Blessed to Be a Blessing

Abigail's medical school adventures have taken her across the world: two years of classes on her American school's Caribbean campus in St. Maarten; one year of clinical rotations in hospitals outside London, England; and now a year of clinicals in New York City. She has spent her first several months on Long Island and now is moving to Brooklyn for her next placement in the Bronx.

While on Long Island, Abigail has been attending church at Christ Lutheran Church in Islip Terrace. Before Abigail moved to NYC, we discovered via Google Maps that a Lutheran church was located a matter of minutes from the house that she would be renting. So once Abigail got to Islip Terrace, she visited the church one Sunday ... and immediately found a church home away from our church home (St. John). The congregation welcomed her, fed her at church meals, invited her to their homes for holidays (knowing she was far from her family in North Dakota), and made a place for her in their choir.

Susan and I have been so grateful for the people of Christ Lutheran (people we have never met!) and the care they have shown for Abigail in the short time they have known her. And we have been proud as can be to hear Abigail performing music in their choir. For example, I highly recommend you make some time to watch this video of their annual Christmas concert, featuring Abigail in several solo moments alongside a group of impressive musicians.

However, even more moving to us was this morning's service, Abigail's last regular Sunday with this congregation. You can watch the entire service below or else go directly to these three particular moments, which had us in tears as we watched the livestream:

• 0:37:10 -- the pastor brings Abigail to the front to "bid farewell and Godspeed" to her and to pray for her, calling Abigail a blessing to the congregation and someone blessed to be a blessing to others
• 0:42:35 -- Abigail provides special music for the service, singing "You Raise Me Up" (many tears of pride!) ... and watch for how the congregation responds at the end of the song!
• 1:04:25 -- a member of the congregation speaks about their gratitude for Abigail's time with them and presents her with a card and a hug ... and watch for how the congregation responds when told that Abigail will be returning on Palm Sunday!

Frigid Adventures

Susan and I spent the Presidents Day long weekend in Tioga, North Dakota, with my dad and my sister Sandy. The weather was bitterly cold, and Dad's furnace was malfunctioning throughout the weekend, necessitating daily visits from his furnace repair guy, Caleb. When Susan and I arrived Friday night, Dad sent us out to buy a couple space heaters, and those were a big help in between Caleb's drop-ins. It also helped that Dad has a heated garage--so I left the door open between the garage and the house, and the garage furnace helped keep the house warm, too.

The worst part about the weather was that it prevented us from meeting up this morning with Marie, our childhood neighbor (she grew up on a farm north of ours) and our cousin. (We think she is our mom's second cousin. Sandy and I worked through the family tree, and we think that Marie's dad and our maternal grandma were first cousins and that Marie's paternal grandpa and our maternal great-grandma were siblings. But we have always just said we are Marie's cousins.) Marie is visiting her brother and his family, who live in the area, and we had planned to meet Marie at Sandy's home this morning. However, the temperature was -40° Fahrenheit, and Marie's vehicle, quite understandably, didn't want to start.

We had been looking forward to seeing Marie and having an in-person opportunity to thank her for her hospitality toward our daughter Abigail last year. Abigail spent her third year of medical school completing her clinicals in hospitals in Epsom just outside of London, England, where Marie runs a telecommunications software company. Marie welcomed Abigail for visits to her home, showed her around London, and was a kind and generous family presence for Abigail while she was living so far away from us all. Abigail loved getting to know Marie, and Susan and I are grateful that Marie was there for our daughter.

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I had these flowers delivered to Susan at school midweek so she could enjoy them for a few days before we left town for the weekend.

After work on Friday, Susan and I went out for Valentine's Day supper at one of our favorite restaurants, El Sombrero. Then we hit the road for Tioga.

Saturday night we went out for supper in Williston. Sandy was our chauffeuse.

We ate at the Williston Brewing Company. The decor is a mix of Wild West and oil field.

The food and drinks were terrific. Here is my filet mignon topped with a skewer of shrimp and served with Brussels sprouts and roasted potatoes with red pepper. Delicious!

It was an early birthday celebration for Sandy (her birthday is next week) and a belated Valentine's Day celebration for us all.

Mandatory group selfie on our way out of the restaurant.

Yesterday we hung out at Dad's house, cooked, watched a couple movies together, and had video calls from a couple daughters. Today we went to Sandy's (she lives on the farm where we grew up), and she made a fried chicken dinner for us before we made our way back to Dickinson. Here is her sweet cat Simon, relaxing in the living room while we visited in the dining room.

A Two-Week Birthday Celebration

Susan's birthday was two weekends ago. It was on a Sunday, but her birthday festivities started two days earlier and continued through tonight!

Fridays are usually date nights for us, and a frequent spot for us to eat on a Friday is El Sombrero, a family-owned Mexican restaurant in Dickinson. When we arrived on the Friday before Susan's birthday, she asked for a table for two--but one of the brothers who run the place saw me and directed us to a table set for eight instead. I had called him earlier to make a reservation, and I surprised Susan by inviting some of our couples friends from church to join us for an early birthday celebration.

On Susan's actual birthday, her dad and his girlfriend, JoAnn, joined us at noon for a birthday meal at Butterhorn in downtown Bismarck. Butterhorn has great brunch items--and of course we had to start with some hot butterhorns topped with butter, raspberry jam, and vanilla icing (health food). In the afternoon we enjoyed a family video call with our daughters. In the evening, I made Susan a birthday supper of sautéed scallops, cavatappi alfredo, and Caesar salad. (It was just too frigid outside to venture out for another restaurant meal.)

Tonight we combined our date night with another (belated) birthday gathering. We met Susan's "lunch bunch" (a group of her coworkers with whom she eats lunch each day and who socialize with us and their spouses outside of work) at Los Cabos, another Mexican restaurant in Dickinson. The ladies in this group always exchange birthday and Christmas gifts, so Susan got to open presents; and the servers gathered to lead the other guests in singing "Happy Birthday" to her!

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I had a bouquet delivered to Susan at work on the Friday before her birthday. Our daughters had flowers delivered to her at work that day, too!

JoAnn and Roger with Susan and me at Butterhorn.

Susan and I had mimosas with our meal.

For Susan's birthday cake, I got her a variety of "bundtinis" from Nothing Bundt Cakes.

The servers at Los Cabos had Susan wear this sombrero while they led the restaurant in singing to her--and then they gave her a birthday dessert!