Lisa and I have enjoyed our time at home for the past month as we have been able to watch little Conner Jack grow into a big, bright-eyed, eight pound all-American boy.  We are so proud of our daughter and “fun-in-law” for how they have managed this first month and expect they will be just wonderful handling a new life with a baby.  For Lisa and I – those years with small children were the happiest days of our lives (although you could never convince us of that at the time).

We are thankful for how God has worked things out for us to be home for Heather, James and Conner Jack over the last five or so weeks. Not only did we get home from California within hours of Heather’s delivery but Lisa was asked to fill in part-time at her old job until we are ready to hit the road again.  Along with that we enjoyed celebrating Lisa’s fiftieth birthday at Disney World and had a blast with friends Roger and Debbie Willoughby and Trudy and Alicia Berry.

Laughter has been an important element in our marriage over the past thirty years and that became even more evident during our trip to Disney.  During our final night we secured a good spot for the Epcot nighttime fireworks show, “Illuminations”.  It had rained off and on during our trip and the rain and wind was pelting us as we waited for the show to start.  We huddled together with our ponchos and umbrellas and Lisa commented that we were in a bad spot as the wind would whip the smoke right into our faces.  I disagreed and so we hunkered down.  As the first rockets ‘red glared’ I noticed smoke begin moving toward us and it seemed to grow steadily as more fireworks exploded above. As the show continued I realized I was squinting into the smoke and pelting rain just trying to get a glimpse of this marvelous show.  I started laughing out loud at myself trying to fight off the wind and rain – not to mention the ashes falling from the exploding bombs overhead.  I then turned to Lisa and while batting my eyes in an exaggerated fashion said, “It’s just so beautiful!”  She laughed so hard I thought she was going to pee herself.

We laughed off and on about that silly moment and I have thought about other moments of ‘out loud – unashamed laughter’ we have enjoyed in our lives and realize that is what we live for – that makes up for all the things we want and can’t have.  It is laughter that has sustained our marriage and family and I know it has to be a gift from God.

My mother would often tell a story about a family in Union County where she grew up that had so much fun together despite having hardly a pot to pee in.  It was their attitude about life that drew her to them.  The story was that one day she was visiting them and a man came to their door saying he was there to cut off their gas for non-payment.  The father, cooking in the kitchen, heard what was said and yelled to him, “Can you wait until I finish cooking this egg?”  My mom loved that story because she desired to have the same attitude – as do I.  We don’t really know what heaven is going to be like – but I hope it will be a place where people laugh a lot.

If heaven lacks laughter – I’m not sure I want to go.

Thanks for reading!

Steve and Lisa