It's funny how "settling" can have such negative connotation, but "settling down" or "settling in" is positive. To some it may seem as though I'm settling by living in the States again and being fairly domestic, after serving overseas for the past few years. On the contrary, we may finally be settling down and settling in, but life's full of challenges, opportunities, and joy.
Over the past few months, the search for two things in particular have been plaguing us as a family. The dining room table above is the result of a very long Craig's List obsession to find something in our price range that could help us host lots of friends or family for fellowship and food. We tested this beauty out on Saturday night with an awesome time of sharing between three CVM families with experience in missions. Twelve of us enjoyed Jon's first pork tenderloin on the grill and hours of great conversation while our six kids played basketball in the backyard, watched a movie, and ran a bit wild.
The photo below tells the more compelling story of our hunt for friends for Angie. She's finally made some amigas at school who she has so much fun with that she says she actually looks forward to going to school, although you'd never believe it by the way she drags her feet in the morning. We're still praying to find those special kids Angie will bond with at church. But on Saturday, God's clever combination of perfect spring weather, the $20 bike we found at a consignment sale that morning, and the neighbor kids being outside, left nothing to chance. It was finally the day for Angie to befriend Jada, the 9 year-old she'd been too shy to meet for nearly a year. And boy did they ever hit it off! Her and her little cousin on the scooter, spent all afternoon in and out of the house, exploring, riding, playing, and laughing with Ange. Sweet, sweet, long-awaited music to our ears.
While on the lookout for big tables and little friends, we've been staying busy with lots of other fulfilling activities as well. We started a young married couples' small group at our house on Wednesday evenings. We just finished Andy Stanley's iMarriage DVD series, and are getting ready to dive into his more recent one Staying in Love, if anyone's interested in joining us. Ruby and I have been helping my dad coach the South Oldham High School girls' tennis team this season. And Angie's in a little Saturday tennis league of her own. When homework allows we join Lost Sheep Ministries on Thursday nights. And I just got back to my guys at Jefferson Street Baptist Center last week, hoping to make that a regular visit as well. Jon and I would love to get plugged into volunteering in Southeast Christian Church's tech booth next, but we need Angie to make some church friends first, so she'll be content in childcare for so long.
We're also loving being so close to family. My uncle, Byron, and I trained together and ran the Irish Classic 10K on Saturday. Yesterday, we had my parents over to watch Little Women, after spending almost a year reading the book with Angie. Now, we'll be seeing lots of Team Spears as we get together to cheer on the UL men's and women's team in March Madness.
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