December 1999                                                                                                                                    

Dear Friends & Family:                                                                                                                                              

The traffic has piled up around the local mall, huge mountains of frozen turkeys have flown into the grocery stores, full page ads proclaiming the ‘sale of the century’ fill the newspaper, and everyone seems to be well on their way to gaining the eight pounds that average Americans are touted to add during this time of the year.  It must be time to write the fourth annual, “What’s been Happening over at Richard and Charlene’s?”

No More Pencils, No More Books, No More.....

On September 30, Richard fought and won the final battle of his 24 year long educational war.  He took his Oral Boards in Anesthesiology.  All those years of education, sleepless nights, blood, sweat, and maybe some tears, culminated in 110 minutes of intense evaluation.  Back to the wall, he persevered against two sets of two examiners firing probing questions.  We traveled to Philadelphia in April and to Seattle in September for four 10-hour long days of intensive review classes.  Two additional weeks of “vacation” were dedicated to studying for this major event.  On October 12, our kind postal service employee brought us the wonderful news that Richard passed (balancing out the bad news we had received that day -more about that later).  It is finally over.

He Brings Home the Bacon

Richard continues to enjoy the challenges of work and the great bunch of people he works with at Adventist Medical Center , Portland .  This past summer, he officially became one of the 160+ partners/shareholders of the corporation, Oregon Anesthesiology Group. 

In May, he demonstrated that he not only knows how to bring home the bacon, figuratively, but literally as well.  With Kelly King and Kent Chow (those ever ready partners in crime!), he spent a long weekend in Central California stalking Wild Boar.  Each gentleman shot a single bullet and each brought down one pig.  Richard’s prize was over 225 pounds!  Luckily for Charlene, the wife who would not have known what to do with such a beast, there was a Chinese restaurant anxious to receive the offering.  Muttering was heard (or was it threats?) of having the taxidermist turn the hide into a “Rocking Boar” as a toy for a future offspring.  Thankfully, such madness passed quickly. 

 

November marked the fourth annual pheasant hunt/fishing extravaganza at Richard’s brother’s home in South Dakota .  With residency over, Kelly , Kent and Charles can now afford to fly into Denver , meet Richard, and continue on to SD.  Gone are the days of the long roadtrip from California !  As always, a suitcase of meat and a week’s worth of facial hair (much to Charlene’s horror) resulted.  During his absence, Charlene’s parents provided her with a change of scenery, on a trip with them to Sydney and Melbourne , Australia .  So, each enjoyed wildlife - one pursuing birds through the fields and fish at the end of a line while the other peacefully observed kangaroos, wallabies, penguins, platypuses, and koalas happily playing Downunder.

Tropical Waters, Sunsets Over the Ocean 

Fleeing the cold, rainy Oregonian January, we spent a week on Maui - justifying our presence by attending the California Society of Anesthesiologists’ annual meeting.  Four hours of meetings/day made this a business expense! J From the mid-West, southern and northern California three of the folk (and families) who finished residency with Richard in June ‘98 met us and turned the event into a reunion of sorts.  We pledged to keep in touch and hope to meet annually.   While Richard was busily learning the latest in the art of putting people to sleep, Charlene completed her SCUBA certification.  This provided the excuse for a second island getaway. 

In May, along with our dear friend, Kent, we spent eight glorious days on Grand Cayman Island .  10 tanks of air allowed us to spend hours in the 80 degree water.   With visibility at 100+ feet, we fed string rays, watched graceful eagle rays, swam through schools of massive Tarpon, hung out with a huge Morey eel, dropped in on a Nurse shark, contemplated the market price of the large crab and lobster, and swam among the most fabulous array of colorful fish.  We even did a night dive at a wreck site.  Should you be bored and in the neighborhood, we will gladly whip out our underwater video memoirs for your viewing pleasure.

If You Could See Me Now.....

