It’s with a heavy heart that I write this morning. Yesterday a co-worker of my mom’s took his life. In the past year he had lost multiple family members of his own and was fighting his own battle with aggressive Parkinson’s disease.  He could no longer take it anymore. You can imagine the grief his family feels as they grapple with why life wasn’t worth living.

Loving the least of these

Many of you know my mom. One of the things that I love about my mom and that drives me crazy about her all at the same time is her ability to meet people and love them despite their quirks and crazies. She is notorious for the most hilarious stories about co-workers and neighbors. Years ago I would have thought she was enhancing the stories but since I have seen more and more how people feel comfortable with her and pour out their lives to her within hours of meeting. No matter your past or current predicament, she is a willing ear and on standby to make a meal, pay a visit, or drive you to the doctor. She loses sleep over her friends lives. As a pastors wife you would have expected her to befriend the women with the neatly pressed dresses and lives that seemed to be full of grace and patience but she has always befriended those that most desperately needed a friend.   And she enjoyed them for their quirkiness and helped them through dealing with their past of abuse, broken marriages, the birth of children, the loss of children, the death of aging parents, and even their own death.

I think specifically of her friend Chris. She was a character if I have ever known one. She had wiry red hair, a raspy smokers voice and was a spit fire if there ever was one. She talked loudly and was in everyone’s business. She worked at the school with my mom and was diagnosed with a rare degenerative muscle disorder. She went from being a lively, feisty lady working with special needs kids to losing her ability to care for herself. My mom faithfully drove to her home to lift her into her car to take her to church. For years. Chris had been through a couple of marriages and much heart ache in her life. My mom loved her through it.

I know this co-worker was no different for my mom. He sounded like a mess. She listened to his stories about the Parkinson’s deteriorating his memory and his dreams to retire that could not be fulfilled because he would have to live with his son due to his increasing caretaker needs. In the end he made up stories of going off to see a relative across the country who needed a kidney. He talked of donating one because he knew his body wasn’t going to need it much longer.  In reality he was building a plan to take his own life.

The truth is I find myself being more and more like my mom as I get older. I would much prefer for people to be real with me and to see who they really are than to have people feel like they need to impress me. I want to be my imperfect self and not feel the need to hide the rough around the edges parts.  I find that friendships are emotional and often inconvenient if you do them well. Rewarding and fulfilling as well but they take great effort!

I am so sad for my mom’s loss of a friend and co-worker.  And I am so sad to hear of yet another person who’s life wasn’t worth living. But I know that in his final days my mom was someone that showed him an example of Christ’s love and spoke honest truth into his life.  Loving the least of these isn’t about just feeding the hungry and taking in orphans. It’s about being kind and accepting of those people in our lives that don’t always have it together or don’t always believe the same way we do or live their lives like we do. It’s living our lives with hope and sharing it with the hopeless.

Last week my dear friend Bonnie graced us with a quick visit! I have been begging her since we got here to come on over and amazingly she did! Bonnie used her week of vacation to go to Germany and she, Leigh and Katy Jo popped over to Bern for 3 of the days.

We packed in the fun. Seth graciously took 2 afternoons off so that we girls could run around without napless boys. The weather wasn’t the best but we made the most of it. We went to a couple of brocantes when they first arrived in town. Bonnie is the Goodwill queen so I knew she could enjoy it! She found a few little treasures to take back with her. After getting the boys settled at home we drove to Gruyere where we went to the Callier chocolate factory and saw some great mountain views. I had heard multiple people talk of the all you can eat tasting room and we were all geared up for it. It was so fun to do it with Bonnie and Leigh because we all were on board with the “taste as many as you can handle mentality”. (I think Seth would have had his fill after a couple…but where is the fun in that? and don’t you want to get your moneys worth?!) Some strategic planner for the factory made sure there was no water fountain in the room which slowed us down but I imagine by the end we had each eaten nearly a box of chocolates. Don’t worry folks, none of us ate more than one of the same kind. We kept it classy and slowly attempted to try one of most. By the end we were about to die from the richness and gave up before having total success. This is NOT something that will be repeated on a regular basis.  Or ever again. But it was so fun!!!

luckily Leigh had a baby bottle of water.

And as if the chocolate didn’t almost kill us from richness we came home and made a traditional Swiss fondue dinner!

this is blurry but still cute of the girls dipping!

Katy Jo and Owen had some good bonding time. KJ is standing at the play table and showing him who’s boss! The boys love having KJ around. She is so happy and sweet-natured. Jackson often talks in a high “baby” voice with Katy Jo which is cute to watch.

On the second day we hit up the Salvation Army store and in the afternoon we drove around Thun and towards Interlaken. The weather was so gloomy! Bonnie has to come back to be able to see those mountains in their full glory!

On Friday morning before the girls had to head back to Germany we went into old town Bern. They got to see the bear pits and we stopped in a cafe for some hot chocolate. We are still trying to forget about me getting yelled at by a Swiss man for the way I parked (which happened to be within the lines and fine by US standards). But it is only right for Bonnie to see the whole picture of my daily life here

The trip was all too short but so fun! Come again soon Bonnie!

Last week was the annual Fasnacht festival here in Bern. Lots of confetti and costumes and marching bands! You can google it to hear about the history. For us it meant heading downtown Friday afternoon for the kinder parade. We went with some of our new Swiss friends from Jackson’s school. That was fun to hear about how they went as children. The kids had so much fun seeing all of the other kids dressed up. We marched with the bands through the old cobblestone streets and ended at an area near the cathedral where they had games set up for the kids.

Here are a few photos. We avoided the “grown-up fasnacht” knowing that it would likely be scary for our kiddos. The kinder parade was just enough for us! The boys came home EXHAUSTED! They both crashed early that night after skipped naps and so much excitement.

my super hero….the theme was Zoo animals but he wanted to be a super hero

and our little dino just could not make sense of being taken out of his bed early to get a costume on!

Jackson and Ella..she is Swiss but her family lived in Houston. Such a sweet family.

superhero reunion

only in Switzerland…(this may be the name of an upcoming blog series. I am working through some culture shock before I launch it. I don’t want to get myself sent out of the country!

we saw at least 50 Pippy long stockings during the afternoon….brings back so many fun slumber party memories. I had no idea the Swiss loved her so much!

not a great picture but the only one of the 3 of us! Should have gotten one pre-parade. My super hero and dinosaur were fading!

We got our fill of confetti until next yr!!

On Valentine’s Day, the O’Leary chicas along with 2 friends came to visit for the week. We had such a fun time.  The boys got spoiled rotten by all of the attention. We walked by the river, shopped, toured Bern, Thun and a couple of towns in France, ate, laughed hard, and had a wonderful time!

One of my memories of living with Annie was of her making her famous devil dog cookies. They were awesome! So for her visit I made heart-shaped red velvet whoopie pies! They turned our better than expected. I was sure they would look like big blobs. And I had about a 4th of the food coloring I needed. So mine were hot pink and not so red but you get the idea.

here was the recipe I used…

http://annies-eats.net/2010/02/08/red-velvet-whoopie-pies/

Enough about the treats..here are a few pictures from our time. I haven’t uploaded them all yet.

So fun to have Annie, Suzanne and all of the girlies here! Wish we all lived closer! Still having some withdrawl!