Duct Tape and the Liver Doc

Hello Friends. Thanks for coming over to the liver blog. It's nice to have you here and just imagine that we're chatting over a cup of coffee.

Thought you'd like to see Amanda and her pile of duct tape, a Happy Gift from Grandma Mork, with whom Bob and I had lunch today while we were in Rochester for Bob's Liver appointment at the Mayo.

Anyway, before I could even upload this picture Amanda had already made her Dad a little man-purse, ahem, European carry-all, in the colors of football. Vikings on the outside and Green Bay Packers on the inside. Isn't that clever? He's wondering if Mother Mork could please get her duct tape in the colors of the Jets or the Mets.

So, today, Bob's biliruben count is 1.4 and the liver doctor, Dr. Talwalker (photo) said that for all intents and purposes Bob's liver is healed. Healed. Isn't that a great word? We went up to the transplant unit for old time's sake. Tried to think good thoughts and send prayers to all the people there, and their families. We haven't actually seen Dr. T since last November because Bob was too weak to get there. We thanked him for being so flexible in doing the phone consultations. And offered our support for other families who may be going through this, the severe acute thing. Like finding yourself suddenly in the last stages of liver disease. Only Bob's liver decided to heal. It's a miracle. Like the liver has a brain and can make decisions to stop and to start according to its mood. A diva liver.

It's like Bob is really back. He really is. And to be honest, I feel a little shell shocked from it all. Like it was a dream or something. Thanks for coming over.

With love, T

Giving thanks and giving thanks

One of these days, when we have our house with many beds and bathrooms, I'm going to properly matte and frame our print of this stained glass window from Taize, France. Which is now packed away somewhere, the idea being that we would move last summer, the idea being that Bob's liver would leave us alone so that he could use his brand new M.Div. degree and get a call somewhere and we would settle in.

And when that happens, we'll have a big party and give thanks for another winter storm through which my Dad and his truck drove. Give thanks for 50 years or something like that, of making it through storms. Entire lifetimes of driving and storms and trucks. We'll give thanks for loads, roads and radios and you'll all be invited. There'll be enough food and space for everyone.

With love, T

Miracles on 45th Street

Happy 2nd Birthday, Laila and Olivia!

Even though it's totally unfair that Carol should look so pretty after delivering two bundles of joy in one day, I wanted to show you these birthday pictures. Carol is Bob's youngest sister.

Laila Martha & Olivia Tahia

Born February 25, 2005, New York City.
Congratulations Carol and Ragaey!!!! May God be with you all.

Here's how Amanda spent Christmas vacation this past year. With the almost 2-year-olds. I myself was more like mama grizzly of the foul language on my kids' birthdates.

With love, T

P.S. And what is served at Laila and Olivia's birthday party? Home made Eqyptian food, of course, baked from scratch by Gourmet Dad Ragaey. And now the mama panda is inspired to figure out a recipe section for the liver blog. Coming soon. For now, here's the recipe for Kufta wrapped in Eggplants from the chefosama.com, an Egyptian chef who works out of Dubai. Also served was baked fluffy rice and Egyptian lasagne, which Carol remembers my Mom, aka Mother Mork, liking a couple of Easters ago. If even one of those twins decides to get married, it will be a wedding to which you'll want to be invited; or at least figure out how to crash the banquet.

Gourmet Dad Ragaey adapted this receipe for lively livers, Laila's, and Olivia's by baking instead of frying and using spicey chopped meat for local palets. Although mama panda says, when you're with someone who knows how to cook Middle Eastern food, always go for the lamb even if you lean vegetarian.

Kufta wrapped in Eggplants for Laila and Olivia's 2nd Birthday

Ingredients

Kufta
2 eggplantsSalt and pepper

2 tablespoons olive oil

½ kilo minced meat

1 chopped onion

2 tablespoons chopped parsley

1 chopped green pepper

¼ teaspoon ground mixed spices

2 tablespoons flour

2 tablespoons cooking oil

Sauce
½ cup tomato paste

1 cup water

1 tablespoon vinegar

Salt and pepper

Directions

Kufta -- Cut eggplants in long slices .Sprinkle salt on them .Set aside for an hour.• Rinse to get rid of salt and squeeze a little.• Lay side by side in a tray. Brush with oil and place in the oven to fry on both sides.• Mix minced meat with chopped onion, parsley and pepper. Mix well and season with spices, salt and pepper.• Form the minced meat into fingers, roll in flour and shake to get rid of excess flour. Fry in hot oil.• Place on kitchen towel paper.• Place the meat fingers on eggplants slices, roll and put side by side. Notice that the wrapped side should face down.

Sauce -- Mix ingredients until tomato paste melts. Season and pour on eggplants.• Bake in a preheated oven of 350 F. for 30 minutes.• Serve warm with white rice or slices of toast.

Sing happy birthday. Enjoy with all your friends, family, and neighbors.

Can't you See My Son is Drowning!

