a picture speaks a thousand belly-buttons

Today my cousin, Eric, sent me an email explaining that he had found something that I was going to enjoy. A big surprise I could consider to be a belated half-birthday present. I could tell he was really excited about it, whatever it was.Later in the day I got another email explaining that he was able to recover an old hard-drive; one he had when we were roommates. He had found several folders of mine that contained photos and Word documents. It had all been scanned for viruses and he would forward it to me via YouSendIt.

I got to thinking about the time when I was six-years old and my dad found me and told me he had a big surprise for me. I got really excited as he took me upstairs. I began to speculate what the surprise may be. A new Holly Hobby Doll? A Bay City Rollers lunch-box? A Shirley Temple record? We arrived in my baby brother’s nursery where my dad, with great pride, showed me that my brother’s remaining nubbin of umbilical chord and fallen from his navel. I suppose it is one of those landmark events in an infant’s life. But in a 6-year-old big sister’s it ain’t much. I remember thinking, “That’s all? That’s my surprise? So what?” Perhaps this is my earliest memory of the emotion of disappointment.

After the YouSendIt email arrived today and the large WinZip file was downloaded (it took about 10 minutes) I began to search through something of a time capsule. This is no little brother umbilical chord nubbin, friends! It's been like opening on old cedar chest to find long forgotten treasures. There are a few letters to my BFF and a boy I was interested in at the time, my Chrysalis “Single Life” talk, and many many photos from the days when we had a scanner.

A good number of the photos are from the mission trip to Reynosa, Mexico I made with my church in Nashville. Here are just a few.Preparing the foundation: The structure in the background is the one-room shack with a dirt floor that our family of three had been living in.Putting up a wall: The man to the left is the husband and father of the family who would live in the new house. He insisted upon taking a day off work to help us. This really stayed with me as the wages he made in one month I made in less than half a day at my desk job in an air conditioned building.Blessings: We wrote scriptures, prayers, and blessings on the plywood floor before the vinyl flooring went down.

Expect more photos in the days ahead.