Weekends with Grands

When the quarantine orders here in the Czech Republic came into effect in March, and we decided as a family that we'd quarantine together (at our own houses, so that we could gather on the week-ends together knowing we'd all been safe during the week), who knew how long it would last?

But here we are, on our seventh week-end, hanging out in our yard on a beautiful spring afternoon!

It's been amazing to see each other every week-end, watching the kids grow up before our eyes, for one thing!

I just looked back at pictures from March and am amazed at the changes that have come in just these short seven weeks.

This afternoon as I sat out in our yard while Judah and Asher played, and we waited for Charlie to arrive, I was positively tickled at the thought that I'm "that" grandma (Nonnie), that gets to have her grandkids over on the week-end!

Never in my wildest dreams did I envision this - not when we moved to Czech 26 1/2 years ago; not when my kids began to leave for college eleven years ago.

Nor did I imagine it when God called Caleb and Haley to Albania. I was just thrilled by the fact that they were serving in our same organization, and that we'd see them at conferences and such.

But here we are, getting to live life alongside them, as well as Tyler, Lara, Claire and all of the grandkids!

After dinner Dave went outside to play with the little boys. How cool of God to arrange for him/us to get to spend this much time investing in our precious little ones!

Judah is just about 4 1/2 now, so it's possible that he'll have real memories of these times together.

Asher, Charlie and Jenna most likely will only have memories from pictures (which is partly why I blog!), but we'll for sure tell stories of the time that we all got locked down together, and made so many sweet memories with each other.

For sure there are hard things about these times we're in; but there is a lot to be thankful for too. And that's what I'm choosing to do!