Tuesday, September 23, 2014

In Which I Tell You a Story


It's an interesting little story I have to tell, at least I think it's interesting. I'm not sure that it has a dazzling point or any noble truth, but it's interesting just the same. I could possibly say my point is to prove the "good-ness" of the cyber filled world we live in, but I'm not trying to prove anything. I'm just telling you for fun. Because it IS fun, and interesting :) Now that I've gotten you interested, let's begin.

Once upon a time, a very long time ago - 14 1/2 years to be exact, I reported for duty at Faith Mission Home in the hills of Virginia. Faith Mission Home (FMH) is a home for mentally handicapped children. Young people from here, there and anywhere come there to help care for, and teach, these children. I worked at FMH for a little over a year, then returned to my home in AR to prepare for my wedding.

Time passed by and an email group called FMH Friends was started which I became a part of. This group included the people I had worked with that year, and also some folks who worked there after me. It was a great way to keep in touch - to find out about dates, marriages, births, deaths and so forth of people you quickly lost track of! It was also a great place to start discussions. Someone would introduce a "hot" topic and the
emails would fly!! Sometimes the debates got a little carried away, but usually they were good, wholesome discussions that made you think.

We soon began to know people by their writing. You know how it is, you soon know who's input is going to be interesting, who's is going to make the most sense, who's is worth reading, who's will make you laugh.... There was one girl whose emails were all of the above! We didn't know her, she had worked at FMH after my time, but we sure enjoyed her input.

About five years ago one day, on a whim (like I do), I sent her a personal email and told her how much we enjoyed and appreciated her input on FMH Friends. She promptly replied and so began an email "friendship"! We exchanged pictures and discussed many and diverse topics - I had forgotten just how many and diverse until I went back in the archives the other night and re-read some of them! She asked us how we met? And so was born the "In Which" series that I later shared here. That was the most fun I ever had at writing! We would write a chapter and she would eagerly ask questions and guess what was coming next! When we were done, she returned the favor and told us her life story. We discovered she was an even more remarkable woman than we thought! We also discovered that the town she called home, Chambersburg, PA,  was the same town where Chris first saw the light of day and lived the first 3 years of his life!

Well, time went on and we would occasionally email back and forth about this and that. Then one day in April 2013, there came an email with some very interesting news! Our friend was embarking on her own "In Which" series and letting us in on the story! We felt privileged to be a part of her story and I like to think maybe we gave her a bit of helpful counsel and encouragement along the way :) One day she told us, "If this story ends in marriage you WILL be invited..." or something like that...and we said to ourselves "And we WILL be there"!

Well, this past Saturday was the Big Day! Chris and I left all of our tribe with Grandpas on Friday and went to Chambersburg, PA. There we renewed aquaintences with the people who had been "grandparents/family" to Chris away back in the day, and we attended the wedding of Glendon Kuhns and Lana Martin and, at last, met her in person!!

5 comments:

  1. Oh, wow!:) So now, where's THE pics?:)

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    1. Well, um..... actually I don't have any, Tina! You'll just have to look at your pic of me n you and be happy :) :)

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  2. Hhmm.... What does she mean?? !!!! ????

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  3. Neat! So this is really the first time you met Lana in person?

    I also loved Lana's input in our email group. Always worth reading!

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    1. Yup! Very first time, Tabs. So fun to hug the "girl in the picture" and be part of her special day!

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