Death Of A Friend

A friend of mine, from college, passed away unexpectedly yesterday.

He and I haven't seen each other since those days back at the little small Bible college in the Iowa countryside.  But, thanks to Facebook, we had reconnected and been involved, from afar, with each other's lives.

He was a pastor in Illinois.

He had a wife.

He had 6 children.

He was really one of the nicest, sweetest people I have ever met.  I can remember so many times back in college when he was that listening ear for someone going through some stupid relationship crisis. The thing was, Steve never made you feel stupid or that you were being overly emotional.

He just listened.

He just gave a hug.

He just cracked a sly little joke to make you laugh...even just a little.

He was just....nice.

Again, I haven't seen him face to face in over 20 years....but he would send me words of encouragement.  He would comment on my posts.  He made you feel like he really cared.

This really struck me pretty hard today.

I cried.

I am crying for his wife.

I am crying for his 6 children (who aren't as young as my 6)....but....this is still their daddy.  You know?

But, of course, I also turned it into being about me too.

I put myself in Linnea's shoes.

What if something happened to Rainman unexpectedly?

Ugg....I can't even go there.

It was bad enough when my dad died without warning.

Death is hard.

Yes, as Christians, we have hope.  We have Jesus.  We know the end here...isn't....the end.

But, man oh man.....it is lonely here without our....people.  It is crushing to try to move on without them. It is almost impossible to let yourself laugh again or have hope for....everything.

The realities of life outside of the lonely aspect get to me too.

How do you pay bills....how do you pay your mortgage....do you stay in the house you had together.....do you keep the bed you slept in together......how do you survive  the first Thanksgiving....Christmas....birthday....kid activity?

Again....I can't go there.

I woke up this morning singing the song, I Have To Believe, in my head.  I actually get to sing this one on Sunday, but the words spoke to me in a different way today.

Then, my alarm went off and the song Because He Lives by Matt Maher came on.  I just laid in bed listening and didn't turn off my alarm.  Rainman came out of the bathroom because he thought I had already gotten up and forgotten to turn off my alarm.  He listened for a few minutes, nodded his head, and went back to shaving.

I hope you have time to listen to both of these songs today.  Listen and really let the words  sink in.

Even if you are aren't grieving the loss of a friend or loved one.....let them have a chance to speak to your soul.

Brinkman Adventures Season 3 - Review

We had a great time listening to the latest installment of the Brinkman Adventures This time we got to listen to Season 3.



We had the chance to listen to some of their adventures before....specifically their adventures in Season 2.




This time around, we got the actual physical CD's and not the downloaded version.  Even though I have figured out downloading and all of that fancy new technology.........I was happy that we were given the chance at actual CDs and could listen to them this way.  Either through the computer or in the van....well, I guess we could have used an actual old fashioned CD player too!

My laptop always played the CD without any issue, but our desktop kept trying to recognize it as a movie DVD for some reason.  I just had to manually open the Media Player and play it from there and it worked fine.

There are 4 CD's in this particular series with 12 stories, and each story is about 25-ish minutes long.

I love this audio drama series and this family for a few reasons.  The stories in this series are based on true life stories from missionaries around the world. (There are some details that have been changed to protect people - and I am sure there was a bit of dramatic license taken - but, for the most part, what you hear is what actually happened)  The voice work is done by a mixture of actors and the kids from the Brinkman family. (Little Charlie sounds exactly like one of the voices from The Wonder Pets!  He is actually one of the Brinkman kids though and not an actor.  And, as a mom with a big family, I did sort of love the real life naughty tidbits that happened with the family.  It is always funnier when it is happening to someone else, right?)   The stories are uplifting and inspiring...with a little bit of intrigue/adventure/angst thrown in.

I will tell you the truth here, I had intended for us to take this along and listen on our road trip to and from Florida.  I packed it.....and it never made it out of the movie bag.  Never.  Plastic wrapping was still firmly in place when we got home to Georgia.

Sigh.

So, we ended up parceling out the stories one at a time at home, usually in our quiet time after lunch....sometimes in our morning time before we started out school day.

These CDs are so well done.  The sound effects are cool.  The people/actors are awesome.  The stories are awesome.  (Occasionally, I would say there might be a little too much going on at a time and your ears aren't sure which thing to listen to, the background music, the people talking or the dishes clinking. But, that is what makes it so real and like an old fashioned radio theater production - which I used to LOVE.)

Still do.  Truly every time I heard their theme music and the deep announcers voice saying, "You have been listening to the Brinkman Adventures..." I was brought back to listening to the radio station KTIS, up in Minnesota.

