MY PARENTS CAME TO VISIT!

Okay, I have been busy. Good busy, but busy none the less. That and I got a good book I'm reading. Brunner the Bounty Hunter. It's science fiction, set in a world far away. It has a Conan feel to it which I absolutely love, pulp fiction they use to call it. It's mindless mayhem and after a day of thinking all day, for me it is the way to relax. I get this love of science fiction from my Dad. Of course there are different sub genre's within they we both gravitate too. Ironically my mother is NOT a fan of science fiction and neither is Ginger. Ewwww.... I'll hear when she sees the cover of my book. I just smile, and go back to the mayhem. I loved Conan and the series because no matter how badly the odds were, he found a way to defeat them. Carter from Mars was like that, Red Sonya, and now Brunner.

But enough about books, MY PARENTS CAME THIS WEEKEND!!!!! Yeah, I was a little excited. I was able to buy them lunch, and my mother in law as well, and that was a very good feeling. It's been, what, over 8 years since I've been able to do that. And it's the first time since I've been to Tyler that I can do that. I've come such a long way on this journey. Ginger said she couldn't wait to see me around my parents because I light up when I talk to them on the phone. Well, I was lit. We got to show them the apartment and how we've decorated it (and remodelled the outside) and sit on the couch that was a wedding gift they bought for us but hadn't seen in person. They got to see our rabbit ears antenna (we do not have cable), and Mom finally got to see the quilt she made for Ginger on our bed. We also got to talk a bit. As I recounted for them how I met Ginger I saw Mom's eyes get watery. And more than once, they said, you've come a long way, Paul.

I'm reminded of the Biblical story of the prodigal son. It is a classic parable, and one of my favorite. Found in Luke 15, it tells my story. I was a prodigal son. You cannot look at my life and not see God. Oh, you could look away, or try to explain it while ignoring the miracle that happened in my life, but you cannot honestly look at it and not see God. I was a hopeless case at least in the world's eyes. But God specializes in the hopeless. I don't care how far down you think you are in a pit, God can reach you. My healing wasn't instantaneous, it wasn't an ah ha moment. It was a journey. It started with one day, and another was added, and another. And each day I learn something new, and God gives me enough strength to make it through that day. I try not to worry about tomorrow, just working on what God has before me today. And when I take life in bite sized chunks, I don't choke. Though I made a big deal of my 8 year soberiety birthday, and it was, I still wake up the next day and work on that day. 8 years is good, but I can't live in the past. Because I'm still one drink away from a pit. But God does special things for me, like letting me see the look on my parents face when they see me. Yes, they see their son, their very sober son, but they see God. They see answered prayer. Though it took years for the prayer to come to fruition, they got to see it answered.

I'm happy now, content. I have a wonderful wife, parents, and in laws who I might as well call mom and dad too, because I couldn't ask for better in laws. I have family again. There is hope from a life of addiction, I'm living proof.