A few weeks ago I heard our ex-pat lifestyle described as "living in chapters." And it's true. When I think about my adult life, I tend to think of it in segments: life before moving to China, our first few years in China, our first time back in the US, our second term in China, on and on. So for now, I'm calling this our second American chapter. We've had so many wonderful experiences with family and friends since we arrived back June 30 that it's difficult to condense it into one little blog post, but I've got to get a few pictures up before I forget everything.
The day after we arrived, whilst my in-laws graciously babysat my jet-lagged children, Kevin and I got to witness my cousin Michele's baptism. My parents and aunt were there, and my cousin Laura even got to baptize her sister. This was an amazing night of worship filled with encouraging testimonies to the power of the gospel.
Later that week we caught up with friends right before they moved back to Europe. Kevin and Daniel go waaaay back, as in back to high school days, college roommate days and best-men-in-each-other's-weddings days.
Our kids had a blast together, too! We took them to Legoland in Dallas and played for hours.
It was truly "blast from the past" week as we also caught up with dear friends from sem..ary days. It's so hard for me to believe Haley is 10 years old already. It seems like the other day we were waiting outside her hospital room to hear her first little cries.
Thanks for coming to see us, Hoffmans!
After a detour to Virginia and some great meetings, (where we happened to see Air Force One land while waiting at the airport!), we headed to Boerne, TX for a big Gerlt family get-together.
We stayed at a beautiful ranch, rode mules,
The whole crew: Chad and Erin's baby arriving in November will be my parents' grand baby #10.
A few days later we headed to Nana and Pappaw's house in Lindale. (Kevin's parents also kept our girls for a night so we could celebrate our 15th wedding anniversary with a trip to the Melting Pot and a hotel stay in Dallas!) Nana has a beautiful yard and the girls enjoyed "helping" her take care of it. Here they are picking tomatoes.
Cousin Ariel was visiting from El Paso, which was a huge bonus. We love cousin time.
The OCD in me is upset my pictures won't load correctly right now. But this picture is too cute not to post. Here are the girls with Pappaw and Ariel at the Tyler children's science museum.
A few days later we headed to West Texas where we saw my dad's new office at city hall (he is now Councilman Gerlt!) and caught up with the Lewis family.
These kids played so well together!
And I got some Kristen time. I am so thankful for friendships that always pick up right where we left off.
We got to see my almost 90 year old grandmother and gather 4 generations together in one picture.
It warmed my heart to see how much Grace loved visiting with Gram.
And as we got reacquainted with one great-grandmother, we said goodbye to another. Kevin's grandmother finished the race and went to be with Jesus this month. As sad as it is to lose a family member, we were grateful to be able to attend her funeral. Kevin and I have lost 3 grandparents while overseas and this is the first grandparent's funeral we were able to attend. All of Grandma George's 6 grand kids shared stories and letters with memories from her life. I know she would have loved it.
Chapters. Seasons. We are soaking in every minute of this one.
