Monday, April 16, 2012

Weekend Happenings...

 This weekend, the weather was nice, I felt better and it was nice to be invited to some weekend activities.  The first our Mission Team was invited to present a slide show of our trip to a local church.  It was wonderful to see the many familiar faces of this terrific team that had been there!  Some of the folks in this picture were "behind the scenes" as well as those who actually went on the trip.
The slides were fun to see again and reminisce about with friends present.
One of the "founding fathers' of this trip Bill Wolfe, helped organize 10 of these missions.  He passed away two months before the last trip.  Our team decided to honor him by naming these and any future trips  after him.   This is his widow hugging Ron, one of our team.
The most jaw dropping moment of the day came when our missionary from the Dominican decided to make a surprise appearance!  He looked like Indiana Jones in his fedora.  He knew that we were having this commemorative day and that he had several speaking engagements in the US this week.  He also planned his trip around taking his youngest daughter to college.  He and two of his children walked in just as the slide show was over.  I think we ALL just stood there gaping for a few minutes!
Dr. Lisa and husband Pete (planner of this trip taking Bill's job responsibilities over...) talking with Donnie, missionaries son.
From this event, we went to a surprise birthday party for our long time friend Sophie!  She is here with her grandson. She is 80 and I always tell her that I think she looks more like 60 and certainly has that much energy!
Everyone singing and taking pictures...
 Here doing "face-time" with her granddaughter in Boston who got to participate with this technology!   Happy Birthday Sophie...and many more!!  May we all grow old so gracefully!
Last but not least, Kathy made these de-lucious creations and brought them over...YUM!!  Her famous Spanakopita and Baklava...to die for!  She even had her GREEK tee-shirt on....ha!  We all fight over this food (Chelsea knew that she had made some and was bringing it so asked if she could come over for some too...none was left!).  It was the perfect ending to the weekend...thanks, Kathy!!

12 comments:

Sush said...

I love the stories you share about friends and family. Your kindness of heart and spirit brings so many to you. Hope you are feeling wonderful and lucky you to get some of Kathy's delicious treats!
Hugs~

yaya said...

What a great time to gather with friends and go over the trip and the success of all the people who are seeing their world clearer because of you guys! Happy Birthday to Sophie and I think she looks marvelous and young too! Glad you enjoyed the food, it was my pleasure...Sunday was Greek Easter! It's always great to see a smile on your face too!

Julia said...

What a lovely post Donna. It great to know that you are feeling better have been celebrating all these gathering with all your special friends.

You're lucky that you have a friend like Kathy to bring Greek food. It's one of my favorite. I wish that she lived closer to me too to teach me make some other delights.

A coincidence that I made a big pan of Spanakopita last week but no Baklava. I added some chicken breast to it I was going to post a picture on my blog but didn't.

Hugs, JB

acorn hollow said...

sounds like an amazing day. Enjoyed by all. Glad to hear you are feeling well enough to getout and about.
Cathy

Hope said...

now...how to get some of that greek food up here...just joking :)

lovely post Donna, i too. love the fact that you share so much of yourself with us. you are truly a loving spirit.

glad you are feeling better, I had a nasty flu in Feb and it took a month to get over it.

Take care
Hope

Debby said...

Great fellowship time with friends.
I hope you are doing okay. (((((HUGS)))))

Susan Anderson said...

It doesn't surprise me that you are doing good things with good people, but what does surprise me is that you are already feeling well enough to DO them!! That makes me smile.

And so does the picture of Kathy's goodies. I'm jealous!

=)

Darlene said...

I read about your wonderful Easter celebration with your family. I was sick so couldn't even go to church on Easter.

What a great surprise you had to see your missionary at the end of a great presentation. It must have been nice for you to see so many of the people that took part in this amazing work you guys did.

I loved the Easter Lamb cake that your friend brought to you and I also loved the photo of the Spanakopita and Baklava that Kathy made. I am going to HAVE to have those recipes. Hope she will give them to me.

I too am amazed that you are feeling well enough to get out and around so soon. Hope you will continue your recovery and soon will feel back to normal.

So sorry about the death in your family. We had one too, in ours. My daughter's father in law died also. It was such a super shock. He was a good friend of ours too. We only had two weeks from the time he was diagnosed with stage four lung cancer until the morning he died. This was a man who was so very healthy and had never smoked a day in his life!! He was 81, but a vigorous 81. It's hard to reach my age (in five days I will be 85) and see so many of my friends and contempories die. It can be a bit depressing at times.

Take care, Donna, and continure to feel well.

karen said...

What a wonderful reunion with you Dominican mission buddies! AND a birthday party AND Greek treats from Kathy! (I LOVE spanokopita!) I would come to Ohio just for that. I'm glad you're feeling well and are able to get out and have some fun.

Kim said...

Hi Donna,
First it is great to hear you are feeling better. Your Mission reunion sounds like a perfect event, and to have a surprise visit was even better.

Judi said...

Oh, was my mouth watering at Kathy's yummy Greek treats! What a fun weekend. You do so much good on
those medical missions! I had the pleasure of accompanying you on one to El Salvador "way back when" and I was so impressed by how hard you worked. All I did was photograph the events and worry about all the homeless dogs!!

acorn hollow said...

Donna there is no doubt that you will have many joys to come. Blessins coming your way
Cathy