They have come and gone....

Well, Heather and Matteo have come and gone again. I believe this will be one of the first of many comings and goings between Italy and America. We started out their visit celebrating Christiana's wedding last weekend. It was so much fun to see all of Heather's good friends and new little babies. I got teary-eyed sitting through the wedding thinking about how special it has been to not only have one older sister but like six. Over the years Heather's girlfriends have practically taken on the role as Camille and my older sisters as well. Sunday after the wedding we all headed to Austin and spent the day as a family eating and watching football before Camille and Marcos had to head out.

The last few days we all gathered in Abilene to celebrate my Memom's 80th Birthday! Friday night we all took her out to eat and then headed to Abilene's biggest event of the year. Abilene High vs Cooper! Of course my grandmother went home to drink tea with her sister while the rest of us headed to Shotwell Stadium. We did end up arriving a little later than we had hoped and were forced to sit on the enemy's side. It was a fun game...Abilene dominated Cooper which was expected. I loved watching how excited my dad got at every good play and touchdown. He is quite the AHS fan. I think he has been to probably every AHS vs CHS game since he graduated in '69 along with every other season game. We were lucky to get to sit with Erika and her family and witness Erika complete one of her life long dreams...attending the AHS vs CHS game. Her parents were both Cougars so it was fun to all sit and cheer for the opposite teams. It was also fun for Matteo to see the intensity of a small town school rivalry football game!

Now it is Saturday and Heather and Matteo have left to go home. It was a wonderful visit that was way too short. Hopefully this summer we will be having another reunion, but in Italy this time!

I'm just sitting here thinking about how God's faithfulness is so wonderful! I see that of course in so many situations in my life but this past week I have seen that through my relationships with my family. My mom and dad were so intentional when they raised us to teach us how to communicate and how to be honest. We grew up in a home where there was nothing off limits to talk about. We all knew we could bring up any topic or any situation and it was welcomed and we would work together to solve the problem or just be listening ears. Because my parents established that type of relationships with us growing up it is so much easier now as adults to live apart and still maintain the closeness and unique relationships that we have. Our parents not only created this safe environment for us but instilled a desire in us to GO. They raised us as their own but always reminded us of Who's we really were and what our main mission in life was. We were taught this life is not our own and it is not to be selfish with. Our parents have always supported us girls in everything we have done and encouraged us to discover our own faith and encouraged us to just Go. So coming home this weekend and all being together I see how faithful God has been with my family. We are all over the world, all in very different places in life, but all still have maintained our family's unique relationship and for that I am very thankful.



(Well I am terrible at uploading pictures to my blog apparently. They never come up in the order that I want. So I'm sorry that all of them are out of order and there is only one at the bottom. I refuse to try any longer to fix this problem.)