Milestones

Photo by Nicole King on Unsplash

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To my newly subscribed readers, you’re not in the wrong place. My last newsletter explained that I was taking a writing break due to work-related stresses. This is another personal update. I promise I will soon return to Historical Fiction from Off the Beaten Path.

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It’s absurd to think you’re sitting there tapping your feet with impatience, waiting for me to apologize for my absence. You’re wiser than that and you know life is more complicated than newsletters about historical fiction.

Since so much has happened in these few weeks, it’s easiest to give you a timeline summary to catch you up as I work my way back to participation in the greater world.

In late March, after my last newsletter, I quit my excellent but exhausting staff job. I gave them six weeks’ notice, which left me with four depositions and one possible trial appearance to endure before I could officially log out.

Thankfully, after the first two depositions, the second two were rescheduled to beyond my end date. At the last minute, the trial was moved to a new docket—relieving me of that duty. But preparation for those hurdles meant long hours of study and keeping my mind on the various materials that I had to know in fine detail.

I think you can see why I decided I could not spare brain cells for writing the missing scenes of my book.

During this time, our extended family went into tag-team mode when my husband’s parents (97 & 93) landed in the ER on the same day. (Eternal thanks to Nell for her endless commitment to seeing them through these past five years!)

On 5/7/24, we held our beloved Australian Cattle Dog while the mobile vet put her down. This animal was our delight. It crushed us to make this decision. But we’d had one too many close calls with her and had to accept that she was very dangerous. No amount of love and discipline was going to “fix” her. She was unpredictable and untrustworthy around any living creature other than ourselves. We’d spent seven years protecting her from herself, contorting our lives to provide her with her best life. We’d taken as much risk as we dared. If you know the breed, you know our heartbreak and our challenges. I’ve never wept so hard and long for an animal and will probably weep more yet.

5/10/24 was my last day of work. I should have been giddy, but the loss of our pup overshadowed all thoughts of moving forward.

Then, on 5/14/24 my father-in-law left us while surrounded by his wife and grown children singing his favorite hymns. I believe his final breath was taken while they sang “Jesus Loves Me” in Indonesian—the perfect exit for a man who lived 97 years for God’s glory. He leaves an expansive legacy through his family life, his decades of medical care for many thousands in the US and Indonesia, and his service and prayers for the US and Indonesian church.

As you can see, we have much to absorb. Having lost my own parents within a nineteen month span, I know the disorientation of those missing moments that should be filled with the people who have been there for us our entire lives. Even when we expect their passing, there is still a complex path to be tread. 

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As for the job front—don’t panic. I’m taking the summer off, then will join the contract labor world—the larger pool of workers in my vocation. 

James is quitting his current gig, effective 5/31/24. Same vocation. Same exhaustion after many years of skills in high demand. 

The decision to use the next few months to recover from years of overload was made without knowing we’d soon have these new milestones to process.

Milestones that sear into our memories.

By the grace of God, we will find our way beyond the loss to remembering the joys and blessings that we cherish.

This morning we’ll travel a few hours to witness the Christian dedication of a grand niece. With her family, we will rejoice and celebrate her life, passing on this great legacy to the next generation.

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I thank you all for your continued interested in my life and work. I do not take it for granted in this world of all-consuming demands for our attention. We live in a unique time in which we can connect with others across vast distances, reminding us of our shared human experience when it is otherwise so easy to lose sight of it in the whirlwind of headlines and soundbites. I pray you will each be blessed with internal hope and peace.

Much love,

Lausanne

37Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. 38For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, 39nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Roman’s 8:37-39)