Hazel

As I am sure many of you know, Chance and I just moved to a new apartment near White Rock Lake in Dallas, Texas. We absolutely love our new place.. especially the location.. and the move went off without a hitch [thanks to Amy & Mark Strauss!] Chance and I have been praying for our neighbors since we got here; for intentionality in our conversations, that we would be kind, love them, and hopefully get to know them better. As we were moving in on Friday, a kindly woman walked by and stopped outside her door just a few away from ours. She was a petite, little lady with auburn hair. I said a hearty hello to her and she responded in like, then commented on the Texas A&M cooler that we were carting inside, hoping that we were the Aggies fan! (I told her later that in fact that was our sweet friend who is the Aggie fan). On Monday, I made Chance's favorite meal: minestrone soup with bacon & a bunch of veggies (recipe below) and since the recipe always make a huge pot, we have leftovers for days. I had read a week or so ago a great blog post by Samantha Krieger on samanthakrieger.com about living a Missional Marriage. One suggestion was to make a meal & double the recipe, giving the other half away. So since we had this huge pot of minestrone I thought to myself: DEAR SWEET LADY DOWN THE HALL!

I took my tupperware and knocked on her wreath-adorned door and was welcomed in by Miss Hazel Wolinsky (sp?). For the next hour and a half, I learned that this lovely lady was 87 years old, still drives her car to the grocery store, lives by herself after her husband of 64 years passed away and has 2 kids and 4 grandchildren. Our conversation was full of details about both of our lives and I was thrilled to be able to share this special evening with this dear woman. She was so excited when I told her that Chance attends DTS (Dallas Theological Seminary) and said that her and Leon (her late husband) had a special tie to the school. Many seminary couples had helped them take care of Leon in the last few years of his life, and her son also attended the seminary in the 70's. We talked about family, cooking for husbands, the Bible, conservatism, San Francisco, and Episcopalianism. It was a great conversation and when I got home I was thoroughly delighted! Chance reminded me that God calls us to good works, and that He has prepared them for us before time so that we would walk in them (Ephesians 2:10).

I hope that through our new living experience we are able to not only be blessed by our new surroundings but bless others in return.