'Tis the season!

7:39 p.m. Today's project was to scour through old journals and make my notations for my book on Steve's and my experience with Alzheimer's. Caregiver Carlos helped Steve onto the Special Trans bus, and he left for his day away. So I was able to dedicate the time Steve was at Care Connexxus to that very task.

I started a tad late because of helping the alarm company technician get his authorizing paperwork signed so he could change our alarm system from analog to digital. After I went on the Verizon 4G digital network, even for my land line, the company didn't receive the alarm testing siren when we tried it last week. So there was no time to waste, especially during this high-crime season. Additionally, I negotiated a lower monthly rate by renewing our contract! I then made a beeline for the spare bedroom upstairs, because the area where I normally sit would be inaccessible for the next several hours.

Having planned this out ahead of time, I asked the morning caregiver to carry a kitchen table chair upstairs for me, so I was ready to "read and write" at the roll top desk by 9:30. That room, where Heidi lived most of her life, is pretty pleasant with its two corner windows. In January we will be hosting a  33 year-old woman from Korea attending the University of California Riverside English Language School. She should enjoy the roominess and quiet, with Silver Dollar Eucalyptus branches hovering over the red tile roof outside her window from one corner and a view of the local hills from the other.

The Lord knows why He matched her with us, so I have a peace about her visit. Program officials are thoroughly aware of Steve's condition, and it's fine, because the student would have no responsibility for him at all--that's my role. And if I have to go out, his caregivers do a great job!

In the country "profile" I received from the Homestay officials, it was stated that "50% of Koreans are Christians." So we might be meeting a sister in the Lord! And what a blast that will be, as Psalm 133:1 says,

Behold how good and how pleasant it is for the brethren to dwell together in unity!

And if she is a Buddhist, as are the other 50% of Koreans, she'll certainly be hearing the gospel in our home. The program wants the students to have an authentic American family experience, so we are allowed to take our student to church, just like any other family activity.  I'll be committed to witnessing to her both in our home and out, because we are exhorted in II Timothy 4:2,

Preach the word! Be ready in season and out of season.

Who knows? Perhaps 'tis the season for this young woman to be saved!

Finally succumbing to the Christmas season pressure, I decided to start wrapping the six White Elephant Exchange gifts Steve and I will need for three occasions coming up. Each year, I think that this will be a snap--just find White Elephants from past years, re-wrap, and be done. But no, I received a number of oddities this year given in all seriousness, with useful purposes--for someone else, or maybe after I bought the same item for myself. The gifts were wrapped in a variety of papers, so that Steve's and mine wouldn't be immediately recognizable. The reason? Once a recipient has opened a truly pointless or obnoxiously tacky gift, I don't want them to be warned off by another gift covered by the same paper!

I then moved on to gifts for my kids' in-laws, which I wrapped very carefully and signed cards for. Those might be the only cards I give out this year, for economic reasons. The plan at this point is to send Dayspring Christian e-cards to our whole list, excepting my dad and his siblings, whose email addresses we don't have. Besides, our entire list received our portrait card last year, which I hope they have used as a reminder to pray for us, which was the point of having it made. That's why I enjoy the photo cards families send out--I can lift them up for the Lord to meet their needs this year each time I pass our card gallery wall.

At 2:05, Steve's Special Trans bus pulled up, and he disembarked, with both of us saying goodbye to the other riders. And what made my day was this: the bus driver, presumably a City employee, said cheerily, "You two have a Merry Christmas!"