We get to go to Nebraska. It only took weeks of phone calls and emails and working through the various levels of church red tape to get permission to go visit our friends in Geneva. The decision from the synod was so uncertain that we began to make other arrangements for an alternative vacation and told the kids that we probably would not go (that was a bad day at the Lake house)! Most pastors do not ask permission before they visit their previous parish, but they still don’t have a pastor yet and we wanted to make sure that we were not visiting in the midst of them calling their new pastor. That would not be cool and we are NOT that kind of people! We truly believe in “shaking the dirt off your sandals” principal when leaving a church, but we do still have friends and family (the best kind of family – not blood related) there. When we left Geneva it was hard, I think that I was pretty much in a full sprint to get out of there. I am looking forward to the visit with friends, but I think that the kids will get the most from the trip. They have had the hardest time with this transition especially Madie. She has been planning this trip for the longest time. She wants to visit everything and she’s made a list. Donuts at Jill’s. Shopping at the calculator store (Hilty’s). Swimming at the pool. Playing at the park. And visiting with her friends. Only in the last nine months have they stopped comparing everything in Conroe to Geneva. It still crops up from time to time, but it is slowly going away. They need this trip to move on. To go back and not sleep in our old house or swing in the backyard, or go to church will be hard but good for them.
So . . . Nebraska here we come!! (And apparently just in time because Ben is struggling between his Nebraska roots and the Texas brainwashing. The next thing you know, Ben will have a bumper sticker on his bike “I wasn’t born in Texas. But I got here as fast as I could.” No kidding. There is such a bumper sticker.) The vacation count down has begun!
You mean Ben doesn’t have that bumper sticker yet? Man, I was just at the mall today and could have picked one up at the Texas store.
I am glad you guys get to go visit! We’ll miss them around here… Good thing it’s only a week.
Some of us were lucky enough have been born in Texas in the first place… like Aunt Debra, Cousin Gordon, and myself!
We don’t need no stinking bumper sticker!
I thought you were from Louisiana. Apparently you ran from Texas as soon as you were born! What happened! That birthright connections sucked you right home again? It took 10 years and the intervention of the Holy Spirit for us to come home again. The pull is strong!
I was born in Scott and White Hospital in Temple, Tx. That’s Bell County.
That’s deep in the heart of Texas. Where the stars at night or big and bright, where the sages bloom is like perfume, where the rabits rush around the brush, and where the coyotees wail along the trail.
I was only 15 months old when my father was discharged from the army and took me away from beloved Texas. God kept watch over me and much like the Isrealites wondering the desert I waited until God brought me back home just in time to meet a certain Texas Girl that he had waiting for me. It was at that point that I understood why God sometimes puts us through trials and tribulations… because he has something else waiting for us at the end of the road.
As the song says, “I thought I had seen beauties in far away places until I looked upon those Houston faces.”
You can accuse me of running from Texas, but you can never conceive how difficult it is to kept from Texas against your will.
May I remind you that you left Texas as an adult by your own choosing? Oh… I think I just did.
God bless Texas and no one else!
Uncle Dave!
PLEASE put Erin on your schedule sometime during your stay–Alexis will be at Church camp and I am not even going to tell her because of the diasppointment–but we would love to entertain Maddie or everyone for that metter-let us know
Dave,
I am knee-deep in your muck.
Honestly?! Truly?! This wasn’t sarcasm?
Kath
p.s. I left Texas kicking and screaming. Only when I realized that people north of the Red River weren’t as evil as I had been led to believe as a child, did I get to know the joy of places other than the Motherland. Mom wanted me to put a box of dirt from Texas underneath the delivery room bed when Madie was born so that she would be born over the soil of Texas. Madie is a Yankee and she is wonderful!!!!
At least it’s Texas muck!