Dad's turn

So my dad, Lee, answers with his usual happy-go-lucky "hello!" (fyi: my mom has the sweet, southern-lady/east texas drawl: "hello.") Like mom, it was good to hear his voice. They both provide comfort to my heart when I hear them on the phone.

He didn't take the news as well as my mother did..which was a total surprise to me. It was my mom that I thought might take it the hardest..or my son, Justin, who is very tender-hearted & perhaps still hurting from the break between his dad and I. (note to self: give my older children each a long-lasting embrace when I see them next - life is too fragile not to)

My dad was in the Navy during World War II. He was a driver of a pontoon boat in the Pacific ocean. The closest he came to Hong Kong was northern China - where he went ashore for a spell. He was confused by the language, dress & culture of the Chinese...and he didn't like it. Based on the knowledge that he carried with him all these years - subsequently he did not like the idea of his daughter being emersed into another culture in Asia either.

I tried telling him as gently as I possibly could that I'd done a little research and things weren't exactly the same as what he remembered. I explained that it was really very westernized and there were MANY Americans living there at this time.
After a little while enjoying the conversation with my father - I concluded our time together asking for prayer, to which my dad eagerly agreed to do for us.

Wow.

God continues to amaze me. It was His Spirit that woke me 3 times during the week at 3:30am. (and I just realized - I love the number 3. When I was little I'd make sure I played games, jumped rope & skipped in "thirds." After all, it was the number of letters in Y-E-S; I liked that word..and it was the number of the Trinity - Father, Son & Holy Spirit). One of those early morning (3:30) awakenings was His Spirit nudging me to pray for my family: how they would receive the news. And now He was showing me how He'd moved through those prayers.

Wow.