At any given RTS community event, there is a MULTITUDE of kids running around. The community of other families has been another aspect of my favorite thing (PEOPLE) about seminary.
One particularly sweet gift has been the families who live close to the seminary and, therefore, close to us. In just our neighborhood alone there are 6 RTS families with kids. These friendships – especially for the girls with other kids and for me with other moms – have been a really sweet provision from the Lord.
I always thought “doing seminary” with a young family would be such a hard season. It IS hard. During the school year Eric’s time is so swamped between studies and work. But I can’t imagine doing this any other way. I’m so thankful for the Lord providing a way for me to be able to stay home with our girls, even though it is a lot more full-time with such a busy Daddy. Having other moms to relate to and encourage me (and therefore help me encourage Eric) has been such a provision. Not only that, but the girls have made such precious friends along the way too! I know the Lord has used this difficult season of life to bring great blessing to all 5 of us through these wonderful friends.
Click here to read more about other people who have made seminary so great.
Continue reading about My favorite thing about seminary: Other Families
Eric is now two thirds of the way through seminary! I can’t believe it! This season of life has had it’s challenges but I am SO thankful for the multitude of blessing that have come – often in the challenges themselves! Though it didn’t take me this long to figure it out, I want to share my favorite thing about seminary so far: THE PEOPLE.
The Lord has used this season to bless us with so many wonderful relationships that have enriched our lives in invaluable ways. I praise God for seminary, and all the great people who have come with it. 
Now it probably goes without saying, but have two of my big brothers here at the same time with us has been the best. We had Jonathan, Maggie, Annie, and Lily for a year and a half at the beginning. And now, Danny, Kimberly, DJ, Trinity, Katy-Grace, and Benjamin have been here for a year and we have at least another year together.
Technically we already had these relationships before seminary, but I’m so grateful for how this time of living close together (and our kids becoming BFs!) has deepened our relationships with our family. I’m so thankful the Lord ordained all the steps for each of our three families, and saw fit to intertwine these years of our lives in Orlando!
Also, as a missionary kid having not known my cousins well growing up, watching my kids make memories and enjoy such sweet friendship with their cousins has been such a blessing to my heart!
And I can’t talk about family without talking about our other family member. In January of 2010 we heard of an international student, Agnes, coming to RTS who needed a place to live. We had just sent Sachiko home to Japan, so we had an extra room and invited her to live with us.
What started as just trying to “help a sister out” has turned into a wonderful gift to our family. Agnes lived with us for about 6 weeks last year when she first got here, and then has lived with us again since January. She truly feels like a sister to Eric and I and an aunt to our girls. We are so thankful that God brought her into our lives and blessed us so richly with her friendship (and cooking! ).
Continue reading about My favorite thing about seminary: My Family
This is life on this side of glory – so many unanswered questions, living by faith and not sight, aching and groaning with the earth for that final morning, our full redemption. I love the words from “Jesus I My Cross Have Taken” that say,
“Haste thee on from grace to glory, armed by faith, and winged by prayer.
Heaven’s eternal days before thee, God’s own hand shall guide us there.
Soon shall close thy earthly mission, soon shall pass thy pilgim days. Hope shall change to glad fruition, faith to sight and prayer to praise.”
But until that ‘soon’ – that glad fruition, sight, and praise – we hope, we trust, and we pray.
And so, faithful prayer warriors, I have something so close to our hearts I would ask you to join us in. Please please pray for our dear friends and their newest little blessing, Waverly Ann. Waverly was born on Mother’s Day, and last Wednesday was diagnosed with Miller-Dieker Syndrome, a rare genetic disorder. We absolutely ache for these friends as their tiny precious one is in the NICU and they are waiting and hoping to be able to bring her home. They have a long journey ahead of them – one I know is a gift from the Lord (you only have to see Waverly’s sweet face to know what a tremendous gift she is) – and I know they would covet your prayers. Please join us in lifting this family before the throne.
Waverly’s mom and dad are dear friends from college, and their oldest, Kathryn, is one of Noa’s all time favorite friends too. You can read more about Waverly’s story here.
I wanted to include some photos from two special friends we got to see in VA:
We didn’t get to see the Lookabills on our first stop, because they were on vacation. But on our way home, when we stopped again, the girls and I got to spend a fun afternoon with Tabitha and her precious kids. I’ve known Tabitha for 14 years (!) and it is amazing to me how the Lord has continued to interweave our lives and bless us with such a sweet friendship. She is always such an encouragement to me, I am always blessed by seeing her and Josh’s marriage, and I love getting glimpses now, when we visit, of what an incredible mom she is. It was such a treat to get some special time with them!
top to bottom: Noa, Jude, Naomi, Martha, Gloria
Me and my sweet friend (I won't tell you how many tries it took to get this photo).
