April 8th Kathy Wrote

Hello everyone! I hope you all have been able to welcome and embrace the spring weather. And get use to the time change! I was out working in my flowerbeds yesterday and got to crawl between sheets that were hung outside and had that wooonderful fresh outdoor scent. Do you think I could audition for a commerical? nah, I'll just enjoy life as it is.

speaking of how life is: things keep happening along. Most of you have heard about our kids interesting springbreaks this year.

Alana came home and spent the entire week at home. Surprise? Yes, because her fiancee was busy that week and she had alot of school work to do. But, it was also the week of her RSVP for her bridal shower and Bill and I had to diligently work at taking all the calls that came in and see that all messages were checked and deleted so she would not get wind of the shower. Her maid of honor hadn't given thought to the fact that she would be home for break when she sent out the invitations. And bill and i went on that mystery bus trip the end of the week, so we prayered no one would call while we were away. All worked out well, and we had an enjoyable time at the shower.

Derek,however, did not spend his springbreak at home, but instead as you all, i believe have heard, went backpacking in the cold and wet Great Smokey Mts. of Tennessee. This was to be an experience he and 9 other young men will never forget.

A lesson and discovery through this experience that I and I'm positive the guys and others learned was "How God works things out according to His will and purpose." and as the Lord declares in Jerimiah 29:11 "For I know the the plans I have for you..." The Philadelphia Inquire has a nice write-up in the Easter Sunday paper (C4) with the details of his experience and I'm sure he'd share some details if you'd ask.

Two of the 6 guys from Messiah come home with Derek Friday night and then they left Saturday to hike up at Ricketts Glen State Park in snow and 30 degree weather. Why not if they could survive the tennessee experience, right? Experiences of a lifetime! We're thankful for God granting wisdom and safety to our son and the other guys.

Melissa, came home for part of her springbreak and then with 3 other girls from college, she drove up to visit the city of Montreal, Canada.This too was a learning experience, in relationships.

Since she has been back, she received a letter from the college congradulating her on her acceptance into the Dental Hygene program. It's bitter sweet for her because her best friend didn't make it into the program. But now at least she knows how to plan for next year.

Spoke earlier of the mystery bus trip we went on. Well, we first stopped in York to tour the Harley-Davidson motorcyle plant and later went to a dinner theater in Fredrickville, Maryland.The next day we visited a large dairy farm located on the Mason-Dixon line where they milk over 1200 head of cows three times a day, raise their own calf/heffers to replace their stock and generate their own electricity from the methane produced from manure/urea and sell what they don't use to the electric company.They're building another huge barn so their cows can go in and be milked with robots as often as every 4 hours. We went to a teddy bear outlet(Boyds) and then stopped to hear an impersonator of honest Abe in Gettysburg. Ate at a smorgageboard in Lancaster then came home laughing at a show we watched of Mark Lourey.

We also moved my mom into another apartment in her complex but this one was on the first floor across the parking lot. After one year of living in their apartment, their belongs seemed to have increased again. But thankfully all went well and they are happy with the 1st floor entrance.

My dad continues to have little improvement. His left side is parmamently paralysized and his depression continues as well as his poor short term memory.His drivers license is due for renewal and my brothers will have to tell him he won't be able to renew it.Which seems so obvious to us but for him, it's one more step to loosing total independence and realization of his dependency on others.He mentioned having to go get it renewed a couple months ago and my brothers did not directly address the issue then. Dad' s 74th bithday is May 13.

And....... we have 50 days until Alana's wedding to Bradley Heller and....( we (legally) add a new son to our family). Plans are coming along. She is anticapating some weekend house cleaning time the end of April through May.

This letter is long enough and I don't know I got this line in this letter. see you all around! Kathy