I’m calling today “Sandwich Day.”
Not because I’m planning to have a sandwich for lunch or anything like that, but because this post comes smack dab between two of the most important events in my life–with another important event occurring just a few hours after I post this.
Yesterday is like the top slice of bread on the sandwich. On October 12, 1979, my wife and I witnessed (well, I witnessed, she delivered!) the birth of our first child, Rachelle Joy. She took her good old easy time coming into this world. A knock at my classroom door about 11:30 a.m. and a whispered message from the school secretary interrupted the history class I was teaching and sped me to pick up my wife and rush her to Grandview Hospital in Sellersville, Pennsylvania. I missed lunch and supper that day. Missed breakfast the next morning, too. In fact, I missed sleep in between days. We were still waiting on Rachelle to make her grand entrance. Finally, about 24 hours after I had left the classroom, the doctors decided that it was time (although Rachelle apparently didn’t agree). They did a C-section, forcing her to enter the world. She grew up enjoying action, doing, athletics, etc., more than book learning. Now she has a child of her own and is experiencing what we experienced when she was growing up, learning first hand just how active a little one can be!
Tomorrow is like the other slice of bread on the sandwich. It marks another significant event. On October 14, 1982, our second daughter, Elissa Cheri, was born. She was a “scheduled” baby, meaning that we actually got to select the exact date and time she would be born since her delivery was also by Caesarean. With a quiet, unhurried delivery, it was no surprise to us that she grew up as one of the quietest and most laid-back of our four daughters. She was our reader, and yet she chose one of the most demanding college majors and one of the most demanding careers–nursing. She now has two little ones who keep her active enough. She probably gets no more sleep now than she did when she was studying nursing.
Sandwiched between those two events of the past is the “meat” of the sandwich, the present, the immediate. Today I will be participating in the BJU Homecoming Author Talk and Book Signing. The forum, moderated by Dr. Ray St. John, begins at 2:00 p.m. in Levinson Hall. The book signing will be from 3:00 to 5:00 p.m. There will be a lot of different things happening on the campus, but I hope to see many of you there. I’d enjoy having you stop by.
Copyright (c) 2017, Dennis L. Peterson