Woo-hoo!

“I’m trying out a new recipe,” my daughter-in-law, Joanna, said over the phone, “do you want to come over for supper tonight?” Howard and I were sitting in the back yard early yesterday morning, tweaking this and that about our new pond, adding a fern here and a bench there.

“Sure, that sounds nice,” I answered. That meant I wouldn’t have to cook supper, and since we’d been busy preparing for our son, Trevor’s, visit with his family, on Saturday, that was one less thing to do. She said come between 6 and 6:30. That night she called just before six, and said everything was ready. I said we would be there at 6:30, and she said a little earlier would be better.

“Whose car is that?” Howard asked as we pulled up to their house a few minutes later. I said it probably belonged to their tenant, who lived in their garage apartment. It could have been anybody, though, since a church friend or Joanna’s mom were often there when she asked us over.

“Knock, knock,” I said, as I simultaneously rapped on the slightly ajar door and turned the knob. A chorus of “Come in!” met us, and there they were, assembled just inside. I stared incongruously for a minute, as I took in their smiling faces, and a vision of two lovely tots materialized before me. My grandbabies from Houston! Angelic, blonde Anne-Marie danced excitedly beside our cherub with the red curls as Maddie smiled tentatively up at us. “How did they get here!” I squealed, as I swooped them up and their parents peeked out from behind the doorway.

They had surprised me for my birthday! It is on Monday, and I knew Trevor was coming, but I had no idea Jamie’s family would come! Especially in the midst of his preparations to go to Japan next weekend! “I told you we were coming this summer,” was Jamie’s reasonable response. Well, who knew? They had really pulled one over on me, someone who is not easy to surprise. That explained that chance remark on Facebook I had picked up that my daughter-in-law, Rhonda, in North Carolina, had written to Trevor about hearing about their trip and what a nice thing that was to do. It had been a conspiracy! (Of the best kind.)

No wonder Jamie had not been answering his phone! I had called him twice that day and got the answering machine both times. They had been on the plane! And that was an airport rental in the driveway. I couldn’t take my eyes off them the whole evening, which ended in a dessert trip to Braum’s. The ice cream was sweet and cold, but watching the children’s faces as they enjoyed it melted my heart like the hot fudge sauce melting the ice cream on the sundae in front of my husband.