Guess Who Was In Town?

We always love it when we can have the Pileggis up for a visit. Soon they will only be an hour away. Their house is almost finished. Joni & I will definitely have to be disciplined to work out a playdate more often than we get now. This every-great-once-in-a-while thing just isn't enough, in my opinion.

The whole gang

Precious Gianna

Julia

Lily

The original quartet. Look how they have grown!

Just look at these kids! Aren't they adorable? I want to gobble them up and slather them all with "joosey" kisses.

Time With A Faithful Friend

Our friend, Scott Aniol has been with us at Heritage briefly in the past to speak in our Wednesday evening service. We kept him up late yakking his ear off and peppering him with questions! I cannot say enough how much he has been a huge help and encouragement to us. Talk about an iron-sharpening-iron friend!

When we heard he was going to be back in New England, Taigen got on the phone with him, and with the help of Matt Fagan of Heritage Baptist Church in Windham, NH, we were able to procure him for a weekend! After much discussion between the three of them, we set up what we were going to call the Sound Worship Conference. Scott would preach all day for the conference on Saturday, teach Sunday school on Sunday, preach in the morning service & again in the evening service. It was a spiritually beneficial time for us. Not only could we listen to him several times, but we also got to spend a great deal of time with him in our home.

If you have not had Scott in your church, let me encourage you to talk with your pastor & ask him to contact him today and do whatever you can to have him come teach and preach on this very important topic of worship. On a personal level, no personal library would be complete without Scott's book Worship in Song and/or Sound Worship. They are both excellent reads. I highly recommend them.

Missionary In the House

One of the blessings of having a guest room that is somewhat disconnected from the main part of the house is that we can allow people an opportunity to stay in their own little world for a night or two. Another blessing is that we can house so many missionaries! We love building a personal relationship with them so that we can pray all the better for them. Having missionaries exposes the kids to different countries, the culture there, and the different needs that are there. We love it that they already have new friends their age in Austria, South Africa, and Cameroon.

We had the opportunity to house a friend of Jon and Janelle's the other day. Alex is going to be headed to India to help translate the Bible into a particular "state's" mother tongue. This is no small task! Basically, he's the Hebrew/Greek "expert" that will check the homework of those that live there and speak the language. It's a wonderful concept! He's working through a wonderful organization called Bibles International.

We enjoyed the company and the kids ate him up. He did "show and tell" with some items he's picked up on his journeys: puffer fish, seashells, and Bibles in several languages. The night before Alex left, I just had to snap up a photo of their new-found friend.

A Picture for Posterity's Sake

When the Pileggis come up from MA, we always try to get a picture of our children together. Both Marshall and Shaylen have pictures on their dresser or bookshelf of them with Enzo, way back before Julia was in the picture (literally). I love looking at their little hands and chubby cheeks. Well, Marshall and Shaylen have grown to be sure and the Pileggi clan has grown as well.  We now have Julia and Lily, and soon we'll have Pileggi Baby #4! We enjoyed our visit with our extended family and had fun sharing and early Christmas with them. (Special Note: Notice Lily's outfit? It was Shaylen's when she was her age.)

The Week Prior to Vacation

In the week leading up to our vacation, we were able to house the Pileggis so that Jason wouldn't have to deal with the hour and fifteen minute commute to Dover. It worked out well because our schedule was more free. Since Enzo is being homeschooled as well, it worked out that Joni and I schooled in the  morning and then the kids would play in the afternoon. Marshall and Shaylen blitzed through their schooling. Christmas vacation was in sight and they wanted to get everything accomplished by Friday.

Surprise! Surprise!

The kids knew we were planning a HUGE surprise for the end of the month. Little did they know that when they woke up on Oct. 1st there would be a new set of guests in our guest room. These were not missionaries, guest speakers, New England friends, or long-lost friends from college. It was family: Dad and Cathy!

Cathy had decided to surprise Dad for his birthday with tickets to come and see us. He found out that he would be coming here on Sept. 29th. When she told him that they would be coming out for a visit he asked, "When are we going?" She replied, "Tomorrow!" Guess he packed quickly, huh? The last time Dad and Cathy had been to New England was when the twins were born so we were super excited that they were coming.

It was originally going to be a surprise for me too, but I put two and two together and figured things out (I know, surprising). Plus, Cathy was figuring that if I was like her, I would want to know ahead of time so that I could plan and clean. Boy was she right!

The kids woke up on Friday morning wanting to know what the surprise was and when they would find out. I told them, "This morning." We got up and got ready and then I told the kids that the surprise was up in the classroom. They ran upstairs and were literally speechless when they saw Dad and Cathy standing there. It didn't take long for them to be bouncing off the walls!

Cathy had emailed a few ideas of things that she thought she and Dad would want to go and see, so we took Friday to plan and look at the weather too. We decided to do Plimoth Plantation Saturday since it would be a day with warmer, drier weather. The kids were so excited to show Grandma and Grandpa all of the things that they had learned from just a few weeks ago. I love this picture of Dad above with a Native American football! Who knew?!? It was a long day, but we were already enjoying making lots of memories.

Special Guests

This past week (Sun.-Wed.) we've had special meetings at our church. The team was very large (a family of 7, another married couple and six single team members). We were able to open up the Joos Bed and Blessing for the married couple and they enjoyed tucking themselves up in their own private room for a few days. It is such a blessing to be able to make our guests comfortable. Marshall and Shaylen enjoyed getting to know the Rolands. It was also a special treat to do school at the kitchen table for a week (since our classroom was occupied).