid batteries is something else I love – tinkering with electronics as Daddy taught me & a niche few offer around here so maybe that will be our main income soon!
I’m about to polish and release a few more children’s books (maybe an entire new series working around my budding illustrators’ work!) and my goal for this year is 12 releases.
Who else is excited for 2019? Who else looks at the new year like a child on Christmas morning looks at presents around the tree? I see each day as a gift from God to be opened at each dawn. I see gifts we can’t even dream of yet sitting there, waiting God’s perfect timing for us to unwrap and enjoy. I’m praying that certain things are there – which day holds the gift of my child’s birth? Does a gift in that pile include a property or home of our own? Is there a gift of being able to read my books before a class, teach a grammar workshop, or tutor another child? Only God knows what each gift holds. My Daddy loved seeing the smiles and squeals of excitement on Christmas morning as his children opened presents – I love this part of Christmas morning as a parent too. I can only imagine God smiling as we open each gift and yelp with excitement!
Enjoy your daily gifts in 2019! Happy, blessed New Year!
One day Louis was driving past the Saint Augustine Civil Air Patrol building and saw cadets marching around in uniform. He stopped, asked them what they were, and raced home to tell Christina that he found the perfect activity for her.
She is my flying nut. She loves planes. Just like Lucas loves anything with wheels – she loves anything that flies (except mosquitoes and no-see-ums). Better said; Christina loves anything mechanical that flies.
She’d studied famous flying people, physics, beat her way through math, and taken a helicopter tour for her birthday. She’d talked with pilots as Louis shuttled them to the airport from their hotels.
She had the time of her life when some friends took her to the Jacksonville Air Show! (Photo credit above & below – Hannah Clark & crew)
The poster from that day was the first one tacked to her wall.
So, she “visited” the CAP meetings with Louis for three weeks – but Wednesday morning after her first meeting, she was like, “Mom, I’m going to join Civil Air Patrol.” Of course, Christina’s decisions are never small – “I’m going to get to officer rank and they have all these things I can learn so I can get into programs to help me learn to fly…” and she continued talking me through the book and information someone had given her.
She is a scrimping saver and refused any help with CAP dues, fees, or for her first uniform. (This is a point of pride for her – to be able to cover all her own expenses. She saw God’s love in action, though, when she thought she wouldn’t be able to go to winter encampment but our amazing church family gave her enough money for the trip and the extra items needed!)
CAP gave her a grant to go toward buying her first blues uniform though – something about earning a certain rank. (These are my borrowed shoes for her first day wearing blues. Her real ones have a one inch heel and no decoration.)
Lucas loves Christina’s uniform – especially the caps (aka, covers).
Thanks to CAP, Christina has matured greatly in social interaction (you can order younger siblings around all day, but it is different ordering someone else around!). She is more confident, more physically active, emotionally and physically stronger, and enjoying the company of respectful, goal-driven, encouraging fellow cadets.
Our family has learned some new terms: water is hydration, anything not a uniform is civies, a funny backpack with a water bag inside and a fishtank-hose looking straw hanging around the cadet’s neck is a camelback, among others.
We’ve swelled with pride watching our cadet march in parades (even if we only get a picture of her back half hidden behind another cadet)…
…assist veterans in her blues…
…and attend encampment as a student…
…and staff.
She’s constantly challenging herself to new higher limits – one day, I’m sure, she’ll touch the sky!
