"Heads" Carolina...

It's been a great trip so far (not without its share of excitement) and we have been so, so blessed by our visits along the way.  We have some pretty amazing friends and want to brag on them a bit here while we share snapshots from the past few days.  

I'm kinda hooked on Instagram and love that I can snap photos and share these moments pretty much as soon as they happen.  The square pics have been swiped from my feed (you can find a link to my profile on the right if you want to follow along). A few other photos are sprinkled in between.

Below ... Nathan's been amazing steering our vehicle up and down and through mountains.  I love this pic for the sight of the lovely 1980s dash board outfitted with a satellite radio, GPS, and back-up cam.

Not far from home we crossed historic Route 66 and the famous Dixie truck stop...

Tuesday night we stopped over in Winchester (KY) at the home of our friends Kevin and Amy (far left) Crump. Nathan and some of his friends hung out a lot with Amy and Susan's (middle) hall in college.  I had a lot of classes with Amy in the business department, as well as served in class cabinet leadership with her.  I'm pretty sure I had classes with Susan too but my memory is terrible. Somehow our circles overlapped in college too (did we go to DC together, Susan?)  All that to say, we have lots of memories together from college and at reunions the group of us find ourselves staying up to the wee hours of the morning sharing stories and laughing til we cry. Everyone needs friends like that.

Amy fixed a fantastic supper and invited some friends from church to join us.  We had a great time, stayed up way too late (for a week night), and enjoyed every minute of it.  (As evidenced by my utter lack of photographs aside from the one below).

Kevin picked up a box of toys at a garage sale and found the gem below which he gave to the kids.  I took this photo at a state park where we pulled off the Cumberland Parkway for a lunch and school stop.

Reni saw the limb below with the descending icicles and declared, "It looks like a toothbrush!"

A great benefit to traveling "RV style" is a portable fridge.  I cleaned out the fridge at the farm house and transferred a container of frozen homemade soup (made by my Grandpa Van).  Firing up the gas stove top we had a hot (free) lunch in the quiet of nature!

Wednesday evening we arrived in Boone, NC.  This was my first visit to Boone and I'd love to return!  We were invited by our friends Arthur and Hanna.  Arthur and Hanna used to work for WGM in the Marion office before Arthur took a position as a senior producer at Samartan's Purse.  The two are SO creative, I wish I had just an ounce of their talent.  Not only is Hanna a talented actress, but she's using season at home with their young children to create some amazing items (check out her hats here).  Arthur has a gift for producing gorgeous films that really touch your heart (check out Three Hearts here).  He gave us an advance copy of their adoption video which has been picked up by a distributor and I'm anxious to view!  We learned that some of you readers here helped their adoption fund (THANK YOU!) so we'll be sure to share how you can view it when it's available.

Beautiful J...

Reni had two 'girlfriends' in the Rasco girls.

The whole crew...

We went to church on Wednesday evening and shared with the Rasco's small group and our kids got to experience AWANA. It was a joy to meet their friends.  They were very encouraging and we could see why their small group is one of the many reasons why they love their home in Boone.

The next morning we met Arthur at work where he gave us a tour of the Samaritan's Purse offices and  the famous Operation Christmas Child warehouse.

Afterwards we met up with Hanna and the kids at the SP cafeteria.  Arthur boasted that they had the best lunch in town and he wasn't exaggerating!  It was a great way to cap off our time in Boone with the Rascos!

From Boone, we drove south to Morganton to see our friends, the DiMartinos.  Ricky and Aiden traveled with us twice to Hungary to serve at English camp, and Aidan was also a former cabinet member at the student center before graduating nearly 7 years ago.  What a joy to be in their home and see their lives together as a family!

We felt immediately at home, refreshed and blessed by our time with this sweet family. After putting the kids to bed, they taught us a fun game called Ticket to Ride.  Before we even finished I was looking it up on Amazon -- there is a "Europe" version that I think will be great for game night in the village!  They prayed for us before left this morning and off we left, hoping to beat the ice to our next stop:Cary!

Ellie loved little M.  I couldn't believe how taken she was with him!

Thank you, thank you for praying us along on this journey!  We have felt your prayers and rely on them!  Special thanks to our friends who have hosted us!  You don't know what an encouragement you are to our hearts.  Sincerely.  We love you!