What we celebrate

I'm going to diverge for a moment on a more family-related post. I just returned from an incredible journey of fifteen days (thank you to my incredible husband and remarkable housekeeper!) for a truly epic surprise party for my dad's 60th birthday. My eyes feel the sting of tears even now as I glance through the photos. My sisters and I, spread on four continents, haven't been on the same country for three years! You can see a video of the actual surprise moment on my Facebook page (if you're at all interested, it's worth it!).

 

 What I will never forget--and which most people don't receive until their funerals--was an open mic time that lasted for an hour (with more still waiting to share) in which person after person shared slices of my dad's generosity, compassion, and courage in so many aspects of his life. I wrote an article a couple of years ago about my parents' tremendous legacy of generosity, and it was something to behold to hear all the testimonies of this life well-lived. As I said at the party, my dad had always hoped to pass on the family business of farming to his kids, but then became the father of all girls. When they signed on as staff with FamilyLife nearly 20 years ago, that dream may have been confirmed as evaporated--but now, I see that as usual, God's dreams are bigger than ours. Because my dad's "family business", of compassion, generosity, and proclaiming the name of Jesus, has gone international.

A friend of his wrote a blog post about 10 lessons of a life well-lived that he learned from the party. A good man is indeed be hard to find--but I'm blessed to have way, way more than my share in my life.

Love you, Dad. And I celebrate your life.