Grandparents again...and again...and again
After being away from the blog (and home) for such a long time, there is a lot I could say, but this subject deserves a posting of its own. It's not like we're becoming grandparents; we've been through that before, but we've been holding at 7 grandkids for a number of years. (Joel, the youngest, will be 8 in August.) Well, the clock has started ticking again...it's 7 and counting.
Rachel broke the news to us back in December that she's expecting no. 4, due sometime in July. Just found out in the past few days that it's a girl, which will even out Rachel and Chris's family at 2 boys vs. 2 girls. (Not too much emphasis on the "vs.", though; the kids get along fine.)
And, not to be outdone, Joy and Mark broke the news to us a few weeks later that they're expecting their first! The ETA on this little one is September 16. It's still a little early in the season to know whether to buy all blue or all pink furniture for the new bedroom. That detail of information won't be available for another month, I suppose.
Will we be going to the States to join the celebrations? The Lord willing, of course! But truth be told, we had been planning to go back in September/October anyway. It will have been almost two years since we were in the States. Abbie's father will be 90 on September 13. (How convenient for Joy and Mark to have their baby the same week, and only an hour or so away from Abbie's parents!) Also, it will be the 40th reunion of my university graduation class in early October. We've never attended any of the class reunions (high school or university), so this was going to be a special year in any event. More grandkids! Even more special!
The Portuguese have a saying, "Não há dois sem três." (Literally, "There aren't two without three".) It's a comment usually made when there have been two misfortunes, like accidents (plane crashes, for example), or deaths in the family. I'm having a hard time remembering whether the saying is ever used in the positive sense; there's an overriding sense of "doom and gloom" to it in my mind.
But can't there be a third blessing after two others? Yes! We just got back from Lisbon, where we met our newest "grandson". He's a little darker than our other grandkids, but then so are his parents, Rosa and Blanchard. We went to their wedding three years ago in Lisbon; I preached at the ceremony, and out of the almost 200 people at the reception, there were only three of us there who were not African. There is a brief account and a couple of pictures in this posting from that time.
We had not expected to see Blanchard on this trip, since our time was short, but to our surprise, the men's choir "Benção" ("blessing") from the 3rd Baptist Church of Lisbon sang on Saturday, the last night of the missions conference we attended. Blanchard is the assistant director of the choir, which is made up of Angolans, who sing in Portuguese, English, French and Kikongo. When the concert was over, he came up to us, as surprised as we were. He insisted on finding a way to have us come to his house on Sunday.
Saturday night at the conference: Blanchard directing the choir, and a surprise reunion afterwards.
We hadn't seen them since the wedding and had only seen Junior (which is what they call him) in pictures. Sunday night Blanchard picked us up from the church where I spoke and took us to his house, where we were received like royalty. Rosa told us that when Blanchard got home at midnight the night before, he told her, "Guess who I ran into? My father!" She thought he was crazy. "What father?!"
"My father from Madeira!" They had the special china on the table for us, which they got for their wedding, but had never used until Sunday night.
Junior (14 months) and a cousin.
We got to practice our grandparenting skills, and Junior was encouraged to go to Vovô and Vovó (Grandpa and Grandma). He was pretty fussy after being in church all day, from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m., and by 10:30 he was worn out, but couldn't be still. I picked him up, and once he put his head on my shoulder, he never moved a muscle. He was fast asleep in two minutes. It was good practice for us. We're looking forward to doing more of it this fall.
Rachel broke the news to us back in December that she's expecting no. 4, due sometime in July. Just found out in the past few days that it's a girl, which will even out Rachel and Chris's family at 2 boys vs. 2 girls. (Not too much emphasis on the "vs.", though; the kids get along fine.)
And, not to be outdone, Joy and Mark broke the news to us a few weeks later that they're expecting their first! The ETA on this little one is September 16. It's still a little early in the season to know whether to buy all blue or all pink furniture for the new bedroom. That detail of information won't be available for another month, I suppose.
Will we be going to the States to join the celebrations? The Lord willing, of course! But truth be told, we had been planning to go back in September/October anyway. It will have been almost two years since we were in the States. Abbie's father will be 90 on September 13. (How convenient for Joy and Mark to have their baby the same week, and only an hour or so away from Abbie's parents!) Also, it will be the 40th reunion of my university graduation class in early October. We've never attended any of the class reunions (high school or university), so this was going to be a special year in any event. More grandkids! Even more special!
The Portuguese have a saying, "Não há dois sem três." (Literally, "There aren't two without three".) It's a comment usually made when there have been two misfortunes, like accidents (plane crashes, for example), or deaths in the family. I'm having a hard time remembering whether the saying is ever used in the positive sense; there's an overriding sense of "doom and gloom" to it in my mind.
But can't there be a third blessing after two others? Yes! We just got back from Lisbon, where we met our newest "grandson". He's a little darker than our other grandkids, but then so are his parents, Rosa and Blanchard. We went to their wedding three years ago in Lisbon; I preached at the ceremony, and out of the almost 200 people at the reception, there were only three of us there who were not African. There is a brief account and a couple of pictures in this posting from that time.
We had not expected to see Blanchard on this trip, since our time was short, but to our surprise, the men's choir "Benção" ("blessing") from the 3rd Baptist Church of Lisbon sang on Saturday, the last night of the missions conference we attended. Blanchard is the assistant director of the choir, which is made up of Angolans, who sing in Portuguese, English, French and Kikongo. When the concert was over, he came up to us, as surprised as we were. He insisted on finding a way to have us come to his house on Sunday.
Saturday night at the conference: Blanchard directing the choir, and a surprise reunion afterwards.
We hadn't seen them since the wedding and had only seen Junior (which is what they call him) in pictures. Sunday night Blanchard picked us up from the church where I spoke and took us to his house, where we were received like royalty. Rosa told us that when Blanchard got home at midnight the night before, he told her, "Guess who I ran into? My father!" She thought he was crazy. "What father?!"
"My father from Madeira!" They had the special china on the table for us, which they got for their wedding, but had never used until Sunday night.
Junior (14 months) and a cousin.
We got to practice our grandparenting skills, and Junior was encouraged to go to Vovô and Vovó (Grandpa and Grandma). He was pretty fussy after being in church all day, from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m., and by 10:30 he was worn out, but couldn't be still. I picked him up, and once he put his head on my shoulder, he never moved a muscle. He was fast asleep in two minutes. It was good practice for us. We're looking forward to doing more of it this fall.
posted by EP | 8:27 PM | Permalink
1 Comments:
The 3 a.m. slot for baby holding/rocking/changing/pacifying is currently available for this fall if you're interested. I can sign you up -- since you're such an experienced candidate and so willing to do such tasks, I don't think there should be any problem in you being accepted for the position. :o)
Love you!
Joy
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