Good to Be Home

This past weekend we went to our home town, Columbia, MD, to visit. Our main objective was to spend time with our “adopted” granddaughters, Kelly & Kate. I use quotation marks because these sweet girls are not our biological granddaughters or even blended family members. I worked at Grace Community Church (GCC) with their mom, Amita, at the time Kelly was born and we were very close. Kelly even gave Randy and me our grandparent names of “Pop” and “Nana.” And even though Amita and I haven't worked together for ten years, we've kept in close touch and those girls are precious to us.

Kelly and Kate are members of a swim team so Randy and I have attended one of their meets for the last three years. If you've never been to a meet, it's interesting. Most of the time you sit around, chatting with folks and then it's chaos for about 30 seconds or so while you scream for your swimmer as she swims in her event. Once those 30 seconds or so are over, it's back to chatting and hanging out until the next event. And the meet lasts three to four hours, beginning at 8am! So, we gain lots of Pop-and-Nana points when we attend a meet. And it's worth it to see the smiles on the girls' faces when they see us arrive.

After the meet on Saturday, we all went back to Amita & James' house for a pizza lunch and time together. We spent another couple of hours catching up and just enjoying being together. As always, it was hard to say our good-byes, but we'll see them at Christmas.

Saturday evening we had dinner at Beth & David's house, Beth and I also worked together at GCC and we have stayed in touch over the years as well. When I knew we were free Saturday evening, I called Beth to see if they were free to get together. And they were! David grilled burgers and chicken and Beth made corn on the cob and a fruit salad and we ate good. (Yeah, I know that's not proper English, but it says what I felt!) It was a great evening of catching up with good friends.

We rounded out our home town visit with worship at GCC. Before going on the road, we had been members of GCC for more than eight years, four of which I was on staff. Going back means we see lots of great folks and we get to participate in meaningful worship and hear a powerful message.

It was a very good weekend. A big thank you goes out to our friends, Tom & Tricia, who opened their house for us to stay the weekend – and they weren't even there!! Yes, they allowed us to stay in their home while they were gone. Is that generosity or what!

But, as always, it was good to get home yesterday. Nothing like sleeping in your own bed.

Until the next time . . .