Family News

Tonight we celebrated Leah's birthday. It was a simple family affair at our house with an angel-food cake iced with low-fat whipped topping and served with strawberries.

We played two games. The first was a singing game. We divided into two teams. The goal was to think of songs with a certain word in the lyrics and sing a line or two of the song. For example, one word pulled from the hat was "light." Team one sang "This little light of mine," then team two sang "You light up my life." Another song could have been a line from O Little Town of Bethlehem: "Yet in thy dark streets shineth the everlasting light." Whichever team failed to think of another song when it was their turn, lost the round and the other team won a point. You have to watch out for people who try to make up their own songs--sometimes we didn't know if Charles' (Leah's dad) songs were really country lyrics from the forties and fifties or something of his own creation! ha ha.

Then we played a simplified version of Scattergories with everyone thinking of words to describe Leah. The girls came up with some interesting "G" words, some flattering and some not so flattering, like glamorous, generous, global and grumpy. We had some good fun with that.

Leah received some very nice gifts to set up housekeeping in their new home, including an iron, a griddle and a label-maker. I presented her with a little lap quilt to help preserve for her some memories of Cameroon. It has on it nine of my favorite pictures of them in Cameroon. Sorry, my camera was not working properly at the party, but here is a picture I took of the quilt right after I finished it.

Wes and Leah are back in Texas now, following three and a half years in Cameroon, Africa, as missionaries of the United Methodist Church. They came back right before Christmas, then Wes returned for January and February to tend to some mission teams who were scheduled to come.

Wes is now back here and has accepted an associate pastorate in nearby Rowlett. They have been living with Leah's parents, and will be moving into their own space very soon. Leah has been working toward her doctorate degree and hopes to be teaching in the Plano ISD.

So it is good to have them all back home so we can enjoy the grandchildren and celebrate occasions like birthdays together. Tomorrow Rachel and Chloe, the two older children, will be confirmed at Christ UMC, so we will be able to be present at that special occasion.