My sister, Cat, came over yesterday to make her annual Christmas cookies (Mmm....). She came over in the afternoon, rather than the morning, because she wanted to spend time with her boyfriend before he left town for the holidays.
Okay, well, I thought she was coming over to make Christmas cookies and I was pretty happy about it. When Cat makes Christmas cookies, she does it with my daughter and they cook up enough cookies for me to take a couple of plates of cookies up to my neighbors near the house I am fixing up. My neighbors like the cookies, my sister and daughter enjoy cookie-making together, and I don't have to do any work! It is a WIN -WIN -WIN. As it turns out, Cat just made gingerbread dough yesterday and my mom made up some of her jalepeno jelly for Cat's gift baskets. The cookie-cooking will come later this week. Good thing, too. It was after midnight by the time they were done with what they started.
Sometime in the later afternoon, Cat's cell phone rang. It was her red-headed boyfriend, still on the road to his holiday destination. Only a few hours had passed, but he already missed her. It reminded me of the first time my husband and I spent the night apart after we were married. It was the end of 1994 and the company where he worked got an urgent call from one of their larger customers that needed to be addressed immediately. My husband was selected to be his company's representative to fix the problem.
My honey called me from work to break the news to me. I was both proud and heartbroken. Why was I heartbroken? He was a model airplane enthusiast who had never been on an airplane and I was really looking forward to watching him on his first-ever flight. Because he had so much debt when we married, we had a very small ceremony with no pomp or circumstance and our honeymoon was put off until we could afford it. Two years into our marriage, when he was called by this work emergency to fly out of town, we had still not afforded to go on our honeymoon...but I was still looking forward to seeing him experience his first flight. His work trip deprived me of that pleasure.
That night, I was very lonely despite the company of my son and baby daughter. I remember getting ready for bed and wishing I knew how to call my honey to talk to him. We did not have the money for the call (it was in the days when long-distance calling was still very expensive), but I still would have called if I had known the number.
We must have been thinking the same thing at the same time because he called me as I was lying in bed missing him. I don't know how long we talked that night, but my red-headed husband and I talked long-distance until we both had to hang up from being too tired to stay awake any longer.
That was sixteen years ago. I remember it like it was yesterday... only... if it were yesterday, I would know my husband was coming home tonight. As it is, I am waiting on God's perfect timing to bring him home. But I still feel as lonely while my red-head is not home as I did all those years ago.
Sometime in the later afternoon, Cat's cell phone rang. It was her red-headed boyfriend, still on the road to his holiday destination. Only a few hours had passed, but he already missed her. It reminded me of the first time my husband and I spent the night apart after we were married. It was the end of 1994 and the company where he worked got an urgent call from one of their larger customers that needed to be addressed immediately. My husband was selected to be his company's representative to fix the problem.
My honey called me from work to break the news to me. I was both proud and heartbroken. Why was I heartbroken? He was a model airplane enthusiast who had never been on an airplane and I was really looking forward to watching him on his first-ever flight. Because he had so much debt when we married, we had a very small ceremony with no pomp or circumstance and our honeymoon was put off until we could afford it. Two years into our marriage, when he was called by this work emergency to fly out of town, we had still not afforded to go on our honeymoon...but I was still looking forward to seeing him experience his first flight. His work trip deprived me of that pleasure.
That night, I was very lonely despite the company of my son and baby daughter. I remember getting ready for bed and wishing I knew how to call my honey to talk to him. We did not have the money for the call (it was in the days when long-distance calling was still very expensive), but I still would have called if I had known the number.
We must have been thinking the same thing at the same time because he called me as I was lying in bed missing him. I don't know how long we talked that night, but my red-headed husband and I talked long-distance until we both had to hang up from being too tired to stay awake any longer.
That was sixteen years ago. I remember it like it was yesterday... only... if it were yesterday, I would know my husband was coming home tonight. As it is, I am waiting on God's perfect timing to bring him home. But I still feel as lonely while my red-head is not home as I did all those years ago.
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