Sometimes it seems as though our time in Italy was in a previous life. Our life today looks so different. There are many things I miss about our time there; The pace of the culture, the detachment from materialism, walking everywhere, taking the train to new adventures, but mostly I miss living in such small and close community. It wasn’t always easy to share your lives so closely with others, but it knit together friendships with people that are long lasting.
This past weekend, we were blessed to spend time with some of our closest friends from our time in Northern Italy. It was exciting to have Katie move to San Diego a few months ago. She’s a great girl, with a servant’s heart and it doesn’t hurt that she’s one of the few people Meadow allows to hold her. Katie, her son Garrett and the Daugereau family stopped by for dinner, along their tour of Deputation.
The Daugereau family (although at the time they were only Josh and Carmela,) played a great part during our time in Italy. Carmela attempted to teach us Italian. Josh helped us learn the ropes of the mission. Together they modeled how to be a young married couple, loving and serving Jesus. They now have three girls of their own, similar in age to ours.
It was a lot of fun getting all the kids and families together. The girls got along great and spent their time getting out every dress-up item we own. They had also had a little dance party with the Kinect and a pizza picnic on the floor.
I’ve never known Josh and Mike to get together without finding a way to compete in something, from Ping-Pong to chugging obscene amounts of water. This visit was no exception. A Ping-Pong rematch was in store, with no table to be found, a virtual match would have to do. I am happy to declare Mike retained his belt as Ping-Pong champ.
We look forward to them returning stateside and getting to hang out again and share some more friendly competition.
