Here I am again... finally!

First let me make a major correction. The chapter from Rick Warren's book that I was raving about (and it truly is a fantastic writing) is Chapter 14, not 18. There's nothing wrong with 18, but you lose the entire point of what I was getting at, and I'm sure y'all were scratching your heads, if you went to the book to take a peek and read Chapter 18. Sorry! That's what I get for depending on my most fallible memory.

Where to start... It's been at least two weeks since I've updated my blog, and there's been a lot going on - some of it trivial, and some fairly significant. For one thing, my brother hasn't been doing well. He's been discouraged and many days seems to have pretty much given up. He had an MRI on the 21st, but we don't have the results yet. That will come in a doctor's appointment this coming Thursday. I can tell that Dick feels he is deteriorating more and more and expects the news to be bad. He is unable to do much of anything but get back and forth from couch to bed and to the bathroom and back, and has to use a walker for safe transport even on those abbreviated trips. His speech is becoming more difficult at times, and he took quite a fall this week. Fortunately, he wasn't hurt in the fall, but it scared the kapok out of all of us!

The other thing is Dick and Nancy are urging my sis and I to take some extended time for a visit home. We are scheduled to fly home this coming Friday, Feb. 6, returning on the 17th. But they are suggesting that we stay at home till after Spring Break. This would mean we would return sometime after March 31. We have decided to go ahead with that plan, and are in the process of rearranging our flights and airport transportation to make it happen that way. Both of us have considerable anxiety about leaving for that length of time - we're afraid of what we'll find when we come back. And there's also the possibility that things could reach the point where we might have to come back sooner than March 31. I'm not sure they realize fully all that we are doing behind the scenes to keep things running smoothly here, but time will tell. Either way, it will be awfully nice to spend some extra time at home.

My daughter, Sandi, was here with us last weekend. She flew down to pay her Uncle Dick a visit, and was able to spend some one-on-one time with one of her favorite cousins (Joylin, my brother's eldest) whom she hadn't seen in a very long time. We had a wonderful time while she was here, even though the weather was totally uncooperative - it rained the entire time she was here. It had been beautiful and sunny up until the day before she arrived, and the sun returned the day she left. Bummer! But she came for more than the weather, so it's all good.

One more bit of news: After 14 months of prayers to this end, my son called early this past week to say he wants to come home. He says he misses his family (wife, kids, extended family) and just wants to come home. So, in the very worst time of the year for road travel, he left Omaha, NE yesterday morning and arrived at a friend's in Montana sometime before noon today. He told us that he was in a deserted mountain pass this morning at around 3 a.m. in the middle of nowhere when his rented vehicle stopped just as though he had turned off the key. He tinkered with it for an hour or so, with no success, and wrapped himself in a blanket (in sub-zero weather) to wait till daylight to decide what to do next.

He was sitting there alone in the dark, getting pretty cold, when suddenly the car's headlights came on (he had not realized he had left the headlights or the key in the "on" position, since everything died when the car quit). He sat up, turned the key, and the car started on the first try. He made it safe and sound without further incident several hours down the road to his friend's home in Montana. I call that a miracle, since his I was waking up every 30 minutes to pray that his journey would be safe and he wouldn't freeze to death out there in a snowbank somewhere. God is so faithful!

Now that it's actually happening, we have mixed feelings about our son coming home. Of course, we're thrilled that he wants to come home, and consider it a miraculous answer to months of prayer. But we need to find that fine line between unconditional loving acceptance and enabling further poor choices and unnacceptable behavior. He cannot just drop out of the sky back into the picture and pick up where he left off, expecting everyone to just smile and say nothing about what's happened. His wife and kids have been SO hurt by his selfish choices, as have his Dad & I. We so much want to be the loving parents of a returning prodigal, but also want to help him be accountable for the pain and anguish his bad choices have caused us, his wife, and his precious babies during the past 14 months. I have read and re-read the Luke 15 story of the Prodigal Son. Please pray for all of us as we seek wisdom and guidance in dealing with this situation. I told our pastor yesterday, I want to hug him (my son, not the pastor) till he squeals, and then turn him over my knee and give him a good lickin' (again... my son, not the pastor)!

So, we will spend this coming week sorting things out in preparation to head home - what to take, what to leave here for our return in a couple of months. We also have a dilemma regarding our transportation to the airport on Friday. Our sweetie of a cousin, Sam, always takes care of that for us. We drive Sherry's car to his house in Sacramento and he shuttles us to the airport. We leave her car at his house and work the plan in reverse for our return trip. Unfortunately, Sam will be in Oregon all of next week (something more than a little ironic about that, huh?), so we have to figure out a Plan B. So far, nothing has jumped out at us - not sure what we'll do, but it will all work out.

Thanks for hanging with me through all the drama. Can you believe it - Sometimes it almost feels like a bad soap opera!

XOXO
Joanne

MY TEXT FOR TODAY: Luke 15:20

So he returned home to his father. And while he was still a long distance away, his father saw him coming, and he was filled with loving pity and ran and embraced him and kissed him.

Lord, help me to be that loving parent, waiting with open arms at the end of the driveway! And give me the wisdom to know when to speak, what to say, and when to keep silent. Amen.