February Photos, Pt. X: The Playdate

In the summer of 1989, my father had the opportunity to entertain a new colleague and his family while they visited this side of the state for the July Fourth holiday. While the adults clinked beer bottles and glasses of Diet Coke, the kids- 7 of us in all- stood around awkwardly, none of us having gained many ice-breaking skills in elementary school. Turns out there was one thing West Michigan girls had in common with Eastern Michigan girls: a red-blooded love for the New Kids on the Block.

And the rest was history.

It's been more than twenty years since that first tense meeting, and sometimes it seems impossible that I can measure a friendship in decades. But then we start counting the kids.

(And this doesn't include Selah, or Megan's June baby.)

Long Februaries, even sunny ones, call for playdates. And after the hens took their chicks to preschool and home for naps, I ran around getting Eden's Kindergarten registration in order. This included a tour around a charter school that had me swooning, but still looking to kill a little time before a prescription was ready. The camera bag in the passenger seat next to me steered me toward an unlikely destination for a girl killing time. Hollanders: recognize this?

You got it: The highest vantage point in the greater Holland area (I think?) is Holland Hospital at a whopping SIX floors. Up I went.

I did take the obligatory photo. Here. See?

(I never said it was good.)

But even sweeter was a hidden little sanctuary adjacent to the chapel. I may not be able to join friends in Florida or Mexico or Peru this winter, but I can look up at the sun through a screen of green leaves.