Garrett, Son of Johnna, Brother of Becca

This weekend was Family Weekend at Wheaton College. Since Louie and Hannah had a busy weekend and Rebecca had never been to visit, she and I drove the 9 hours north to see Garrett. Becca has been missing her big brother something fierce and had her bags in hand when I came home early from work Thursday to get her.

The drive isn't hard- but it's boring. Somewhere outside Cincinnati (I think) we saw a truck in front of us that was a triple-decker animal truck... full of baby pigs! As we passed, Becca snapped a picture. It was hilarious looking to see hundreds of tiny pink snouts and tails sticking out of a huge truck.

Even though we got in late, we stopped by Garrett’s dorm just to grab a hug before heading to our hotel. The next day was Friday and Garrett had an 8am class, so we met him afterward for breakfast in Wheaton’s ‘famous’ cafeteria to breakfast so we could start catching up. I was surprised to see that he’s lost weight- maybe 10 or 15 pounds. When I asked him about it he just shrugged and said he’s busy and walks everywhere and the cafeteria food has a lot of good, healthy choices he likes.

Then we headed out to attend chapel with him. All students attend chapel Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 10:30. Sometimes the chapel is done by the school chaplain, a concert or a guest speaker. That day it was the chaplain. (Guest speaker next week is Richard Foster who wrote “Celebration of Discipline” among other classic Christian books) Students have assigned seats, so we sat in the balcony.

After he had Biology and Chemistry class, we met up with him to check out his dorm. Becca loved it. She checked out his desk…

His bed…

His mini-fridge…

And snuck in a few more hugs. Then she left notes in sneaky places around his room for him to find later… so sweet.

Then, we went to the annual Wheaton Talent Show- a sell out with 2500 in attendance. We saw everything from a girl who whistled a song so well I can’t even explain, to a one man band who sang and played 5 instruments he wore, to a comedian, to a super talented guitarist. In between acts, the emcees were great and introduced the new Wheaton mascot, a mastodon named “Tor”. Fun fact: He’s the largest mascot in NCAA history… but also has to be the gentlest. He looks like Mr. Snuffalupogus!

Saturday, we spent the entire day with Garrett, just hanging out- which is exactly what we wanted. In the morning, we stopped in the Wade Center. It’s a museum at Wheaton College that came about because a Wheaton English professor and CS Lewis wrote regularly and in his will, Lewis left some of his things to the school. Then a businessman funded the museum.

Becca touched CS Lewis’ desk for writing inspiration.

Garrett loves that they also have J.R.R. Tolkein’s desk where he wrote all of the Lord of the Rings books.

They even have the actual wardrobe that belonged to CS Lewis that his brother says inspired his book, “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe”. Becca wondered what would happen if she looked aaalllll the way in the back!

We looked all around the cute little town of Wheaton. It was trick-or-treat in the downtown businesses, so the sidewalks were teeming with toddlers in costume. We got Garrett a haircut (yep, he needed it), made the all-important “Target run” and headed over to Wheaton Bowl. He’d been wanted to check it out but it was too far to walk from campus… and a long bike ride. None of us bowled our best, even though Garrett put his game face on..

All I’ll say is, it was no Strike Zone. The shoes were… rough. When Garrett took his off, the inside of the shoe was flaking off onto his socks. (Eeewww.) I’ll not elaborate any more, but we still had a good time.

Like my cool shoes?

They look all sweet but there's a competitive spirit lurking beneath that 12 year old grin.

We had to introduce Becca to Chicago style pizza, so we took her to Ginos East, a fairly famous eatery. Since it takes a while to make a Chicago deep-dish pizza, we had time to kill… before long, I thought they were in elementary school again. Becca grabbed crayons and started coloring on the back of the placemat while Garrett leaned over and said, “Hey mom, can I have a few quarters?” I was seriously having flashbacks- if Hannah was there, it would have been perfect!

Becca was about to blow a gasket when I took her picture coloring… until I told her she could take my picture coloring… ok, it’s a little close, don’t you think?

Yum!

We hung out the rest of the night watching a movie at our hotel and talking. The next morning, we went to Egg’Clectic, a fun breakfast place downtown that’s becoming our tradition. They have a ton of fun and creative breakfast foods and the service is fast. That way, we could get on the road. It was early and we were really in need of some coffee.

