What Do You Miss Most?

That's a common question we hear from folks as we travel and reconnect.  "What do you miss most?"  And, while we know they're often thinking that we will respond with the name of a restaurant or activity, that's not the way we want to respond.  The bottom line is, what we miss most is the people that we love.  When we chose to follow God's leading to Africa, it had absolutely nothing to do with the desire to leave people or our life here behind.  We considered it a great loss and, even now, grieve over the things we miss with the people we love.

That is why we are so thankful to have these months to make special memories with family and friends.  And already, we're off to a great start.  So here are a few pics of "what we miss most"...

Time with grandparents, just learning from them and enjoying the people that they are.

 Riding Pap's 4 wheeler is this boy's idea of a great afternoon!

Births and birthday parties.  This little guy, our youngest nephew wasn't even born when we left.  We missed out on his newborn stage, his toddler years, and the like.  We're thankful we got to be a part of his 3rd birthday party, though.

We don't just miss attending the parties of others, but we miss having grandparents at ours.  We were glad to have Pa join us for Lily's birthday dinner a couple of weeks ago!

Christmas with family.  Need I say more?

 Cousin time.  There's nothing like garage Nerf wars after Christmas dinner, right?

 Special traditions like the New Year's Eve Party we always looked forward to at the house of some special friends.

You know, the Lord is gracious.  For every thing we've missed, his grace has been more than sufficient.  He has carried us (and those we love) through every holiday and special day that we've spent apart, by his strength.  And, we can testify that He has also given us some pretty unique and special memories of different ways of celebrating, as well as some great friendships on the other side of the Atlantic.