Cousin is Comin'!

Thank you so much for all of your care and prayer. It is deeply felt and appreciated. It is such a privilege to "know" all of you. The road will be long and tiresome, but two good things have happened, and we know we'll persevere and make it through.

The picture of the dahlia the other day didn't do it justice - it continued to get more beautiful, so I had to update you -

My only rose bush produces the most lovely blooms all summer and into the fall - and they all look a bit different. So gorgeous.

We thought our two hibiscus plants were gone, but the white one came back and bloomed, and the red one is coming up, too - just not in time to bloom this year.




When I went to the Annual Trial Flower Garden, we spotted flowers like these - I can't recall the name, but they feel like paper. I came home and discovered we had some in our yard. Anybody know what they are?

I mentioned a couple of weeks ago that my cousin who is a missionary in Mali, Africa will be coming to visit - Monday. It will be her first visit to Colorado ever. We've been trying to coordinate this visit for many years of furloughs (now called home leave).

If you've been with me since the beginning of blog time, you may remember this story and these pictures. I can't find the earlier post, or I would just re-run it. Ann grew up in Africa, the daughter of my uncle who just died in July. We only saw our cousins every four years, but it never seemed like that much time had elapsed when they came home. We usually didn't get to see them very much during their year home, because we lived far away from Minnesota, where they always stayed. Christmas was always very special at Grandma Swanson's house.

When we were all in high school, my sister and I had a great time getting better acquainted with Ann. Someone had sent her a subscription for Co-Ed Magazine way over there in Africa. Does anybody remember this magazine? I remember getting it through home ec. class and really enjoying it. Ann had written a letter to the editor, asking for some fashion advice for her year in America. She wanted to fit in at school. Unbelievably, they met her at the airport in NYC and did a makeover and did lovely story about her for the September, 1965 issue. I loved showing it off at school!

I think you'll be able to read the article and see the pictures better if you double click.

After this furlough, we rather lost touch with each other. I'm not sure why - we all went to college, got married, had kids, and got very involved in our adult lives. We never did correspond by mail for some reason, and that didn't change, unfortunately. It must have been about 15 years ago when Vicki and I took a trip to Minnesota to visit her while she was home, and to meet her husband and children. It was amazing how at home we felt with each other - as if we had seen each other regularly over these many years.

We finally began keeping in touch at least once in awhile, by e-mail of course. Then she got a good phone plan and we talked over the many miles and it sounded as if she were next door. We still didn't get together often, but we felt so close. We had things in common, not specifically, but generally - the fact that we had children going through rough stuff.

I shared recently about our time together in Minnesota after her dad's funeral. We sat in Chili's eating and talking, totally oblivious to the fact that we were in the path of a tornado - until we looked up and saw the rain going horizontally outside the restaurant window. Our families had been frantically trying to reach us, but we didn't hear our phones ringing in our purses. When it settled down outside, we asked a waitress to take our picture, then we headed for our respective places - she took me to her brother's house, where I was staying, and she headed to her apartment, home for the few months she's in the U.S.




Ann and her husband, Larry, are out most week-ends sharing their message with churches all over the country. We feel so privileged that she has carved out some time for us. I'll let you know what we did after I know!