I have the most wonderful family!

And have I mentioned what fabulous sons-in-law I have? All three bring their own richness and blessings to our tribe and I am beyond thankful for the way God has matched them with our precious daughters.

Tonight, though, I am singing the praises of the son-in-law who lives the closest, as he has borne the weight of the fact Granny has been sick in bed and our household has been without The Papa for a couple of weeks. In that time Dirk been called on (or volunteered) to fix a septic backup, take our daughter to the urgent care clinic for a bee-sting complication and get her meds from the pharmacy, cut down our Christmas trees and haul them home, and I can't remember what else. He does these things in his "spare" time, working them around teaching a full load, pastoring our church, fathering six children, and doing their own trips to the ER and specialists with our asthmatic grandson. Tonight, with all this extra time on his hands, he brought his family, a light supper, and Aubrey's homemade cranberry bread over to Granny's House so we could visit a bit. And while Aubrey and the other girls and I visited in my bedroom, Dirk cleaned the whole kitchen! I don't mean just cleaned up from supper, but scrubbed the counters, stove, sinks, handwashed all the non-dishwashable things that had accumulated--it shines in there!

My kids have done a wonderful, compassionate job of caring for me the past week while I've been sick, and you moms know that when you're down for a while, it's a blessing just to have the necessities taken care of, and you worry about scouring the sinks later! But between CJ and now Dirk, we're way past the necessities and on to the point where I'm not afraid to get out of bed. (Come on now, you know exactly what I'm talking about.) All the kids have shared the load, and now my sweet son-in-law sort of "frosted the cake" by sprucing up the neediest area.

Thank you, dear Dirk, for being a true servant and for modeling servanthood before my children and yours. The Papa owes you a game or two of golf and I owe you a couple of proofreading jobs and your favorite salad ;-) You are a treasure.