College Road Trip

Brooke and I celebrated spring break with a girls' getaway. For a couple of years now she has known just where she'd like to go to college. Now that she has almost completed her junior year, we decided to take SNU up on its invitation to visit the campus, meet some professors, and sit in on some classes.

On Monday we detoured a few miles out of the way to spend a few hours with Samantha, who had just earned privileges to leave base in a bus or a taxi. It was so good to see her looking strong and confident and as beautiful as ever.

It was while we were visiting in the mall that I was first hit with a sense of nostalgia. I remembered this place from thirty years before. It was where I did my "serious" shopping when I took my first teaching job.

On Tuesday morning we drove through the town where I had lived and worked for eight years. Intersections and areas of town I used to know like the back of my hand had changed so much they were barely recognizable. A few buildings had changed hands, some were gone, but most were simply dwarfed by new retail establishments that had crowded around them.

The place closest to my heart was the block that held the Christian school and the church where I spent so much of those years. The school had celebrated its twenty-fifth anniversary while I lived there, but has been closed for a number of years. It was sad to see it empty and to remember the life it once held. All the windows were boarded up, closed tightly to the light and to the community. Unless one is looking for it as I was, there's barely a hint that a couple of mobile homes used to sit over in the corner of the campus. That anyone ever lived there once upon a time.

I hadn't made plans to see anyone, but I did run into a couple of people I knew. I found myself studying their faces, trying to recognize features of the people I remembered. In all the ways that matter, they were the same. I told Brooke stories about people and places from my past as we made the final leg of our trip. She even acted interested. (Smile!)

We stopped for lunch at Grandy's across from the SNU campus before heading to our appointment. There was a dear little lady who must have been close to eighty years old refilling glasses of sweet tea in the dining room. I told Brooke she must have been a pastor's wife who didn't save enough for retirement and who sent her children to SNU!

The campus was beautiful, almost idyllic, and Jennifer, the admissions officer, gave us the VIP tour. I loved watching Brooke interact with the faculty and staff. She seemed so poised and grown-up. Still, I can't imagine letting her go off on her own as my parents allowed me to do when I was just a few months older than she is now. More than ever it seems so important to make the most of every day she has left at home.

On Wednesday my old friend Norma was able to break away from her family and join us for some girlfriend time. For four of my eight years in Oklahoma, she and I had been housemates. It had been way too long since we'd been in touch with one another, but she is the kind of friend that you can always pick up the relationship exactly where you left off. It was so good to laugh with her again. We spent the day just catching up. Our conversation was peppered with "What ever happened to...?" and "Do you ever hear from ...?" The belly laughs usually came after "Do you remember..." and were often followed by one of us saying, "I had forgotten all about that!" Between the two of us, we reconstructed enough nonsense to convince Brooke we were totally crazy.

"Doesn't it seem," we asked each other, "that we should still be in our thirties, or maybe even our twenties?"

Where have all the years gone? Who would have known they'd pass so quickly?

"Sunrise, sunset. Sunrise, sunset.
Swifty fly the days.
Seedlings turn overnight to sunflowers,
Blossoming even as we gaze.
Sunrise, sunset. Sunrise, sunset.
Swiftly fly the years.
One season following another,
Laden with happiness and tears."

Happy Birthday, Brayden!

In LSU country, Brayden is BSU's biggest fan,

and lover of all things blue and orange!

Happy 12th birthday, Brayden. And pardon me for feeling a little sentimental today. In many cultures there are special ceremonies for boys your age, and I can understand why. Somehow in the past year, you've become a young man instead of a child.

You're taller and your shoulders are broader, but you've grown in so many other ways as well. You are more responsible, more thoughtful, more caring. You are fun to be with. (Oh, and of course, you're a better ball player and are well on your way to becoming a great trumpet player!) There is never a dull moment when you are around! Best of all, you are spending time in God's Word, and it is changing you from the inside out. I see in you today the promise of the man I pray you will become.

Many years ago, before I even dreamed of you, I discovered a prayer written by General Douglas McArthur. I claimed it for your older brothers, and I claim it especially today for you. Here is an adapted version:

"Build me a son, O Lord, who will be strong enough to know when he is weak, and brave enough to face himself when he is afraid. One who will be proud and unbending in honest defeat, and humble and gentle in victory.

"Build me a son whose wishbone will not be where his backbone should be; a son who will know that to know You is the foundation stone of knowledge.

"When you lead him to face the stress and spur of difficulties and challenge, may he learn to stand up in the storm. Here may he learn compassion for those who fail.

"Build me a son whose heart will be clear and whose goal will be high; a son who will master himself before he seeks to master other men; one who will learn to laugh, yet never forget how to cry; one who will reach into the future, yet never forget the past.

"And after all these things are his, add, I pray, enough of a sense of humor so that he may always be serious, yet never take himself too seriously.

"Give him humility, so that he may always remember the simplicity of true greatness, the open mind of true wisdom, the meekness of true strength through the power of Jesus working in and through him. Amen."

I am proud to be your mom, and I love you more than you can know. Have a wonderful birthday. Just stop growing up so fast!