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Dear family:
I boldly announced that the computer was mine this evening, and
thereby have no further excuse for delaying in writing to you, other than I don’t
know where to begin. I’ll try to follow some consecutive order, but before I
do, there are a few family milestones left over from the summer that never got
mentioned in previous letters that I made note of on a scrap of paper. I mention
them here in case we need to know these things fifty years from now. The first
is that Ben gave up his "bedtime blankie" this summer. Just prior to
his fifth birthday I suggested that he should give it up when he turned five. He
thought about it for a few minutes and then said he would give it up when he was
six. But actually, it disappeared without being noticed or mourned by anyone but
me.
Similarly, my old faithful Laneco grocery store closed down this summer. I
now have to travel farther afield to a store with less efficient check-out
clerks. It’s funny, I know, but I feel a bit homeless without a grocery store.
Quite a few people have gushed to us about the grandiose new Wegman’s that has
opened up in the township. It is not close to us, but Mom and I intend to take a
sightseeing trip there some day soon. Fortunately we have our wonderful little
Sim’s neighborhood store to keep us from starving.
My last letter was written in such a rush that I didn’t even mention the
World Trade Center disaster. Peter was just exiting his Lehigh World Politics
class when we heard about the first planes. Of course we were riveted to the
radio (not having TV reception) and
the day unfolded in a most unreal way as the disasters piled up and we hurriedly
reviewed whom we might know who would be at risk. There is no question that life
feels different since the 11th. Peter, Steve, and I had been in the WTC
with our French student exactly two months to the day prior, which felt like a
close call until we learned that a family in our church was sightseeing there
the day before. As it turned out, all of the people we were concerned
about (parents of Lehigh students, etc.) were safe, and yet the tragedy
nevertheless felt very personal. The students were quite shaken and we had very
well attended prayer meetings on campus in the aftermath. At this point, the
observable effects on our culture have been largely positive. There is a
stirring of patriotism and camaraderie in the displays of flags everywhere, and
people seem sobered and less likely to sweat the small stuff. However, the
prospect of future terrorism, a lengthy and expensive campaign against it, and
being the parent of military age boys is not a comfortable feeling.
Life has gone on, of course. We welcomed Mom and Dad home on October 4th.
They were the last to come down the airport hallway, and we had become concerned
that something was wrong. We asked the flight crew and they immediately assured
us that the only problem was that the Feavers had had too much to drink! We made
quite a scene in the airport – they brought leis for us, we had flowers and
balloons for them. Ben’s first question was whether they wanted all of
the balloons for themselves. After a dinner out with Uncle David (where we gave
the leis to the happy restaurant personnel) we returned home – which for Nana
and Poppa meant staying at our house since theirs was under renovations, not to
mention without furniture.
John and family arrived on the weekend to add to the welcoming party, and
promptly set themselves up next door to "break in" the new house. It
was great to have the bulk of the family (notice that I am excluding Peter, in
England, from the phrase "the bulk") together, and the immediate
helpfulness of Gail and Megan in particular was a real boost to making the house
habitable. They brought a truck with furniture from Gail’s father’s home,
for which everyone was grateful. We didn’t have much time together, but we did
have the opportunity to listen to a tape of the eulogies given at her father’s
funeral, which was very touching. After John’s family had tested the house for
ghosts, Mom and Dad felt it was time to move into 629
for sleeping purposes, but continued to spend the days here.
Those days have been busy, but so wonderful to have them to share with. The
first priority was to get Dad established with the medical community here. Their
first taste of culture shock was the more officious way that medical care is
managed here, compared to the informal Hawaiian style. We also took care of a
myriad of details – new licenses, parking permits, and all the little things
that are involved in a major move. In spite of all the run around, Dad improved
daily and was benefitting from the cooler climate. His blood sugar came down to
normal and his shortness of breath was gone. He was promptly taken off medical
leave and put to work teaching Latin to Christopher.
