Dear friends,
Peace and Blessings from Rome and my sincere apologies for not being more diligent to this blog. Apparently my mom wasn't the only one who was disappointed with my lack of posts because today I was just about knocked off my feet by one heck of a a God moment that I'm pretty positive I'm supposed to share (at least that's the only thing I can come up with to explain what happened).
The story begins exactly a week ago when I was flying back to Rome after a whirlwind 4 days in the states, attending a friend's wedding and graduation at UD. By the time I made it to the Philly-Rome leg I was beat. As the plane was finishing boarding I started getting excited because the I had the isle seat and the window seat immediately to my right was still empty. Planes are about the one place on earth I don't sleep well, and I thought maybe with this extra seat I could catch up on some much needed rest and hit the ground running in Rome. Just as my hopes were starting to get really high and boarding was all but done a huge family comes down the isle (four little boys, the oldest was around 10 and the youngest couldn't have been older than 1 1/2). They took the whole middle row and displaced the two Italians that had moved into their seats, one of whom claimed my extra window seat. At this point my tired self got to start exercising patience, I knew it wasn't their fault but after not really sleeping for four days it required a little more effort to not be annoyed at loosing the extra seat I'd had my heart set on. lol. This exercise in patience increased as we began to taxi and the youngest of the boys began to fuss. It wasn't like he was a good fuss-er either though. He would look around, see if anyone was watching, and if they weren't begin this really pathetic wail/sob. He kept this up the rest of the flight. While my interior struggle continued the rest of the flight as well (aided by earbuds and extensive in-flight movies and music) I never really lost the charitable disposition towards the family. However, I distinctly remember thinking at one point that if I am supposed to get married and be a father it will have to be with a woman who can help me learn how to avoid raising kids that act like that. Mea culpa.
As we started our final approach and the seat-back screens winked out and the flight crew instructed us to turn off our electronics, I reluctantly pulled out my earbuds. As I now longer had anything to distract me from the fussy infant on the opposite side of the plane, I turned to the mom who was sitting just behind me across the isle and asked where they were from. Turns out they were from Washington state and had flown all the way across the country and just caught their connecting flight after a made dash through the Philadelphia airport. Man no wonder the kids are a little rough, I thought, what a long time in planes. (I don't know if I thought it at the time but I've often wondered why anyone would do a transatlantic flight with kids, there are good reasons as would find out.) They asked about what I did in Italy and then I asked them what they were coming to Italy for, just vacation? The mom replied, serenely, that her oldest son Tucker has leukemia and had requested to go to Italy through Make-a-wish, which the foundation had funded. Something heavy landed in the pit of my stomach. My flimsy, begrudging "patience" with her family suddenly seemed so very pathetic. Its funny how in an instant your attitude about a person, or people, can change when you get to know them just a little bit. I cannot imagine what that must feel like as a parent. Or trying to give attention to an infant while your oldest son is in a fight for his life at the age of 10. As we continued to talk it turned out we had a lot in common. They lived in the country and raised some chickens, some hogs, and a few cows because they wanted their kids to experience that responsibility. The father was born on a dairy farm about the same size as ours and had grown up showing their cows in 4-H just like I had. I talked to Tucker who had requested to come to Italy because he had become a huge Roman history buff through his home-school curriculum. Their itinerary was to head to a little bed and breakfast on a farm north of Orvieto in Umbria for five days and then spend one day in Rome. Once we landed I wished them well and told them they'd be in my prayers. I immediately thought that I should write a post about the experience but in the hustle of getting ready for the summer term and packing up for the break, I completely forgot; until today.
This morning I went into Rome for the first time since returning to Italy. The summer students were having mass in the crypt of St. Peter's Basilica a mere stones throw from the bones of St. Peter which seemed like a decent reason to head into the city. After mass, I went and ran some errands while the students had a walking tour of Rome with Ryan and Dr. Rombs. By the time I met back up with them three hours later I'd added about 50lbs worth of candles to my backpack and didn't feel like accompanying them up the Capitoline Hill for a view of the Forum, so I went and waited by where the bus would pull up at the base of the hill. While I was standing there on one of the busiest streets in Rome, who walked by but Tucker's whole family. I'd completely forgotten our conversation from the week before but today was the one day that they were going to spend in Rome. Of all the tourists, on all the crowded streets we ended up again in the same place, me about to leave for campus, them just arriving and waiting on a bus to St. Peter's. God works in mysterious ways. It reminded me just how small our pretty big world can be when grace is involved. Needless to say this was a pretty good motivator/shocker to get me to write down the whole experience and also to continue keep Tucker and his family in my prayers. If you have an extra prayer too I'm sure they won't mind. Until next time (which will hopefully be much sooner) Quo vadis?
