Extended family

It was a privilege to have three extra WHM kids with us over the weekend: Tim who grew up in Granada where his parents are the Spain team leaders; Libby who spent her early years here in Bundi until her dad became the Director of Ministries for WHM in Philadelphia; and Acacia who just left last year as her family established the new team in Sudan. I marveled at how our boys connected to Tim, their boarding school/parents as team leaders/TCK-ness providing a deep bond. This afternoon Libby and Acacia walked in and eagerly accepted rice and sombe (cassava leaf) I was re-heating, the familiar foods of their childhood. A few minutes later I heard Melen saying "my ma ma ma ma ma ma", a long exclamatory phrase, and wondered if she was OK, but it was just that she had walked up to the house and seen LUKE for the first time in months, and could not believe how TALL he was. Whoever drops by rejoices with us in the growing and maturing of kids they've known since they were infants, and it is fun to experience that (something we would have a harder time finding in the US!). I'm so thankful to welcome all these kids "home".