You see, there in western Ohio, I had friends (hello, Katie, Alex & Carter, Tina & Emma, Terrie & Jimmy) and family (Ola, Chuck, Drew, Zach, Chelsea, Matt & Silas). So each day was filled with opportunities to catch up with people whom I had know from my previous lives. Katie and her sons took me to lunch on Monday. She was a member of a bible study I led in Oklahoma and part of our tanker squadron there. Tina and her daughter took me to lunch on Tuesday. We used to live across the street from each other, and her husband was my doctor once upon a time. Our few hours together grew our friendship and I am grateful for her hospitality.
On Monday night, we drove to Columbus to have dinner with my sister and her family, just in time to celebrate my nephew's 12th birthday. Pizza, cake and Jeni's Splendid Ice Cream made for a perfect day. And as an added bonus I got to hold my grandnephew, Silas, for a few minutes before his diaper needed to be changed. On Tuesday night we met up with our friends Terrie and Jimmy, with whom we double dated many years ago, and who were in our wedding just six weeks before I performed their wedding. We caught up on the happenings of our families and our lives. I had seen them earlier this year, but for Shawn it had been over 10 years since he had seen them. We picked up like we had just had dinner a few weeks before.
On Wednesday I worked on projects at the hotel and on Thursday, Shawn's dad drove down from Detroit and we visited the National Museum of the Air Force... and then he and I went back for a behind the scenes tour on Friday. When Shawn was done, we drove to Michigan to spend an action-packed weekend with his family, including a volleyball game, helping around the house, grocery shopping, dinner-cooking, Christmas cookie-making, church, a visit with Aunt Fran and her whole family, visiting the cemetery, decorating the sanctuary for Advent, and dinner with the family who were our partners in crime. All to come home and watch the last NASCAR race of the season (DVR'd for our convenience) and see Shawn's favorite driver Tony Stewart win his third championship title.
A quick flight home on Monday and we're totally settled into our routine again. And it's all in time to have Thanksgiving dinner with some of our AF friends on Thursday, start decorating the house for Christmas over the weekend, and immerse ourselves into holiday activities and the spirit of Christ's birth.
The biggest blessing of our Air Force life is the great relationships that we have made over the years. We have lived in and traveled to many unbelievable places, but in our remote assignments we have found that it's the friendships that carry you through. We are blessed to know that in most of the places where the Air Force could send us, we will know somebody. Or somebody who knows somebody we know. And we have had great church families, mostly local folks who know that we're not around forever, but take a change to love us anyway. And keep in touch when we go to start over someplace else.
Over the last couple of years we have also grown closer to our families. We have realized how precious those relationships are, and are taking more opportunities to spend time together whenever we can. And we try not to take those experiences for granted, because you never know what the next year will have in store.
So this Thanksgiving, I am grateful for family and friends... for the people who love us and for the differences we can make together in the world. And I pray that God will continue to show me how to be a good friend and not take the friendships (and familyships) I have for granted.
Peace, Deb
My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. John 15:12-13 (NIV)
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