We Are Family--Another Summer In the Books!

Today was my first day of regular classes at school.  I've been back at work for the last 2 weeks, but today the new students arrived for the new school year and it finally felt like summer was really, really over.  And I must admit that the transition is super hard for me.  Hard to leave my babies at home.  Hard to dive into a new year away from them.  Seems to get harder every season.  Especially hard because the summer was so awesome!

This summer we were once again blessed with an invitation to visit our friends Stori and Jamey in Indiana. We got to spend our time with several other families who have also adopted from DRCongo. It is the most amazing gift to be able to give our kids an opportunity to stay in contact with some of the same children that they lived with in Kinshasa and to be around families that are so much like our family.

I have to warn you, these are not my most stellar set of photos.  I was having so much fun and so many moments of wonderful that I kept forgetting to pull out my camera and record it all for the future!

We camped our way across Texas, Arkansas, Tennessee, and Kentucky.  We landed in Indiana for a giant weekend of wonderful!

Louise right away got reacquainted with her old friend!

I got to hang out with one of coolest women I know!

My kids played and played and played and played!

There were lots of hugs!

And lots of fun!

And a kabillion amazing kids!

Jamey took us to a super cool petting zoo!

And we got to worship together with some amazing music!

Did I mention the hugs?  This was a sweet goodbye between the boys on our last morning together.

A final shot from our very last night of camping on our way home.  Bittersweet!  It's always hard to leave summer behind.  And so hard to say goodbye to good friends.  Can't wait for next year!