A Welcome Diversion

God is so faithful. I was dreading Joan leaving. I was dreading the "dead days" inbetween her departure and the arrival of my parents next week. I was grieving how long we had to be away from JB. It felt like forever. I know it wasn't. I knew it would pass. But I wanted it to be in the past already. I've been in Germany nearly two months, and I'm so ready to go home.

I got word this past week that, most likely, I won't have a passport for Abigail in time to go home with JB and the boys at the end of July. That news stung. (And I'm still praying for a "miracle.")But good news abounded. First, they moved my c-section date up. This allowed JB to move his return to Germany up. Small blessings but big deal to me.

And then, another great treat. I have known Jenny W.L. for decades. Since she was a very small girl. Our connections run on many layers. She lived next to Joan and Roy in Palm Aire. I used to babysit for Jenny and her brother Daniel. Jenny's mom, Jan, worked with my Mom -- both of them employees for Roy at Doormark. Jenny attended Fort Lauderdale Christian School with me. Our families know each other well.

Jenny now lives with her husband Ryan and two daughters: Hannah (4) and Caroline (2), in Stuttgart, Germany -- about two hours from here. Her husband works for the military as a civilian contractor. They like to come to Ramstein every now and then to get a little taste of America. Weeks ago, we had tentatively set a date. Jenny wanted to know, as the date drew closer if it was too much for us to handle. The answer was a resounding, "No!" It was instead a welcome diversion to a weekend otherwise wide-open with missing Turkey and family and JB and America.

So Saturday afternoon, Jenny and the fam arrived on Base. We had a wonderful day! We started with a swim in the Ramstein pool. Then we went to lunch at the BX. We followed that with naps, a trip to the park, and dinner at Chili's. They then spent the night in our spacious TLF and are now on their way back to Stuttgart.

Even better was that her girls and my boys played WONDERFULLY together. Every time we got in our car and they in their van to go somewhere else, Elijah would ask, "Where are my friends?" Relatively next-to-no toddler squabbles. Just fun play. It was wonderful. It was good for the boys to have some other kids to play with. It was good for me to get to talk to some other adults. And it was just plain awesome to have our weekend zip by a little faster than it otherwise would have ... my last weekend with only two children.

Here are a few pictures from this great weekend:

Ryan is a very hands-on dad. He and JB would have gotten along great. Here he is reading a book to all four of our little tykes.

While we waited for our table to be ready at Chili's, a grassy field helped pass some time.

We made a tent with a blanket over the dining room table. They loved this and all played under here so well.

Here is an attempt at a snapshot of our dinner at Chili's. The only chaotic part of dinner was the fact that my boys had to go to the bathroom four times during the meal. (Veronica was back at home. She is under the weather.) This meant me doing multiple potty breaks. At least it was only four times. Between 9am and 11am during our pool/BX visit, there were NINE separate bathroom stops. Egads!

PLaying so well together with the Thomas train set.

The girls loved the big slides at Donnelly Park on Base.