Almost a month ago, we had some very special visitors travel very far to our city just to visit with us and hang out before they left their home in South Asia to go back to America. Our friends, Nick and Emily (just to the right of me in the photo) are so special to us, and we love them dearly. We met them just 2 years ago during our time in Virginia. We basically lived together! Ha! Our little apartments were side by side, and they could hear us through the walls--disciplining our kiddos, bathroom conversations with our kiddos, and even when we joked with each other through the walls! We shared a common living area, and we spent many nights hanging out with them having deep discussions, laughing and cutting up, or our very first attempts of making Hindi phonetic sounds (we've all come a LONG way)!!! So, it was such a special treat to have them in our home before they returned to the US.
We went together with them and with our team and went hiking a fun little "mountain" (it's only a hill) one morning! It's such a fun place we have--only a 15 minute drive or so, and we love climbing that hill and getting some fresh air!
I snatched these pictures from Christy's blog. If you really like to keep up with us and life in S Asia, you really should follow her because she stays on top of her blog a little more than I do, and she has incredible pictures!!! Here are a few more from our hiking day. I know our family has already figured that out though. ;)
Anyway, back to our sweet friends!
After that hike, we were exhausted! Our afternoon living room chat turned into a nap session! I promise we offer nice comfy beds to our guests! Please come! Can you believe that E is sleeping on our hard floor!!! When we went to visit them last summer, they gave up their bed...and their A/C (in the HOT, monsoon, humid season) and gave that room to us while they sweated and tried to sleep! Wow! I will not forget those days--sacrifice!
They both are so wonderful with our kids too! Our kids have remembered them well these two years, and our boys were still ready to give Nick "stinging high-fives" when they saw him!
We also had a fun date night with them!
Gray and Nick went out riding the motorcycles all over town!
But, our favorite thing was just hanging at home together--so low key and so fun!
S Asia misses you so much already, I know!!! And we do too!
We love you guys tremendously!
For fun...last summer together at their house!
And, a crazy side note--I'm pregnant both of these visits!
We loved having our house full this summer--with our friends here in Indore, with the students from Clemson, and this picture is probably when it was most packed out. We had our team, the students and the vision team that came for a week from Crosspoint! It was a full house, and we loved it!
I loved it even more because a very special, a dear friend for more than 14 years, came with that group. My friend Liz! What a gift, a sweet and wonderful blessing! I loved every minute of my time with her.
Jeremy and Liz have known Gray and I for the longest!!! They were there when we first met. Then, they counseled us and discipled us through our "getting to know you year in SK" before we were even dating. Then, we spent our first two years of marriage in the same town with them, playing cards, eating dinner and watching Survivor almost weekly, having our first babies, and lots of fun in Raleigh during our seminary years! Even after being away for a year and a half. On a date night, it felt so normal and like it was just yesterday we were together!
I loved that we did normal things like go to the grocery store, pile in the car, holding our babies in our hands, and shopping at the mall. It was so fun that a dear friend saw much of our everyday life! You have to check out her blogpost to see more of what we did and Liz's videos and viewpoint of India. This is a fun post, and she also has fun videos on there too (after that post)!!!
They brought us 4 bags of stuff! I should be kind of embarrassed about that, huh!!! This is how we can get some things like birthday presents, Christmas presents and other things we like to have sent from the US! One bag was full of homeschool books for this year. There were also maternity clothes....but sad to say, a HUGE chunk of my maternity clothes (some I've had for 6+ years) were stolen. Bummer! She also brought loads of gifts from friends at church, my cousin and her family, and others that sent things along with them. So awesome!!!! Here she is pulling out some of the gifts for the kids! They loved it!!!
I love this picture! Through all of Liz's jetlag and some belly issues that almost everyone experiences when they come to India...she still came over and hung out almost everyday she was here! She was such a trooper! I loved having her with me...even if it was taking a nap or she and I resting while the rest of the team were out and about. But most of the time, we were talking and chatting about life, books, our kiddos and such. She definitely got to go out and experience India's culture, the work the students were doing and some fun things out and about, but most of the time, she chose to hang back with me. It was SO fun to just hang out with my sweet friend! Liz, I love you SO much!!!
They brought their baby boy, Spencer, and he was SO easy and SO fun. Such a delight to be around! Our kids loved playing with him and getting in his face. You could definitely tell he's used to so much sibling love in his own home! We're so glad to meet him! I miss seeing all of our new nieces and nephews and babies of close friends!!! Such a treat to be with him!!!
Can I just say again that I loved watching my kiddos love on him!!!
I was a little nervous about all the things we were asking the team to bring over--books, clothes and things we had purchased. So, at first, I didn't ask for all the food treats we miss from home. However, she insisted and insisted that they wanted to know and that they wanted to bless us. They did bless us indeed. Look at all these YUMMY goodies that they brought to us!!!!
I'm NOT a hoarder and saver, and we're STILL enjoying these good treats!
After the vision team left, we went with the students on a little retreat to a fun city in Rajastan, Udaipur. It was a beautiful, clean city, with some incredible lakes! Beautiful, and a fun getaway retreat for us and them. We loved our special time to do some mid-summer briefing with them
These are actually views from our hotel room.
These are some views from a special dinner out on the water our last evening.
A family picture in the pretty city
Our hotel was AWESOME!
I couldn't resist taking this picture of Parks sleeping in the crib there.
Us, with the team
We sure do miss all of you guys!!!
But, you've left such an impression on us...and lots of fun sayings our kids continue to repeat that bring fun reminders of you! "Go bananas, right home, home, homeboy!"
We loved being on the go with the team all summer and doing fun things out and about in the city with them. They actually have a lot of fun pictures of our kiddos from the summer--mostly on FB...and this is one of my favorites!
Their last full week here, they served us and a lot of other folks that live and work in the states close to us. They did childcare while all the parents were studying Hindi...all day long!
At the retreat--our boys dressed like their friend, Elijah.
Go Man-U!
Here they are doing some of the songs from the week
and telling the parents what they learned in their VBS while we were in class!