Few would recognize the Charlene of 1999.  Gone are the suits and heals.  Jeans, sweatshirts or sweaters, and Gortex rainwear are the new uniform of the day.  Eighteen months ago, you would never have found her (and she never would have dreamed of!) stopping in the grocery store on the way back from the gym; hair a mess, make-up missing.  A new hobby has surfaced as Charlene tries her hand at growing herbs and decorative plants, creating & shaping topiaries, designing wreaths, etc.  From a 100% left brain career focus all these years, where did all this right brain, creative stuff come from?  Gone also are the days of sitting at a desk with little other activity than reaching for a ringing phone (well, some things never change, and there’s a Sprint bill to prove it!).  Starting this past Fall, you can find her in the gym once a week and in the deep water aerobics class at the pool, four days a week.  Unlike Richard who has lost 10 pounds (since passing boards and going back to an exercise program), she hasn’t lost any weight.  But she’s feeling better and, hopefully, getting healthier.  Now, if she could just quit trying out all those new recipes, she just might get somewhere with that diet.......

In March, Charlene joined the “Women of Vision”; a volunteer Christian women’s group that supports the international development, disaster and relief organization, World Vision.  The Portland chapter works with a women’s shelter downtown and chose as its overseas activity, the Children of the Tunnel’s Project in Mongolia .  In the Mongolian capital, Ulaanbaatar , over three thousand children are homeless.  During the seven months that the temperatures plummet below zero, the children drop through the manholes in the streets and take up residence in the steam tunnels used to heat the city.  World Vision currently operates three shelters to provide food, medical care, education, and an alternative home for these kids.  As Fundraising Chair, Charlene is actively working to raise money to support these two worthy projects.

While Charlene’s heart still remains in the student financial aid arena, only a very small amount of her time is spent in the field .  Still under contract to the School of Medicine at the Oregon Health Sciences University , she provides debt management seminars to the Freshmen and Seniors and remains on call to the Dean’s Office to provide one-on-one counseling, as well.  She’s grateful to be able to continue to be challenged by the needs of students in this one small way. 

Country Mice Enjoy City Life

The Vizcarra’s continue to happily explore their new city and state.  Our investigative forays have yielded lush greenery, rivers, waterfalls, a fabulous coastline, beautiful gardens, pockets of quaint neighborhoods each with their own personalities & entertainment value, art exhibits, tax-free shopping (and lots of it!), a large variety of restaurants,  and a bakery catering only to canine clients (to Gretchen & Hunter’s benefit!).  A subscription to the Portland Symphony provides a wonderful sampling of culture from classical to gospel to pops, even an evening with Bill Cosby.  The Rose Garden Arena is home to the Blazer’s and the Winterhawks - a testosterone-pumped group of 16-20 year old ice hockey players.

Friends & Family

In January, we returned to our home of three years, Las Vegas .   It was especially wonderful to see old friends. The change and growth to the city are incredible.  Everyone warned us, but in this case, seeing is believing.   In July, Richard’s parents and siblings came together in South Dakota for a five day reunion.  We experienced everything from a cold, driving rain to bright days with the sun beating down on us at 102 degrees with 85% humidity.  The 12 adults and 8 kids ranging from 21 months to early teens explored caves, took in the carved stone sites of Mt. Rushmore and Crazy Horse, marveled at the excavation site of Wooly Mammoths, picnicked by the lake and relaxed at nightly BBQ’s.  Charlene’s family has met a couple time up in the Seattle area where her sister and family live.  It doesn’t take much to convince her parents to come from California to where their one and only grandchild lives.

After years of waiting until the perfect time, in late August, we confirmed that we were to become parents.  Excitement was the name of the game.  A dream come true, Charlene ate healthfully, rested regularly, exercised faithfully, and read every book recommended.  Every action focused on a healthy pregnancy.  An ultrasound at 7.5 weeks, provided pictures of a healthy fetus with a strong 152 beat/minute heartbeat.   Three weeks later, the heartbeat disappeared.  The baby had died.  If we ever thought we had experienced disappointment, sadness, devastation, or pain before....nothing has even come close to comparing to this.  The love and support of friends and family and the promises of a loving God keep us moving forward in the healing process. Please continue to pray for us.

Warm Wishes

To each of you, we wish God’s richest blessings in the coming year.   Join us in looking back with thanksgiving for all the good in our lives, looking forward with hope and anticipation for the future, and praying for peace for our family,  our friends, and the world around us.

Richard & Charlene Vizcarra, Gretchen & Hunter