Both of us are pretty tired and we miss playing with our dog, Peluche, but we are very thankful for what God has done in past weeks. Next week we will have our last full week of banquets in Butte, Bozeman, and Billings, Montana, and then Sheridan and Cheyenne, Wyoming. On Saturday night after the Cheyenne banquet, our coworkers (God bless 'em) will be picking us up to bring us back to Longmont and our own mattress! Our last two banquets the following week are in Fort Collins and Longmont so we can commute from home! It also means that I can get into the doctor sooner to get my thyroid check up - I must say that after weeks of watching the post-radiation treatment spiral me downward, I'm ready to get back on meds and my thyroid re-stabilized!
Jason has officially submitted a draft of his Thesis to his committee chair so we are waiting for word on how that looks and what else he needs to do! In the meantime, he's spending time finishing up our Northern Ireland publicly accessible survey report including the recently acquired wordlist comparison results of Irish Sign Language, British Sign Language, the Northern Ireland sign variety, and American Sign Language (using the methodology that he developed for his Thesis). In between banquet activities, I'm working on editing various reports, working with Dan and Sarah on the Ecuador survey, and keeping up with new partners and our increasing mailing list from the banquets - something that is actually quite encouraging when you wear your heart on your sleeve so much every week. The people who show interest in what is being said remind me that it's worth it to keep sharing each banquet!
On another encouraging note: we got an email from someone in the Dominican Republic this past week. A Deaf church there wants to incorporate our survey report into their curriculum for educating hearing Dominicans about the unique culture and sign language of the Dominican deaf community! It is always so fun when we get feedback like this - when something we have worked on can be used by the local community to be a part of building understanding and respect for deaf people around the world!
Here's a fifth quick answer to a frequently asked banquet question:
5. What is the name of the book you were reading on the beach that had to do with burn-out?
I'm surprised (but shouldn't be) at the number of people who nod their heads with complete understanding when I get to this part of my talk and there have also been a few people who have wanted to know more info about the book I was reading on the beach so they can get a hold of it. For those of you who find yourself in a place of life similar to what I described, here are 3 resources that I found the most helpful while trying to understand what was going on and grasping at a life filled with God's hope (with a caveat saying that there are a few ideas scattered throughout these resources that I don't agree with):
- "Trauma stewardship: An everyday guide for caring for self while caring for others" by Laura van Dernoon Lipsky with Connie Burk: http://traumastewardship.com/
- Website with self-assessment tools for compassion fatigue: www.compassionfatigue.org/
- "Plain living: A Quaker path to simplicity" by Catherine Whitmire
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