Thankfulness

How can we learn to really appreciate what we have? How easy it is to fall into the trap that the Pharisee did in the parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector.

Isabelle's and Medge's brothers and Medge's husband now find themselves unemployed indefinitely from their profession as pig farmers due to the arrival in Mauritius of African Swine Fever. I still have my job.

Some friends of ours who used to go to church with us have a precious son who suffers from a multitude of food allergies which prevent even the occasional experience of normalcy that most of us enjoy. Julia caught a bug and threw up before bedtime Monday night, and although Isabelle had to get up with her once an hour that night, by the time I got back home Tuesday she was her adorable old self.

My cousins' cousins, two out of the three boys in their family, find themselves forever changed due to a car accident that left the younger one paralyzed from the waist down, and the middle one learning to swallow, talk and eat again after having brain surgery to remove a tumor. Their ages added together amount to my age, and I can't even imagine their plight.

A long-time friend of mine, at this time last year, suffered a miscarriage in the ninth month of her pregnancy. We await Chloe, with great anticipation, having been told by our doctor that Isabelle's pregnancy so far, is "perfect."

Another long-time friend of mine nearly died due to a heart defect combined with a virus that attacked his heart. I remain in sloppy shape, relying on walking to the bus and back after ten years of relying mainly on walking my dog a mile each night before bedtime.

Earlier this year, we bid a final farewell to a husband and father in our congregation who succumbed to colon cancer, after two years of fighting and living like he was dying. His wife and four children somehow continue to endure. Her neighbor and sister in Christ and three young children lost their husband and father to a psychotic meltdown almost five years ago. She ministers to the new widow and her new husband ministers to those who are addicted to anything or anyone besides Jesus.

Oh yeah. I almost forgot. I am thanking when I should be confessing. Please forgive me.

Weekend to Remember

Hi from our fifth year of a wonderful marriage, the ninth month of an arduous but exemplary pregnancy, and the last day of our daughter Julia's 7th quarter of life. Yes, I was a math major, and my father was an English professor.

Isabelle and I just spent a great weekend at a Weekend to Remember conference held at the Frontenac Hilton just a little ways from our house. It took me a little time to wind down from a hectic week of work, but gladly we had Friday evening, Saturday morning and afternoon, and Sunday morning and afternoon to hear some excellent speakers providing good guidance for our most important relationship here on Earth. Thanks to my dear wife Isabelle for talking me into it, and for our friends Jim and Freddie G who recommended it to us.

Also, we must pay homage to Isabelle's sister Medge, who did us a huge favor by taking good care of Julia for our weekend. Not only does she help raise our child, but she also rakes leaves and clears brush! And she has been staining our rather lengthy, shadow-box style wood fence out back in her spare time.

This trip has been a roller coaster for Medge, having learned not long after she arrived that Mauritius had been visited by African Swine Fever, and all pork processing had to be stopped. This is the livelihood of Medge's husband Jacques, and her and Isabelle's brothers Jean-Marc and Denis, and their mother, Marie-Josée. And then, with all that going on, we just found out that Medge's tourist visa for Canada was denied. We had made plans for her to visit her aunt Monique in Quebec City.

We're thankful that she is with us. We'll try to find a way to show her some sites in the southern US before she has to leave us.