New Every Morning -- Broken Path

The Lord's lovingkindnesses indeed never cease,

For His compassions never fail.

They are new every morning;

Great is Your faithfulness.

Lamentations 3:22-23 NASB

I typed the Scripture above because I've included them in every Our Journey post.  I'm having a hard time believing them, but there they are.  The words sit there on my screen.  He is faithful.  Another verse comes to mind, and I cling to it...

If we are faithless, He remains faithful,

for He cannot deny Himself.

2 Timothy 2:13 NASB

We were beginning to see the lighted path before us, we were walking, working hard, making plans to get out of the hole in which we find ourselves after three years' struggle, and now this.

The Broken Path

Tuesday night, after my walk in the woods, after the peace and the determination and #threewords and the hope of recovery, Fernando called.

"Are you sitting down?"

He would not be finishing this job.  He would fly home Wednesday morning from Dallas.  This leg of our journey was over.

Details aren't appropriate here, but I spent a restless night, Fernando a sleepless one.  He caught a flight to Midway; I struggled out of bed, drove to the airport, sat numbly at the waiting lot, got his text, picked him up, and drove him home.  Half an hour later I left for work.

What path is this?  Where are we headed now?  I'm at a loss.  I don't know.

What we thought was the road, is no longer.  There isn't just a tree trunk across it, blocking the way.  It's a dead end.  A cliff.  It now leads nowhere.  And I don't know where to go, turn around, turn aside, wait.  It is all darkness and uncertainty, and it takes all my strength to stand there, to keep my eyes open and breathe.

Back at my favorite spot, the yellows have appeared, not quite at full brilliance but they're there.  I've captured it with my camera at least, to look at later, to close my eyes and remember.  This is what He wanted me to see--His faithfulness, leading us through.  I can't see it yet.  Some day I'll look back and I'll be able to see it.  But not yet, not now, not with these eyes.

My faith is small, insignificant.  But He is faithful; it's there in black and white in those words, His words, His Word.  He is faithful because that's who He is.  I have no idea what He's doing, where He's leading us.  The whys hang there, big black words in my head floating around.

Even so, I cry out to Him, I trust You.  I don't know what You're doing, why You're doing it.  I hurt, Lord.  I trust You, though.  You're my Father and You're completely trustworthy.  You'll lead us to that green meadow, where I can rest and be at peace.  But right now I just hurt.

My shaken faith; faith which is the evidence of things not seen, and I'm blind right now.  I can't see.  I know I'm His, but faith?  Yet I will trust Him.  It's all I have.

Broken road, broken heart, and trying to breathe...

Christine

Read previous segments here:

The Beginning
The Injury
The Furnace
The Waiting
Employment
The House
The Phone Call
The Truck
The Car
The Business
Nightfall
The Gift
Eight Days

*   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *

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Peaceful Walk

I tried doing too much this morning, time got away from me, but I determined to take a walk at the Arboretum.  I ended up going late afternoon, and had a beautiful walk through the woods with my camera.

I thought of the path the Lord has us on, this lonely, hard path that--to me--is a road to recovery:  recovery from three very hard years in our journey, recovery from the continuous valleys we found ourselves in, recovery in our finances, and recovery to a new life of travel, of holding down the fort, of a four-days-a-week job for me, of adult men in my home.

I'm still trying to figure out this new life, how to juggle life with four men in my home, but they're still sons, and how do we work out meals, laundry, chores...  It's confusing for me, since I was a stay-at-home mom for so long, and now they're grown but still home, and I'm gone much of the time.

This afternoon, however, is a time for just me and my camera, and the beautiful woods that is The Morton Arboretum.

A tree had fallen across the path.  It was easy enough to climb around, but it reminded me to stay on the path, reminded me of #three words--whatever it takes--to make this new life work.  Fernando and I have a long road in front of us, to dig ourselves out of this valley (financially, anyway) we've ended up in.

But, the sun is shining, and our path seems lit with His peace.  We'll keep walking this path until He shows otherwise.  We'll keep hoping for permanency with this company, as we work hard and spend little time together.  We know there's peace as we both work toward the same goal, for His glory.

I reached my favorite spot, the place past the spruce plot where the tree trunks have fallen along the path.  I stopped, just breathing, taking in the scene, knowing that in a few days, or a few weeks, this place will be awash in yellow.  It will be a brief, glorious time, and then it will be gone.  I'm determined to see it.

Back in my car, I drove toward the exit, but just had to stop since the sun was turning this tree on yellow fire.  I had to take in this moment, knowing it would be gone the next time I visited.

I love the brief brilliance that is autumn, the bright bursts of color, as if the Lord is telling me--store this up, this beauty, because you have a bleak winter ahead, and you must remember my glory through it.

Storing it up...


Back to life,
Christine

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Fathers Day

For Fathers Day, our family was invited to Shabbona Lake for the H. Family's cookout.  I'm so happy I get to spend time with my friend Becki, and that Jake gets to spend time with Allie!  I had never been to this forest preserve before, though I'd heard of it because Fernando has fished and hunted there.  The afternoon wasn't too hot, so we took a walk in the woods and along the lake together.  Everything was so green!

Strange things happen when I hand Fernando my camera.  I try to look natural, and always end up looking over-posed.  So, here I am, posed along the wooded path.

Isn't it so pretty in the woods?

Field of coneflowers.

Lake Shabbona.

Back at the picnic pavilion, I had a chance to take pictures of this cute baby!