Peace and Blessings from Rome and my sincere apologies for not being more diligent to this blog. Apparently my mom wasn't the only one who was disappointed with my lack of posts because today I was just about knocked off my feet by one heck of a a God moment that I'm pretty positive I'm supposed to share (at least that's the only thing I can come up with to explain what happened).
The story begins exactly a week ago when I was flying back to Rome after a whirlwind 4 days in the states, attending a friend's wedding and graduation at UD. By the time I made it to the Philly-Rome leg I was beat. As the plane was finishing boarding I started getting excited because the I had the isle seat and the window seat immediately to my right was still empty. Planes are about the one place on earth I don't sleep well, and I thought maybe with this extra seat I could catch up on some much needed rest and hit the ground running in Rome. Just as my hopes were starting to get really high and boarding was all but done a huge family comes down the isle (four little boys, the oldest was around 10 and the youngest couldn't have been older than 1 1/2). They took the whole middle row and displaced the two Italians that had moved into their seats, one of whom claimed my extra window seat. At this point my tired self got to start exercising patience, I knew it wasn't their fault but after not really sleeping for four days it required a little more effort to not be annoyed at loosing the extra seat I'd had my heart set on. lol. This exercise in patience increased as we began to taxi and the youngest of the boys began to fuss. It wasn't like he was a good fuss-er either though. He would look around, see if anyone was watching, and if they weren't begin this really pathetic wail/sob. He kept this up the rest of the flight. While my interior struggle continued the rest of the flight as well (aided by earbuds and extensive in-flight movies and music) I never really lost the charitable disposition towards the family. However, I distinctly remember thinking at one point that if I am supposed to get married and be a father it will have to be with a woman who can help me learn how to avoid raising kids that act like that. Mea culpa.
As we started our final approach and the seat-back screens winked out and the flight crew instructed us to turn off our electronics, I reluctantly pulled out my earbuds. As I now longer had anything to distract me from the fussy infant on the opposite side of the plane, I turned to the mom who was sitting just behind me across the isle and asked where they were from. Turns out they were from Washington state and had flown all the way across the country and just caught their connecting flight after a made dash through the Philadelphia airport. Man no wonder the kids are a little rough, I thought, what a long time in planes. (I don't know if I thought it at the time but I've often wondered why anyone would do a transatlantic flight with kids, there are good reasons as would find out.) They asked about what I did in Italy and then I asked them what they were coming to Italy for, just vacation? The mom replied, serenely, that her oldest son Tucker has leukemia and had requested to go to Italy through Make-a-wish, which the foundation had funded. Something heavy landed in the pit of my stomach. My flimsy, begrudging "patience" with her family suddenly seemed so very pathetic. Its funny how in an instant your attitude about a person, or people, can change when you get to know them just a little bit. I cannot imagine what that must feel like as a parent. Or trying to give attention to an infant while your oldest son is in a fight for his life at the age of 10. As we continued to talk it turned out we had a lot in common. They lived in the country and raised some chickens, some hogs, and a few cows because they wanted their kids to experience that responsibility. The father was born on a dairy farm about the same size as ours and had grown up showing their cows in 4-H just like I had. I talked to Tucker who had requested to come to Italy because he had become a huge Roman history buff through his home-school curriculum. Their itinerary was to head to a little bed and breakfast on a farm north of Orvieto in Umbria for five days and then spend one day in Rome. Once we landed I wished them well and told them they'd be in my prayers. I immediately thought that I should write a post about the experience but in the hustle of getting ready for the summer term and packing up for the break, I completely forgot; until today.
This morning I went into Rome for the first time since returning to Italy. The summer students were having mass in the crypt of St. Peter's Basilica a mere stones throw from the bones of St. Peter which seemed like a decent reason to head into the city. After mass, I went and ran some errands while the students had a walking tour of Rome with Ryan and Dr. Rombs. By the time I met back up with them three hours later I'd added about 50lbs worth of candles to my backpack and didn't feel like accompanying them up the Capitoline Hill for a view of the Forum, so I went and waited by where the bus would pull up at the base of the hill. While I was standing there on one of the busiest streets in Rome, who walked by but Tucker's whole family. I'd completely forgotten our conversation from the week before but today was the one day that they were going to spend in Rome. Of all the tourists, on all the crowded streets we ended up again in the same place, me about to leave for campus, them just arriving and waiting on a bus to St. Peter's. God works in mysterious ways. It reminded me just how small our pretty big world can be when grace is involved. Needless to say this was a pretty good motivator/shocker to get me to write down the whole experience and also to continue keep Tucker and his family in my prayers. If you have an extra prayer too I'm sure they won't mind. Until next time (which will hopefully be much sooner) Quo vadis?
