May 2012 Articles

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Just Rambling, May 2012

The month of April was quite eventful. If you read my April “ Just Rambling,” then you know that my oldest daughter, Velvet, was operated on for cancer, and that my wife, Donnette, and I, as well as my two youngest daughters, Dana and Blair, were traveling to Germany to visit our son, Cody, who is teaching in Germany. I am happy to tell you that my daughter, Velvet, is doing well after her surgery, even though she experienced several complications. She has had her first chemo treatment and is scheduled for her second treatment this week. Velvet is a tough young lady, devoted to her family and has a strong faith in God. The prayers and the outpouring of love and generosity from family and friends have kept her strong and will continue to keep her strong throughout her battle with cancer. Please continue to pray for her, her husband, Johnny, and their two children, Dusty and Savanah.
Our trip to Germany was quite eventful for this ole country boy. To quote Bubba Watson, who won the Master’s Golf Classic this year: “I had never dreamed this far.” Not only did we get to travel to Germany, but we also went to Austria, Switzerland, and Italy. As I stated in my April “Just Rambling,” it was our “Amazing Race.” Cody and his mother did all the planning and had booked all of our hotels and tours prior to our arrival. I was amazed at how easily Cody could get around using the subways, buses, trains, and planes. I have never changed modes of transportation so much—needless to say I was a follower on this trip rather than a leader. It was great to see our son, travel with him and see how he and his two younger sisters enjoyed each other. Donnette and I always seemed to be playing catch-up to those three—they so often looked back and commented on how cute we looked, following them hand in hand. The hand in hand stuff was more out of necessity than from wanting to be always holding hands. In trying to keep up with those three, we had to pull each other along! Still, we enjoyed every minute of it. My only regret was that I didn’t have my other three daughters, my grandchildren and son-in-laws with us. It would definitely have been a dream come true if I could have carried my entire family on this trip. I also missed my daughter Velvet very much, but I communicated with her while on the trip. The countries we visited were all beautiful, with my favorite being Austria—the landscape through the country was so green and so clean. It seemed nothing was out of place—even the countryside looked manicured. Germany was my next favorite. It seemed that nothing was wasted in any of these countries. It appeared they utilized and maintained all structures rather than demolishing old structures and building new ones. The small city that Cody lives in looks like a fairy tale city. It is so beautiful, especially from Cody’s apartment up the mountain overlooking the city. I was just amazed at how the Germans utilize all space—but apparently they have to. Germany is basically the size of Montana, and they have 80 million people compared to Montana’s 1 million. Italy was my least favorite country, but I guess it may have been because I got scammed there. It’s a long story, and my son had told me to watch who I talked to or tried to talk to. Cody had to leave us for a few minutes and guess what—while he was gone, I got scammed and lost some money. His reaction when he returned was, “I can’t leave you alone for a minute.” I guess he was right but I didn’t get scammed again—I was ready for the next three guys that tried. Live and learn. Oh, by the way, the reason Cody was so smart was because he got scammed in Berlin three years ago when he was in school there. I also saw others fall for the same scam later that day, but I was still upset at myself for having been so naive.
Well, the countries were beautiful, the trip was great and my son was doing well. He has a great school to work in and a wonderful German teacher to assist. She and her husband prepared a fabulous breakfast for us before we left to come home. Food was great in every country we visited but guess what—nothing looked so great as the USA when we landed back at the Dallas/Fort Worth airport. The three most wonderful things I heard on this trip were: first, when Cody left us about 2:30 am Easter morning to go back to Italy, he hugged his mother and I and told us he wanted to keep us with him. The second thing was when we went through Customs after landing at DFW airport, and the Customs’ Agent said “Welcome Home.” When he said that, it dawned on me that there is no place like home— home in the USA. The third thing was as we were leaving the airport and we had turned our cell phone back on, we received a call from Velvet, stating she wanted to talk to her Daddy, to make sure we were all safe. Family and the USA—there is nothing better on earth, but just imagine then how wonderful it will be when our Heavenly Father welcomes us home at last.