Fast Friends and God’s Family July 22, 2009

We had the blessing of having ten people stay in our driveway, in a motor home, for almost a week. It was really awesome to have Mr. Jay, Miss Heidi, Savannah, Sierra, Skyler, Spencer, Summer, Sydney, and two family friends, Caylin and Trevor stay with us. The St. Johns were here all the way from Washington state. They were doing workshops all over the United States. Caylin and Trevor joined them later in their trip.

I was really excited when I heard that the St. Johns were going to stay with us for about a week. I realized that I didn’t know exactly why I was excited when a friend asked me why I was so excited about them coming when I didn’t even know who they were. They were strangers to me at the time. That was a very interesting thought for me. After I thought about it some more, I realized, I was looking forward to making new friends who were Christians and homeschoolers.

(July 9) Thursday came at last. The St. Johns were going to get here around 7:30 and eat dinner with us. I couldn’t wait for them to get there. And when they did, it was kinda like we already knew them for a while. Well, I don’t mean that exactly. I didn’t know any of their names except for the mom and dad, but, I guess I mean it wasn’t like strangers walking in and eating with us. It was more like friends. Friends that we hadn’t known for that long and hadn’t seen in a while, but nonetheless, friends. It was really special.

(July 10) Friday, was the day of the workshops. My mom, Mr. Jay, and Miss Heidi were up early so they could get to the church around 9:15. God is so amazing. I mean, he does little “miracles” for us when we might not think they are. I’m thinking specifically about the fact that our hot water heater was still giving hot water even after eleven showers in one morning!

After my mom, Mr. Jay, and Miss Heidi left, Andrew hung out with Skyler, Spencer, Summer, and Sydney while I hung out with the rest of the teenagers in the motor home. My dad stayed home with us. It was nice to get to know everyone better and just hang out for a few hours. Well, actually, it was like six or more. They didn’t get back till around five in the afternoon. All of the kids went on a walk that afternoon. Later Trevor and I kept going back and forth from the motor home to the circuit box to fix the circuit that jumped because of the fact that they connected their motor home to our outlet in the garage. lol! Dad treated us all to pizza that night. Mom was happy since she was too tired to cook.

(July 11) Saturday was fun too. Everyone just kinda hung out. Mr. Jay, Miss Heidi, and Skyler went shopping for most of the day. The other teens and I started studying the first half of the book of James together. It was so kool to be able to have a Bible study together. After that, Caylin, Savannah, Trevor, Summer, Sydney, and I went for another walk while Andrew, Skyler, and Spencer were doing something mischievous with the hose. lol! We have a little playground at the bottom of the hill on the path. Summer and Sydney just had a ball on it! So, the other teens and I sat under the pavilion and watched them and talked. Then we realized that we’d better go back because we were expecting the other leaders of the co-op and their families (the Rodatus’ and the Greeves) to come for dinner. We all had fun then too.

We had 26 people at our house for dinner! All the teenagers ate on the patio under our deck. Josh and David enjoyed meeting everyone from Washington. After dinner the teenagers played card games in the motor home for a while. The last thing we did in the evening, right at dusk, was sing worship songs on the front porch while Mr. Jay and Sierra played the guitar. It was a really special time.

(July 12) Sunday morning they left to go back to Williamsburg and Jamestown in VA. They stayed  with someone they had met at a Baskin Robbins. Miss Heidi said it was a God thing. I don’t remember the details but Caylin wrote a blog post that explains how they met the man in Baskin Robbins. It’s under “blogs” on my blog sidebar.

(July 15) When they came back Wednesday night, it was definitely like saying hi again to old friends. All of the teenagers and most of the kids watched the movie Fireproof together. And then we had dinner together. Nothing fancy, just heat and serve… which was really good.

(July 16) Thursday was filled with fun, excitement, and crazy goodbyes. We all piled into two vans and went for a day filled with sightseeing in DC. We had so much fun. We went to the National Museum of American History, the Smithsonian Castle, the National Air and Space Museum, the National Archives (we saw the real Declaration of Independence!!!)… and then made an insanely crazy trip to take Trevor to the airport to catch his flight home. Of course, it probably didn’t help that we made a few wrong turns. We got him there thirty minutes before take off!!!!! But, it was surely an “act of God”, as Savannah and I put it, that he made his flight. After we said goodbye to Trevor, we went around the Washington Monument in circles to find parking spaces. When we finally found spaces, we had a picnic dinner on the grass between the White House and the Monument. We walked to the front and back of the White house and took loads of pictures. Then we walked back to the Washington Monument. We got to go up to the top. It was really kool!!! Then we went to the World War II Memorial on the way to the Lincoln Memorial. We didn’t get home till around midnight. We walked a lot! We had a lot of fun in DC!

(July 17) Friday morning Mr. and Mrs. St. John left to meet with a man. He was somehow connected with HSLDA (Home School Legal Defense Association). When they got back, they decided to go ahead and hit the road. We all helped them pack up and made sure they didn’t forget anything. We said our goodbyes and they left as friends and family (in Jesus). I’m still keeping in contact with them through Facebook and e-mail. Their visit here was so amazing. God is good!<b

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