When your children are growing up you know that the time will come when they will move out of the nest of home and live a life on their own. Even though I know moving away is a part of life it was such a special blessing to have Annie move back home when she taught school in Agra. She is such a ray of sunshine. She brightens the room and the day. It was just very nice to have one of our girls home for a while.
After Annie moved to Great Bend, she would go to Wichita now and then, but she did not say much about other things going on in Wichita. One Saturday afternoon she called me and told me she was going to Hutchinson. "Dad," she said, "I think it is a date!" She was so excited. I wondered how she did not know if it was a date.
As nice as it was to have Annie home for a while with us, there was a greater wish we had for her. That wish was that some fine young man would find what we believe is our special jewel. That guy from the, "I think this is a date!" Saturday afternoon turned out to be Jared Johnson. He has found our jewel. Annie is so happy. He is who she was waiting for. He is who we were waiting for. God blessed Annie and God blessed our family when he brought them together.
When I was teaching Annie to ride her bike, the learning took place on the little lane that led to our house when we lived out on the farm. She would sit on her bike. I would hold on to the bicycle behind her and we would start down the little decline that let to the house. With that slight decline I thought that if she ever started going on her own it would help her keep going without worrying too much about running the pedals.
So we would go down, walk back about 100 feet to our starting point and do it all over again. We had done this several times when Annie got a little discouraged. She wanted to quit. It seems like I said, "Annie, can't never did anything." Well, she kept at it. Soon she was riding on her own. Later when we rode our bikes together, I usually had to tell her to slow down because I had to work hard to keep up.
There are few things that Annie has taken on and not mastered. (With the exception of the basketball thing. I just know she could have!) She is a leader. She is not a quitter. She is a truster. Even though she may have wondered why God was taking so long in showing her who this Saturday afternoon date guy was going to be, she always believed that there was going to be someone for her.
Annie's blog used to be titled, "Moving On" She is moving on again. With her marriage to Jared she is moving on to a bigger, brighter, new, level of life. She is so happy. We are all very happy. Our life is moving on too. Life is full of changes. You all know how well I love change (Ha) but this is a good change. We, (I) am moving to a new level, too.
