Old stomping grounds

Two weeks ago Harrison and I got to go on a road trip back to his alma mater at Lenoir-Rhyne University for homecoming. This was Harrison's first time to return since graduation and first time to ever watch the bears play from the stands. It was also a first time to see his coaches and some former players since graduating.

We drove up Thursday afternoon and met a wonderful family who graciously housed us for the weekend in their basement. Thursday night we had dinner, went to visit Matt and Sabrina (some friends who are currently raising support to go to New York with Cru), and then Harrison got to join the Cru weekly men's Bible Study for Juniors and Seniors. Since we both graduated 3 years ago, the Senior guys were freshman Harrison's senior year and I loved watching and hearing stories of how he impacted so many of their lives. Even younger guys would come up and meet Harrison and respond in excited shock of "wow, I've met the legend" haha but seriously. I am so honored to be married to a guy who left such a huge mark on a college campus as Harrison did.

On campus in front of the LR bear!

Friday we were blessed to get to eat breakfast with one of the now Seniors who Harrison strongly impacted and his girlfriend. I got to meet Rai the summer that Harrison and I were dating in the States and I just love how much he laughs and how Harrison's cheesy jokes never get old to him (or me, mostly). The summer I visited Harrison's fam for the first time Rai drove down to visit and meet me and between Harrison and his dad we were both aching from laughter the whole time. During the breakfast we got to enjoy the laughter of Harrison's discussion with our waitress from Minnesota and Harrison talking about the "pastor there he's known for several years." I of course didn't immediately catch it like Rai did as he teared up from laughter but soon was explained as the lady left and Rai asked, "You were talking about John Piper weren't you?" Gosh I love how Harrison often does things like this with people at restaurants and stores, always looking at their nametag first so that when he speaks to them he starts with their name and asks them how they are. It's such a great quality of his.

Rai plays baseball for LR and we just couldn't resist taking photos with the famous sign of our famous/homecoming court/baseball playing friend!

After breakfast we got the pleasure of going to the house that Harrison lived in and waking his friend Parker up at 10:30am. Parker is now the center for the football team like Harrison and I so enjoyed hearing many stories from him throughout the weekend. We then walked around some of campus, getting to see it and then headed to the downtown of Hickory to meet two of our incredible friends, Sarah and Zach for lunch.

Posing with Parker after the game!

Sarah and Zach were both in East Asia with us and each lived in the same cities as us, Sarah lived near me and instantly became a great friend to confide in and go-to for anything and Zach was near Harrison and an incredible friend to him, too. The two of them started dating this past year in EA, not long after we got engaged and we enjoyed flights together to see our guys and the laughter and joy Sarah and Zach always bring you. It worked out perfectly that Sarah (who is from Orlando) was up visiting Zach as we were coming to the town right next to where he lives and we were able to arrange a lunch date of catching up with each other and great fellowship. Of course as always, you wish for more time with them but we were beyond blessed by the time we had and a small piece of our EA home that we're all missing.

 Love these two so much!

After lunch we got to go to the Athletic department to visit Harrison's former coaches and get to meet them. Coach Boyd was Harrison's offensive line coach and we spent much time in his office sharing with him about our lives in East Asia and hearing about the football team from him. We also got to see some of the players as they met "the legendary Harrison Smith" and see Chandler who was one of our groomsmen in the wedding. Chandler is now serving on the team as a graduate assistant coach.

Chandler also has a famous sign on Campus as last year LR's football team was Conference champs!

After visiting with coaches and friends we then drove out to a mountain area and hiked up a trail to a beautiful sight seeing area. It was perfect weather and beautiful skies!

Here's Harrison on top of a chimney along the trail

Us at the top of the mountain!

After our hike we drove back to Hickory for a good ole date dinner of home style cooking at the Roasted 'Tater restaurant. It was very good and such a fun atmosphere.

Saturday was tailgating and the game. This was Harrison's first time of being a spectator at the game and of tailgating. We tailgated with one of the pastors of the area and many of Harrison's friends who were seniors or like us had come back for the game.

