Reflections

July 2006 our family at Cape Canaveral  P arenting was an on-the-job training exercise for Elizabeth and me. I remember the first dirty diaper (about twenty minutes after Ashton was born). There I was, a 25 years old with what I thought was the daunting task of cleaning this foreign material that was in the cutest little diaper. It didn’t take me long to become a professional posterior disinfectant specialist. I look back on those days with incredible fondness. We were post-kids having kids. Like the trip we took to Cape Canaveral in 2006 seeing the Discovery take off, its been amazing  to watch them launch into adulthood.  I look at my children today and take great pride in the young adults they have become. I would love to say “we did good”, but maturity gives me the retrospective to understand it was God-Us-Family. I have a friend who asked me recently what I thought made good parenting. While my answer wasn’t exhaustive, I offered him some ideas that w...

Miss Ella Reading Her Bible at the Store. Grandmaw, as we called her, was born March 21, 1908. I think about her every spring as we leave winter and enter the budding spring. Living the unique life of having your grandmother sharing a house with your parents creates a special experience for a young man. I understood homemade biscuits, daily. I enjoyed the pride she took in making my bed sheets so taut on Sunday afternoons. She ran a country store just down the street from our house. Everyday around 7:15 she would walk down the street to work; rain or shine. This continued until she was 87.   She warmed the little German lap sided building with wood supplied by the neighboring lumber company. It was a unique environment where you drank sodas from a bottle and occasionally you’d pour Planter’s peanuts into a coke. There was a spittoon beside the cast iron wood stove. Neighbors, farmers and church goers would gather to talk about the weather, crops and community happenings. ...

I went to my brother-in-law's wedding in Edmonton,Canada in early February.  It was exciting and somewhat a feeling of completion to watch Jeffrey McGonigal march his beautiful bride down the isle. The significance of this wedding is compounded by the fact that my wife has only known her brother since 1995. He's not 22, he is 40 years old.  The story of an adoption reunion that happen 22 years ago has taken Elizabeth and me to Canada many times, but most especially four incredible times, including this one. During my search from 1992-1995 for my wife's birth mother, thoughts of brothers and sisters weren't the driving forces. However, after Elizabeth's realization that she was the oldest sister in a family, she shifted from being a middle child in her adopted family to the oldest in her biological family; literally overnight. When we first landed in Edmonton Alberta, we were a young 27 years  old married couple. Her new siblings were 13 to 24 years old. Like lo...

Y https://youtu.be/UEMw3yIUFCk This post is specifically for the MacDonald Bible Fellowship class I hope this video will shed some light on the adoption each of you have thru God, our father. Elizabeth Swicegood

Our day started off around 8 AM. We were tendered over to the island of Santorini, Greece in the town of Thira. W hen we landed at the dock, we had the option of taking a gondola or donkey up the 1500 feet track to the town center. We chose the gondola. Our good friends Ed and Melissa Godby suggested earlier in the week that we consider the trail to Oia.  Oia or Ia is a small town on the South Aegean Sea. T he trail is approximately 4.2 miles and was along the Cliffs of the island over a volcanic landscape. So we took them up on this challenge. The 1st mile and a half was through an area that had carved out of rocks some of the most beautiful white stucco hotels with swimming pools. The trail at this point was like walking through old streets of antiquity. However after that first 40 minutes of walking, we began to greet the less populated area of the trail. I would estimate that the trail dropped 700 feet over the next half mile. The cobblestone turned into volcanic gravel. ...

What a long hot sunny day. At 9:30, we were picked up at the ship by our new Grecian Friend Costas. I hand no idea that by day's end, we would be friends with his son Nicos and Alex and wife Jo. Rather than spending time in the touristy area, we hired this family to take us to the north side of the island. There we would be fitted with our snorkel gear and introduced to our two man kayak. The day included a 4.5 mile paddle into the ocean around a rock formation with a blow hole. Despite the taxing effort of paddling all those miles, the view was amazing. Rock formations, fish, bleach white houses with beautiful greenery growing up the walls. At 1 PM we settled in for a gourmet Lunch. Costas mother made home olives, we had bread that was made that morning, fresh tomatoes and a fresh  Tzatziki Sauce made by his mother. Can you taste it? It met our appetites expectation.

27 years later and she is more beautiful than ever. We enjoyed each other, a filet Mignon, cheese cake and the outstanding performance of Graffiti (four stringed pieces).  We were accompanied at our meal with Gary & Karolyn Chapman. Gary is the author of New York Best Seller "Five Love Languages". The conversation was quite entertaining. We also enjoyed the company of Jeff Templeton, owner of Templeton Travel. Deck 11 near sunset Gary & Karolyn Chapman, Elizabeth and me.