Have you ever wanted to shout this to your child's swimming teacher? Just this morning Aidan was treading water seeming to barely keep his little head above the surface. He gasped for air. I'm sure I heard it all the way from the bleachers. Then he gets out of the pool, struts as though he just swam alcatraz, and looks to see if I am watching. Thumbs up, I give with a big mama panda goofy grin.

It's like the time he did his kindergarden screening in a classroom with the three of us watching. The teacher gave him some puzzels and if he didn't get it right away Bob would loudly whisper 'the triangle, THE TRIANGLE' as though the teacher would not also hear the answers that the father was giving his son from ten feet away.

Don't you just want to be there all the time for your kids. Helping them to keep their head above water, pass their tests and make the really tough decisions? Keeping all the bad stuff away from them? Just reminding them over and over that they are loved nomatter what anyone else says or does to them.

I think one of the finest fathers I know, come to think of it one of the finest human beings I know is Andy Mungure, our neighbor for the past 5 years. Ndeoya is his real name but he uses Andy for us gringos who can't pronounce it. Plus, Andy alliterates well with Amanda and Aidan; if we should ever find ourselves with another son, we'd have both a name and a namesake. Oh, to be ten years younger. One time when I was giving a presentation at our church about fair trade coffee -- one that I had given 100 times -- there was a coffee farmer in the audience. It occured to me that I had no idea what I was talking about compared to Andy. He humored me and said I was doing a good job. And then spoke up himself about how fair trade had changed the lives of the people on his mountain, where they've grown coffee for centuries, Mt. Meru (photo above), Arusha, Tanzania. Now that he's almost finished with his Masters degree in Economics, he'll return to the mountain with even more innovation on how to grow and sell good coffee.

This blog doesn't give me enough room to tell you all the reasons why I think Andy could be human being of the year, the century, the millenium. Bob and I are just so glad that we could be neighbors with him and his family during the seminary years. We'll be checking the Mungure's bags before they return to make sure Aidan didn't pack himself.

With love, T

The Prayer Flag that Mary Beth Made

To get an idea of how meaningful this prayer flag is, along with the spiritual housekeeping service that the Friends did in our apartmtent last week, you have to look on the bottom of this dispatch for Bob's before and after pictures.

My neighbor, Mary Beth, created this using a Tibetian prayer chain as a model. She came up with Bible verses to go with each color that reminded her of Bob's journey from life to death and back again. Just because she has three kids, a student husband, runs, skiis, swims and counsels eating disorder patients, doesn't mean she can't envision and custom sew a prayer chain here and there. Here it is:

Black: John 1:5, The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not overcome it.

Red: Romans 8:26-27, In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with sighs so deep that words cannot express. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit interecedes for the saints in accordance with God's will.

Yellow: Romans 8:22-25, We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardely as we wait eagerly for our adoptions as children, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is not hope at all. Who hopes for wht he already has? But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.

Green: II Corinthians 5:17, So if anyone is in Christ, they are a new creation; everything old has passed away; see everything has become anew!

So, the new Bob is almost open for a call to the golf course and to parish ministry. Where will we go? Stay tuned!! That's the next chapter.

Left, Bob before the liver left him, May 2006.

Below, Bob just after the liver came back to him, February 2007. He had already gained back almost 10 of the 40 pounds that also left him. Having a nutritionist neighbor who makes prayer flags is helpful, as you can imagine.

With love, T

All you need is love, Everyday.

Everyday. The acoustic version by the Dave Matthews Band is the best song ever. Jeni from Campus thinks that Dave Matthews is passe, but since I'm 2-3 generations older than her, I have an excuse to think they are an amazing band.

Here is Aidan, with his Dave Matthews look -- and when he's not taking on the Donald Rumsfeld persona, he's pretty close to Dave Matthews. Weird vocal scatting and all. Anyway, when I ask Aidan and Amanda what they need everyday, they usually give me the right answer.

Just goofing around with this new blog.

With love, T

P.S. Dave Matthews is on that House show this month, March.

Testing 3,2,1

Hello everyone. I'm so glad you made it here all the way from the CoachSpeirs care page. In celebration of the sure-to-be coming event of Bob's biliruben counting ZERO, I am preparing this blog. Because afterall, when the liver countdown is over, it is certain that I will still need a sanctuary superhighway. Anyway, as I fiddle around with this prototype, I'd love to get your feedback. Am trying to figure out widgets.

And look at this, I can insert pictures right into the text and so what a perfect way to finally show you what our Margaret looks like. Adorable + Powerful = Margaret Obaga. And with all of you, I've got lots of people and stories to post. Not to scare you. I promise to be approrpriate, or at least ask your permission. By the way, Margaret did an awesome job presenting at the LWR Virtual University last week, along with my colleague Maryce who is highly informed and articulate about matters of public health. For further inspriation and another night of good sleep, you can click on that link and upload, download and over load the recording of their presentation.

Not sure I'll actually go with this blog site as I don't see a way to view visitors, which has been a mainstay of our love line. Your comments, ideas, etc, are welcome. I need to make this as user friendly as I can, because, well, I need you.

With love, T