Back from Ohio

No, not to visit Laurie and Jason, though I was sorely tempted to go way out of the way just to see them!

Paul and I made an 11th-hour decision to go to Cincinnati for his brother Tony's 60th suprise birthday party. We had not planned that I would go; I thought Tony would enjoy it more if his brothers and he got to hang out for the weekend, but Gerard had just had foot surgery and was unable to share the driving; David is a soccer coach and his team was in a tournament that had been planned long before the party.

(I needed prayer about whether I should go since the brothers couldn't, so that I could share the drive and the celebration. But just in case Tony saw my blog--which I highly doubt--I didn't want to botch the party plans.)

He was really, really surprised, taken aback, shocked, all that stuff. I mean, we were not the only out-of-towners. We were the only relatives on Paul's side, which meant a whole lot to Tony, and we are glad we made the trip. Tony's daughter, Rachel, put together a 35-minute video in two days. Now that's talent. Her loving older sister, Talitha, kept Rachel's kids, Morella and Myleigh (ages 5 and 2 respectively)as well as her own toddler, Xander, while Rachel worked on the video. Now that's sacrifice. Anyone who has babysat while someone else took the credit for a creative project deserves my highest commendation!

Pictures of our visit will be forthcoming, Lord willing. Joel was a phenomenally good traveller, sans siblings, and loved every minute playing with his cousin Morella.