Knowing that our family is being cared for. First of all, let me say what a blessing it is to have basically daily contact with our family - it's mind boggling when I think of how hard it was to communicate with loved ones forty years ago. Nowadays, I have to struggle for balance, so that I'm not continually stalking Facebook to make sure everyone's okay and that I'm not missing out on anything. In a way, it's more of a challenge now to really put our family in the Lord's care, and turn my full attention to His work.
Notwithstanding that challenge, to which I am earnestly applying myself, I know He understands my motherly yearnings. Yesterday was Andrew's birthday. We figured the best time to try to call him would be during his lunch hour, 11:00 a.m. his time, 6:00 p.m. our time. He warned us that it might be kind of tricky - and it was. We tried several times, to no avail.
Since we had already paypal-ed a gift, sent a jib-jab card, sung "Happy Birthday" in Italian on his voice mail, plus a little video (at Sara's request) recounting the day he was born, we didn't feel too badly. However, seeing that one of his patients made him a birthday cake, and not just a birthday cake but a beautiful, yummy birthday cake, just set my heart at rest.
I know for sure Sara and the fam gave him a super fun party last evening, which makes all the difference; let's just say that knowing someone "extraneous" cared enough to do that is just like a little tender mercy from the Lord to me.
Fun thing:
another "family" entry. We skyped with Ben about some "business". There's snow in Rexburg! It's funny to see. Here we have a lot of rain, but sometimes, like yesterday, Groundhog's Day - don't know if that's celebrated here - we have a bella giornata: a beautiful day. Seriously, it was gorgeous.
