Mourning the Meal

Have you ever fixed one of your favorite meals,

(cranberry meatloaf, potatoes & carrots,
yeast rolls, key lime pie)

all from scratch,

and specially invited a neighbor family over
to enjoy it with you,

and they said they'd bring a salad,

and you decorated your table with an extra special touch,

and you're looking forward to getting to know them better,

especially since their kids are over at your house a couple times a week,

and they just don't show up?

Oh man.

When they didn't show up,

Paul went over to see if they were coming

and they said no.

But they'd "really like to sometime"

maybe if they had "more notice."

I guess a week wasn't enough time.

But wait, they said they'd bring a salad.

They said they'd come.

This was a meal with just us and them.

I couldn't believe they just didn't come.

So sad.

We were hoping to build a relationship with them

so we could trust them more

and possibly let our kids go to their house

because their kids invite ours over

but we just don't know the adults well enough

and our first impressions and gut intincts

(even before this meal)

haven't been positive.

So I guess our relationship will stay as it is for a while more:

Their kids come over here

and we hang out with them

and they learn more about our weird lifestyle

(no tv, home school, healthy food, coupons,
family outings, church, Jesus).

Epilogue

We took our meal to another family's house.

Some good friends with whom we already have an established relationship,

who often share their meals with us.

It was lovely to return the favor.