Making Faces

I belong to CoachCreativeSpace, which is a social network of very interesting people...all creative in one form or another. Tereza, who is an accomplished artist from South Africa, started a challenge whereby we "recreate" in our own style the work of a master. Her first offering was from Modigliani - a portrait of his wife Jeanne. You can do an internet search to find the original, but here is my first version of her, done in graphite:

Not being completely satisfied with myself, I went to my conté crayons and gave Jeanne another shot:

I'm not trying to be a "master" but it's so much fun re-creating something like this a la Mary!! In the next week or so, I'm going to try another one of Modi's masterpieces and see what I come up with. If you are so willing, please give this a try! There are no rules, except to enjoy the process.

Pandamania!

This week, St. Luke's Worcester has been hosting vacation bible school - what we have always referred to as Summer Celebration. From 9-12:30 each morning, we've hosted 70 children from all over town for a taste of just how God's love still reigns.

On Monday, the children banded their t-shirts to be tie-dyed. On Tuesday morning, when they returned, here's what they were greeted with.

Tomorrow is (already!) our last day. The heat has been intense, and we're working hard to keep everyone hydrated. But these kids - I tell ya! They are constant reminders that God is watching over us! They'll be the first to tell you, too.

Nothing like a good cry!

The alarm went off at 3 a.m. and we both jumped out of bed in anticipation of seeing Jonathan in just a couple of hours! His flight was to arrive in Boston at 5 a.m. My feet hit the floor...I felt like a bus had driven over me during the night...then I remembered.

Jonathan has been visiting his cousins in Colorado for the last two weeks. The first week, he was in Granby at my in-laws' home. Warren's sister and her family joined them up there. After Warren returned to Worcester, Jonathan went to Denver and was entertained by my siblings. He had a wonderful time.

Yesterday, my brother David was good about keeping me informed of their whereabouts by sending me photos regularly. The last one he sent - just as I was going off to "early bed" really got to me. Here it is.

He's standing in front of our house on Utica Street in Denver. It's the house we - his new family - brought him home to at the age of ten months. It's the house where he learned to walk and throw a ball and ride a bicycle. It's the house where he walked to school from for Pre-K at Centennial School (who could forget Ms. Garbish?). It's a house of wonderful Hicks family memories - fun family events on the deck, with our great big back yard and wonderful swing set. It's the house where I learned to love to garden. It's the house where we had neighbors...and we knew their names, and they knew ours and we looked out for each other, all up and down the street. It's the house where Katie picked marigolds to take to her 5th grade teacher that Fall that seems so long ago...the Fall before she died, right there in that house. It's a house of some sad memories. But mostly, seeing it makes me very happy.

So when I saw this photo, my heart just swelled with happiness and sadness and prosperity and loss. And I had the most incredible cry - loud and tearful and unabashed. Nobody heard me, as Warren was upstairs asleep. That's okay, I didn't really want any sympathy or attention. I just wanted to cry. I just needed to have a really good, hard cry.

Jonathan is home! It's so exciting to have him here. We're celebrating his birthday with his favorite meal this evening - corned beef, cabbage, potatoes and carrots. He's such a good boy. I love him so much, and am so very thankful that he waited for us.