Kindred Spirits

The Andrews family swooped in for 24 hours of sweetness.

Eric and I moved to Michigan just after we were married and spent five years growing up there. We worked and played, but the fellowship with couples like the Andrews -- we will treasure for eternity.

Now a decade and six children later, it was an incredible blessing to see their beautiful faces again. The finest qualities of Ben and Kris are now abiding in the hearts of their children... gentleness, graciousness, truth, and love. They are truly a breath of fresh air, a taste of heaven -- sharing meals together, playing, and talking about all that our God has accomplished by His merciful hand.

While we were waiting on China to get to Zane, the Andrews were waiting for the final details to unfold to bring their son and daughter home from Ethiopia. It was exciting to be paper pregnant together and know the challenges and thrills that we shared by God's miraculous gift of adoption.

Noah is clever. Lydia is a true friend. Haile is kind and Minna is just too adorable. See...

I told you so!

My heart sank when they pulled out of the drive...how I wish Michigan was a whole lot closer!

Road Trip

After Thanksgiving, Eric headed home to take an exam so that he can start attending classes next year in pursuit of his MBA. The kiddos and I headed on to St. Louis for much fun with my pal, Mrs. Evans, and her girls. As always, the days were filled with great food, games, shopping, belly laughs, coffee, more laughs and more coffee!


Mr. Evans has been faithfully and honorably serving our country in Afghanistan these past six months. We have enjoyed our extra time together with his girls in his absence, but are eager for his safe return to his dear family...very soon!

On this trip we were really blessed to attend church with the Evans girls - great fellowship and teaching! Later in the week the kiddos attended an awesome childrens program while we enjoyed a women's Christmas brunch. The food was delicious and we were extremely touched and moved by hearing eight women testify to what God was doing in their lives. It was a very worshipful time and we were so encouraged - a great start to the Christmas season for sure!

The Evans have turned their entire basement into a very impressive playroom. Several times a day we would lose the children to the underground for semi-peaceful coffee talks. But between coffee breaks, we headed out on the town for a train ride, an unexpected Santa chat, shopping, and a private (nearly the only patrons there!) lunch at the spaghetti factory.


One exciting milestone for Zane at the Evans was that he successful sucked water through a straw! Mrs. Evans was a wonderful cheerleader and encouraged Zane to master it. This is BIG, HUGE, INCREDIBLE! When there's a hole/fistula in the roof of your mouth, this can be quite challenging. Not sure how he maneuvers this, but if he puts the straw just so, he gets enough pressure to suck it up. It can get frustrating for him when it's not just right and he sucks wind, but he has continued to improve his technique. Zane does not fail to show us great determination and ingenuity!

We are so blessed to travel through life with these dear friends and always look forward to our next visit. In the meantime, we quietly take pictures of Zane with both of the girls in case there's an Evans/Wolfe wedding someday. ;)

Hospitality

The character card that we drew for our focus last week was 'hospitality'. It was perfect timing as we had plans to spend some time getting to know a family from our church and then friends we knew from our time in Michigan arrived on Saturday.

The Smiths just recently moved to town as Todd is now on staff at our church as graphic artist and curriculum developer. How exciting does that sound?! Also sounds like hard work! With 16 children's books to his name, we are just beginning to learn how deep his talents run. Every week our children hear the same message from the Word of God in their Sunday school class as we receive from our preaching pastor in sermon. Todd develops fantastic visual arts, take home devotionals, and hands-on teaching tools to reinforce the message each day following. Our church is tremendously blessed and grateful to have Todd join us in ministry! We look forward to getting to know them better and pray they feel at home and loved here.

Dave and his daughter, Erin, stopped in on their 16 day road trip. Unfortunately, Mama Jenn had to stay home for work, but what a joy to meet 2-year-old Erin for the first time and catch up on life with Dave. God has done amazing things through this family. We are encouraged by their Kingdom focused hearts and just know that God has exciting things on the horizon for them.

We were so blessed by our fellowship this week - what a joy to practice hospitality and draw closer to the true nature of Christ.

A Swim with Friends

Laurie and Allison were in town for a visit with family and made time for some friends as well. We were excited to take them to our favorite kiddy pool for a swim. It was fun to see the girls together, a pleasure to visit with Laurie, and refreshing to splash around.

Elle is no longer wearing a swim diaper but going potty like a big girl, even at the pool! She's very good to tell me and will leave the water and fun to get business done. We had to make a few trips out of the water yesterday - drank too much beforehand...mental note: little water on swim mornings.

Afterward we went out for a bite to eat. It's always so easy with these two; we just pick up where we left off. Thanks for a fun morning L & A!

Posting some pics...a disclaimer: we're wet and well, 'don't hate us because we're beautiful!' Still friends, Laurie? Laurie??

Uncle Trouble, Aunt Kathy & Jaden

Uncle Trouble, Aunt Kathy and Jaden are travel friends from China. We got to experience the joy of adoption together and have a connection that will last a lifetime. Since October 2006, we have just chatted from time to time on our travel Yahoo group. So you can imagine how excited we were to see them in person again when we heard they would be passing through and staying with my brother and sister-in-law (also China travel mates) for a few days.

Stan, aka Uncle Trouble, has a heart of gold, but we wondered how Elle would take to him. They arrived late the night before, but when Kathy and Stan came upstairs the next morning, Elle leaped into their arms. She could see their hearts and maybe...maybe she remembered our time with them in China! This family was a blessing to us in our China adventure and continue to bless us with their sweet, Christ-centered spirits.

They came bearing gifts - beautiful dresses and teddy bears for the girls, Ami and Elle. Jaden, their daughter, is oh so cute and just growing up into a lovely little girl. It was really special to see the three girls together. We enjoyed our short visit and treasure the time we had again with them.

Here are some pictures from our weekend with the cousins, Stan, Kathy and Jaden. You'll notice some wet ones, as Elle and the kiddos enjoyed running in the torrential downpour one evening! Too much fun!

Allison's Visit

I met a wonderful gal online a few years ago. We both had dossiers in China with the same agency and were waiting to see our daughters' beautiful faces. We had an instant connection and have enjoyed watching each other become mothers and our babies turn into lovely little girls. Laurie and family moved away from our area, but grandma has them coming back for visits, so sometimes we arrange a little get together while she's in town.

On this day, she dropped by for just a quick hello. I got a few cute pictures of her daughter, Allison, and Elle and some hilarious video, but I'm having trouble figuring out how to edit/cut/upload it as it is a really huge file. So, maybe you won't get to see it - bummer! But here are two pics...enjoy!