{"id":6088,"date":"2016-07-20T17:47:00","date_gmt":"2016-07-20T17:47:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/?p=6088"},"modified":"2026-10-02T01:35:28","modified_gmt":"2026-10-02T01:35:28","slug":"dinner-with-strangers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/?p=6088","title":{"rendered":"DINNER WITH STRANGERS"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Last Friday night was the 16th anniversary of the day Melissa and I said &#8220;I do&#8221;. It is safe to say that we had no idea what we were getting into that clear summer day, but it has been a fantastic journey &#8230; and one that gets better with each passing year.About every other July 15th, we manage to do something special to celebrate. For example, last year we were on Lake Okoboji with all the kids and some dear friends and the day was perfect, ending in a romantic sunset viewed from the back of a boat.<\/p>\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/20150715_214356-2.jpg\" alt=\"\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It was GOOD.But this year? We were leaving for a week in Iowa the very next morning and there were things to do, so Melissa and I told ourselves that our kid-less time in the Northwest last month would have to suffice as an early anniversary celebration.\u00a0During the day, I did manage to find some flowers (on clearance at Walmart!), bought some cheesecake slices, dipped some strawberries in chocolate and turned the above photo into a small placard. (Melissa, meanwhile, had the kids at a hot, crowded zoo with Grandma Trudy &#8211; so I got the better end of the deal.)<\/p>\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/20160715_175111-1.jpg\" alt=\"\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/20160715_212039-1.jpg\" alt=\"\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Only the Lord can knit six hearts together so quickly. We look forward to having some or all of these four visit us in Cap Haitien in the very near future! And we can only imagine what the Lord has in mind for this new friendship&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Last Friday night was the 16th anniversary of the day Melissa and I said &#8220;I do&#8221;. It is safe to say that we had no idea what we were getting into that clear summer day, but it has been a fantastic journey &#8230; and one that gets better with each passing year.About every other July [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3700,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6088","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6088","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6088"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6088\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6091,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6088\/revisions\/6091"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3700"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6088"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6088"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6088"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}