We're home

Mood: Probably the best I've felt in months
Hair: In desperate need of professional help...or even shampoo!
Eyes: Good
Listening to: Beast snoring through the NASCAR race

I'd have written before now, but we were totally exhausted by the time we got home to stay last night and I worked all day today.

We are psyched, sunburned, and stunned from a wonderful week working with various urban ministry sites. There are some amazingly wonderful people doing some good work in Milwaukee to make life better for people who just need a leg up. Props to Raymond Rivera and Sister Clara Atwater to name just two.

Personal memory moments:

• blowing up at the site leader for arranging the smallest group to clean up the biggest post-dinner mess on the night with the least amount of clean-up time
• blowing up at two girls who were were standing precariously on a second-floor window-sill hanging up wet towels over Beast's C-pap (feet on my pillow and Bible, and pressing on the aged window glass for support...it was totally justified, but handled poorly)
• watching Sparky's eyes swell nearly shut after throwing mold around all day while cleaning out a flooded room (THANK YOU GOD for the nudge to pack a Large Bottle of Benadryl!!!)
• one of our girls' commitment to mentoring two younger girls on their faith walk
• realizing that I shouldn't EVER pay retail for a vase or coffee mug but should hit the resale shops because they have hundreds (they actually throw away coffee mugs they get so many!)
• being prayed over by a real saint
• gaining a son (by adoption)
• goofing with a fun(ny) guy who spends his day reclaiming gang-bangers of every stripe
• lying on a large flat rock baking on the beach after an hour of mid-morning walking on the edge of the water
• locking the keys in the car and crying over the situation
• being called a "day brightener" by one of the other adult leaders; apparently, our appearance at the worksite halfway through each day caused her to realize that she was going to survive. Not sure what that was about, but I do know that keeping her half of the group on-task was like herding spiders
• having sore feet EVERY DAY--hobbling for the first 10 minutes every morning, including today
• NOT having sore neck/shoulders
• watching all of our kids outshine so many others on the trip as they grew stronger in their faith and melded as a group
• growing my own faith, and learning some wonderful new songs
• so many others....

Now, I'm going to wake Beast up and tell him that if he's sleeping he should be in bed. :-)

---

Urban Word:

fake the funk: (v.) To act with a false ethos surrounding oneself in an attempt to win respect from a certain influential party.

I'm not cynical, just realistic: I wonder how many kids were faking the funk this week. Time will tell, I guess.