Play Dates

It has been such a blessing to have local friends! Yesterday, for the first time in nearly two years, we were able to go out and join some friends at a park. (We used to love meeting our friends the Choates on the seminary housing playgound when we could coordinate our playtimes. Such wonderful memories!) We did school as quickly as possible and then headed to a park in Southaven to join other moms and kids from our church. Here is Angie playing Duck, Duck, Goose with a few kids. Beside her with the dark hair is Katie, and next to Katie with the pink shirt and blonde hair is Lydia, our pastor's daughter. The other little girls are from another church group who were playing the same day.
Olivia and Katie are playing on the swings in this picture. Katie is the homeschool friend who came to spend the morning with us on Friday.

Last night we went to our pastor's house for dinner. Olivia began crying when she thought we were leaving, and it dawned on me that it's really been a long time since she's had local friendships. Typically when we visit friends and family in their homes or they in ours, it's a "catch-up" time. We get as much play and visiting in as we can before we leave, because we know it will be a while before we do it again. All of that occurred to me as she was crying last night, and I was able to explain to her that these friends live close by, and we will typically see them several times a week! We don't have to stay and stay (although we did stay until WAY past bedtime because we were having so much fun!) because we know it's easy to visit with them again. That's something we'll all have to get used to, but we're really enjoying getting used to it again! God is so good to bless us with relationships, especially as we are approaching the time of leaving MDO.