Homemaker Chronicles

As you saw Sunday in my pictures, we had some friends come to visit for the weekend.

Friends is an understatement…they are more like family to us.

Have you ever met another family that you just clicked with…you don’t have to try to get along…both parents and kids get along  perfectly?  I remember when I first met Linda, the mom.  Something inside me told me that I had to get to know her better.  Probably because a woman with 10 children is someone to glean from and I needed lots of advice.

No, I did not stutter…there are 10 children to those 2 parents!

Linda didn’t have to teach me anything though.  I learned from watching and listening;  I learned from just living life with them.  God showed me so much by us just hanging out with them and through His word being lived out right before my eyes.  We have been through quite a bit with this family of twelve in a short amount of time.  One such event turned out to be one of the greatest times in our family’s history.  It was when we lived with this family.

No, I did not stutter…we lived with them while we were looking for a house.

See if you can imagine this…

2 married couples (2 moms and 2 dads)

1 wonderfully helpful college student (girl)

3  delightful teenagers (1 girl with the glasses/2 boys not pictured here)

2 young boys who love critters (on either side of  Titan)

3 young girls who love giggling

3 even younger boys who never wear shirts

1 toddler girl who likes said critter-loving boy to hold her

1 brand new baby boy who cries a lot and does not like to be held by anyone but his mama.

Got a visual?  Eighteen people living in one house (their oldest boy is married if you actually did the math and it didn’t add up).  All under one roof.  Actually, we slept under a separate roof but did everything else under the same roof.

(Here’s a really bad-quality photo of our temporary living quarters…we sometimes referred to it as “the shack”)

Our family was so blessed to have a place to live during this time of seeking and searching.  We are forever indebted to these guys and will always be so grateful for their amazing generosity!

Besides their home being a place for us to live, we did have some great times during our short stay.  Friday nights were deemed pizza nights (because the moms were ready for a break from cooking!) and usually we would have some sort of planned activity to go along.  One fun Friday night Todd extended a challenge to both families.  We all had to either write a poem or read a poem that we liked…in front of everyone…and we had guests that night.  It was challenging for the young ‘uns and a blast for Todd who wrote his own poem.  If I knew where a copy of that thing was hiding, I’d share it with you in a New York minute- it was Fuuuunny!

Another Friday night we got the projector out and hooked it up to the TV.  We projected the Summer Olympic games onto the living room wall and ate ’til we couldn’t walk!

We celebrated birthdays together…see Linda holding Salem?

…they were actually the only people that attended Salem’s BIRTH-day party. Which actually ended up being same day as Todd’s birthday. (Yes, I threw Todd a party the same day I gave birth to my 5th child. That’s what having lots of children does to you- no recovery time! Can I get an “Amen”?)

We held foot races in the backyard, held a fast scrabble battle every afternoon at 2:00, we did Bible studies together, played frisbee at Hulen Park, we counseled with one another, we prayed together, we ate breakfast lunch and dinner together and we lived life together.

Besides the endless fun, we also had lots of life lessons fall in our laps.  We learned how to love our own family members even more, how to gain respect from our children, how to discipline our children, how to love God and live for Him, our families walked through fires together, we watched them bear our burdens and we have done the same for them.  You know, it’s just the body of Christ at work.  Plain and simple.

No I did not stutter. We are the body of Christ and we were living out Acts 2 every single day during that time.  It was such a great time and I miss those guys so much when I think back to our time in Texas.  Although, I will have to add that this season in our lives is a great one too.  Now, we get to live out all the things we’ve learned.  We get to practice and be tested in them and we still get the benefit of sharing in great times like last weekend.

By the way, did I tell you that these kids are amazing?

They are polite, generous, helpful, caring, God-loving, and just downright FUN people.  It’s been a whole 6 months since we’ve seen them and let’s just say that last weekend was just what the doctor ordered!

(Happy Birthday Joseph and Emma!)

As Thanksgiving draws near I remember how thankful I am for my friends and how thankful I am for my family.  God has blessed us with amazing people; at every stage of our lives we’ve had such wonderful friends and family members along side us.  Without the body of Christ we would be poor and all alone, but how much more awesome is it that our family members are also our brothers and sisters in Christ! A double whammy!

We are blessed!

We love you Brad, Linda, Kelsey, Stuart, Michael, Mary Grace, Joseph, Jon Allen, Katherine, Emma, Stephen, and Alex!!

Who has God given you to walk through life with?  Family. Friends. Both.

~Angie
Homemaker Chronicles