7 Quick Takes Friday - #27

It's time for 7 Quick Takes.  Good things come in sevens, or so Jennifer would have us believe.  :)

1. Last weekend, we traveled to visit the family who took Doug in when he was in a difficult situation in high school.  His youth pastor offered Doug a place to live (at age 16/17) for several years, and he became a part of their family.  It is so good to reconnect with people who have invested their lives in us!
   
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2. While there, we also visited with a (relatively) newer friend of mine, Emily.  This is a pic of our 2 families at a little pizza joint that surprised us all with pretty tasty pizza.  Last time I saw her was just 3 years ago, and she and Phil were engaged.  I was pregnant with Silas... so since seeing each other, we've had 4 kids between us.  We now have 7 kids in our 2 families.  She predicted that next time we get together, we'll have 11.  I'm just documenting it here-- she said it, not me... and thus, the impetus is on her, and not me, to fulfill that tall order, right? :)
   
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3. This weekend is our 10-year college reunion.  It's been a wild and wonderful 10 years (really, for me it's been 10 & 1/2 since I graduated early).  More than ever, I am amazed at the adventures that God writes for our lives.  12 years ago, I could not have imagined the life I currently have.  He is good and writes different stories than we would write for ourselves, but it is so much better to have His will than our own.  As one of my favorite hymns says, "has thou not seen how thy desires e'er have been granted by what He ordaineth?"
   
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4. We recently visited a museum that has a special "touch room" just for kids, filled with large climbable statues of fairy tale characters.  Somehow, my husband got the rare, much-coveted picture: all five kids looking, smiling, and looking cute.  :)
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5. Our return tickets are dated for January.  And now we're in October.  Our time here is wrapping up, but I'm actually getting a little excited.  Just like what I wrote in #3, I know that God has this great adventure He's writing for us.   I want to grow to be a wiser child of God who lives in the awareness that HE knows my needs better than I do.   I want to walk in contentment and peace on the road HE sets out for me... even if it wouldn't have been the one I'd written for myself.
   
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6. In the meantime, I'll enjoy backyards and bacon and root beer and family and good beef and Tex-Mex and speaking only English and bookstores and coupons and meet-ups with friends and amazing sales and being able to sing harmonies as loud as I want in corporate worship and Chick-Fil-A and not standing out in a crowd and holidays with relatives and continual opportunities for spiritual growth with other believers and, and, and... and I'll fight for contentment when those things are once again (mostly) out of reach.
   
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7. I'm still loving Weight Watchers.  One thing I really love about it is that it's one thing I won't have to give up when we head back overseas.  Their online tool (e-tools) for tracking will still be fully available to me (yee-haw!), and so I can keep going with the program if I haven't reached my goal by the time I leave... and even if I have, I can keep up with the program in order to maintain.  I'm pumped about it.

So what's going on in your world?