Abundantly blessed

There are so many things I feel from being able to "go home" to Texas last weekend, but the overarching feeling is "abundantly blessed." It's amazing when you are away from people and memories for a bit how much clearer the blessing becomes when you see them again! How I miss all of you more now that I've seen so many of you again for a brief night!

I took tons of pictures while we were in town, but I can't seem to get them onto the computer yet. That's why I've been delaying blogging, but I didn't want to delay anymore. I'll try to get pics up tomorrow night!

We arrived in Houston last Wednesday and had a great night with my mom, stepdad, and sister enjoying tilapia and catching up. Then we got up early Thursday morning and Greg's sister, Kristy, picked us up to head to her/her parent's house for breakfast. (BTW, it is really weird to be in Houston without our own car anymore!) We had a great breakfast with Greg's family and I got to see more of Liz's glasswork that she is making for craft shows this fall. Then we borrowed Kristy's car for the rest of the day and met my dad and stepmom for lunch at Damian's(!!) It is a super yummy and very nice restaurant in downtown Houston. We had a great time catching up with them and celebrating Greg's big day. Then it was off to College Station...

We got to CS Thursday afternoon and ran a bunch of errands first. We picked up Buddy's heartworm/flea prescription from the vet since we don't have one in Lancaster yet and we just ran out of his pills. (We couldn't keep track of eeeeverything before we left, ya know?) We picked up Greg's resized Aggie ring just in time for him to sport it at MU. We picked out diploma frames for his Masters and PhD diplomas. Then we headed to Dusty and Amanda's to meet Caleb!!

It was medicine to my soul to get to meet sweet Caleb and see the Davis's as parents. I can't believe he is already here and how precious he is. Seeing so many friends go through pregnancy the last couple years and seeing God's handiwork just gives me shivers up my spine. I can't believe we are old enough to have kids! I can't believe that God chooses to bless us mere humans with the gift of children, whether adopted or biological. Even though we don't have any of our own, Greg and I have really enjoyed getting to see friends bring babies into this world. It's one of life's greatest joys, I think.

After that we went to C&J's to see friends!! Our sweet friends Megan, Jeremy, and Allison threw us a party in honor of Greg's graduation and to officially send us off to PA. We had a great time getting to visit with so many of you and really wished that we could have frozen time and had an hour to spend with everyone there. I was thinking to myself, "I need another hour with her, and her, and her, and her..." So start lining up, ladies, because I want to talk to each of you for more than 5 minutes! :-)The time there solidified for us how deeply we love and miss our friends. And how rare these groups of friends really are. Our Sunday School class was such a tight knit group of people committed to one another in prayer and fellowship. And my work group was such a unique band of committed Christians and friends. How many people can say that they worked in a office full of people who prayed for one another and wanted God's best for each person in life and in work? We know we'll find new people to love on and get to know in PA, but it's hard to foresee anything as great as what we had to leave.

After C&J's we headed over to the Stewart's for ice cream sundaes and to settle in for the night. I got to hold and feed baby Addisen and stare into those sweet eyes for awhile. She's so cute!! And she's smiling up a storm- especially when Jeremy is around. I've never seen a girl respond to a daddy like that before. He's lucky to have her responding so much at 2 months! I got to have my girl time I have so missed with Megan and Allison before hitting the sack for another early day.

Friday we were up and giddy because it was GRADUATION DAY!! And GREG's 28th BIRTHDAY!! What a double whammy! Greg's parents beat us to Reed Arena and got awesome seats. I think all PhD families should get the best seats :-) The camera was taking pitiful shots at first since the lighting was poor in the graduate seating area. So I switched over to video mode when Greg got in line to walk the stage. Once I get the pictures on the computer, I will post the video so you can see! Poor guy was a little too tall to have the hooding process go seamlessly. But wow, what a sight for sore eyes to see this wonderful day finally come! My man is now Doctor Greg Paul. Hehe, I won't get tired of saying that for awhile.

After graduation, we went back to our old house on Barnwood where Uncle Robert now lives and he graciously opened his home for the family party. My Mom and Aunt Sue hosted the party with a huge spread of food, including North Carolina pork BBQ! YUMM-O. We had quite a crowd there with 2 moms, a dad, 2 sisters, 4 aunts, 2 uncles, 2 cousins, 1 grandma, 3 friends (and a partridge in a pear tree). It was great to have family come together again like that and for Greg to have so many people there to celebrate the big day. We made for quite a good yell group when his name was called on stage!

(This is getting long. I'm almost done!)

We left College Station and drove back to Houston to have dinner with Greg's family at Nino's. Again, YUMM-O! If you've never been to Nino's, you need to treat yourself to this sometime. We had a great dinner together and then got dropped off at my mom's again for the night. There we had a champagne toast to top off the day, got to set my mom's computer up with Skype, and had fun laughing about people's college memories.

All in all an amazing trip back and we look forward to getting back again as soon as possible. Christmas, maybe? Until then, stay in touch!!