April 26, 2010

• My family, 1960-2009

  Here is a series of family photos, approximately in order. The first was taken in the Overland Park Bible Chapel, shortly before we left for Colombia in 1960.

  

  I think these next two were was taken in Pasto, Colombia, not too long after we arrived.  We hadn’t adopted my brother Dan yet.

  

   

  These include Dan. They were taken a few weeks or perhaps months after he came to us, because he looks plump and healthy. When they brought him to us, he was too weak to suck from a bottle and had to be fed with an eyedropper for a few days. 

  

  

  

  Three or four years later. By this stage, we were living in the jungle, but this appears to be a visit to the mountains.

  

  This one is obviously in the jungle. My two oldest sisters, Ruthy and Chris, were sent back to the US for school a year before we went on our first furlough, so they’re not in the picture.

  

  We went on furlough in 1965. This was taken in Grandma’s yard in Merriam, KS. We stayed in my grandparents’ house, and they stayed with other relatives for the year.

  

  In 1966 we returned to Colombia, and in 1967 moved to Medellín. We lived in this lovely house overlooking the city until 1970, when we took our second furlough.

  

  

  On Sundays, my dad enjoyed taking us on drives up the mountain to explore the roads and towns. We had a long Land Rover, which you can see below.  We usually ate traditional Colombian food on these outings (but obviously not this time).

  

  We spent 1970-1971 in Kansas City, Missouri.

  In 1971 we returned to Medellín, and in 1972 bought a country house in San Cristóbal, several miles from the edge of town. Dad named the place Casa Shalom. My folks lived there until they retired in 1994. These photos are from late summer 1972. Ruthy and Chris were both college students but came for a visit.

  

  

  

  

  Probably 1973. The fireplace was part of the huge remodel of the house. My sister Martha (redhead on the left) eloped with Gilberto December of 1972 when she was 16 (just a few months after the previous photo). They’re still together.

  

  This one is from my high school days, perhaps 1976.

  

  The next to last day of Christmas vacation, 1976-1977. I came down with chicken pox the next day and got an extra week at home. Fortunately my niece Laura didn’t catch it. Dan had it in Lomalinda the next week. 

  

  Mary Beth, Jody, Tristan in about 1983. Ruth and her kids Graham and Claire on the right.

  

  Kind of a big gap; leap forward 22 years to the 2005 wedding of Ruth’s son Graham, who’s sucking a lollipop in the photo above. These are most of the grandkids. My kids are in the left middle. (The reason for the gap is that my sister threw these pictures together in a hurry, not because nothing happened during those years.)

  

  Dad and his descendants, 2005. The guy left of him is Oscar, an old family friend from Medellín.

  

  My siblings and me with Dad, 2005.

  

  Memorial Day weekend of 2006, most of us got together in KC for a belated celebration of Dad’s birthday. Jan is in these photos. She and Dad got married in 2001.

  

  

  Dad leading a prayer time. That’s Dan and his wife Cathy on the right, and Ruth’s husband Daniel next to him.

  

  In 2007, Mary Beth and Jody celebrated their 50th birthdays and 25 years of marriage. I drove out to LA with my kids for the event.

  

  In January 2009, Christine’s daughter Valerie got married in Birmingham.

  

  

   

  

  Mary Beth and I visited Dad after his heart surgery last August. I took Elizabeth along.

  

  

  As David said in Psalm 16,  ^“The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; surely I have a delightful inheritance.”

   

   

  • 11:50 am
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