Sunshine amidst cloudy days

ANDREW WRITES:

Though it is winter here in Seattle, last week was full of sunshine.

My brother, Jon, and my dad came last weekend. Though I was still recovering from the surgery, I was able to get out a bit and spend some time with my brother. One of the days Jon and I took a walk up to blockbuster and rented a video, then stopped by Dairy Queen and walked back with hot fudge sundaes. Walking by all the houses and peeking into their backyards brought back memories of when my brother and I used to play catch in our backyard on warm spring days in New Jersey. He's 5.5 years older than me, so I learned so much from him when I was a kid. I was always the tag-along with the older kids when we used to play baseball in our old court in California or at Vista Grande school down the street. I didn't much care that I was just Jon's little brother. At least I had somebody to look up to.

When Jon and Dad left Monday night I missed them immediately. It's been a really long time since Jon and I spent much time together. I'm glad he made the time to come because his visit brought sunshine amidst some cloudy days.

With all the doctors appointments, the surgery and recovery, it it felt like forever since we've been able to get out and just have some good fun and laughs with my wife and the kids.

When I woke up on Tuesday morning I could already tell I was in for a treat. There was a yellow tint rather than a gray tint to the beam of light between the curtains. As Tuesday's are typically family days, we decided to go out for lunch instead of dinner since there's no guarantee that the sunshine will last more than 2 minutes. So off we ran to the park on the Snohomish and Pilchuk rivers.

It was Grace, AJ, Gracie, mom, Boaz (mom's dog) and I eating fish and chips in 70 degree weather in Snohomish. AJ just loved being able to run around and play on all the playground equipment. Gracie kind of just hung out looking cute. Grace gave AJ a tour of the place, then hung out with Gracie. Mom took Boaz for a long walk around the park, and I just enjoyed watching AJ sort of tumble his way down the tall spiral slide with his deep belly laughs. AJ seemed small for such a tall, steep, spiral slide, but we let him go down anyways. Since the slide was enclosed I couldn't see what was happening, but the sounds he made before popping out the bottom sounded painful. "Haha - thump, thump, thump - haha!" The funny thing is that he wanted to do it again and again. I kept thinking to myself, "so AJ whats it like to be invincible?"

God has really blessed me by surrounding me with wonderful people. As wonderful as they are, how much more wonderful is our perfect God! He sticks closer than a brother, wife or friend.