Sunday, August 8, we WARMLY blessed the new home of Maria Montoya and her family. It was a hot day, but the back deck and grassy yard made the perfect place for talking, eating, and singing blessings.
For Barb Welty there was another layer of blessing. This home had belonged to her mother, Betty Jean. Now the carefully tended perenniel beds were also the home for Maria's thriving tomato, pepper, cilantro and basil plants.
To see the joy of Kathia and Vanessa with their new room and new kittens, to taste Carlos'chicken and Maria's homemade salsa, to enjoy the fun and fellowship and singing of a Florence House Blessing, made me realize how these moments mark our long journey together with joy. There has been a death. And a new birth.
Maria settles into this new home in Three Rivers at the same time as launching two daughters. Jheny, recent Goshen College graduate, will soon move to Indianapolis to find work. Brenda, recent high school graduate, heads off to Hesston College in Kansas.
Kate and James Lind of Sustainable Greens joined the Florence Family for the feast. They are the "work family" for Maria and the girls and have been like loving grandparents at many times. Now we can all rejoice together as new memories are made, common work celebrated, and young women become anchored in this place of beauty, space, and growth.
