On Thursday evening, Sandi, Tim, Tyler and I visited with our friends, Brett & Julie Bolin, who were visiting from Louisiana. Tyler and Cade (left in the photo) seemed to forge an instant bond although that may be that they have been friends since Cade's birth. Yes, they live in Louisiana although Brett was raised right here in St. Pete. And this is Cade's birthplace! And we were so honored to have had a part in that whole process!!
The story? I'll try to make it short although it may not ... so I won't be offended if I lose you along the way!
In November 2002, Brett's grandfather passed away so Brett and Julie came to St. Pete for the funeral. While we had not known Brett long, Bob has known Julie's family for almost as long as he can remember. Bob's dad pastored on the Louisiana Conference of the Free Methodist Church when Bob was very young. What a neat experience it was when Bob served as superintendent in that area -- to renew all those old acquaintances. While we do not travel to Louisiana as often now, we get to see Brett and Julie whenever they come into town to visit his parents and their close friend, Virgie Gibson (who also attends our church!) 
(Julie's mother, Elaine)Anyway .. back to the November 2002. I called Julie and asked if I could take her to lunch. I took her by the church first and she told me that she really wasn't feeling good so could I take her back to Brett's parents which I did. The next day, I received a call from Julie's parents, Hershal and Elaine Paul. Elaine was calling to let me know that Julie was in the hospital .. and they had a new grandson born by emergency C-Section about 2 months early!! (Julie's story of the ambulance ride and the birth is an entire blog in itself and has us all in stitches -- even though she was the one suffering from stitches!! All I can share is that they literally barely got her into the hospital before Cade was trying to get out!!)
Since we have three guest bedrooms and baths, our immediate response to Hershal and Elaine's call was -- come on down! We have room for you to stay!! (Brett's parents did not have the adequate space for all of them.) So, within a day, Hershal and Elaine arrived. Little did they know, they would be staying for longer than just a couple days. Elaine would be with us for almost three weeks! And we were sooo blessed! (Elaine wrote a poem for us -- of course, I couldn't find it today!!) Of course, things were a little scary with Cade being so very small and premature. And since Julie was trying to recuperate from a C-section, that made it even more difficult. In retrospect, we can all smile at some of the stuff. Brett drove a truck so the ride down to All Children's Hospital was not very smooth for someone who just had surgery. So, Julie always had a pillow on hand as they made their way down there. And they wanted to be there as long as they could.
Since we had so much space, we invited Julie and Brett to also come and make themselves at home -- our home became their 'home away from home' and again, how blessed we were!! Hershal headed back home and Elaine made herself at home. (And we are so glad she did -- she can cook Gumbo and anything else you can think of ... wow!! We again were blessed!!)
I don't think Julie and Brett would mind me sharing this ... the Ronald McDonald House had offered the use of their facility so that they could be near Cade. While we are right here in St. Pete (Seminole but it is 'attached' to St. Pete), it would take them about 25 minutes to get to the hospital. They visited the house and while the accommodations seemed to be very acceptable, there were also several expectations which were somewhat challenging for them. (I won't go into those here.)
(Brett, Julie, Emma -- Jan. 3, 2008)I'll never forget one evening and we talked about it on Thursday evening ... Julie was very emotional. She had such mixed emotions about going down to stay at the "House" and yet wanted to be sensitive to Brett ... thinking that this is what he felt they should do. Brett was very quiet so I knew he was troubled as well. I talked to him ... he really didn't want to go to the "House" but wanted to be sensitive to Julie's feelings. Oh, wow!! Okay, let's sit down and figure this out ... why don't you continue to stay here?? It's okay ... you both really want that but are trying to be so kind to the other one. Well ... you guess it! Both of their spirits lifted within about a minute -- when Brett picked up Kamen and through him in the air, I was pretty sure he was quite excited that they were staying! And we were thrilled -- since we knew that our home would be the very first home Cade would come home to.
Cade was here for a few days before they headed back to Louisiana. He was on a monitor so if he missed a breath (or moved the wrong way), a piercing shriek was heard throughout our house. Actually, I decided I really wished our girls would have had that -- it would have saved me the hundreds of trips to their cribs to make sure they were still breathing!!
(Sandi occupying Emma!)When I saw Cade with Tyler, I couldn't believe it. Here was a preemie baby ... almost as tall as Tyler (who is 7 years old!) and weighing about 70 pounds! Who would have thought ... since then, Julie and Brett have been blessed with another child, Emma, who is a sweetheart and I think can hold her own with her big brother!!
So ... what special friendships that were forged years ago ... well over 50 years ago ... and our grandchildren are continuing that tradition!!
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