Keep Celebrating

Since Alan will start radiation soon, we decided to have a super special weekend celebration beforehand that included all sorts of wonderful things, including 1. an overnight at Weber’s Inn, 2. Lunch at Kathy and Carl’s (note the mouth-watering spinach, bacon and Swiss cheese quiche she made…

3. a trip to the Plymouth Ice Festival with Kathy, Stephen, and Joel (Carl has to work on Saturdays to get ready for their 5 services Sat/Sun!)

(It was totally freezing there, as per usual! As the live band announced: “Come on out, it’s —6° in the shade here!” I have no clue how they could even play…)

4. We buzzed over to Dan and Brianna’s for a delicious dinner of chicken nuggets “McMom” (a favorite family recipe from Brianna’s family) and other wonderful stuff before the four of us headed to a birthday party. (Note the pictures of all their nieces and nephews on their wall. May the Lord bless them with a baby of their own soon!)

5. The birthday party was for “Uncle Milton”‘s 86th birthday, sponsored by Larry and Kari. Larry and Alan have been friends since they were five and grew up together in Dafter, MI. They are probably our longest-standing (can’t dare say “oldest” 🙂 ) friends. Milton once drove all the way down to Saginaw in the middle of the night to rescue Alan, Aaron, Michael, and me once when the kids were babies and our car died on the highway trying to get up to the Soo.  That’s the kind of guy Milton is!

Larry is a sociology professor at MSU and Kari is an OBGyn, who’s now working at the same community health clinic as Daniel. It was SO fun to be together and hear LOTS and LOTS of stories from Milton about the Dafter years from the 1920’s to the present. Totally charming.

6. As if that wasn’t enough fun, Sunday evening we had a surprise 50th birthday party for Steve! We three girls (the “birthday clubbers”) have decided we need to do fun stuff for our husbands on their birthdays too sometimes!

So, we started out by bowling, which is something none of us had done more than about once since high school. It was SO MUCH FUN!

7. Afterward, we girls had thought to buy take-out pizzas and root beer, but Rex had other ideas. He decided to make dinner for us all (since all three women were tied up with other obligations Saturday…not like he wasn’t, being an extremely busy anesthesiologist…) At any rate, he made us a dinner I will never forget! The guy is an incredible gourmet chef (and I’m totally serious)!

He had so many complicated, amazing dishes, and I’m not sure if I could even spell the names of them right. Suffice it to say, it was truly incredible!

Last but not least, we celebrated Steve’s “over the hill” party, complete with gifts that Alan had received when he turned fifty (some time ago now!) and had passed down to Rex…who has now passed them on to Steve. Isn’t that what friends are for???

1. Sunday was “Sanctity of Life Sunday.” 42,000,000 babies have their lives taken from them every year. 2. I am just about to run to the hospital to visit 45-year-old  E.J., who’s back in with more symptoms from her stroke. 3. At 10:30 this morning there is a hearing for the guardianship of Cheryl’s very elderly, dementia-ravaged mother (Cheryl being my friend who passed away last October). 4. This afternoon is the final divorce proceedings for some friends I’ve known since college days who have been married for 40 years. I can’t tell you how much that one hurts! 5. Alan was to start radiation today, although the hospital called to reschedule for tomorrow. I could go on, but I won’t.

All the sorrows of life could take the stuffings right out of us, but don’t let them! Whatever’s going on in your life, keep looking up to Jesus, the “author and finisher of our faith.” I am often encouraged by this picture from the Song of Solomon 8:5, “Who is this that cometh up from the wilderness, leaning upon her beloved?”  May it be each of us, leaning on the precious, everlasting arms of our heavenly bridegroom, our Lord Jesus Christ!