This past Saturday the Vagabond family travelled about 90 miles north to attend my mother-in-law's family reunion. The last time I attended this function was 12 years ago - when Rose and I were first married. That was quite an adventure in itself, because my mother-in-law is one of 12 children, so I had 11 sets of aunts and uncles to meet plus their children, grandchildren, etc. On that first encounter, I was pretty pleased with myself that by the end of the day I could identify all of the aunts and uncles by name ... the cousins - not so much. On Saturday, even though several years had passed, not much had changed ... at least as far as the aunts and uncles went. My memory was rusty, but names and family ties came back to me for the most part after some prompting.
There were several encouraging events on this trip. One of the second-cousins, who was only about 7 the last time I saw her - she's 19 and in college now, was about to embark on a trip with some of her classmates on a missions trip to Switzerland. All but one of her group was at the reunion. The trip is designed to minister to teenagers there, and the group performed a couple of their skits for us. Needless to say, it was very encouraging to see how the Lord has worked (and is working) in this young girl's life. I look forward to hearing how the trip went when she returns.
Of course, the food there was wonderful too - especially the deserts. Homemade pies, homemade fudge, fresh fruit, cakes, pastries, you name it ... it was good. The other thing I realized is that many of the aunts and uncles have huge gardens, so I also have good reason for frequent visits - if for nothing more than to pick up some fresh from the garden produce. Fresh vegetables taste so much better than the canned or frozen stuff you can buy at the store.
My in-laws are currently staying with some family up there, and they volunteered to keep our kids with them so Rose and I could work on unpacking some of the extra stuff they brought out to us. We now have a dining room table again, along with our sofa and some extra bookcases and additional kitchen stuff and the like. On Friday, I purchased a set of loft beds for the kids. These are especially nice given our tighter living quarters as both beds are elevated. This frees up some much needed floor space for the kids to play in their bedroom. We've had to set down some pretty firm rules about the beds to minimize the risk of injury, but I think they will do fine.
Rose's job interview scheduled for last Thursday was postponed until Tuesday. Hopefully everything will go well with that and the follow-up checks will go quickly. We are still waiting for the house to sell. We lowered the price today in the hopes to draw an offer. We know the Lord has the right buyer for the house already picked out, so we will continue to wait patiently for the right time.
I'm still plugging away at my Greek studies. I have a major exam on Wednesday covering a lot of material. Up to now, I've completed 28 credits in this Masters program - and this class by far is the hardest. Studying for this class leaves you feeling like you're recovering from a hangover ... everyday! I'm hanging in there, but it feels like the train is riding on the edge of the track and if I don't keep up with it ... well the whole thing could come undone. I do get a week off from classes next week - so hopefully I can recoup and try to get ahead a bit for the home stretch!
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