Gone South!

So here we are in beautiful warm Florida thanks to the kind generosity of a dear Christian couple who offered us their condo. We could not turn down such a wonderful opportunity to spend some quality time together. We asked our close friends, Ryk and Anke, to accompany us and they willingly dropped everything to join us. It was just too daunting and stressful for me to attempt it alone. The plan was to do the trip in two days. Jack was doing the count down, while Ryk drove, "3 hours done, 15 hours to go!", "9 hours done, we're half way" then it became, "you know, we've done 12 hours, if we just drove 6 more, we'd be there at 3 in the morning." Not too subtle is he! Well, we all said, "it's up to Ryk, he's the driver" and a coffee and a dozen candies later and we arrived here at  3:30 in the morning. The weather is beautiful and seemed even more beautiful when we heard from our daughter that it was snowing back home:)  Jack tolerated the trip very well, sitting in the passenger seat, keeping Ryk awake. The condo is gorgeous and the surroundings very tranquil. It should not be too difficult to relax here:)

Saturday, after a delicious breakfast, we decided to drive to old St.Augustine and do the tourist thing. We saved ten dollars on parking because handicapped people don't have to pay for parking. Didn't know that but we'll take it:)

There was a full moon Friday night so we thought that it would be great to go to the ocean and get some pictures of the moon rising up over the horizon. We drove the 5 minutes to the ocean and Ryk set up the camera and we waited.Jack tried taking the electric wheelchair down the ramp to the beach but got stuck in the sand and had to settle for watching with us from the top of the ramp. We waited and waited, but I guess what's true of the watched pot is also true of the shy moon, because it would not come out for us. It was still a beautiful balmy evening and we enjoyed listening to the waves. We watched and waited with the old fisherman who was on the shore with his two lines in the water, trying to catch some whiting. We finally got tired of waiting and returned to the condo for a nice cup of dulce de leche coffee and some caramel, macadamia ice cream. It wasn't long and the moon finally did come out.

Sunday morning we attended church at St.Andrew's Church in Sanford, the home church of R.C.Sproul. It was quite an experience to be called to worship by the carillon and walking into the beautiful new gothic style cathedral. The liturgy, the processionals, chancel choir and sinfonia are not what we are accustomed to but the preaching of the word was central to the worship service and it was good to hear that familiar voice, which we have heard so often before, on tapes, CDs and at conferences, preaching the word.

On the way home from church we stopped by a park to see a two thousand year old oak tree! It truly is magnificent to see and awe inspiring to think that this tree was alive during the time that Christ Jesus was walking on this earth! We tried to capture the grandeur of it but the picture does not do it justice but here it is anyway.

The nights are always the most difficult for Jack. It's such an effort to roll over and breathing is getting increasingly more difficult in most positions. Last night he agreed that from now on he'll have to use the bipap machine, something that he's been putting off for as long as possible because he finds it very claustrophobic and annoying. He only uses the walker in the house and now that we have our van, he uses the electric wheelchair when going out. His arms and neck muscles are getting weaker. Friday night he laid awake for hours as the stark reality of his increasing dependence on me was sinking in. He is such an active person, he can never sit still and always sees something that needs to be done, and now he has no choice but to sit still and wait. This is very difficult for him.

P.S. The blogs may not come as frequently; we're very busy relaxing after all :)