 I was excited to get to see Amy as she and I met the summer we were dating that I visited Harrison and his family.

 Coach Boyd's wife came and found us at the game and we got to get a picture together. She and coach Boyd have also recently gotten married in Vegas by Elvis, he's a huge Elvis fan!

Here we are at the game. We of course sat down low where we could hear and see the action of the sidelines and Harrison got to listen in as coach Boyd would talk to the O line on the sideline benches. LR won 51-6 with 570 yards of rushing in the game!

Finally as we left, we walked through campus for Harrison to get a picture with the Martin Luther statue and see a few final landmarks on campus before grabbing dinner and hitting the road home.

Family vacation part 3... East Asian blessings

Being back in the states these past few months have been great and we are loving our ministries at Hocutt baptist Church that we are both getting to be a part of but still we both miss our home a lot. It's exciting to know that Lord willing we will be back soon but at the same time it's a hard wait to go through and daily I have to give my anxiousness and broken heart over to the Lord, trusting in His plan.

Thanks to the internet, we have both kept in touch with all of our friends and hear from them on a weekly basis. Some friends we have even gotten to video chat with and that has been incredible. Helping them with speeches and homework, seeing their new haircuts, meeting new friends, it's all helpful to get to still be a part of friends lives but sad to long to be with them and know we must wait and trust God's plan.

Just yesterday, as I read my latest email from my best friend (Martha), I was brought to tears as she told me great news of new friends and shared pictures, sharing she had been to my old apartment and how it made her miss me even more. I would give anything to hop on a plane and go visit her for just a day and wish so much that I could. Now, how does this relate to our family vacation? Just read and see....

While eating dinner at Sea n suds, a favorite on the beach seafood restaurant of ours, the doors of the restaurant opened to have kids come pouring in. Now these weren't just normal kids.... these were what we think we counted to be over 26 kids belonging to 4 families we think! Now yes that is a whole bunch of kids to give birth to but you see, about half of the kids were ADOPTED!!! Not only adopted but most of them adopted from our East Asia home!!!! Harrison and I not only have a love for East Asia but also a love for adoption and hope to one day be able to adopt ourselves and this brought extreme joy to both of us!

 Harrison snuck some pics of one of the tables as we left.

As we oohed and ahhed over all of the kids, one of the mothers (who has 6 adopted from East Asia) turned around to apologize to us if they disrupt our dinner. Disrupt? we wanted to join them! I then shared with her that we both have lived the past two years in East Asia and are planning to go back soon and how exciting to us it was to see them. It definitely brought us a piece of home! She was beyond excited to hear this and as we continued to talk and share both of our loves for East Asia we discovered something that only God himself could have orchestrated knowing how much I was missing home.

Her husband had just returned from a trip to an orphanage in East Asia! Now, not just any orphanage....  An orphanage in the city that I lived in! The same orphanage that our ministry had just partnered with last May to start going to and serving by playing with the children. Her husband had not only been to that orphanage but also when he went, some of our students joined to translate and help and it just so happens that Martha was one of those students!

I wanted to cry I was so excited! I asked her husband if he met her and he said that he did. I then shared that she was my best friend and had shared with me about her experience at the orphanage with them just a few weeks ago. We continued to exchange familiar names of people we both knew through that and were all just in shock and excitement to get to meet each other. What an incredible God we serve! Family and relax time was a great part of our vacation but this was by far the greatest. God knew exactly what I needed and made it happen. I wish we would have asked and taken a picture with the family but we did exchange contact info and plan to stay in contact so maybe one day we will. We hope to one day set an example like them by showing God's love to orphans and adopting ourselves.

family vacation part 2... the bull ride

We returned to Selma from the beach on Sunday just in time for me to catch a 24-hour bug of fever and nausea, but gladly it passed just in time for us to venture to my favorite event each fall... the Central Alabama Fair! Every year dating back to when I was a young girl, in early October my family would venture to Selma's Central Alabama Fair that the Lions club puts on. This year I learned that my grandfather was actually a part of bringing the fair to Selma back in the day as he was on the Lions club executive board. I thought that was really neat to learn that such a wonderful childhood memory was made possible by him!
There's just nothing like riding fair rides until you get sick (or feel sick), eating caramel apples and funnel cakes, playing with different animals, watching beauty pageants and exclusive only to the Central Alabama Fair.... COZY DAWGS!!!!

