friends and fingerprints

Sorry for the silence on the blog front... if it's quiet, then you know we're especially preoccupied!

After a visit last week from Mom, Dad, and Arjan, we were excited to have a weekend visit from our friends, Matt & April, and their two kids Chloe and Sam. (Matt is a friend of Nathan's from pre-college days, and April and I lived on the same hall all through college -- we introduced them shortly after Nathan and I were engaged and a few months later Stephen surreptiously moved their place cards to be seated next to each other at our rehearsal dinner. The rest is history, as they say). Chloe is 14 months older than Ellie and Ellie is 16 months older than Sammy, to give you an idea of the ages of the kids.

Ellie and Sammy seemed to be doing and interested in the same things, which kind of goes along with our theory that Ellie's development is about at the place it would be if she were born to us at the time we adopted her. The kids seemed to have fun together, for the most part, and the parents had a lot of fun playing board games until way too late at night ... but that's how it goes when it's been two years between visits. Gotta make the most of the hours together! I'm afraid we were having too much fun to snag any photos of us together. ;-)

We had a great Global Cafe` Sunday night with guest speakers, John and Erica Rinehimer. John served on cabinet our first three years here. He went on to get married, attend seminary and take his new bride to Uganda for a few years! They returned from Uganda in November and are expecting their first baby in a few weeks! We enjoyed a nice dinner with them Sunday after the service and the chance to catch up with them about their time in Uganda and where the Lord may be leading them next. We really do get to work with some of the best that Asbury produces and count their friendships as some of our greatest treasures. (Again, no photos! I really need to get a point and shoot to carry in my purse).

Now, Thursday's here and I don't know where the week has gone. We got our fingerprinting done yesterday for immigration. I was a bit concerned because I burned my right index finger TWICE in the last two weeks and had a lovely blister on it, but the technician was able to get what he needed. What a relief. The four-hour round trip to Louisville with a 5:45AM departure is not fun when you rarely go to bed before midnight. ;-)

Because I know folks visit the blog primarily for Ellie pics, I'm including one taken last night after our cabinet meeting. Ellie saw the seniors making a pyramid and wanted on too. (Sorry Joel's not smiling -- he was in the others, but Ellie wasn't)