I had breakfast on Wednesday with my friend Kam. Kam is the salesman at Dunn Lumber in Seattle that I have the longest relationship with. Aside from being the a salesman behind the counter at the Greenlake location, Kam has also been to Haiti on two missions trips. Every time I talk to him he gives me a new phrase in Creole. After breakfast Kam came by to see some of his materials in action. I loved the idea of one more person in my community taking a little more ownership of my mother’s gift.
Friday was the day that the porch swing was to be delivered to the Hughes house in Edgewood. My father and his grandsons Noah, Nathan and Luke were going to meet me in Ballard around the two-o-clock hour. The swing was ready, but I needed a little more time. Three days earlier, while I had been plying paint to the boxy furniture piece, a woman next door called over the fence to see if I could take a look at the railing on her porch. By Friday I was in the final phases of completing that job when the four men arrived. I have had my belief in God’s provision reaffirmed over and over since I’ve been home.
The boys were left charge of sweeping the job site. The swing fit inside my father’s Ford by the grace of God alone. I had miscalculated the width of it, but my father’s optimism coupled with our combined physical strength assured the outcome of a fit. With a back seat taken over by two rowdy nephews, I began the long road home in our family’s auxiliary car, the Jetta. Traffic was as bad in Seattle as it ever gets, but we were on the freeway soon enough. Some children are beyond the ability to bore into sloth.
albaniacalling 