Column: Information Station

August 2008

When my husband, John, our two young sons and I moved from the east coast to the west coast so daddy could enter ministry, we left extended family behind. Although we exchanged letters, phone calls and gifts, these were no substitute for walks in the park with grandma and grandpa or games of Monopoly with second cousins. We made birthdays as special as we could but regretted that extended family wasn’t there to eat birthday cake with our kids.

Concerned that this kind of separation, so common in modern family life might have a negative affect, my husband invented “Unbirthday parties.” These celebrations were suitable for any occasion—a Little League win, a school award or simply to help with a disappointing loss.

So, when my young son Paul dragged himself out of bed day after day to catch a bus that would take him to a muddy field to work as temporary farm labor, we made plans. That afternoon when he opened the back door,  we jumped out in front of him and yelled: “Surprise!”

After a bath and clean clothes, he walked through the house reading the “We’re proud of you!” signs we’d made. We presented him with a Surprise Box while he waited to eat his favorite meal.  A family tradition, it included tiny gifts hidden between wads of newspapers.

Sometimes I did wish my own sons had extended family with whom to play hide and seek the way I had. But John found a way we four (and later five) could apply family glue: an Unbirthday Party whose sole purpose was to say: “I love you!”

Archives:
July 2008
June 2008
May 2008
April 2008
March 2008
February 2008
January 2008
December 2007
November 2007
October 2007
September 2007