Reunions Unanticipated

This summer we've been discovering that, at least in our case, there is an upside to a forced emigration: the chance to catch up with family and good friends. We've been thrilled with the chances we've had so far, and have some more plans in the making.

Needless to say, Keylor and Cole were high on the list of people we were anxious to see. If we had taken pictures of the rest of Julia's side of the family (or the church body that her dad pastors and that always welcomes us back with open arms) we would include them here as well:



Julia was excited to have the chance to re-connect with her Wheaton roommates and finally attend one of the famed annual reunions:





And our former small group from our previous church in Tennessee, comprised of the Greens, the Hightowers and the Gosnells, was able to have a reunion at the recent wedding celebration of one of its founding couples (unfortunately the Gosnells are not pictured because fortunately their son Elijah was just born!):



Even though we forgot the camera, we loved the chance to hang out with Carmen and Eli Foster, and especially with little Emmanuel. And even though it was chock-full of awkward moments, there were plenty of good times at Julia's ten year high school reunion - an event that the absence of Holly and Shawn Duncan would have rendered unbearable. In the near future we are looking forward to seeing friends from St. Andrews, from my days in Minneapolis, and especially my side of the family in California - some of whom we haven't seen in almost two years! And maybe we'll see some other friends in CA (you know who you are Smiths and Mathewses - let's talk). We'll try to remember our camera.

Now we leave you with a video shout-out from one last reunion. Lacking Tiffany, who lives in England at the moment, the other members of the group-formerly-known-as-SRA made this silly video for her (and we can't figure out another way to get it to her). Guess you had to be there?