2 Daughters--Each a Blessing

Today is an historic date: 8-8-08. How often do you see something like that? This morning I will perform a simple wedding ceremony, for one of Rose's co-workers. This evening I will attend a wedding of the daughter of one of my co-workers. Ten years ago (on 8-8-98, which is also a pretty cool combination of numbers), our older daughter got married. That means today is her 10th wedding anniversary. I can still bring back waves of emotion when I hear the Butterly Kisses song. Happy Anniversary, Steve & Charissa!

My second daughter, Kim, is in Hidalgo del Parral, Chihuahua, Μéxico. Αfter a very long trip, partially by air, and partially by land (from El Paso, TX to Parral), she has spent this week in what will be her home for the next year. Her emotions have pretty much been all over the board, ranging from What have I gotten myself into? to I think I can do this! (Photo of the girls taken with my cell phone camera at P. F. Chang's in Tulsa, on August 2)

Modern communications are a wonderful thing. It is so much easier to stay in communication today than when Rose and I (at a younger age than what Kim now is) went overseas for the first time [wise older readers are allowed to insert their favorite "back in my day story"]. E-mail did not exist back then. Air mail communication sometimes took two weeks to arrive. Cell phones may have existed, but were basically confined to Maxwell Smart's shoes. Today there are lots of options.

Skype is a wonderful thing. Last night we had a video phone call (via Skype, computer to computer) with Kim in Mexico. We talked to her, and saw her, sitting in front of her computer, for over an hour! That was pretty cool. Earlier in the evening, she had talked in the same way with her sister for about 50 minutes. During our conversation, I was also chatting (text) with her sister. Total cost for the conversation? How about FREE? Kim actually bought some Skype credit, and initiated the phone call, from her computer to our telephone (at a rate of about 2 cents/minute). We hung up, telling her that I would launch Skype so that we could talk computer-to-computer, but our DSL service hiccuped at that time, and we had to restart the modem a couple times before DSL service was re-established.

Kim has a pre-paid Mexican cell phone, but it is quite a bit more expensive to call Mexican cell phones, than Mexican land lines. It is easy to find long distance service to a Mexican land line for about 2 cents/minute, but calls to a Mexican cell phone average over 33 cents/minute. I found one service that is about 11 cents/minute, but FREE is a great price.

Charissa, enjoy your 10th anniversary! Kim, hang in there, and do your very best. I love you both!

Dad