And The Covenant Goes On

What a relief to see the familiarity of my blog this morning. Each time I tried to access it yesterday it told me it was unavailable. Who can make sense of a computer? I am amazed at the human intelligence it takes to keep all this running smoothly. I think I'll just be grateful all is well again.

The heat was so oppressive yesterday. It felt much warmer than the temperature registered. As my grandaughter Alex said, "You can swim through this stuff". Tis true, the humidity had to be way up there.

A friend called in the morning and invited me to lunch at her home. She had experimented with some creamed onion soup and graciously invited me to partake with her. It was just the two of us and along with a nice salad and her hospitality, the lunch was fulfilling and enjoyable. BTW, the soup was very good. Cindy likes to make soup. I'm glad she does because it certainly isn't one of my favorite creations. It doesn't help for me that my husband thinks soup is a precurser to the meal so if I make soup, I have to make an entree beside so what is the point? At any rate, the onion soup was a treat.

From Cindy's, I came home to encourage Ken that we should attend my cousin's wake early so to avoid a large crowd. He had golfed all morning and was apparantly feeling very warm. He had just showered and was all dressed. He asked if he could go to the funeral home in his shorts. I told him I didn't think so. He grumbled a bit and I went on my merry way getting ready to go. When we were ready to go out the door, he was still donning his shorts. But, tennis shoes and ankle socks to a wake????? I didn't think so. I commented that I didn't think I wanted to go with him dressed like that. He was not too pleased and began to change clothes with irritated vigor. I told him he should probably act disgusted. He said he was disgusted. As I recall the scene, I can just have a good belly laugh. He finally was dressed with dignity and off we went. I shared this story with my daughter and grandaughter and they got quite a chuckle out of it because knowing the two of us, they could just envision the scene. It is pretty funny in retrospect. Marriage is a hoot, isn't it?

After attending the wake, I accompanied Lauri and Alex to the bone specialist. Alex broke her ankle way back in May and this was the final followup. We learned all is well but were frustrated at having been kept waiting about an hour and fifteen minutes for the doctor. When we got out of there, it was girl party time. We hit a few stores and then went out for a light dinner at Red Robin's. After that Lauri still needed groceries so we went to Walmart. All the while, the clock continued to run and it was getting late. I checked in with Ken a couple of times and he was fine with the absence of wife. I reminded the girls that Grandpa could be a geek about the clothes he wears, but it isn't every husband who is just fine with a wife that unexpectedly doesn't get home until 9:30 at night. They couldn't have agreed more. Isn't marriage a hoot?? I count my blessings.

So, today we lay to rest Jim Terpstra. It occured to me on the way to the wake yesterday that his wife is my first cousin and second cousin. I don't know how easy this will be to follow but her mother and my dad are brother and sister AND her father and my mother were first cousins. As I explored the relationship deeper, it amazed me that not only is Hope my cousin twice but Jim was my second cousin. Weird. His father and my father were first cousins. I wonder how often it happens that one is triple relation to a couple? That all makes Jim and Hope cousins, however, Jim was adopted as a little boy so there were no biological ties there.

The wake was a mixture of joy and sorrow as wakes usually are. I think there was much more joy than sorrow there yesterday. Everyone knows where Jim is. There is no doubt of his deep faith in Christ and his desire to bring help others. Having gone on a dozen or more mission trips, there were displays of pictures of those trips and the work he did there. Even at the early time of the wake, there were many people comforting the family and reminiscing with them. The family are surely held in the hand of a comforting God and also the hand of the family of God. Hope and each of her children were wearing a shirt that belonged to Jim. That was a touch I hadn't seen before. One of the sons said they all raided Dad's closet in the morning to chose their shirt.

I'm sure the funeral will be a celebration of Jim's life and a praise to the God who created him. Jim's mother told Ken and me that Jim was five when she and her husband adopted him. Since we have adopted children at older ages as well, it was a big comfort to me that this adopted child had taken hold of the truths of the faith that his family held dear. Praise to God for His amazing grace. And the covenant goes on....