What an amazing thing!

I planted tomato and basil seeds last weekend. For five days they did whatever they did in secret and then on the sixth day they started popping up. In the morning, there was just three of them - their little stems bent over but starting to straighten up. By the end of the day almost all the tomatoes were up and out. Now they are tall enough that they follow the sun. I walk into the kitchen where I keep them in a greenhouse window thing that hangs out over the sink and I can see all of them leaning into the morning sunlight.

Dana is out visiting on her last spring break before graduating.... the last school holiday. I'm getting very sentimental on the thought that she'll get a real job with limited vacations and then I won't see her as much any more. Also becoming rather terrified about the idea of her moving into a place of her own and having to figure out for herself how to do the furniture, food, pots & pans, rent, utilities, etc. I cried hard when I dropped her off for the first day of kindergarten (its a mom thing) - now look at this! How did my mother ever let me go?

Oh, baby, baby, it's a wild world
It's hard to get by just upon a smile
Oh, baby, baby, it's a wild world
and I'll always remember you like a child, girl

Another graduation...and the Pope

It's hard to believe that just nine months after I received my last diploma, I've already gotten another one. The way the program works here, about two-thirds of the students graduate from the "graduate school" at the end of February and go home, leaving the 10 masters students to fend for themselves during the spring semester. So a couple of weeks ago, we had a graduation ceremony, and here's me receiving my diploma for the graduate school - the guy shaking my hand is the general secretary of the World Council of Churches, Samuel Kobia. (I might mention that he didn't whisper anything in my ear when he shook my hand.)


Before we got our diplomas, though, the whole lot of us went to Rome for a visit with the Pontifical Council for Christian Unity - and to meet the Pope, sort of. In previous years, Bossey students have participated in a "general audience" with the Pope, meaning they sit in a room with 12,000 other screaming fans (literally - it was like a football game with people getting up and offering the Pope "cheers" from their various countries or organizations) and then get a group photo taken with him after. Sadly, this year the Bossey students only got to see the Popemaster General from afar - no group photo. Seen here, he's shaking the hand of Bossey's director, which is as close as we got. The blond head in front is one of our students from Germany. I didn't take this photo - I was a few rows farther back...but you get the idea.

Thanks, everyone, for posting all your news! It helps me feel a little closer to my SFTS family (can you believe it's been a year since we were starting to plan baccalaureate???).