A Celebration

Twenty-five years ago, our oldest daughter Borgi asked us if we wanted a twenty-fifth wedding anniversary party.

That type of occasion has never appealed to me. As a the youngest child of a pastor, I was often carted off to such affairs—probably because my parents couldn’t afford a babysitter. Anniversary celebrations might be great for others, but I never overcame my distaste for them.

Borgi was motivated because other couples in our church—the parents of her friends—had been celebrating in just that fashion, but she was relieved by my response. She knew her brother’s involvement would be minimal and our youngest was just a young child at the time.

We did do something as a family. We settled on take-out pizza rather than dinner out because then we’d have more freedom to interact.

You might have figured out where this is going. This month we’re about to celebrate our 50th. In addition, Ken turns 75 and I’ve just turned 70. This a summer for milestones.

Of course, in the second-twenty-five years our family has expanded numerically—by four spouses and seven grandchildren. We’ve also expanded geographically—one son and his family live abroad and one daughter and her family live in Las Vegas. Getting everyone together has been, so far, an impossible task. At some point—and I know I did it more than once—I verbalized my desire for everyone to be together for our anniversary. I don’t want any presents, I said. I’d just like to get everyone together in one place at one time.

Last fall the phone rang. Caller ID indicated our youngest daughter’s home. Ken answered expecting to hear Sarah, but Nadya, her youngest, a first grader, was one the line.

First, she told him to get Grandma because she had something to say that she wanted both of us to hear. I was already on my way to another phone. When she knew we were both there, she read an invitation to a family gathering at a lake resort in Minnesota in June—at which all your children and grandchildren will be present.

I was too stunned to say anything. Ken finally asked, Did you say lake resort?

We heard this sweet little voice say, Yes, I did.

I can’t recount any more of the conversation because I don’t remember it. We didn’t know how to respond to her, to Sarah, to our other children. Neither of us slept well that night.

All along I’ve been fearful something would happen—and that it wouldn’t come about. In fact, although we’ve talked about it and made plans, it hasn’t seemed real until two weeks ago. We called Ted in the UAE on a Friday morning—which was their Friday evening. He and Simon were reading. He put the phone on speaker so Simon could hear and we asked him if he was coming to visit. His little sweet voice said, Yes.

Something about the certainty in his response made it real for me—and Ken understood when I mentioned it later so I think he felt it, too. Simon’s coming. His parents and baby sister are coming. Our daughter and family in Vegas are coming. Everyone will be together.

And now the time is upon us. By our time, Ted and family leave the UAE around 3:00 PM today (Thursday). They arrive around 6:00 PM tomorrow (Friday) . Sarah and family comes Tuesday. The others are more-or-less local and their schedules vary. We’ll all be at the lake together for one day and we'll probably get together a couple of times the following weekend. There will be no program.

Concerning blogging while they’re here—I’ve written ahead and prescheduled the postings so they will appear as they usually do. However, the material I'll cover will be different, an expansion of sorts.

Because we'll be busy, I probably won’t monitor or respond to comments when our family is with us. I probably won't even respond until we’ve had time to rest and recover.

If you think of it, send blessings our way!