Celebrations, Transitions and Reunions

It was a week of celebrations, transitions and reunions.

On Sunday we ordained Tom and Linda as our newest Shepherding Couple at LifePark and celebrated at our house with 12 people for Sunday dinner. -- We had to stretch the meat loaf pretty far -- but we all had such a great time with five rowdy young singles, one of whom was a bar bouncer and had been shot in the foot the night before.

Tuesday we celebrated in class with one young gal who was going to get out of foster care to live with family. My prayer for her is that now life her will be loving and accepting of her. (She asked for a party and got a cookie cake baked just for her. She was so excited and couldn't believe it was her's that she wanted to take all our pictures.)

Several young ladies in my classes celebrated all day Tuesday because they were going to the Brittney Spears concert at the BOK ...one even paid $400 for her ticket. The air was electric in class that day -- they were anticipating so much and evidentally got a great performance. (Incidentally, on Wednesday they were all "unplugged" in their souvenir T-shirts.) This fit in well with our lesson on role models, so I asked what role information Brittney Spears transmitted. They explained that they see her as an overcomer! My hope is she will be that as she faces struggles of stardom and notoriety.

Thursday we celebrated in another class with a young woman who has been cancer-free for six years! Leukemia is gone! (This called for my super duper cookie cake.)
-- all the kids rejoiced with her marking this joyous anniversary.

Friday, one young woman was transitioning from the shelter of a safe group home back to family . . she wasn't sure how well this would work . . .seems there's not a lot of room for her there. I felt saddness to see her leave our school.

We have had out-of-town guests this week and have thoroughly enjoyed the time to relax with friends and family.

It was great to spend time with our sister-in-law who was traveling through to Texas with a new puppy on Thursday night. We welcomed old friends from Lubbock on Friday and Sat. morn. It's been fifteen years since we'd been together. Our friendship goes back to the late 60's when the guys were college buddies and traveled to India together in the summer of '69. During our early parenting days we shared so much. Where did the time go?

In those fifteen years. . .

Our kids have graduated high school and college,

Our firstborns have both gotten married and all four kids began their careers,

and we have taken care of aging parents and seen them Home.

. . . That must be where those months and years went. . . Sociologists would refer to that time as the Pre-Empty Nesters of the Sandwich Generation, in the Launching (and loving) Stage of the Family Life Cycle.

Terry and I had a great time catching up and renewing our friendship. They left with all of us promising to meet again soon.

Yesterday was one of those golden Fall days as the first day of Autumn. . . No, the colors haven't started changing -- it just felt GOLDEN. The weather was great -- a perfect time for transplanting and pruning. . . and playing with two precious little boys, one of which decided outdoors was the best place to potty and proceeded to "water" my mint plant and his brother quickly attempted to strip off his diaper to follow suit. Though their memaw was horrified, I couldn't stop giggling. The rest of their visit, I was fascinated at the way the youngest would set up the older to get exactly what he wanted. I kept pulling out more toys just to watch them interact. Hmmmm . . . How much of life we see in children's play.

This was week of encounters with wonderful people, all very different from each other, and it brought to my mind that Life is really all about PEOPLE. . .They are the reason we're put here and they are the reason we have joy. PEOPLE come into our lives and leave their footprints all over our hearts! Sometimes PEOPLE leave us and make such a gaping hole. . . Sometimes the PEOPLE HE sends make us wonder why in the world our paths crossed with THEM. God weaves folks in and out of the history of our lives and creates a completed tapestry of significant relationships that have their meaning in HIS purposeful plan.