And, though they are not Virginia residents anymore, we got to see Matt and Carly and the boys, who were back from Japan for my cousin Jon’s (Matt’s brother) wedding. It was, as usual, wonderful to be with them. It was especially sweet to hear how life in Japan is, and to reminisce about our own time there. We’re so encouraged by how the Lord is blessing and keeping them, as well as the ways he is using them. It’s really neat to hear about students who we spent a lot of time with, still involved in the student ministry that now meets at their house. We loved spending one evening of just our two families, just talking and laughing and catching up. We miss the companionship of walking day to day life with these precious friends, and wonder if we’ll ever have a season like that again. Even if not, though, we’ll treasure these snippets of time and the joy of reuniting and picking back up again, as if we were never apart. It’s awesome, because the kids do the same. They adore each other!
Me and Carly: Who would have known when we were bff missionary kids in Japan as 12 year olds that we'd one day be family, still super close, and have 3 girls and 3 boys between us?!?! God has been good!
Martha, Noa, Liam, and Hudson... this is the best I could get. And I don't have any photos of Matt and Eric 
*actually, that is not the best photo I have of the kids, but since we have a “no-naked” policy on our blog, you won’t get to see it. Too bad, cause it’s super cute.
A huge treat during our summer travels was all the special friends we got to reconnect with, some of them for the first time since we moved to Japan 3 years ago…
We got to meet up with all our Roanoke peeps for a picnic dinner. The Sinks and the Whiteds have been dear friend since college and it was soooo great to get together with the small army of children the Lord has blessed our families with.
The Weaver and Mast families represent a sweet time in our lives. When we were newly married, Eric taught a child from each of these families, and I nannied for the Weavers several days a week as well. Their constant love and care for our family – from when there were just two of us until now, all five of us! – has been such a treasure to us. And truly, these are some of the kids that made us want so badly to have kids… they are all FABULOUS!
Here’s Gloria and Gloria:
All the kiddos:
Noa, Chloe, Kate, Martha, Sophie, Gloria, Reuben, and Hannah
The Morrises are precious friends who we hadn’t seen in what felt like FOREVER. Both of our families had grown significantly, and it was precious to get the kids together and watch them play as if they had been hanging our their whole lives.
Little Annya’s Mom and I have been friends since before we were married, and it felt crazy to me that I had never met her little girl, though it felt like I had (thanks to bloggy land and facebook). Our girls LOVED playing dress-up and doing all things girly with this special friend. And it was just as if three years hadn’t even gone by when Sasha and I were able to sit and chat and share from our hearts, just like we used to. What a blessing!
I hope you get used to the names Tongen and Miller, because I have high hopes that they will be my daughters’ last names one day. We were in homegroup with these dear [masculine] families for several years and it is always a joy to get back together with them when we are in Harrisonburg. Our girls love playing with these cool boys, and Eric and I are always encouraged and blessed by time with their parents.
The Patton family, who feel like extended family to us, were gracious to allow us to crash in their home for a week. We had such fun times with them, as always, and are so grateful for their hospitality. Laura even welcomed Noa and Martha as roommates for the week – pretty sacrificial if you ask me! Their home is one of those places in our very transient lifestyle that is just such a haven to us. We love this precious family and loved our time with them!
Teresa taking the girls for a walk to see the cows:
The view from the backporch – breathtaking!
And sadly, I don’t have pictures of the many other dear family friends who we got to reconnect with and enjoy sweet times together with, even after years of missing it.
The girls and I were blessed to spend a morning with the Reids. They are such fun friends and I always come away from time with Brooke challenged and pushed toward Jesus.
We also got to spend a few meals with the Wildermuths, a couple I babysat for from before Eric and I started dating, who will always be close friends. They challenge us, pray with and for us, and always make us laugh.
The Staple family is anther family that we both babysat for in college, who have sort of watched us grow up (and we’ve watched the little kids we babysat grow up as well). We loved the opportunity to eat and play with them once again.
We also got to see Chris France (or Uncle Francey), one of the groom’s men from our wedding and a good friend of both of ours. He actually lives in West Virginia (don’t hold it against him), and we got to stop in for lunch on our way up to PA. The girls especially loved his fish and cool video games. Eric loved teasing him, and I loved trying to think of a good wife for him.
There are many others that we got to see, some just in passing, while we were in Virginia this summer, and it was an incredible blessing to my heart. When we moved away in the summer of 2007, Noa was just a baby. Even so, I noticed as we visited so many homes and saw so many people who were not necessarily familiar to the girls, that wherever they went they had the expectation of being loved and cared for, known and prayed for. It was such a testimony to my heart of the provision of the Lord in our lives, even as he has taken us to the other side of the globe and back. The stability in our kids’ lives is the body of Christ, a “place” where, no matter where they go, they can feel safe and loved and nurtured. It really is an awesome thing and I am so thankful to all of you (even those of you not in Virginia) who bless our family with your love and prayers on our behalf. I am so humbled, and I give God the glory for how he has designed his family. It’s so great to be a part of it, isn’t it?
If there was a creative costume competition, my kids and their cousins would have won it this halloween (thanks to Maggie’s fabulous idea).
When you have seven beautiful little girl cousins, and seven beautiful colors of the rainbow, you get:
red orange yellow green blue indigo violet
Cute, huh? It was a great night.
Glo and Lils' mode of transportation. THANK YOU, Coverstones!! We missed trick-or-treating with you!
And you know what’s at the end of every rainbow, right??
SPIDERMAN!
