June 10, 2010

A Perfect Day

Miss everybody at home. Daddy is working late one more night. That's right: in less than 24 hours, life will return - somewhat - to normal. Until then, Daddy is stuck here away from his family contemplating the phrase "absence makes the heart grow fonder."

Stuck at work, I looked back just two years in time. Through Google maps, I was able to locate the People's Park in Nanning, China - so I snapped this photo above. It was such an important place in my life.

There are some days that stand out more than others: those perfect days where everything sinks in and favor rests on shoulders held high, and a pleasant, restful smile reflects unforgettable moments in time. In some cases, these days aren't filled with anything hugely memorable on their own - for example, one day I can always look back to for peace was in the summer in Habersham County. The gentle rolling thunder echoed above as the light rain descended in the forest around me, the pitter-patter of raindrops gently hitting the leaves. A song by Enya played, and we were planning a short trip to Alabama to climb its highest peak, just for fun. It was raining there too, but it didn't matter. It was a perfect day.

Another perfect day I remember had us climbing Pikes Peak early at sunrise, up 14,110 feet and above the world. Coming down, we wandered through the Garden of Gods, looking at the snowcapped mountains beyond. Driving from there, we saw the ginormous fossilized tree stumps of Fluorescent National Monument and wound up in Cripple Creek, where we road an old steam train in the middle of the Rocky Mountains, finally spending the night on the second floor of an old saloon where cowboys slept a hundred years ago.

Yet another even better perfect day happened during the week Daddy met Mommy. We talked for hours and learned about each other, and Daddy finally met someone who he knew inside his heart he would want to spend the rest of his life with. It was Mommy's birthday, and for a surprise, I arranged for a rose to be sitting on the table when we got there - secretly, all Mommy wanted was a rose for her birthday. We were just getting to know each other at the time, and Daddy was only planning on taking her out for her birthday so that she would have a good time on that special day. But Daddy found himself having a special day as well, one that he would never forget.

The details fill my mind even now: in the parking lot after our date, she gave me a recent Newsboys CD: "Take Me to Your Leader." Ever since then we've collected their releases. In fact, one of their CDs played an interesting part of us eventually getting married: "Step Up to the Microphone."

Ye-Ye heard a song on that project that we all love, a song called "Entertaining Angels." He couldn't get it out of his mind, nor could he get out of his mind the phrase within the song: "24/7." While thinking about us getting married, he prayed a lot. And out of curiosity, he looked it up in the Bible: "Angels." The first reference he found to angels was right there in Genesis, 24:7.

"...he will send his angel before you so that you can get a wife for my son from there." - Genesis 24:7 NIV

24-7. Angels. Ye-Ye was convinced from that moment on that we were to be married and live happily ever after.

Which leads us to another perfect day: the one at the People's Park in Nanning. I'll never forget Madison walking along with Mommy throughout the entire park that day. It was not crowded at all - the rains had just washed everyone away, and we had the whole place to ourselves. We didn't know if Madison could walk well, or walk much. But those early signs of her personality began to show: she wanted to explore! She held Mommy's hand tightly, and with tiny footsteps she marched forward and around the lake, over bridges and under trees. We saw the large fish in the lake, and we blew bubbles on the island. Daddy took many pictures that day, but we didn't need to. We'd always remember the imagery, and the feel of the air - cool after a good rain shower. We'll remember the sounds of the park, and the sounds of her tiny feet walking along. We'll remember it all: it was a perfect day.