Choosing to love

This coming Friday Noralynn and I depart for a two month trip to visit our "kids":  the eight exchange students we've hosted in past years (we'll also visit family and friends, and the family in Hamburg that hosted our daughter, Laura Jo).  When hearing of this, people tend to respond with enthusiastic amazement... but they also look puzzled, as if the whole concept is a bit impossible.

I've thought about this, and realized that this impossible trip hinges on, and is explained by, two other impossibilities.

"I can't believe that!" said Alice.
"Can't you?" the Queen said in a pitying tone. "Try again: draw a long breath, and shut your eyes."
Alice laughed. "There's no use trying," she said: "one can't believe impossible things."
"I daresay you haven't had much practice," said the Queen. "When I was your age, I always did it for half-an-hour a day. Why, sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast."

The happy couple

The first impossible thing is that Noralynn and I have been happily married for twenty-six years.  We were introduced at CU Boulder by mutual friends who thought that the two science students they knew who still attended church would make a cute couple.  Never mind that one church was Southern Baptist, and the other Presbyterian.  Noralynn and I were so sure a relationship was impossible that we had a splendid time together (although there were some heated discussions).  Rather than part again, we chose to spend the rest of our lives together.  And we promised each other, in front of a cloud of witnesses, that we would work together at this relationship, and not give up.  We chose to love each other.




And when Jacob and Laura Jo arrived in turn, we chose to love them, and worked at learning to parent, and growing our family.  It's turned out so well:  we have two wonderful children, and we're all best of friends.

The happy family

The second impossible thing is that we've welcomed ten foreign exchange students into our family (not all at once!).  I was speaking with a friend about this a few months ago.  She was impressed that we did this, but said that she could never take a stranger into her home.  But they haven't been strangers:  we've chosen to love them.  As with Jacob and Laura Jo, there have been ups and downs, but we've ended as friends, and several of them have returned to visit us. 

When Noralynn and I had our silver anniversary, we thought of celebrating with a trip to visit them.  It took a year of planning, but we're finally ready to celebrate.  We're grateful to them and their families for welcoming us.  We're grateful to Jacob and Laura Jo for "minding the fort" while we're away.  And we're grateful to my Opa (grandfather), Ben Hassold, whose bequest is making the trip possible.  We will try to follow his sage travel advice:

"Pack lightly, and bring plenty of cash."

 That's only three impossible things, but it's time for breakfast.