What's a cozy dawg? you might ask. Well, it's just a more refined corn dog, made with Selma's zeigler red hotdogs and pancake batter and they are WAY better than just your average corn dog!

 After our cozy dawgs we went to the petting zoo....

 This same picture my mom took last year and conveniently the duck pooped on Mallory and Evelyn as they were taking it.....

 We even fed baby calves milk!

Harrison wrangled a baby pig....

After feeding and holding the animals, Harrison was dying to go over to the new attraction of bull riding. He rushed over and asked a lady jokingly how many tickets it costs to ride. She then responded that it was free and I immediately saw the glimmer in his eye. After some time commenting on wanting to ride, he committed and off to ride he went. He traded shoes with a guy and geared up and before we knew it he was being announced and the gate was opening. 3 seconds later, the thrill was over and he could now say he'd ridden a bull!

And here's a video for you all to see....

 Then it was time to ride all the rides.... Due to my sickness I only rode down the slide with Evelyn and then took her to all the kid rides but it was just as much fun to her as I remember it being to me as a kid.

 This roller coaster was my FAVORITE as a kid and it's still around! 

Of course we had to stop and pay $5 for our 20 ping pong balls to try and win Evelyn some fish!

 Which we did win! I made two and Ron made one.... however we only got to get 2 fish :(

We finished the ride and got a funnel cake and a caramel apple before heading home

Such a fun night at the Central Alabama fair!

Family vacation part 1

Last week was our first trip back to Alabama since the wedding for a fun filled week of great time with my family going to the beach, picking up wedding gifts, ordering our china, celebrating my niece Evelyn's 2nd birthday, and going to my favorite start of fall event.... the Central Alabama fair in my hometown of Selma! We left Monday, September 24th after lunch and after Harrison had finished some work at the church.

 So excited to be Alabama bound!!!

We got to Selma late that night after stopping in Atlanta for dinner with two of our fellow STINTer friends, Anna Blocker and Meg Terry. Such a blessing to get to see them and have a small East asia reunion as we are both missing it so much. Tuesday was spent visiting my grandmother, who recently has had a stroke and although she can't form many words she is improving daily, having lunch with my grandparents on my mom's side, picking up wedding gifts and ordering our china which you all must know was overwhelming to Harrison!

Here's a glimpse at my Christmas china.... Maggie Bagwell "Colors" charger and dinner plate with Lenox 12 days of Christmas dessert plates on top! 

Wednesday, we were off to the BEACH!!!! My parents, sisters with their husbands and Evelyn all went to Orange beach for our family vacation for a long weekend. It was such a blast and as you can imagine always entertaining with a sweet almost 2 year old in the bunch. 

 Evelyn! She will be a big sister in January! We are so ready for Collins to get here!

We had such a great time on the beach each day: playing in the sand, throwing baseballs and frisbees around, taking on the waves, resting and splashing around in the pool. 

Most nights we would venture out to eat at our favorite restaurants and get some good seafood. Sadly we don't have Ron in this picture as it was taken the night he drove down :(

The guys also went fishing for two mornings and caught some great fish, which we got to have to eat our last night but I decided I would let Harrison have the joy of sharing pictures and stories from his big catches in another blog coming soon....

Finally, Sunday morning we got to celebrate Evelyn's 2nd birthday with her with breakfast at Tacky Jack's before hitting the road driving home. Harrison and I had the pleasure of driving Evelyn home with us, singing "The wheels on the bus" "Bumblebee" and many more was so much fun with this cutie!

 Happy 2nd Birthday Evelyn! Sad we'll be missing her Noah's ark birthday party this Sunday, but we did get to have a glimpse while at the fair and petting zoo.... coming in part 2!