After the Storm

(Circa 1977-1979)

The storm had passed. Our waters were now calm. Peace returned to our hearts. A very healthy baby boy had been given back to us and we were free to get acquainted with this new little member of our family.

He was a constant source of enjoyment, his quirky personality emerging like a butterfly out of its cocoon. Luke was always a source of laughter. My sister and two nieces came to visit us when Luke was three months old. One day my sister was on the floor playing with Luke. She lifted him high into the air, both of them laughing at each other – that is, until Luke spit up, directly into poor Aunt Dianna’s mouth. Dianna survived, but only after a mad dash to the kitchen sink to rid herself of the second-hand milk and drinking a big gulp of fresh water. Ummm, that’s my boy!

He was so alert – a little too much so, I think. He didn’t want to miss out on anything. Putting him down to sleep became an art form and I wasn’t always successful. Many times, after nursing him in the rocking chair, gently placing him in his crib, patting him until he was asleep and tiptoeing out of his room, he would wake up, pitifully wailing. The more he cried, the more he couldn’t sleep and the more tired he got, the more he cried. I was one exhausted mama.

And Luke always did things his own way. When he was old enough to crawl, he developed his own way of doing so, looking somewhat like a crippled frog, with one leg tucked underneath him. He adroitly propelled himself throughout the house by using two hands, one foot and one knee. He could travel so quickly, he kept me in constant motion.

That summer (1977) we decided to move from Huntington Beach to Long Beach. Our landlords had offered to sell the house to us for $44,000. It was a 5-bedroom, 3-bathroom house with a family room and was located one mile from the beach in a brand new housing development. As much as we loved the house, we figured that we just couldn’t afford that much, so we politely declined. (Now the house is worth nearly 2 million dollars! Oh well. Our decision led us to many new adventures so we have no regrets.)

But the church in Long Beach was really building up. Young people from all over the country were moving there and we were excited to be part of it. We rented a house near Long Beach City College that was large enough for us to have 4 sisters live with us. And so Debbie (from Seattle), Stephanie (from Texas), Shirley (from Chicago) and Terry (from Northern California) were welcomed into our family.

There was never a dull moment in our house. Besides raising a very active baby, the four sisters that lived with us were college students. Debbie was taking a biology class and one of her homework projects was to dissect a pig fetus. So she brought the dead, formaldehyde-marinated pig home and placed the tiny thing in our refrigerator. Later that day, a very squeamish Stephanie opened the refrigerator, saw the pig and ran, hysterically screaming, out of the house, furious at a very bewildered Debbie. Eventually they made peace with each other and Debbie finished her biology project. And ironically, when Stephanie graduated from college she became a surgical nurse. Apparently she got over her fear of dead, marinated pig fetuses.

Our days and evenings were, just as in Huntington Beach, filled with church meetings, big dinners, trainings and an endless stream of young adults throughout our house. Having a child in the midst of all the activity definitely made life more limiting. So to accommodate our busy schedules, we found a few families with which we could trade baby-sitting. We each took turns taking care of the children so we could go to the meetings and other activities.

It was during this time that we became close with a family that would become life-long friends: Don & Zaida. They had a little girl, Misha, that was a few years older than Luke and would eventually be like his big sister. Don & Zaida welcomed Luke into their family and were like a second set of parents. One evening Luke, being a rambunctious toddler, knocked over their irreplaceable antique lamp and broke it. We felt horrible, apologized profusely and were afraid they would never want Luke in their house again. But, thankfully, their forgiveness and love endured and they welcomed him back with open, loving arms (although a little more watchful of Luke around their antiques). And after 44 years they still love him – plus, he is more careful around antiques now.

After 6 years of renting we decided it was time to buy a house and we found the perfect one: a small, 1,100 square foot, 3-bedroom, 1-bathroom house in the neighboring city of Lakewood. Being that this house was smaller than our house in Long Beach, we only had room for 2 sisters so Debbie and Stephanie moved with us. Shirley moved back to Chicago and Terry got married.

Don & Zaida bought a house that was ½ block from ours and within 1 week of each other, we moved in. It was so handy having them so close and when we began to decorate our houses we discovered that our home décor tastes were similar. So we shared ideas with each other and had so much fun making our homes uniquely ours.

Life was sweet. God had blessed us so completely our hearts were full of gratitude. However, we sensed that there was something missing. We didn’t want Luke to grow up being an only child. Could it be that God would bless us with a brother or sister for him – and another child for us to love? Could our hearts be enlarged to love another child as much as we loved Luke? It was hard to imagine, but if other people could love another child, I guess we could too. I think love is like that. The more you love, the more capacity you have to love. It just grows and grows.

…and we were going to find that out…