Visit with Friends

The S family took Daniel in at West Point, and then took me in by extension. They were one of the mentor couples through Officer's Christian Fellowship, and they were wonderful to Daniel and to me. They fed us real food and sympathized when we had huge problems like a *gasp!* paper that was due in a few days!! :)

We've kept in touch through the years, and two years ago we met up with Mr. S and their eldest son at a conference at Greenville Presbyterian Theological Seminary. We said at the time, "We really should get together again!" Well, they took us up on our offer of coming to visit, and although Mr. S couldn't come on this trip, Mrs. S came through on their way to Nashville with their seven children. We had such a good time catching up, realizing how gracious the Lord has been to both of our families, and laughing at our kids' antics. I also got MUCH encouragement from how they are living out their convictions and what their family life looks like now that they have teenage sons (yeah - sons that we HELD while at West Point - we are OLD!). We took a walk to our neighborhood ice cream shop (have you picked up on the fact that we very much enjoy having it so close? :) and we got a few stares on the way. Picture two mamas in skirts, thirteen children and Daniel bringing up the rear. I wanted to wave and say, "Well, hi! We just arrived here from Waco! How are you?" :) I just loved to see how their older sons in particular interacted with our little ones. They're so used to having little ones around that they step right in when they're needed/wanted. Abigail took a fancy to their second oldest, and she ran around trying to capture him with the jump rope. By the way, we compared notes on naming children Abigail (their youngest is Abigail) and our opinion is that you don't want to use it unless you're specifically aiming for a spunky child. One of my favorite pictures didn't turn out - Abigail got a shoulder ride from the oldest son all the way home from the ice cream shop and Daniel thought he got a picture of it. Bummer. Abigail told me later that he asked if she wanted to get down and she replied, "No, thank you. I would rather ride to settle my tummy." Uh-huh.

Jackson also enjoyed hanging out with Jonathan and Joshua. Yep, three J's. I wouldn't call it hanging out so much as running around the outside of the house over and over, brandishing swords and yelling. Those three were LOUD. Nathaniel tried to keep up, but he got lapped with his little legs. He contributed to the noise, though. Adah summed it up best as we waved goodbye when she said, "I wish they could stay for one hundred days!" :)