The website has interesting background information if you decide you want to dig in more deeply to the stories you hear.  It is basically the stories behind the stories.  (Don't read them until you listen to the stories though or you only have yourself to blame for being  your own spoiler!)

Season 3 has 12 stories, 4 Cd's  (a few of them are Part 1 - part 2 stories though).

1.  God's Mule
2  Mountain Mover
3. The Silent Ambassador
4.  Translating Trouble
5.  Man-Up
6.  Acorns & Oaks
7.  A Saint's Story, Part 1
8.  A Saint's Story, Part 2
9.  Untouched
10. Busy Bees and a Bullhorn
11. Missionary Tourist, Part 1
12. Missionary tourist, Part 2

I don't want to tell you the stories of these missionaries, because the Brinkman Adventures CD will do a much better job.

But, I will tell you this, these CDs are a good reminder to Christians in the West that Christians in other places do not get to live like we do.  They just don't.  I think we know that, in theory, but when we are faced with real life stories of what people have to do in order to get Bibles, for instance, you just can't ignore it.  You have to gain an appreciation for how blessed we are in this country - despite the turmoil and some of the people in leadership positions here.  We still live in an amazingly blessed place.

It is also a great reminder to the fact that God is still working and doing amazing things.  All things are possible with God.  Prayer changes things.  God is at work....everywhere.  Really.  It is important to remember that.

This is just a fun thing for your whole family to be able to do together.  The material isn't too scary for the littles or too dull for the olders.  As Goldilocks would say, "It is just right."

You can find them on Facebook too.  There is a suggested donation of $27.99 for the Season 3 set or $17.99 for the downloaded Mp3 version.

Take a look at what other TOS reviewers thought of the Brinkman Adventures.

V-girl Lost Her First Tooth

If you were looking closely at my pictures over the last week or two, you may have noticed that V-girl hit a milestone that she has been waiting and waiting and waiting for.

She finally lost her first tooth!

I have to tell you though that the night this happened, there were a lot of tears.  By her.  By me.  Perhaps even one of my teenagers.

One of the teenagers in my house was obsessed with "helping" V-girl lose her tooth.  Obsessed.  They were constantly scheming and planning ways to yank it out of her head.

Despite repeated admonitions from me, the plotting and trying continued.

On the night it finally came out, I had asked 3 times for this teen to just let the tooth fall out on its own.  V-girl was complaining that her tooth hurt and was getting sore from all the messing with it.  "It will come out when it is ready.  Everybody just leave it alone."

But, apparently that was teenspeak for....let's try one more time.

That last time, it worked....the little baby tooth was pulled from my baby's head....and....there was blood.

V-girl freaked out.

The teenager was gleefully laughing that they had succeeded.

V-girl was just starting to panic.

(Can you see the tears glistening in this one....?)

And me....well....first I was mad....then I was sad.

I had clearly asked them to just leave it alone.

I calmed myself enough initially to just sit with V-girl and comfort and reassure her.  She stepped into the bathroom to see her new gap and see if the bleeding had stopped.  While she was gone, I looked over at the teenager and very calmly said, "I just have to ask you a question.  I think I was pretty clear that I didn't want you messing with her tooth anymore.  Why didn't you listen?  Do you see what we have now?  Crying and losing a tooth being traumatic when it should be a cool, fun thing."

Seriously.  I was calm.  Honest.  I was seething...but, I was calm.

The teenager in question just looked at me all shocked because you could tell, they had really been having fun with all of this.  I am sure, in retrospect, that they thought they were making a memory and bonding with V-girl.  It was one of those moments where could literally see the smile melt off of someone's face.

V-girl returned from the bathroom and fresh tears - for her - started all over again because it wouldn't stop bleeding.

That is when I lost it too.

Not yelling....but, crying.

I hugged V-girl and started crying too.  She just looked up at me with tears in her eyes and she completely lost it.  We were both in each other's arms sobbing.

Teenager, in the meantime, slunk off to their room.  Honestly, I am not sure if they were crying or angry.  Again, with a little time behind me, I am sure they thought they were doing something fun with their little sister and they certainly didn't intend for it to turn into this weep fest.

I can sort of laugh about it now, but it was awful that night.

I was crying because this was my baby.

I don't have a lot of "firsts" left with my kids.

I wanted to be there.

I wanted it to be a fun/surprise/joyous occasion....without blood and tears.

Is that too much to ask for?  It was one of those moments that I truly realized....I will never get this moment back.

I am trying to take this as a reminder for me to just drink in all those moments...because some of them you really can't get back again.

Don't worry. V-girl....creepy tooth fairy lady will help you out.