Just this past week the contractor completed the kitchen, though I use the
word "completed" loosely. We have had some dramatic and tense moments
– for instance, when the refrigerator wouldn’t fit -- but it is now usable.
Then their container from Hawaii arrived mid week, and they have been busy
finding places for their things and shopping for items that they now need. The
highlight of this week was the news that they have a buyer for the condominium
in Hawaii. They purchased (for a song) a car from someone in our church, a car
with 225,000+ miles on it, but so
well cared for that it is more reliable than any of our vehicles!
There have been plenty of special events. Our daily routine seems to revolve
around looking for lost items and coordinating schedules. But each week is
punctuated by interesting diversions. Many of these involve the Lehigh students
and their social events. We have had students over for meals lots of times, as
well as for movie nights. There have been several concerts at Zoellner, and we
had quite a crowd for the night we went through a corn maze. Our family has done
corn mazes in the daytime before, but the Lehigh gang wanted to try one at
night. Ben was eager to go along, too, but had serious reservations once we were
out in the middle. Fortunately David has a good sense of direction and we made
it out in decent time.
I had one night out with some women in my church to see Princess Diaries.
We are all mothers of boys, and figured we’d never get our families to watch
it, so we had a ladies’ night out. We had the theater to ourselves, so it was
a lot of fun.
Of course, you are all more interested in news about the boys than about my
gallivantings. I’ll start at the top.
David. David has been juggling two dorm Bible studies, a large
group meeting, a grad student Bible study, a leadership team meeting (for which
he makes breakfast), and now a ministry team meeting each week. Practically
every weekend he is away on some ministry or another – one week it is
presbytery, another weekend he went to Homecoming at his father’s church in
West VA, another he was at a
missions conference, yet another he was at fall conference with students in
Connecticut, and last weekend he took a bunch of students to help out at a soup
kitchen in Manhattan. Twice in the past month he has preached at other churches.
In addition, he has been the primary manager of the renovation project next
door, and we have lost count of the number of trips he has taken to Home Depot.
I don’t know how he does it, though the boys insist that his energy is fueled
by late night raids on the fridge and their Halloween candy. One result of all
this activity is that his desk is literally buried under piles of loose
paperwork, some of which may be important. The good news is that one of the
students is volunteering time to help him sort through it. This student is
particularly qualified for this job, as he is an anthropologist/archeologist
specializing in Peruvian artifacts!
Daniel. Last weekend was my turn to go away (I guess we are
back to my gallivanting already) for parent’s weekend at Hopkins. I hadn’t
seen Daniel since his birthday weekend in August, and he was a sight for sore
eyes. Judging by his reaction, though, I got the distinct impression he was more
eager to see the frozen meals that I brought with me than to see my face! He is
in a generous-sized apartment, in which the main decorating theme appears to be
computers and boxes. Consider this letter an SOS
to send him posters and/or pictures to personalize his walls. Peter came along,
too, and we had a couple of nice dinners out. We attended an a capella concert
and I almost talked them into going to the Baltimore Art Museum. Peter
stayed at the apartment with Dan and was up till all hours with his friends; I
was keeping almost the same hours with our friends, the Badorfs, with whom I
stayed overnight. Daniel is finding this semester more manageable than previous
ones, as evidenced by the fact that he has been able to do some recreational
reading for the first time since enrolling at Hopkins. He is working a few hours
a week at a warehouse, and applying for internships next summer more related to
his field.
Peter. Peter is the major newsmaker in the household. No sooner
did he recover from his sprained ankle than he broke his clavicle in a collision
with another player. This started yet another round of doctor’s visits. He
managed to once again heal fast enough to catch the latter part of the soccer
season, scoring a total of four goals for his team. His team was favored to win
the districts, but lost in the first round in a heart-breaking upset. (Hearts
weren’t the only thing broken. A number of the players were injured and one
even ended up in the hospital.) I caught most of his home games but since the
away games are often quite a distance, I usually didn’t see those. However,
one beautiful fall day I decided to jump in the car to watch his game against
Wetherly. I was feeling a rush of sadness that Peter’s senior soccer season
was ending. I had no idea how far away Wetherly actually is (past Jim Thorpe)
and had serious questions about whether the car was in fact up to the challenge
of the mountains once I was on the way, but the drive through Lehigh Gorge was
stunning.
