It’s been a while since I’ve updated. Things around here
have been pretty good. Sure we have our ups and downs, but for the most part
things have been ok. I hope everyone had a wonderful Easter. We drove down to
SC to be with Bill’s family and we also took a quick trip to Atlanta to hang
out with one of my closest friends (sister, really) and her girls. I think
everyone had a great time, and if you ask the girls what their favorite part of
Spring Break was, they’ll tell you it was not the Aquarium or Centennial Park,
or even visiting family… their favorite part was swimming in the hotel pool!
Typical!
But I digress. I am
writing because a week from today is Bill’s birthday. It’s so hard to believe
that we are already here again. In some ways time has passed so slowly, but in
other ways it feels like just yesterday. For his birthday last year we invited
some of our closest friends over to celebrate. We had Bill’s favorite meal and
his yearly birthday cake. As Kaleigh and I talked about his birthday this year,
we decided to do something a little different.
To explain our idea, I need to give a little background.
Before we had kids, Bill and I went to a “Love Languages” conference at a local
church. I’m sure many of you have heard of the book by Gary Chapman about the
five love languages, so this was basically learning more about that and how to
apply it to your marriage. Well, by the end of the conference my hope was that
Bill and I could identify each other’s love languages so that we could be
intentional about how we filled each other’s “love tank.” I had no trouble
being able to tell Bill what my love language(s) were, but Bill (after much
joking about some of them) couldn’t really say which ones were his “top”
languages. So this became a running joke between the two of us… his “non-existent”
love language. Until one day after he
got super excited about some meal we were having, and I decided that FOOD was
Bill’s love language. (If you knew Bill, you know just how excited he could get
about food.) He, of course, rolled his eyes at me, but the joke stuck, and from
that point on, FOOD became the “Sixth Love Language” (in our house at least.)
One of the theories in the Love Languages book is that we
often show people that we love them by using our own love language. So if my
love language is gifts or acts of service, I might give a gift or do something
nice for them to show them that I love them. Even though Bill’s love language
of FOOD was unofficial, the theory still held true for him. He loved taking me
to nice dinners or having good meals here at home. But more importantly, his
FOOD love language prompted him to serve in our church’s food pantry. He wanted
to be a part of a ministry that helped feed people. That helped provide for
their basic needs when they needed help. It was one of his greatest joys to be
able to serve in the food pantry. He didn’t get to volunteer nearly as often as
he would have liked, but when he came home from helping out, I could tell that
it meant so much to him.
This is where Kaleigh and my idea for Bill’s birthday comes
into play. She and I have decided to do
a food drive for Reston Bible Church’s Food Pantry in Bill’s honor. We talked
about a lot of different ideas, but we felt like having a food drive made the
most sense.
So here’s where you come in! My wonderful friend from RBC has
created a flyer (see below) giving all of the details of the types of things
the Food Pantry really needs. For those of you willing to help us by donating,
you can do as the flyer says and take/send the items to RBC or you can bring
them/ send them to our house. Starting tomorrow (Monday) I will have a plastic
bin on our front porch to put your donations in (in case we aren’t home). I
love the idea of dropping things off at the church, but there’s a part of me
that would love for the girls to see lots of donations coming here to our
house. Once the drive is over, I really want them to be part of delivering what
is donated to the church. I think it would be a great experience for them and
an opportunity for them to be a part of something that was really important to
Daddy.
My plan is to run the drive until the end of April. So
anything you bring/send between now and April 30th will be donated
on behalf of Bill’s name. Thank you so
much for considering helping us out! I am really excited about this, and I know
Bill would be too.
