we are headed to smith mountain lake to spend the weekend with some of our dearest friends and "family". we are not related to any of them but they have taken us in as if we were there own. we love that. so we are busy cleaning out the car, cleaning up the house, and packing up to head out in an hour. we will see if that happens...
this morning was special. one of those times when i really got a glimpse of how thankful i am that we do what we do. our house was filled with like twenty college students who either lead young life or went to young life in high school...but it does not really matter why or how we know each other. but we love each other. my husband made about thirty too many chocolate chip pancakes but more is always better than not enough. we drank coffee, we played with ava, and enjoyed the amazing porch on the river. i love this house. mostly because it allows us to have people here. to welcome friends into our home day or night. everyone knows our door is always open. not literally. but you know what i mean. i think its been so special to me lately that we live where we live because right when we moved in we did not have many people here since i was sick. but now that i am better we are able to have people over more and more. i love it. i like to entertain. i always knew i liked the idea of it and wanted to be hospitable. but now its actually happening and i love it. we are living it.
a few of our young life leaders are headed to windy gap to do summer staff for the month of june. something near and dear to our hearts. justin and i met at a young life camp back in june 2005. we are working on writing the story of how we met. like all love stories they are special. often in ways that you will never be able to articulate to anyone else but each other. and sometimes trying to put it into words never seems to do it justice. i promise it will be written eventually. so we gathered together for some fellowship around food, conversation, and prayer. how grateful i am for the community of leaders and dear dear friends we have here.
they love ava. i have not even written anything down and i am tearing up. there is nothing else in the world like seeing people care for and love your child. we get to see it all the time and it's a gift. this morning was extra special because as our friend jacob was walking out the door headed to windy gap...our little ava crawled down the steps as fast as she could and yelled..."bye bye jaja." justin and i both looked up and caught each other's eyes and we both teared up. she did it all on her own. girl is smart. i tell you what she is saying and doing something new everyday.
i want ava to know what it means to love people. to live life with people. be intentional. go deep. be real. and throughout all of that see Christ and who He is in all of our lives. she will never grow up seeing anything else and that is a treasure. as we held hands and prayed as we sent our friends off for the month...ava was there. in the middle of the circle. talking and not being the least bit quiet. but she was there. she was in it and that is all that matters to us.
enjoy your weekend. its gorgeous here. boats and boats and more boats.
bachelorette party last night. we dressed 80's and i had a mo hawk. pictures to come.
this morning was special. one of those times when i really got a glimpse of how thankful i am that we do what we do. our house was filled with like twenty college students who either lead young life or went to young life in high school...but it does not really matter why or how we know each other. but we love each other. my husband made about thirty too many chocolate chip pancakes but more is always better than not enough. we drank coffee, we played with ava, and enjoyed the amazing porch on the river. i love this house. mostly because it allows us to have people here. to welcome friends into our home day or night. everyone knows our door is always open. not literally. but you know what i mean. i think its been so special to me lately that we live where we live because right when we moved in we did not have many people here since i was sick. but now that i am better we are able to have people over more and more. i love it. i like to entertain. i always knew i liked the idea of it and wanted to be hospitable. but now its actually happening and i love it. we are living it.
a few of our young life leaders are headed to windy gap to do summer staff for the month of june. something near and dear to our hearts. justin and i met at a young life camp back in june 2005. we are working on writing the story of how we met. like all love stories they are special. often in ways that you will never be able to articulate to anyone else but each other. and sometimes trying to put it into words never seems to do it justice. i promise it will be written eventually. so we gathered together for some fellowship around food, conversation, and prayer. how grateful i am for the community of leaders and dear dear friends we have here.
they love ava. i have not even written anything down and i am tearing up. there is nothing else in the world like seeing people care for and love your child. we get to see it all the time and it's a gift. this morning was extra special because as our friend jacob was walking out the door headed to windy gap...our little ava crawled down the steps as fast as she could and yelled..."bye bye jaja." justin and i both looked up and caught each other's eyes and we both teared up. she did it all on her own. girl is smart. i tell you what she is saying and doing something new everyday.
i want ava to know what it means to love people. to live life with people. be intentional. go deep. be real. and throughout all of that see Christ and who He is in all of our lives. she will never grow up seeing anything else and that is a treasure. as we held hands and prayed as we sent our friends off for the month...ava was there. in the middle of the circle. talking and not being the least bit quiet. but she was there. she was in it and that is all that matters to us.
enjoy your weekend. its gorgeous here. boats and boats and more boats.
bachelorette party last night. we dressed 80's and i had a mo hawk. pictures to come.
i love this post :)
ReplyDeletei really want to hear the story of how you and justin met? rockbridge, right? what year did you guys do summer staff? my (now) hubby and i were there august of 2006 but weren't dating at the time :)
Just found your beautifully-designed blog. An inspiration! I can only imagine what it must have been like, getting diagnosed and starting treatment, and with a small child. I do appreciate the way you're integrating your faith journey with your cancer experience, something I'm trying to do in my NHL blog:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.cewilton.blogspot.com
I've added you to my blogroll, BTW.
Grace and peace to you in your survivorship. God is good!
Carl Wilton