A Big Week and a Passing of the Baton

 The couple weeks leading up to Adam coming home from his mission were a bit chaotic.  Not only did I get all sorts of bees in my bonnet about some long-ignored house projects, but we also had guests in town and lots of hiccups with the house projects.   

Despite the hiccups,  we did manage to purchase a new dining room table, a rug, some new plants, some pictures for the wall, and got Adam's room ready.   Perhaps I'll do a whole post on these improvements eventually, but for now I am just mentioning them....

We did manage to get this banner hung up....

Spent as much time as we could with Matt, Anna, and Ben visiting from Maryland.... 

and also McKenzie, who was on break between summer and fall terms at BYU.   

Then on August 21st, this handsome guy arrived home after serving for 2 years + a week in the Portland Oregon mission!    I was soooooo antsy before he got home and we were all so very, very excited to have him home again.   Matt, Anna, Ben, McKenzie, Heather, and my Mom all came to the airport to welcome him.   Then our dear friends, the Van Dams from our homeschool co-op in Virginia, happen to walk by just a few minutes before Adam's arrival, so they joined us too!  

Then, on the way home from the airport, we stopped by the Taylorsville Temple and started the next leg of our missionary family journey, when Ellie opened the mission call she'd just received the day before.    Submitting her papers and waiting for her call had been a much longer process than she'd anticipated (thanks to her health issues and a series of comic mishaps that were 100% out of her control), so the timing was different than she expected, but serendipitously beautiful--almost a handing off the baton in a way.  

She'll be serving in the California-Ventura Mission (Spanish speaking) starting Home MTC just before Christmas.   She's had  a journey in life that's been marked with challenges and I know she'll be an amazing force for good as she sacrifices time away from family, friends, and schooling to stretch herself in this way. We are so proud of her decision to serve, but are happy that we get a few more months together first.   Yay for missionaries! 💕

****************************