graciousness

 Well, they're just plain special family.  

Sometimes life is really hard.  And then sometimes, God sneaks in some unmerited, unexpected graciousness and it blesses your socks off and humbles you profoundly...and that's Dodo and Bubba.

Having them love the girls and the girls love them (Sofie's been asking for "Dodo's Houshe" all day) is just the icing on the cake.  Or the penny for the pound.

They look really happy...but they were sad to see us go, I'm sure :)  It takes a few days for the house to stop ringing after a week with the Ayars :)

We love you both and are so thankful for gracious YOU in our lives, friends we can just be family with, and you love us anyway.

This is as close as we got to Niagra Falls....we only had 30 minutes of cushion to get to our missions dinner in New Bedford!  

 New Bedford Presbyterian Church has ALWAYS been God's graciousness to us, from the first moment they found us.  I have no idea why this special group of people in PA love us like they do, but they do.  We've never done a thing for them and they found us through the newspaper, but they PRAY for us, they follow us, they send us boxes, they love on our kids, they stay in touch, and they always spoil us when we're there!

 This year was no exception...the girls thought it was Christmas :)

We had an awesome dinner overlooking the whole county, and then all had a great time catching up, playing, worrying about Debi's need to arrange all the doll clothes in perfect piles.

The girls loved to hear stories about past visits with our New Bedford family, from before they were born to when I was pregnant, when they were newborns 'till now.

Jean and Ted's house was such a gorgeous backdrop to such a fun evening!

This is the New Bedford missions committee, some of whom have been on the committee longer than they can remember!

We're so blessed to have this special family in our lives.  When they tell you they love you and that they'll be praying, they've proved it. 

 Unmerited, unexpected graciousness that blesses our socks off and humbles us, that's Aunt Lori, June, Judi, Debi....That's New Bedford!  Thank you, friends!  We thank our God for you...

This afternoon we safely made it back to Columbus, Ohio, just in time to speak and preach at Livingston UMC tomorrow morning...hope to see you there!

Ayars Tour 2010

The Ayars Family summer tour has officially begun! Saturday evening we arrived at Aunt Lori's house late, and then spent Sunday with New Bedford Church. What a blessed group of joyful and encouraging family! This church joined one of our students our first year in Haiti, and has supported and prayed for and been in correspondence with Petit Sauvelt and his family ever since. It was wonderful to catch both groups up with each other, and to be with this precious family of ours!

Aunt Lori and Granny Smith shared their love, sweet corn, swimming pool and hospitality for the day!

Then we headed for Connelsville PA, where Lily re-met her great grandpa and Aunt Debby and Grandma Gladys and just had a wonderful time.

Maybe this is where she got some of that spirit from!

Then this afternoon we travelled to Somerset, PA, where we have the evening with my mom's parents, and will be joined tonight by Aunt Lisa and soon-to-be Uncle Adam...Tomorrow we are off to Kennywood with Aunt Patty!

The wagon Grandma and Grandpa got Lily is a hit! Poor Adam got to wheel Lily around the yard about 12 times tonight with Dad chasing behind...

Found this picture at grandma's house of my mom and I when I was Lily's age...Anybody else think this looks JUST like Lily???

Whew! So grateful for some much-longed-for time with family!