The real success of a man is reflected in his wife's face. There is no satisfaction in being a public success and a private failure. Kendra's brilliance and twinkle are not mine to take credit for, but I consider life to be a success when I, as a husband, create an atmosphere where her flame can grow into a wildfire to shine for others. I love her face and everything that is reflected in it.
Kendra's friend, Adrianne, came to visit for a week from Tennessee. She is one of her best friends from high school. They maintain regular contact and she is important enough that we swung by her neck of the woods on our tour of the mid-west in 2013. She jumped right in with us to be a part of the 4 Webb's world as a helper and friend. Stephanie and Adrianne joined us at Easton and Layla's ice skating session. Kendra's bald head was extra cold, but the hat and warmth of her friends kept her cozy.
During the last 5 minutes of class the twins get to skate around and do what they want. For Easton it means continuing to work on technique from the class and for Layla it means showing off in grand fashion.
After ice skating I took the twins out for a daddy date to semi-formal restaurant. They were a little squirrely but made me proud by not flinging pasta sauce on the table behind us.
While waiting for our meals Layla took advantage of Easton sitting on the same seat as her. She loves to give kisses and hugs. Easton tolerates it and I encourage him to do so with grace. It's important to give love and it's equally important to receive love.
Speaking of love, our marriage life group material is coming together nicely. I have the class format and most of the content worked out. It looks something like this:
Freedom in Marriage
You managing you (self-management)
Blame and Control vs. Power and Love
Confrontation
Boundaries
Making it Safe
I only have six Monday nights for teaching and discussion and prayer, but we'll have the couples take daily steps towards building a healthy marriage. This is a list of the books I'm pulling from to come up with the curriculum.
Easton built his 1,359 piece Star Destroyer Lego set in 4 days. with no help. at age 7. I was really impressed with his ability to work through three books-worth of instructions and 16 bags of legos. When this kid gets his mind set on something... watch out! He is unstoppable.
Layla is working on her baking skills. She does real cooking as well as Easy-Bake oven cooking. The cupcakes are about the size of a quarter and the frosting is gooey dribble, but it's a great start in the kitchen, low risk of injury, and Easton will eat almost anything labeled as "dessert".
Adrianne brought her gear to make charm bracelets. She made some for our friends and guess who else wanted in on the action? Layla couldn't miss out on the opportunity to build her own jewelry. Adrianne was kind enough to let her choose the charms and then build it for her.
Kendra's birthday celebration was a big party. This was the best birthday since we've been married because I'm so much more aware of how blessed I am for her to be who she is. She's alive and living life. That's a miracle and I don't take it for granted one bit. Here are some of the girls who joined us that night at Stephanie's house to celebrate her turning 36.
Brett's birthday was the next day after Kendra's so we celebrated both at the same time.
We were blessed to have such a big birthday bash. Kendra loved getting the cards in the mail, the phone calls, the text messages, and the Facebook love. She spent the whole day receiving all the kindness. I hope she got a sense for how many people's lives she is reaching.
This is Kendra's friend Mallory. Mallory's mom died of liver cancer only a few months ago. When Kendra's head was shaved, Mallory offered to let Kendra wear her mom's wigs. I'm really excited for Kendra to be a blonde, by the way. It's always been a desire of mine, but never a big enough drive for her to spend $200 per month on products to make it (and keep it) looking good as a blonde. Well, as luck would have it, Mallory's mom was a blonde so guess who's looking super sexy as a blonde now???
She gave Kendra four wigs, each of varying length and color. Two look awesome and two look just OK. The three of them had a hilarious time playing dress up to figure out which ones work best for Kendra.
Church was interesting this morning because I have a mo-hawk and Kendra has a blonde wig. Since we sit on the front row, most of the congregation didn't recognize us at all. We had such fun with people's reactions and comments.
Tonight is only the second time in seven years where Kendra and I are in our own home alone, without kids. Easton is at Zander's house and Layla is at Kayla's house. We are very selective when it comes to sleep overs with friends and the families of these two friends are some of the short list of people we trust for over night stays.
Anyway, I took Kendra and Adrianne out for dinner as a celebration of freedom from the kids for a night and a last supper for Adrianne before she heads home tomorrow. I enjoyed every minute of going on a date with these two hot ladies as a brunette and a blonde.
We have less than one week alone, with no help, until Ouma and Oupa arrive this coming Saturday. I am completely comfortable with the 4 Webbs being alone. We've had such amazing live-in help for the past 12 weeks and I am excited for Ouma and Oupa to arrive, but Kendra is progressing so well with her healing that we are self-sufficient as a family once again.
Yesterday Kendra was pain-free and medication-free for the first time in 12 weeks! No back pain whatsoever even with her brace off. I am breathing such a giant sigh of relief that I could power a wind turbine all by myself. This is a huge stepping stone moment into the next phase of Kendra's healing. We will only have to focus on helping her through chemotherapy, finally.
See you soon!
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