Three weeks.<\/p>\n
To me, three weeks is a blip; a hiccup, a momentary interruption.<\/p>\n
But to my daughter, three weeks is a major setback.<\/p>\n
Three weeks.<\/p>\n
![\"Scott](\"http:\/\/www.scottcochrane.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/scott_amy.jpg\" "\\"scott_amy\\"")
My 19 year old daughter Amy is set to head back to Australia for a full year internship at the Youth With a Mission (YWAM) base where she attended a six-month Disciple Training School session last year. She should have been there by now, but her visa application has been hitting some snags along the way. Now, just when we thought her application had cleared the final hurdle we\u2019d received news that there was one more delay. She wouldn\u2019t be able to leave for three more weeks.<\/p>\n
Three weeks.<\/p>\n
My leadership hat processed this as a bend in the road, a mere change in plans. But as a dad, the crushing disappointment on my little girl\u2019s face was heartbreaking. And I realized I had a choice to make about how I would approach these three weeks. Was it a bend in the road? Was it a crushing blow? Or was it a gift; one more opportunity to invest precious time with my little girl before she leaves.<\/p>\n
Three weeks.<\/p>\n
Processing all this I glanced at my calendar and realized it would be hard to carve out \u2018quality time\u2019 with Amy because of a ministry trip I\u2019d be taking next week, with stops in Winnipeg, Halifax and Moncton, before wrapping up in\u2026<\/p>\n
I called my wife Nora and bounced an idea off her. \u201cGo for it!\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
I picked up the phone and called Amy. \u201cHey Ames\u2026How\u2019d you like to spend a few days with me in Montreal next week?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cSweet!\u201d (I think that means, \u201cI\u2019d love to!\u201d)<\/p>\n
And so it is that we\u2019ll get this one last opportunity for dad-and-daughter time before she goes. We\u2019ll wander the streets of Old Montreal. We\u2019ll talk. We\u2019ll joke. We\u2019ll remember.<\/p>\n
Three weeks. A blip? A heartbreak?<\/p>\n
No. An opportunity. For which I\u2019m grateful.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Three weeks. To me, three weeks is a blip; a hiccup, a momentary interruption. But to my daughter, three weeks is a major setback. Three weeks. My 19 year old daughter Amy is set to head back to Australia for a full year internship at the Youth With a Mission (YWAM) base where she attended…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-510","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-community","category-joy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/510","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=510"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/510\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":513,"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/510\/revisions\/513"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=510"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=510"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=510"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}