For those of you who don't already know, you're about to find out that 1998 was Quite The Year for us...
JANUARY - Curtis turns 11; Angel plays Baruka in the high school production of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory; Having sold the old building, Valley Christian Church begins worshiping in an elementary school while waiting for the new building to be completed.
FEBRUARY - Shonda turns 15; Kelly turns 9; Dewey & Debbie attend Couples' Retreat; upon arrival, they get a phone call telling them of Dewey's mom's heart attack (She's doing fine, PTL); Debbie's dad's cancer advances, & she spends what is to be her last week with him in Wyoming.
MARCH - Angel is a Kit-Kat girl in Cabaret, Dewey enjoys a retreat with "A Few Good Men," his support group of peers (some of whom used to be his students).
APRIL - Shonda & Angel rock the house at a state solo/ensemble contest; Dewey, Debbie, & Angel spend Spring Break playing with orphaned/abandoned children at Casa De Ninos, San Luis Potosi, Mexico.
MAY - Angel attends and sings at her Senior Prom; With the VCC leadership wanting a more-administration-less-hands-on style of youth ministry, Dewey is given the choice of going to another church and starting over (again) or staying at VCC as a volunteer youth coach/D-Group leader and transitioning into another career. He chooses to avoid moving his family and, after 14 years in paid youth ministry, starts looking for transferable skills that he can "sell" in the mainstream marketplace; An hour after deciding to go see her dad again, Debbie gets a call saying that he has passed away.
JUNE - Angel graduates from high school, 13th in a class of 600; Kelly sings, with Angel's accompaniment, in her school's talent show; Curtis performs in his school's talent show, too; Dewey's last official act as VCC's youth minister is leading the youth group's trip to Christ In Youth's Indiana Conference.
JULY - Family attends the wedding of Dewey's niece in Indiana as part of vacation; Curtis thrives at church camp.
AUGUST - Dewey turns 41; Kelly goes to church camp for the 1st time; Debbie and the kids go to Wyoming for Debbie's niece's wedding and to spread her father's ashes.
SEPTEMBER - Kelly begins 4th grade; Curtis, 6th; Shonda, 10th; Angel starts her freshman year at St. Olaf College, Northfield, MN, just 25 minutes away; Debbie turns 40; Angel turns 18; Curtis auditions and gets accepted into a recording project for a group called "21st Century Kids;" Dewey begins work as a proofreader of financial documents at Merrill Corporation, St. Paul, 3rd shift, and also puts in 2-3 hours a day at a friend's insurance office.
OCTOBER - VCC moves into the new church building; Curtis records background vocals and a few solo lines for "21st Century Kids;" Dewey earns some extra $ by scaring people at the Minnesota Zoo's haunted house; Debbie gets a call saying they want to take a second mammogram to get a better look.
NOVEMBER - Way cool Rich Mullins memorial concert by the Ragamuffins at VCC; Debbie's 2nd mammogram leads to a biopsy which leads to a diagnosis of ductal carcinoma, a quite-curable form of breast cancer.
DECEMBER - Kelly sings in her 1st concerts with "Heartbeat Chorus" at the YMCA and a local mall; Curtis learning dancing as he prepares for stage performances of "21st Century Kids;" Shonda does her own dancing and singing in her high school's musical revue, "On Stage;" Angel sings in one of the choirs for St. Olaf's Christmas Choir/Orchestra Festival; Debbie has a double mastectomy and is given every hope that no further cancer treatment is needed...just more healing from the surgery.
* * * * * * *
And so, we keep doing what we've always done, hanging on to the Lion's mane and wondering where this part of the Ride will take us. Dewey keeps looking for more satisfying work (especially something that takes place, say, during the DAYtime), Debbie is praying for the pain to go away, and the kids keep growing. God is in control, but He's pretty consistent in NOT letting us know too far in advance what His plans are.
"To live will be a great adventure." (Peter Pan, in Hook)
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