I have been lax in keeping up with my blog. I could make excuses, but that does not alter the fact that it has been over one month since the last post. Some sickness, unexpected travel, an a funeral do take up a lot of time. While looking for spring we found more snow and after the funeral of my mother-in-law in Michigan Iowa welcomed us with summer-like weather.
Needless to say, we found a winery to ride to with our local children. As the dust of the last several weeks settles, we are preparing to go to Glen Eyrie again. We are looking forward to work there for the month of May.
Our trip to CEF in Missouri was cut short because of the passing of Mom Kasper. She reached the ripe old age of 94 years and three days. The farewell ceremony was officiated by the oldest grandson and was attended by a majority of the family which consists of 38 grandchildren and 86 great-grandchildren and 5 great-great-grandchildren. All eight of the still living children were there. These numbers do not include the spouses, just the blood-relatives. Life goes on. The youngest family member there was just 2 months old and another great-great-grandchild was expected “any day.”
Today I remember my dad’s birthday. He was born on February 28. I always wondered what it would have been like for those who were born on the 29th, they would only be able to celebrate their birthday every four years, on the actual date of their birth.
In a way I felt sorry for them; like they got cheated or something. But in reality, they could not help this any more than we can choose the family we all are born into. 
None of us got to choose our parents; although some parents get to choose their children. ( I just re-read this, and found that I am using both past and present tense, but this helps to make the point.) There are very obvious choices we get to make, like who the parents of our children will be. Whom we associate with, whose advances we choose to ignore; as long as it is not one who has authority over us. Like flashing red lights behind you, you’d better not ignore those.
Some of life’s choices are made for us. Some seem to allow more freedom of our will than others and some of life’s realities are borne on choices we made earlier. Since we cannot manipulate time we need to make informed choices, whenever we can. We don’t have the luxury to change the past, but we can in some form affect our future. Of course there are many factors which we cannot control, or even influence.
I received a draft notice within the week after we were married. I had no choice to ignore this. I could have chosen to go to Canada, or Sweden, or maybe even go back to the old country, but I chose to obey the summons. Once in this situation, I had some control about what I wanted to do in the armed forces. I choose to be in the medical field, expecting hospital work and so avoid combat duties. But, I wound up as a combat medic in the infantry. I did my year in Viet-Nam and experienced the horrors of combat. But now, many years later I can get together with others from the company I served as a medic. We have a common bond, we can reminisce about our experiences. There is honor and pride, particularly about our Viet-Nam service.
I am not saying that one needs to make a choice to serve in combat, but believe it or not there are worse choices one can make. No one is guaranteed a trouble free life, a future free of hurt, or avoidance of the loneliness and pain of separation, irrespective of the choices he or she made. To try to choreograph you future is at best an exercise in futility. “Exercise” being the positive aspect of this. To become president you need to have made choices and sacrifices along the way, but even then there are many more “also ran” than those who actually won the race.
When I moved (emigrated) to the US, I did not envision myself to be a career military man, those choices were made for me. But, as opportunity arose to be a better medic, or get advanced training, I made informed choices. With hindsight, many of these choices were good. 
We have enjoyed the retirement benefits of military service. We were able to retire at a younger age than many and travel and spent time in some places others dream about. We have friends and acquaintances all over the world, but we don’t have close, lifelong friends, who have always lived in the same area.
In spite of all our choices, good ones, or mistakes, there remains one truth: God remains the same. Just as I could not cause my birth, I could not cause my re-birth. God choose me, I am adopted into His family and ultimately the only choice I have, is to follow Him.
It is now the middle of January, where has the time gone?
After the rush of the holidays, the New Year’s eve party and the great family gathering on the first day of this year we decided that we needed some time to ourselves. We were still involved with the “service project” at our children’s rental unit, with clean up duties and some residual restorative work. The week after Christmas our children form Missouri decided to help their siblings with restoring the apartment which was “thrashed” by the previous renter. An effort which took time, hard work, and money; but was so satisfying in the end.
A quote from the psalms come to mind: (133:1 How wonderful, how beautiful, when brothers and sisters get along! The Message.) How blessed are the parents who can experience this!
We did get the opportunity to enjoy our time together in relaxation. A gentle but abundant snow kept us snuggled in bed. Our daughter’s 10th anniversary of her 29th birthday brought us together for a great dinner experience. Some renovation in our own home helps justify the expense of new tools. We work well together. We also rest well together. Early in our retirement we needed to learn to limit our daily activities to just that: daily activities. To not let these activities carry over into the evening hours, just to get it done. There is always another day, there are always more projects, but the time you spend with your loved one(s) comes around only once. You use it or lose it! If you lose that time you might actually lose the loved one or lose “love.”
