Friday, July 25, 2008

Home from Annual Home-Leave

Jeni and I returned yesterday from our annual trip "home" to see family and friends. Now we're back "home" in KL. Funny how most of us have more than one place we call home. Actually Jeni and I have three places for that designation: here where we live and work in KL; and the two places where our parents reside -- the Tampa Bay area, and "the farm" in Brooks County, GA. To me, though, home is where you can sleep in your own bed. Ahh. It's especially nice after a 24-hour journey by jet.

Sarah stayed back a while longer to be with her close friend, Corinne, in Nashville, TN. And about seven hours ago in Tampa, she passed the driving exam for her full driving license, accompanied by Grandma Liz and Abby. Yay, Sarah! Now when she turns 17 on Aug. 2nd, she'll be legal to drive by herself here in Malaysia. She's been doing that with us this past year on her learner's permit. She's a good careful driver.

Meanwhile ... Abby has enough credit hours to be a junior next month when she starts back at Southeastern University in Lakeland, FL. She's getting more into her major now -- English and Intercultural Studies (that's for teaching English as a second language).

After our visit in Nashville to Belmont University, Sarah has put it at the top of her list of colleges to apply to. [Yes, I know I ended that sentence with a preposition, and I'm not going to change it just to conform to the arbitrary rule that proscribes it. :-) ] Sarah wants to major in music education with possible minors in Spanish, history, or vocal performance. (I may not have those minor subjects exactly right; but, her ideas for minors may have changed by the time she reads this, so either way, I'll change the post accordingly.)

Just before we flew back, our friend and new church member, Andrienne Wong, passed away of lymphatic cancer. Her funeral was Wednesday morning, but we arrived about midnight that night. The wake was Tuesday night, and I'm told that our Associate Pastor, Chris Sekar, did a beautiful job with his remarks. Our prayers and condolences go out to her parents, Robert and Khuan; to her young sons; and to the whole extended family. In her short time as a Christian (seven months), Andrienne grew by leaps and bounds, and she found peace and joy in her walk with Jesus. We pray for His peace and comforting presence with the family now.