welcome friends

Over the past month+, we've had lots of visitors. Well, "lots" if you consider the fact that we live really far away from most of our friends and family. First, there was my mom. For some reason, I don't have a single picture from her visit. Probably because we spent our entire time in the car or in the mall! Hers was no scenic trip. It was a mission to spend time with me, her pregnant daughter, and outfit me with maternity clothes. Thanks Mom!

Next was our friend, Mary. She just got back from 2 years in Kenya. Now she's in Philadelphia and headed to med school. After a quick trip to Providence, RI, she took the train up to Boston to see us. It was a fun time of catching up on life after a couple of years of being in totally different places. Here's a pic of us at Frog Pond on a typical rainy day in Boston.




A week or so later, I was on a plane to the DR to visit my Dominican friends and do a little work on my last trip before life changes dramatically. It was a wonderful time of planning and dreaming for the ministry.


Upon returning from the DR, I turned 30, then welcomed the Alleys back for their second visit since we've been here. It was fun to see them especially since Christy is pregnant too. We're ahead of them by 2+ weeks. We compared bellies and pregnancy woes. Christy and I have always said we're twins. I convinced her to go to the same college, so we could do everything together. Little did we know that we'd be having babies at the same time as well. Though, she did one-up me by having Owen already. Anyway, we had a great time. We ate $3.99/lb lobstah (thanks for cooking, Will), went on our first trip to Ikea, played in Boston, watched baseball and movies, and wished once again that we lived in the same town.



Last, but not least, we just finished up a long weekend with the Coopers. Brad and Rebecca are friends from our days at UNC. It's been at least 2 years since we've seen them in person. They decided to take a little vacation and come visit. We enjoyed Newburyport, Boston, and Salem together. On our day together in Boston, we met up with some other friends, the Nielsens (who are now in NJ) and the Pfieffers (Bostonians that we don't get to see very often). All in all, it was a fun reunion. Rebecca and I noted that Brad and Justin revert back to their college personas when they're around each other...cracking each other up, quoting movies, and talking about superheroes.




Thanks Mom and friends for coming to see us. Y'all are the best.