We hated saying good-bye. It’s never feels right to leave your child and drive away- far away. I felt better to see that he’s doing ok. Although its difficult, his grades are good. He’s adjusting to the climate- he’s drinking a lot of hot tea, he bought a humidifier (that looks like a penguin) and he doesn't go anywhere without Chapstick. He has plenty of friends- it made Becca laugh that everywhere we went- cafeteria, chapel, talent show, bookstore, even Target- people would say, “Hey, Garrett!”.

My favorite song right now on my iPod is “Remind Me Who I Am” by Jason Gray. It says, “Tell me, once again Who I am to you, Who I am to you Tell me, lest I forget”. The lyrics speak about a person who says that when they don’t like what they see in the mirror or loose their way in life, they want to be reminded of who they ‘really’ are.

When we arrived on campus, Becca and I received a packet of info about Wheaton and name tags. This was mine:

I love it. Becca’s read, “Sister of Garrett”- she liked it a lot. I’m glad we drove up this weekend. (Sigh- even though it was 18 hours of driving- not fun) I think it’s important that Garrett not forget who he is. Yep, he’s a college freshman, and a biology major, and a member of the Wheaton Glee Club, etc. But… he’s still the son of Johnna Gaunch, brother of Becca Gaunch, brother of Hannah Gaunch and son of Louie Gaunch. The other ‘status’ will change, but these won’t… so I hope our visits- weekends and longer visits- will remind him of who he is.

A member of this family, forever.

There you are!

Since mid-September, our church has been asking one question... "What does God expect of me?"

It all started when our pastor read a book entitled, "The Hole in our Gospel" by Richard Stearns, the CEO of World Vision. Basically, the book tells of his personal struggle to accept the job God placed before him as well his suggestion that the American church leaves out a part of the gospel message- that is, we accept God's free gift of salvation by grace and then ignore all the scripture that says we have a responsibility to make God's kingdom come on earth by meeting people's needs. He suggests that our Americanized version of the gospel that is too often preached is one that teaches us to simply pray for the poor or needy without requiring us to get our hands dirty or actually becoming personally involved in people's lives. So for the last several weeks, we as a church have asked some hard questions... of ourselves as believers and ourselves as a church.

One of the passages of scripture that we've read is from Matthew 25. Here, Jesus says basically that when you feed the hungry, look after the sick, visit the prisoner, clothe the poor... when you do these things for the least of society, it's the same as if you're doing those things for Christ himself. Strong words. And a little hard to take. After all, the typical person I see that needs help in those ways... I tend to immediately start making assumptions about how they got into that situation and begin passing judgement over whether or not I feel they 'deserve' to be helped. Without knowing all the facts, that's where I often go in my brain. Unfortunately, Jesus didn't mention that I get to choose who I should help. He simply said, when you help people...

So I had the weirdest thing pop into my head this week! (I've lived with Lou a long time and I think he's rubbing off on me- in a great way!) Back in the 1991 (the year Lou and I got married), a movie came out called, "Hook". It's about Peter Pan and starred Robin Williams and Dustin Hoffman and ironically Julia Roberts who is crazy tall played TinkerBell. Anyway, there's a scene in the movie that I immediately thought of when I read this Matthew 25 verse this week- and this scene almost always makes me tear up.

Here's the gist- Robin Williams is Peter Pan, who fell in love with Wendy's grand daughter and so he left Neverland and grew up. One night, Tink shows up and kidnaps him, taking a full-grown Peter Pan back to Neverland because Captain Hook is about to capture the whole place! In this scene, Tink brings Peter to the Lost Boys, who are throwing things at him because they don't recognize him. Then, one Lost Boy steps forward, hushing the crowd. He looks very closely into Peter's eyes, then pushes Peter's 40 year old cheeks and eyes back a bit, squinting as he does. Then, that Lost Boy's eyes light up as you can tell he suddenly recognizes Peter. He whispers, with a great deal of joy, "Oh, there you are!"

I wonder how many times I've acted just like those Lost Boys, running around people, even (figuratively) throwing things at them. They had invaded my space- they weren't like me- I was maybe scared of them- and I stayed away. But... what would happen if I had the courage to take a step forward and look closer... into the eyes of one of those people God placed in my path. What if I was able to push past the heaviness that covered their face. Who would I see underneath? Would I be able to whisper... with joy... "Oh, there you are, Jesus!"

