Revgal Singing Owl reminds us that "2007 is about to be history, and this is our last Friday Five of the year. With that in mind, share five memorable moments of 2007. These can be happy or sad, profound or silly, good or bad but things that you will remember."
1. Starting this blog. A small and hugely significant risk on my part with the writing. A joyful way to meet new friends and live in a bigger world. A totally unexpected part of the gift has been getting to read brilliant sermons almost weekly, shared so generously by othe revgalblogpals. Sweet!
2. The night we sang. Ministering at the Centro Hispano de Todos los Santos is simply astounding, still. This evening captured the sheer grace and goodness of our small, marginalized community.
3. Getting a new hip. I am surprised how frequently I still replay in my mind the drive to Holy Cross Hospital in the dark on May 25th, the first few seconds of consciousness after the surgery, even the darkness and pain of the first night, not to punish myself, but to marvel that after a lifetime of being defined by a limitation, I found my way through to a different way of being me. I have beautiful red high heels now, I walk without a limp unless I am really, really tired. And mainly, I live without out the deep, energy-draining pain of a hip bones that had collapsed in on themselves. What a miracle.
4. Ricardo's death. Ricardo and Ligia helped raise me--he was our driver, she first my nanny and then our cook. He is struggled with the bottle for years and years and years, and it finally got him. I am so very sad that I did not get to say good bye.
5. Light of my life goes mainstream. In the last week before school let out for holiday break, LoML was invited to try attending her school's aftercare program. This is the first mainstream program she's gotten to participate in and a hugely different experience than the aftercare program she'd been attending before for children with sever developmental and behavioral disabilities. On Thursday, she came home chattering a mile a minute. She said that on Friday they were going to to take out all the chairs from the "cacateria, and a jj is coming with rock and roll and me and the boys are going to dance." And boy did she boogie down, from what I understand. The happiness on her face when we picked her up at school was indescribable. Joyful, joyful, joyful.
Bonus points for telling us of a "God sighting": Too many to count--this has truly been a year of grace in my life. But if I had to choose only one, it would be praying with my friends J and B during communion after they found out that J, their beloved son and brother, has metastasized melanoma. It felt like God, and they and I were one in grief and hope and love.