Let me try to explain this a little more: People have asked, when we retired so young, “Why did you give up medicine? Medicine is such a benevolent profession, you could help so many people, in so many places during your travels.” I “gave up” the practice of medicine, because we wanted to do things as a couple.
When we were young and maybe even innocent, we wanted to be together, all the time. Then came the babies, the job, the schools, the moves, the children growing up, and so on, and on, and on. After a time the children left. We were left alone, again, just the two of us. Sure, there is a career and there are many great opportunities for involvement in a variety of activities. Most of these are individual activities, geared to the availability of the worker. I, however; had a great desire to do things together as a couple. Because our life’s situation and direction we had traveled down the path of life, we were able to “retire” from gainful employment at this time. We redirected our focus. We started another
“career.” My third one.
We thought it would be great to “travel for the Lord,” work for food, and support those involved in Christian mission work. Our first mission’s support trip was 10 years ago and we have visited many exiting places in the past decade.
We made many friends, we were influenced by great teachers and many other Kingdom workers. But we did it together, as a couple, a unit if you will. United in marriage by “eternal” vows. We truly have been blessed. This reminds me of a favorite text in Ecclesiastics, (chapter 5:18-20.) We are not wealthy as this world defines this, but our benefits are out of this world.
‘T is the day after Christmas, or second Christmas Day in many parts of the world. We have a gentle light snow to beautify the view from our window. After enjoying a magnificent cantata last week Sunday, (Dec 18-19) we had a great Christmas evening service. My bride and our local children were participants, I “merely” enjoyed it in the audience. Yet, as one of our dear friends once explained: It really is GOD who is the audience; we, the congregation, are the “performers;” and the praise team, choir, or other “actors” up front, are in reality “prompters, - souffleurs in the language of the stage. Those who (softly) remind the performers of their lines. So, is it all right to applaud in church? The real question is, are we praising God, the audience, as we are prompted, or are we praising the perceived performer? It makes me think before I join in the applause for a great prompting job.
Thanksgiving, a traditional American holiday, was spend with our grandchildren and their parents. We had a blast of winter up in Minnesota, but we really enjoyed our time together. The traditional turkey meal with all the trimmings, was prepared and consumed in the Spirit of Thanks. We also made a quick trip to Missouri, to visit with our children there. We celebrated birthdays and great family time. Then we needed to be home for practices and preparation for all the events of December.
We avoided most of the x-mas-rush but continued to focus on the Advent and the commemoration of the birth of the Savior, while we continue to wait for His return. Of course the house needed to be decorated for the winter rituals and the planned family gatherings. 
During our last full week in the Netherlands we went on an excursion to Twente. This is a region in the north-east central part of this beautiful land. Located in the province Overijssel, this region has retained much of it’s former charm; quiet and laid back. 
Small farms and beautiful villas dot the landscape. There are bike trails, walking paths, wooded areas and small cafes to stop at and have some coffee with pastry. We spend a glorious four days together with two siblings in this area. The hotel provided a full breakfast buffet, you could even fry your
own eggs if you so desired. Also included in the price were three full dinners, although the wine was extra! All guests had access to nice new bicycles to ride in the countryside, all without additional charges. Although the fall weather prdominated, we were able to go for some bike rides and also took a long
morning walk one of the days we were there. We enjoyed the (small) swimming pool and spend some leisure time in the bar - lounge. There were many comfortable chairs and reading material was provided as well. Daily newspapers and a plethora of periodicals were available to all the guests. Coffee or tea with a small cookie was readily available at reasonable cost, as was a well-stocked bar.
On our way home we took a detour to Harderwijk, to visit the “dolfinarium” there. Although it was a cool and windy day, to see these animals really warmed our hearts. There were a variety of presentations and we were able to attend three major performances of varied sea mammals. The dolphin show was inside a large dome so we able to enjoy their antics in relative comfort.
Th
e seals and the pirates show was of great delight to both young and old. We could enjoy it from inclosed and protected bleachers, although the show was on an open stage.
A few days later we boarded the train to go to the airport, so we could fly back to our home in the U.S., where we arrived safely after an uneventful trip.
ng is here , I guess. We had snow every weekend we were gone from here. When we were visiting our children in Missouri we has sleet and frost and had to scrape the ice of the windshield. During the visitation of Corrie’s mom in Michigan, we were exposed to cold weather with hail and sleet. When we visited our children in Minnesota last weekend, again we had sleet and ice to deal with.
