Pulling off the surprise of a lifetime

Christmas 2019.  We were feeling pretty lonely and quite far removed from our families as Christmas was upon us and we realized that, once again, we’d be by ourselves and far from family as the season was celebrated.  That’s not to say that we don’t have family here in Malmö, by any means!!!  And that particular year, Christmas 2019, God really provided as we ended up spending Christmas Eve (the more important holiday here in Sweden) with 20+ friends from church, then on to a Christmas Eve celebration with a family from our local church, then we hosted Christmas Day dinner with several rounding out our table.  And because we love international foods and international guests, the food didn’t disappoint and the fellowship around the table was uber fun!  (that’s a lot of fun, friends!)

 

Nonetheless, when we knew that a family wedding would take place in March 2020 in Florida, we decided to gift ourselves tickets to said wedding.  And we were going to pull off a surprise.  As in, just show up at the hotel as Barb’s family gathered and be the ones waiting in the hotel lobby as everyone showed up.

We did get a Florida sunset....just a couple of months later!

Well….

We all know what happened in early 2020.  Needless to say, we never made it to Florida for the wedding (update:  the wedding was postponed but celebrated in October 2020….congrats to Brian and Amanda!)  Our tickets with Icelandic remained valid until 2022…and when we heard that Steve’s dad would receive a special award from Minnehaha Academy in Minneapolis on 25 September, well, we did some sneaking around and rearranged our 3 week vacation so that we could be there and surprise Dad for the event.  It was the homecoming weekend at Minnehaha, so we were also blessed to hear Dad preach at the Sunday morning chapel service.  Wow!  We both sat in awe of God’s wisdom and life experience that is rolled up in Paul Swanson, and pray that we too will be able to give such wisdom and counsel to our world when we’re 87 years old!

 

Pulling off the surprise...."well, look who's here.  How did you get here?"...priceless!

Dad preaching at the Sunday morning chapel on the importance of following Jesus and how that is more important than just developing leaders.

Fun to watch this happen, and the tributes from former students who are now serving as pastors in the Evangelical Covenant Church were so uplifting ~

Our 3 weeks in the US included a start in Florida where we reconnected with friends, then went on to stay with Barb’s nephew and his family ~ which included Barb’s first great nephew.  Super sweet to hold this baby and whisper how much God loves him into his sweet little ears.  Up to Minneapolis for Dad’s award, followed up with doctors’ appointments and visits with friends, which all culminated with nephew Carl and Jessica’s wedding.  Then down to Indiana to round out our days with Barb’s family.

 

Okay....wedding brunch with yummy cheesecake for dessert...totally worth the calories!

Steve did a great job of including Jesus and his first miracle at the wedding in Canaan as part of his role as uncle/pastor during the ceremony

Oh…we…are…blessed!

As good as it felt to speak only English for 3 weeks, it sure felt good to get back home to Malmö and Sweden and our life here.  Jumping back into Swedish within 14 hours of landing, in the midst of jetlag, meant we weren’t in our sweet space.  But it gets better with each day that passes.

Hur känner du dig idag?  How are you felling today?  Working on adjectives that describe your emotions was a great way to jump back into language learning during our first jetlag days back in Malmö!