Our First Ohio Visitors

My sister Lydia surprised me last week by calling to let me know she was thinking of taking a road trip to Ohio with some of her camp friends. Lydia was supposed to have made it home from Georgia to Alabama by then, but due to car problems was stuck in Georgia. Her friends were coming to Ohio just for two nights and would then head back home. To make a spontaneous decision is not very Lydia-like as she does a very good job at thinking things through (I'm often very much the same way). But due to the encouragement of everyone around her - me included! - she decided to be crazy and take an extended route from Alabama to Georgia by going through Ohio first!
It was great to see Lydia again and to meet her friends. I got to make dinner for our first guests here in Ohio. John got to show off his Peru pictures as we told stories. And all us girls were able to enjoy tickling Lydia! The family I'm staying with up here was awesome and let Lydia and her friends stay there that night. So, I was able to learn a lot more about the camp Lydia was at as just catch up on sister talk and stay up late together! We enjoyed a wonderful breakfast that Rhonda made for all of us and then had to say goodbye once again. I'm so thankful to have a sister crazy enough to be willing to sit in a car for 20 hours in order to visit! I hope that visit will be the first of many to occur. If any of you reading this blog are driving through Ohio, give me a call!

Taking Your Father's Advice!

The first way in which we learn to take our father's advice is through simple obedience. A child is told what to do and then corrected if the command is not followed. Through direction obedience early in life, we can learn that commands are to be obeyed. The command may come from our earthly father, or from our Father in heaven. Commands from God our Father can be found written in His Word, the Bible.


As a child grows up, sometimes the directions are not always given as simple commands. Often the directives change to suggestions or advice based on life experience. The father wants to allow his child to make his own decision. Input is given for the child's consideration.


A wise child will consider what his father says - even if the advice is given in terms of a suggestion rather than a command. My father rarely gives direct commands. My siblings and I often get advice or suggestions, but it seems that all involved in the conversations understand that in the end, we (as the children) are responsible for our own decisions. I enjoy getting my father's advice, but sometimes I don't exactly follow it.


Other times, I like to follow it word for word. Especially when the advice is somewhat unusual as in this case. . .


When I begin talking about marrying John, my family wanted to know what my plans were once I moved to Ohio. Well, my plans are to look for another job and to work somewhere hopefully as an engineer not too far from where John works. Once I find a job, we plan to find another place to live since John's current apartment doesn't have a guest room.


Now my dad retired last year and has really enjoyed having the time to work on the many projects he has going on. He is of the opinion that I should simply take a break from working. So his fatherly advice (often stated) was that I should "sit around and eat grapes."


As this advice was so often given, I have been very careful to follow it in the week and a half that I've been in Ohio. I have made sure to sit down every single day and have eaten grapes several times a week! John wanted to make sure that we showed how carefully we were following dad's advice, so we took a picture!

Settling in Ohio

We made it safely here to Ohio last night. The drive went well and I'm beginning to settle in here. I am staying with a great family from John's church. They're not home this week so I guess I'm kinda house sitting right now. I've spent the day unloading the contents of my car into John's apartment. It's been a successful day. Here's the living room as of 10:30 this morning.

Here it is this evening:

Thankfully John's apartment has a lot of closet space that he wasn't using until now :) It's nice to have everything out of my car again!