And this cute couple, too!  Allie stuck out her tongue for me, just like her dad always does in pictures.

Isn't she adorable?

Jake crawled up beside Allie and I caught this cute shot of them.

My guys always give me weird looks when I'm behind the lens.  Goofy guys.

Allie's brother John.

Danny.

We had a great time, and met lots of great people and had lots of fun.  I'm thankful we were invited to this special day.


Back to life,
Christine

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Sweet Silver, Part III

Our Paris Silver Anniversary, Part III. This is the last part.  You can visit the Paris Travel page of my photography blog if you want to see all the pictures and read about all the details of every single part of our travels.  :)

The last three days of our anniversary trip started with a walk to la promenade Plantée, a raised walkway filled with trees and flowers.  It used to be a railway way back when, and if you follow it all the way out of the city, you'll end up in bois de Vincennes, a forest/park and walking area.

La promenade Plantée.

We walked for a little while on la promenade, then exited down to street level to window shop all the way back up.  Underneath and all along la promenade are the shops of the viaducts.

Window of one of the shops under the viaducts of la promenade Plantée.

We then made our way to Canal St. Martin to look at all the boats moored there, and to enjoy the gardens along the canal.  Plus take some self-portraits!

Canal St. Martin.

Posing in le jardin d'Arsenal.

After lunch back at our appartement, we took a boat tour on the Seine.

Fernando studies our map while we wait for our river tour. We rode on a boat from Vedettes du Pont Neuf.

Along the boat tour, I took some really neat pictures.  :)

Then it was Friday--my birthday!!  I had wanted to do a walk in le Marais on Thursday, since there was an open-air market near our appartement on Thursday mornings.  But plans changed, so we did this walking tour on my birthday.  I'm very happy we did!  We found a little passageway, pass Chantier, where local artisans make their own furniture.  The cobblestone walkway and architecture were pretty neat, too!

Pass Chantier.

We rested for a bit in a little park in square Trousseau, and did some more self-portraits.  (Hey, this is my personal blog; you're going to see lots of pictures of my family and me here!)

We walked down rue d'Aligre and the marché (market) was still going on!  Since we had just one day left, we didn't need to purchase any produce, so we wended our way through the market and ended up in the place--where the flea market was happening.  This made me happy!  It was like a giant garage sale, with many different vendors selling lots of different things.

 Another part of le Marché d'Aligre in the place (square)--a flea market!

We happened upon a man selling jewelry, and Fernando bought me this old silver bracelet--for our silver anniversary!

We were hungry by then.  I had remembered reading about three different restaurants on one particular street just a few blocks from the place, but the book I read it in was back at the appartement.  I couldn't remember the name of the road, or the restaurants, so we started walking.  Then I remembered the street:  rue Paul-Bert.  We found it on the map and headed in that direction.  There were three restaurants on one little block!  Two were super-busy, and one of those asked for reservations.  So we backtracked across the street and went in to this little restaurant below.

Le Temps au Temps -- "The Season of Seasons" or "The Time of Times," depending on your translation.

The book I read said that they have consistently good food.  When we walked in, the waiter greeted us in French.  No English here!  The menu was hand-written on a placard, which the waiter placed against the wall near us so we could read it.  Unfortunately, my little pocket dictionary didn't contain the key words!  The menu was all in French, and French dishes are so hard to translate.  It was a prix fixé menu, with two entrées (appetizers), two plats (main dishes), and two desserts.  You can read all the details at the end of this post.   Suffice it to say here that each dish was amazingly presented and delicious to savor.  The waiter was so friendly and we were the only ones there--there was seating for only 22 people, so it was cozy and intimate, too.

For my birthday evening (and the last evening we could go out since we had to be in bed early Saturday night for our early morning flight Sunday), Fernando wanted to visit l'Arc de Triomphe and see it lit up at night.  So we did.  It was a sweet and fun evening, with one brief rain shower and an amazing walk down avenue Champs-Élysées.

L'Arc de Triomphe awaited us at the end of avenue Champs-Élysées.  

We had bought two (very cheaply made) umbrellas for one very rainy day earlier in the week, and they both broke in interesting ways.  When we went in to the Mercedes showroom to admire the cars, we spotted their version of an umbrella--not cheap.  60 euros = about 80 dollars.  :)

I'm sure *this* umbrella, a Mercedes umbrella, at 60 euros, didn't have the launch feature that our cheap 7-euro umbrella did!

We went in to Ladurée's temporary shop (their store was closed for renovations), and bought a macaroon sample box.  Mmmm.

Our last day gave us perfect weather--about 70 degrees and beautiful blue skies.  We started out walking close to "home" and made our way to place des Vosges, the first planned square in Paris.  It was beautiful!

Victor Hugo's home was in the place, so we toured that as well (it was free without the audio tour).

 Victor Hugo's home in place des Vosges.

For our afternoon outing, Fernando called the shots and took us to le Trocadéro, which houses several museums and sports a pond with fountains and a park area.  It's across from the Eiffel Tower, and makes for some great photographs.  (We took my tripod with us for the afternoon.)

The fountains in le jardin du Trocadéro.

Fernando and I in front of le jardin du Trocadéro.

 

After walking across to the Eiffel Tower and under it, and relaxing in the parc du Champ de Mars, I took a picture of our shadows in the parc.  This was the last of our portrait shots, and a beautiful way to end this last post.

Back to life,
Christine

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