Stepping Stones: 2013

Well last year seemed to speed by. The children are one year older (and I suppose we are too!), and they are bigger too of course. Some things we wanted to happen did, and others are left as yet undone, but other things have filled their places for now. We have seemed to go from one big thing straight into another. Yet those things have brought a life to our family which we are grateful for. Following are some of the highlights for us from 2013. It'll come in several parts as with all of the photos I've added in it's getting a bit large! It's a bit of a jump from two years ago. We hope you enjoy catching up on our family a little...

In May/June we thoroughly enjoyed a visit all the way from Austin, Texas from Michael's brother Will, his wife Trisha, and his lovely girls Naomi, Lydia and Alison. We had only ever met Naomi when she was a baby, and Trisha not many more times. It was a joy to meet nieces and cousins for the first time, to both establish and renew friendships, and to spend a bit of time together during their stay. Some of our girls are exactly the same age as theirs, with only a few weeks between them, yet they didn't really know each other. They have begun to be able to do that now. It was delightful to see those girls so naturally pair up and be chatting away like they'd known each other for years. Also to see the older girls doting on little Alison. We loved getting to know them all in person which really seems to be the only way to get to know someone's character and their ways of being. I loved the bits of time spent with Trisha too – a relationship I have longed to build. We all felt pretty sad to say goodbye again. It wasn't long enough for any of us, but we are very grateful for the time we have had together so far, and hope it will come around again a lot sooner than ten years next time!