Arrived in Upland, IN, yesterday evening. Drove 7.5 hours from Huntsville to the land of Taylor University where our son, Jordan, and his fiance, Bethany, are completing their senior year. They both are on schedule to graduate in May, 2010. We will spend today with them, attend church together Sunday AM, and then head back to sweet home Alabama. The weather here is great. Even though Upland is about 1 hour NE of Indianapolis, it's warmer here than it is in Huntsville, Alabama! The sun is bright, the sky is blue, and the wind is brisk. But the most obvious difference is the flatness of the land. This contributes to the ever present breeze blowing through the many rows of corn stalks. Cell phone towers are not very tall here - there's no need to be.
Jordan & Bethany look great! We haven't seen Jordan since we helped him move into his on-campus apartment last August. He rooms with 3 other students. It's definitely a "guy's apartment". Amazingly, the abode looked quite clean and presentable. Maybe he knew Mom and Dad were coming to visit?? Perhaps a surprise weekend visit might me more appropriate and telling....? Then again, some things are better left alone...
I wouldn't call Upland, IN, a wild and crazy party town. It's more like they plopped a conservative liberal arts Christian college right in the middle of a big corn field. There's not much to do here unless you drive via I-69 to Muncie, Ft. Wayne, or Anderson, IN. And with gas costing $2.69 / gallon, college students don't go far. So, Taylor does a good job creating activities on-campus each night and weekend. In fact, last night all four of us visited a student photo exhibit in the exhibition hall. A young female student was displaying beautiful large color and B & W photos of the people of Uganda that she took during her last visit there. They were gorgeous! Tami bought one... surprised?
This was also the first time we've seen Jordan & Bethany since their engagement. They both seem very happy. Bethany's ring is beautiful. It looks much better on her in person than it does via the internet. She will make a beautiful bride! While they are still completing school assignments, building relationships, planning a wedding, and fulfilling leadership roles at school, they are obviously thinking about the details of "life after graduation". Things will be different, no doubt. They will no longer be two, but one. Yet they both will have their own goals, expectations, and desires. A strong union and partnership is one that considers and yields to the other for the benefit of the whole. It's exciting to watch and listen to them think and dream out loud!
They both have a set of loving parents & family firmly behind them. We will always be there for them... no strings attached! In today's world, the future is more uncertain than it has been in quite a while. But, family has your back... We are anxiously looking forward to seeing what lies ahead for J & B. I hope they will always remember how much we love them both.
No comments:
Post a Comment