Winding Up

So, now I said goodbye to my Dad.  I can't thank God enough for not letting me get on the plane.  We spent a few more weeks with my family.  The funeral was a beautiful celebration.  We sang "Up from the grave He arose" again.  Also, I got to sing the song I wrote for my Dad.  People asked me how I could sing that day, but really, I felt like singing all day long.  Dad was with Jesus.  Before he died, he had told Mom that he didn't want a funeral where everyone talked about what a great guy he was.  He wanted people to hear how great Jesus is.  We buried his body on the little hill behind my Grandparents' church.  Dad helped dig many graves on that hillside -- including some of his own relatives.  This was his turn.  Now he gets to see his grandparents, nieces, and a few grandkids.

We got some great time in with my Mom, Sisters, and their families.  The kids ran around a lot together and we had some good talks.  We also ate and ate and ate.  The response from our church community, family, and friends was incredible.  The food kept pouring in and Mom has a virtual arboretum  now from the gifts of plants.  So many people were touched by Dad's life and the stories and cards kept coming.  We loved remembering together and spent lots of hours writing thank you cards.

With staying for the funeral and getting some health stuff for Chris checked out -- he's in good health, by the way -- we had been in the States for a lot longer than we had first planned.  Also, the ticket prices jumped up by more than double for the airline we were using.  So, the question became, "How and when do we get back to India?"  We talked and prayed a lot.  It was coming up on Chris' brother, Jeff's wedding.  We were wondering if God was allowing all these delays so we could stay with my family longer and then go to the wedding.  As we worked it out, we got permission to stay through the end of April so we could be at Jeff and Melissa's wedding.  That meant we got more time with Chris' family, too, since we'd spent most of the time with mine so far.  Another great blessing!

Besides all this, we got to visit some friends who were praying for us.  Jed and Abe stayed with Grandma and Grandpa Adamow and then Chris, Mom, Lucy and I headed out for the weekend to that church.  We met a group of people who really cared about us and the work we're doing.  What a neat thing to spend time there.

We were so excited to be able to be at Jeff and Melissa's wedding.  We weren't planning to be there because we couldn't make a special trip home just for that.  But since we were already there, we got to stay!  We started talking up the wedding to the boys -- especially the dancing.  Jed started telling me all the 'ladies' he wanted to dance with.  He thought it would be a good idea to make a list so he wouldn't forget anyone.  We also shopped for wedding clothes for our family.  I can't believe it, but we didn't even get a picture of all of us dressed up!!!  So frustrated, but trying to wrangle 3 small kids at a formal function is no small task :)  I only had to take one child out of church for yelling during the ceremony. . . yes, it was Abe.

At the reception, we tried to get Jed on the dance floor, but it proved more intimidating than he had imagined.  During dinner, he kept pulling out his list of ladies, but during the dance, he only got up the guts to dance with Grandma and Mama.  Abe had great ideas of dancing, but fell asleep on some chairs even before the dance floor was opened.  It was a great day and Melissa was a beautiful bride.

We only had 2 more days with our family.  Sunday we went to Naomi's birthday party and Monday the Adamows threw Jed a birthday party.  Tuesday, we headed to the airport.  Saying goodbye was especially difficult.  We had said goodbyes several times during this trip because we kept thinking we were leaving and then we didn't.  It didn't get easier with repeating.  It was even harder than the last time we said goodbye.  I think now we know how it feels to miss everyone.  We also knew what we were going back to: the heat, the electricity outages, the confusion, the dust.  But, we also knew what we were going back to: friends, a home, ripe mangos, fresh flatbread.  That's what got us on the plane.