2017 Week 23: Another great week

Petunia and catalpa blossoms

Three last graduation open houses this week, each fun in a different way.

Asher's, Sunday evening, the last one of the PhyXTGears student graduates, was held where his family celebrates every special event--the grandparents' spread in the country. Grandpa built the house, planted a variety of trees and plants, did the beautiful landscaping himself, AND has a quaint and fascinating shop crowded with his treasures accumulated over the decades. 

The front of the shop 

My hardworking builder and maintainer has been tackling outdoor jobs such as painting areas that needed it, mowing, checking the bees, and more. All of that in addition to the ongoing goals and projects of the robotics team. Even so he makes time for cycling almost daily.

And he manages to fit in a tandem date weekly. Can you guess where we ended up this week?

Elijah was with us most of the week to enjoy the FITS (Fun in the Sun) program. Wednesday he had his cast taken off and missed "mud day" which he did not mind too much. He still has to wear a brace for a few weeks, but could ride his bike to and from the church.

Elijah and I played many games together, and I only won one! His "strategery", as I call it, is unbeatable!

The high point of the week was Malachi's celebration. As a family they came up with great ideas for the open house and all worked heartily and willingly to pull it off. Beautiful, indeed!
As usually happens when there's a major event, some projects get done that otherwise languish undetected. Now I'm inspired to clean my oven inside and out and organize all the books in the various bookshelves.

We are grateful that Kristie is progressing as well as she has since her major surgery six weeks ago.

She had not been able to keep up with the hive and was ready to give up on bee-keeping. However, Bee-man Mike came to the rescue.  Before the party, he donned his protective gear, endured the heat, checked on Kristie's bees, harvested a goodly amount of honey, and got stung only once.

Jude admiring grandpa

Enjoying the video display and visiting with friends

It's a special blessing to have a chef-uncle to cater the party who also throws in an ice sculpture!

Nacho bar and ice sculpture by Stephan Koch and cake by Patrick McDonald

We had a wonderful afternoon visiting with many friends. In the midst of our conversation we rememberd that June 10th was the six year anniversary of our housefire.

I came across this memorable photo captured by our daughter. Amidst the ashes, a reminder of Jesus' love and God's promise to be with us always. 

Two more Leah-pics from this week that I just couldn't pass up, after all every post needs a Rebecca sighting.

In 1976. when Nanna-Leah was about that age and we were living in Vienna, Austria, in a little house with a big yard and many beautiful flowers, a team came through on their way to Turkey for the summer and camped there. Among them was a young man who drew this picture of our two children.

In amazing mysterious ways, our paths crossed again this weekend. Richard Sharp and his wife Rachel were involved in Serve Together Kokomo, a county-wide service project involving 47 churches and thousands of volunteers.

We only heard about it Sunday morning from Bob Craton, an Upland friend whose ties with Operation Mobilization also go back to those adventures in Europe. We made plans to go together and picked him up after the last open house, Lexi's.

Lexi, Malachi's girlfriend of several years

We wondered how we'd find our friends amid stadium crowds. Interestingly, they sat only a few rows away in the same section, and later on our way to Culver's to visit with them, we discovered they had parked directly behind us! What are the odds???

We were so inspired hearing the stories of their One Wish encounters. They ask two questions to begin a conversation. I leave you with the first one:  "If you could have one wish from God for you today, what would that be?" They offer a simple one-sentence prayer for anyone who responds.
What came to mind when you read that question?