The summer felt like a long, hot climb, which is something David and I would never choose to do in the natural, but apparently God wanted to give us lots of opportunities to grow in patience and joy in trials! (But watch Paul, Apostle of Christ to put your petty complaints into perspective!)
Amanda and her honey, goat duck pizza!
A month without a living/dining room was pretty constraining, but the room was presentable just in time to host Amanda, our old babysitter from Denver. As a French teacher, she comes through every 5 years or so, but we’d always missed each other till now. And boy, did she pick the perfect weekend: Bastille Day fireworks on Saturday night, a casual church service in the mountains and the French World Cup win on Sunday!
A few weeks of repaving our local streets during the summer heatwave was also taxing: Opening windows for a breeze was out of the question with bulldozers inches away and access to our door and parking was a daily adventure. The narrow sidewalk in front of our house was one of the last sections finished and immigrants were doing all the grunt work. I offered to freshen up their water bottles and gave them a hearty “Merci beaucoup” when the last shovelful of asphalt was applied and they walked off into the sunset.
It was also during this time that we drove 4 hours to see our pastor’s only daughter marry, staying overnight in a B&B that couldn’t even offer us a fan. After a lousy night’s sleep, the temps dropped and the magnificent outdoor setting and ceremony pulled us out of our misery!
Olivia got to experience the heatwave the following week as a key player at her school chum’s wedding: 5 days sweating it out at the bride’s parent’s house with 12 others and 2 bathrooms. Her roles included cleaning a dirty reception hall in advance of decorating, decorating, being a witness for the mandatory civil ceremony, leading worship with a band she’d never played with before, keeping the potluck buffet table full and doing the dishes afterwards. A ventilator kept the hall under 90 degrees, but the candles were still slumping over! Thank God she was joined by a great group of friends who laughed their way through it all. (But we made a mother-daughter pact that if she married in France, she wouldn’t do it in the summer!)
In the meantime, we were apologizing for the heat to more weekend visitors – our old friends and supporters, Tim and Sue, with their friends, came through after their ministry time in Switzerland with Athletes in Action. (The baker on our street just opened up an Airbnb this year to make ends meet. So they were able to stay a few doors down and sleep in air-conditioning – they highly recommend it!) Once visitors were cleared and the temperatures dropped, we painted the woodwork in the salon. And the room is finally starting to look the way I envisioned it!
The future M and Mme Vairet!
In my last newsletter, I mentioned that we wouldn’t be vacationing this year, but it seems God always comes through to make sure we celebrate our anniversary! Our American friends, the Byerlys, did a house swap during their summer furlough with the Hinson family from DC and I was their on-call person for any needs. So I did the cat-sitting for a month when the Hinsons traveled to Italy, did an afternoon of babysitting and then house-cleaned at their departure. And they were extremely generous in return. And the couple to whom we gave pre-marital counseling also surprised us with an unexpected big gift! So we booked a cheap flight and flew to Biarritz last week, where we were housed, fed home grown food and generally spoiled to death by Corinne, my pen pal of 40 years. In the end, David was sick most of the week and I caught his bug just before we flew back, so it wasn’t the couple time we had hoped for. But it provided a lot of much-needed girl time, as she is going through a difficult season and really needed a listening ear. Our friendship is becoming more precious with each passing year as she looks to me for more spiritual input into her life.
With Corinne at the Biarritz beach on the Atlantic.
If you ask David, his “long hot climb” this summer has been applying weekly for jobs. For the first time, he’s experiencing a lot of rejection in an unfamiliar business world, which is pushing him to lean hard on God, rather than his own understanding. Corinne was able to give him insight into the French recruiting mindset, and along with our dear intercessors, I am cheer-leading him on, knowing there is a perfect post waiting for him to find.
On a final, happy note, my chronic fatigue recovery has been less of a climb than I thought it would be. 2 months later, good sleep, extra supplements and mega-vitamins seem to be doing the trick! I also noticed that I felt much less achy in Corinne’s newly built house than I do at home, probably signaling mold sensitivity – another reason to move. At the same time, I have been delivered from all chocolate and sugar cravings, mainly because the side effects are so not worth it!
Ready for fall, Angela