Cowart Family Matters

Lots going on in my family:

First off, Ginny fell ghastly sick on Labor Day evening as we drove home from our daughter Eve’s house warming party.

I nursed Ginny as best I could over the next couple of days. That meant staying awake close to 24 hours at times and ordering in a lot of Chinese carryout food (which she couldn’t eat anyhow) and brewing chicken soup for her, and cleaning things up a bit.

Heart attack was the first thing I figured and tried to talk her into letting me call rescue or drive her to the emergency room, but she’s a Cowart. She wanted to tough it through. I’m the same way. So I worried over he a lot and kept checking to see if she were still breathing. She says I’m a pset.

As best we can figure, she’s suffered a reaction to one of her diabetes medicines. But she is now recovered and returned to work this morning. It was hairy there for a while. I made many unnecessary mental funeral arrangements.

I always do that when she’s down sick, or even five minutes late getting home from work.

You know me, for such a morbid cuss, I’m always looking on the bright side of things.

In other family news: Donald and Helen were too sick with flu to attend their sister’s party. So was Clint. They stayed home; he stayed in Orlando.

Donald enters seminary next Saturday to begin studies to become a minister in the Anglican Communion. A huge step for him to move from computer network administrator to preacher.

Eve’s party proved a resounding success. Delightful. It’s so good to see our children getting along together so well. Eve’s party combined showing off the new apartment she and Mark just moved into. The party was also to celebrate his birthday—and Patricia’s. He’s an attorney and our son-in-law; Patricia, our youngest, is a lab technician. Both have September birthdays.

Eve, a librarian, is concerned about changes the City Counsel is making in library budgets. Her husband, Mark,. still relishes his triumphs in D.C. last month.

Jennifer, our eldest, recently earned Best Seller status for her E-Bay business. She gets a blue ribbon by each of her postings showing efficiency in reliability, good customer service, and prompt shipping policies.

Patricia’s big news is that she and Clint have set a date, January 1^st, for their wedding. She bubbles about gowns, sites for the ceremony and reception. I have never seen her looking better; she’s positively elegant in poise, beauty, and maturity. She showed off her heirloom engagement ring given her by Clint’s aunt who wore it during her own 35 years of happy marriage and wanted to with Clint and Patricia the same joys she had known.

I’m sure I’ll be posting more about wedding plans as they careen toward us.

My own big news is that on Labor Day, Google posted nine of the books I’ve written or edited in the Google Books Partner Program. I’ve written a lot about my struggles to get onboard that recently. I’m inordinately proud of this accomplishment not only because of the fine presentation of my books, but also because of how I navigated a minefield of computer stuff successfully—almost.

I uploaded 22 of my books to Google, but only nine are listed so far. I did them all the same way so I wonder what the holdup is with my other books??? I’m scared to ask. They might want me to do that spreadsheet thing all over again and I don’t think I can stand it.

My friend Barbara White just called. Her oncologist’s tests indicate the chemotherapy is working. Her blood markers for cancer have dropped from close to 4,000 when she started treatment to only 104 today! Thanks be to God.

While my poor wife lay sick abed Tuesday too sick to eat, I went off to breakfast at Dave’s Dinner with my friend Wes. We talked about God’s self-interest, anger, and love. Wes still deeply grieves for his 17-year-old granddaughter who died in 2006 (see my postings for September 15, 2006 and October 14, 2006 ).

Though Wes aches terribly, he tenaciously holds on to his faith in God’s character.

God’s character is all any of us have to hold onto. Personal accomplishments, blood markers, budget worries, wedding plans, annoying illness, tragic death, ordinary daily activities—God’s character is all any of us have to hold onto.

Clinging to anything less than Him, is clutching at straws thinking they will keep us afloat.