Overhand, little desks, updos, and other ramblings

Fall is one of the busiest times of the year around here. So rather than take a ton of info and try to make this blog post cute or creative, allow me to ramble a bit.

Volleyball season is nearing its end. I wish I calculated how many hours we spend in practice, games and travel each season! But, the girls have gotten better as time has gone on.

Becca is using an overhand serve now- and when she nails it, it's a beautiful thing. Hannah's overhand serve cracks me up because she grunts when she serves- hilarious! It's like she's mad at the ball and is spanking it! The middle school has been winning lately and that's always fun.

I've been working at my new job for a month now and I love it. The Luke Lee Listening, Language and Learning Lab is a happy place to work. To say its a preschool isn't really accurate...it's a combination of preschool and auditory/verbal therapy. The kids are all deaf but are able to hear artificially with hearing aids or cochlear implants. We don't use sign language, but instead teach them to listen well and make the most of their aid. At the same time... we have a lot of fun!

My job is a new one- there was no one doing my job before me, so there was no place for me in the classroom. A nice new desk has been ordered. Until then, my computer is sitting on a preschool-sized computer station with a preschool-sized desk. (sigh) Well, at least it makes me feel tall!

Since I'm on the MU campus four days a week, I decided to join the Rec Center. After all, I'm right there and I really want to stay in shape. (I hear that's really important when you get past a certain age) Plus I get a (small) employee discount! I've gone a few times and I like it a lot. What a gorgeous facility! There are so many ways to plug into the treadmill and elliptical, it was a little much. It had an HDTV, cable, an iPhone cable, and more. It was actually so distracting, I turned it off, and just listened to my little 'old school' ipod shuffle. The Rec even has an indoor track I had to try out. I think I'm going to love it- except that it takes 7 laps to equal a mile. So after I ran several laps, I realized I'd only gone 3/4 mile. Also, the track is on the 3rd floor and at some points, overlooks the 3 floors below. The first time I ran around it, my knees were a little weak to look down!

Last weekend, Hannah went to the Huntington High School Homecoming Dance with her boyfriend, William. Louie and I laughed because when WE each went to homecoming, it wasn't that big a deal. Now... it's a VERY big deal.

First of all, the day began with an "updo". Hannah is blessed with cool hair- it's thick and wavy and looks great styled. Becca and I hung out with her while her hair was being pinned up. Becca was quick to point out that I was "too old for an updo". Hmmm. The jury's still out on that one.

We met at his house which is next to the Ritter Park Rose Garden and his mom and I had to practically beg them to pose for pictures.

They were thrilled to meet up with their friends and head to the restaurant.

So, school is well underway and Hannah's senior year seems to be going very well. She loves her American Fiction class... except writing poetry, that is! Becca is doing fine. She's finally finding her way through the new experience of having 6 classes and different teachers- with different personalities and expectations. She's also having to find her own study style. She's a different student than Garrett or Hannah- and so we're having to find out how to help her be the best student she can be.

This assignment was a fun one- do you know what it is? The phases of the moon... via Oreo. That's a yummy project.

We talked to Garrett this week and he lived through his very first college mid-terms! His two hardest were on the same day- Biology and Chemistry. Becca and I will be traveling to Chicago for a long weekend soon to see him. She's never been on campus, so we'll have to do all the fun stuff- eat in the cafeteria, see a concert or game, stuff like that. It's really, really fall in Chicago right now. Actually, I've already ordered Garrett's winter coat because he'll need it before we know it. He's singing in the Wheaton Glee Club and they're awesome. I watched them online last night and saw him in a tux- so handsome! I hope I can see them sing live soon.

And it was a beautiful fall day here today. As a matter of fact, I glanced out the window earlier and saw Sasha, our 5 month old Boxer-Lab mix. A gust of wind blew a shower of leaves off a tree and she went into a puppy craze, running really fast around the tree, through the falling leaves. All of a sudden the wind died down and the leaves stopped falling. She stopped running and looked right and left as if she wondered who turned off her leaf toy. She cracks me up.

I'm planning on enjoying the rest of my fall just as much as Sasha- minus the craze!