The Moments in Life

Life has certainly continued to be an adventure here in Washington DC! It is exciting to be posted at a different site each day so that I have a unique experience every time I go to work. Combined with the variety of people who are visiting, it is keeping life interesting and exciting! Here are a few highlights of the moments in life that I have experienced in the last week...

~After being on my feet and working at the Washington Monument for about seven hours we had a child decide to puke all over the end of the x-ray machine which meant the whole operation had to shut down for about a half hour in order to deal with the "bio-hazard." Luckily I did not have to clean it up! But I did get to smell the lovely fumes emitting from the security area after the event!

~When I was at WWII on Monday I encountered a mom out with her three kids, eight year old twins (a boy and girl) and a ten year old girl. They were looking at the bas-reliefs seen at the entry to the memorial when I walked up to them and engaged them in conversation. That contact ended up resulting in an hour and a half of going through and discussing the panels and the war with these three kids. It was very exciting because it was so different that what I am usually doing, and because they were so interested. Their grandfather had landed at Normandy and been shot through the hip during the fighting that ensued in the French countryside. We have a total of 24 bas-relief panels depicting different moments of the war, some of combat and others on the home front. I took them to the twelve on the north side, which depict events connected with the European theater and that is where we spent an hour and a half. One of the panels depicts the amphibious landing and Normandy and another several medics carrying a soldier on a stretcher. So I was very easily able to connect the panels to the story of their grandfather. It was a very special time.

~I also gave the MLK program at Lincoln again, this time to a group of about fifty. Though nowhere near the scale of what happened on MLK day it was still very moving to speak about such momentous events in that place. And this time the stereo worked so I got to hear Dr. King's voice rather than my own. There is such power in those words!

~Saturday was "pie day" so last Friday I successfully baked a crunch top apple pie and took it in to join the others in a celebration of sugar and unhealthiness. I think my final tally was eight slices of pie throughout the day! (they were all small, but that is still a ridiculous quantity of pie!)

~Yesterday I made two different trips into Virginia that resulted in a glass top coffee table, small card table that I can use for scrapbooking, games, etc. and a small dining room table and four chairs. I had to drive pretty far to pick them up, but I got all the tables for free. God is definitely providing for me in that way! I also gave blood at the red cross, which turned out to be quite a painful experience as the lady who actually took my blood did not do it correctly. But I was able to tangibly help by giving blood to help replace the stores that are being shipped to Haiti. 

So life continues to be filled with the unexpected, he miraculous, and special and unforgettable moments. It is such moments that make up the fabric of our lives.