Not a Coincidence

Muffin and I had a busy day. First thing this morning I had Pilates training, followed by Body Flow class. Afterward we made a quick trip home to load the car with gingerbread, boxes of slides, and boxes and sacks of clothing and supplies. The boxes of slides were neatly packaged for mailing, and Fedex is sending them on their way to be scanned and returned to us digitally mastered. In those boxes are thousands of slides of CB as a baby, our first dog, King Solomon V, our years living in California, and the births of Boo and Joybear. Family holidays and vacations during those years are also captured on film. We're trusting the Lord to monitor Fedex and this company closely!

The gingerbread was wrapped in shiny foil and labeled for the bake sale portion of the Palm House Garage Sale. And the boxes and sacks of clothing and supplies were delivered to Mission Thanksgiving. After completing our tasks we went to eat Chinese at a lovely place, then shopped for Thanksgiving Day groceries at one store.

On my way to the health club this morning I noticed a huge black Labrador in a yard about half a mile from our house. On our way back, almost 3hours later, he was not too far from the same yard, trying to dodge cars on a moderately trafficked street. I stopped. He came right to me. Muffin pulled up behind us and we check the tags. Merlin belonged to a family we knew, who didn't live far, so we took him home and made the call to the number on his tag. No one home. Late this afternoon, early evening actually, when we returned from all the errands and late lunch, Merlin and Scooter were cohabiting happily in the back yard. I called the house once again and one of the adult children answered, saying he would be right over to claim Merlin. Mark graduated from high school with our Becky and wasn't exactly headed in the right direction with his life for a few years. I was so shocked to see him. He is tall, handsome, Marine clean, and in between French language school and a job with a Bible translation company. His heart is to bring the Word to all people in their "heart language". And he knows my former students who are on mission in Burkina Faso! We talked for about 30 minutes while Merlin rested on a leash and Mark promised to bring by a newsletter so we could keep up with him. As we parted we promised to pray for him and thanked Merlin for connecting us.

Isn't God the coolest?????

My Baby

This is our Baby Daughter. Kaki. She named herself, by answering with "Kaki" when asked at age one what her name was. Later she called herself "Kaki Kangaroo." There remains a collection of kangaroos in a bedroom where she lived. One year I made a kangaroo costume, complete with wire in the tail so it would stay curved and flat. She was quite a picture in that costume. Her most famous kangaroo antic was producing her hand-clap-activated hopping kangaroo as the object of Pastor Tom's spontaneous children's sermon one Sunday. He did his best, but the subject of the sermon eludes me.

The photograph below is almost 25 years old. We went to our church the first time only two weeks before she was born. My pregnant self was producing too much relaxant hormone which caused pain in my hip joints in my last trimester. So we could attend either church service or Sunday School, because I could only sit for about an hour or slightly longer. We visited the service two weeks before Kaki was born and the SS class the week before her birth. Then on the day before Thanksgiving she was born, and we took her to church the following Sunday. After Christmas we had a formal dedication service for her, pictured in this photo. CB, Boo, and Joybear played "Oh How I Love Jesus" for the service. Church members still comment on that music. The girls played very well, but most of all, I remember how much they already loved their baby sister and wanted to bless her. In our dedication services the family promises to nurture and love the child in the church and in God's Word, and the congregation promises to faithfully support the parents and extended family in that discipline. I can report truthfully that our church family did fulfill those promises, and continues to pray for our children and grandchildren, and to inquire about their well being in body, soul, and spirit.

In back from left to right: Nannie, Dubbie, Marmee, Muffin holding Kaki, Aunt Tracie, Nana and Papaw. In front, from the left: CB age 9, Joybear age 4 (almost 5), Boo age 6.