Peter is now senior class president at LVCHS.
The full story is that he lost by one vote to a girl, and she resigned in the
first week, so the job went to him. None of us are quite sure what his
responsibilities are supposed to be; however, he returned from the school
retreat shaved completely bald by his teammates , which had some connection
apparently. We pointed out that he will now be required to attend the Christmas
banquet (he was too cheap to go last year), and have given him helpful
suggestions about which girls we think he should ask to this social event of the
season. (Most of our suggestions he rules out as being girls with "too much
class".) He did have a letter to the editor published in the Morning
Call bragging about his school’s Pennsylvania Assessment scores. This
might be the right place for me to brag about his SAT
scores, 1410! Much to his uncle’s
relief, he also scored well on his first Lehigh exam. We are cracking the whip
over him to get the college application process well under way before the
holidays. We have painful memories of last minute pressure with Daniel’s three
years ago.
Peter continues to exasperate his mother by things like having his senior
picture taken in his favorite "Do Nothing/ Avoid Criticism" tee shirt
and not getting his driver’s permit. If he’s smart he’ll butter me up
because the school bus drivers are going on strike this week and he’ll need a
ride to school.
Christopher. I think all of you get Christopher’s newsletter,
so you know exactly what is going on here and in his life. His current
project is a massive vocabulary list. I’m a little fuzzy on its purpose, but
there is no question about it being his passion. If nothing else, it is a
distraction from his assigned project; namely, a major research paper on the
history of mahogany in furniture making, and the dreaded geometry. He started
attending the 4-H Veterinary Science club, something he has wanted to do for a
few years, and hopefully will join the local homeschool chess club, as well. I
should comment here that Christopher’s main hobby appears to be eating. He is
unquestionably in the "hollow leg" years.
Stephen. Yesterday marked the end of Stephen’s soccer season
– one of those "character-building" seasons. He turned twelve in
October, and though his birthday was nearly lost in the shuffle, he managed to
come out of it with a new bike. Somewhere in the house he has hidden a massive
amount of Trick or Treat candy. He and his friend Joseph went around both
Bethlehem and Wescosville dressed as elves from The Lord of the Rings.
This past week we went on a field trip to John James Audubon’s home. Stephen
proved to be a talented scout, as he led his group out of the woods on the
nature trail. He has been practicing with his bow and arrow outdoors, and his
harmonica indoors. Stephen would probably describe school as a necessary evil,
but he loves the daily reading time when Nana reads missionary stories aloud to
him.
Ben. Benjamin has taken to public prayers which, I blush to
admit, are the kind that the Pharisees made popular in Biblical times. They
always begin, "Jesus Lord, help us to have a good time…" after which
follows a long list of anything he can think of doing. Once in a while he shows
potential as a Pentecostal preacher. "Show us the way, God, show us the
way!" Then, when he is finished, he sidles up to me and asks, rhetorically,
"Wasn’t my prayer the BEST?" On the way to a service in which David
was preaching, he asked, "When is it my turn to speak up front?"
He misses the interaction at nursery school, and looks forward to weekly
events such as Master’s Academy and Awana club. At MAFA
he has made friends with a little cutie and I was told that he was asking about
the price of a ring for her! Nana has been an invaluable help to me as often she
has put Ben to bed when we are out for some reason. His soccer season is now
over, too, and he estimates the number of goals he made at somewhere around
sixty, though it was probably more like three.
That’s the roundup. We love hearing from all of you and send our deepest
affection. |
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