Winging It

by Linda Van Treese


Just four short days until Ken and I will be "winging it" on yet another adventure. This time we're headed to Zurich, Switzerland (CH) for a three week visit with our daughter Stacie and her husband Hampi.

I absolutely LOVE serendipitous events. I think those events, when they occur are God's way of letting us know that He has a sense of humour. The story of how Stacie and Hampi met is one of those events. Stacie was living in Tulsa and had recently purchased her first home. She decided that she wanted to find a roommate to help share expenses, but wasn't having any luck finding one she thought would 'fit'. I was talking with her one day and suggested that maybe she should try a website like Roommates.com or something similar. When I made this suggestion I had no idea if there was such a website, but lo and behold! indeed there was.

Hampi was in St. Gallen, Switzerland working as a CPA for Price Waterhouse Coopers and was soon to be coming to Tulsa to spend a year auditing Hilti, Inc. which has a branch office here.
He answered Stacie's ad, came to Tulsa and wound up renting a room from her for about a month until he could find his own place.

So began a friendship that blossomed into a romance that led to their marriage three years ago. I like to joke that it was all my fault. I couldn't have chosen a better partner for Stacie and even though we don't get to see them as often as I'd like, the fact that they are happy and living an extraordinary life is fine with me. Afterall, don't we try to raise our children to be adventurous and open to all the possibilities that life has to offer? I know that's what we tried to do and sometimes that means letting them go to 'wing it' on their own in their own way.

I'll try to my best to post from Zurich and include pictures if possible because I have a feeling it's going to be yet another adventure!