Time is running out. We need to move very soon and things just aren’t working as we had planned or hoped. I’m not sure what the problem is, but apparently God’s timetable for our move is not matching up with our plans. It has made things quite stressful and is causing no end of difficulty.
David’s summer is rapidly passing by and he has seen more packing and waiting, calling and waiting, inquiring and waiting than a kid his age should have to see in one summer. The waiting has gotten quite old, but we’re still doing it.
So this past Saturday we decided to take David to one of our wonderful local Lynchburg parks to let him get out some energy and have the freedom to just run around and play without us constantly trying to reign in his energy.
Kim and I took books and crafts to work on and we sat at a picnic table while David ran around and met other kids. He has no trouble meeting people of any age. So he ran around looking for friends and we read and watched. We’ve come to recognize that Lynchburg is not so very unlike other cities except that it has a very high percentage of friendly and pleasant people. And those nice people seem to congregate in the types of places that our family likes to frequent— parks, historic areas, the market, the train station, etc.
Mean-spirited and unfriendly folks can be found here too. They just don’t seem to hang out in the places where our family enjoys hanging out. We have run across a few of them from time to time in book stores or restaurants, but for the most part they seem to have different hangouts than we do.
The Rivermont Park is one of the places where the friendly sort hang out. And we have thoroughly enjoyed this part of Lynchburg. We’ve met many people at this park who have given us their personal local histories. One woman who has lived here for more than 50 years told us about how she and her brothers used to walk way out on the railroad bridge over the James River—hoping to reach the other side before a train came. If a train had come, they would have been out of luck since the bridge is at least a few hundred feet above the river. It would not be like diving from a high diving board.
This past Saturday we saw evidence that there was a wedding party there at the park. Well dressed, happy, celebrating people kept coming through. We eventually spotted a very well-dressed and attractive family (father with three children). His young son was dressed very sharply in a black suit, white shirt, and black tie—complete with a stark white carnation pinned on his chest. The boy’s two sisters were dressed in white dresses with black ribbons in the back. They were adorable. We talked to the father and took a few pictures of the kids.
We’re really going to miss this aspect of Lynchburg’s character. We hope that as Lynchburg grows the city will be able to maintain this spirit.
The girls are beautiful - love the simplicity and elegance of their dresses. And it looks like David has been growing - he's looking real tall.
ReplyDeleteI hope you can soon get settled - sometimes it just makes one wonder, doesn't it?
Aren't they beautiful? I'm glad they came wandering through the playground. I got some great shots of them and their father looked so proud.
ReplyDeleteDavid really is getting tall. He's now a few inches taller than his mom and actually has to bend over a bit when he hugs her.
Pray about the housing situation. I believe the situation has reached critical mass. We know God can move mountains, and this is now looking more and more like a mountain.