these are a couple of the dearest people in the world to us. they will be moving back home to eastern europe next year and, though we are so glad they can move home to be with family, we dare not think about how this will break our hearts. for now we are cherishing time with them and dreaming of visiting them in their native land.
i have had the good pleasure of taking a couple of family portraits this Christmastime...very informal and geared low for my level of expertise. i'm learning so much each time i do something like this and on both these occasions learned some valuable lessons about lighting (one is natural/outdoors and the other with a flash).
despite my incompetence these are some good looking families.
had some kids over last night. it was part-michael-jackson-dance-party (isaac is currently obsessed with the former king of pop), part-old-fashioned-christmas-story-time. here's the crew.
our tree (a ceder harvested by farmers porter and koch at three springs farm) went up today. smells and looks like christmastime in our living room. not only that but it was our first snow today for this 09/10 winter season (isaac was especially thrilled). 'tis the season...
it has been tooooo long since our last post. sorry about that. it has been a beautiful and full month. here are some illustrated highlights. (see our flickr page for more pictures)
we built a path along the east side of our home..here's sherry working hard.
we celebrated thanksgiving at the Samsons house with a wonderful crowd of people including one of our neighbors, Ms D and Dino, Aida, and Tarik (here's sherry, D, Aida, and Geoff)
we kicked off the series of Advent sunday gatherings at communality.
we're making time to enjoy downtown morning walks on these brisk Fall mornings...here's isaac and sherry leaping across the street.
the autumnal leaves have fallen to the ground but God still sends us color to enjoy in our backyard.
we celebrated the first east end (our neighborhood) tree lighting with friends, neighbors, and city officials. here's sherry (below) with our neighbor, Judge enjoying some hot apple cider at the tree lighting.
...and last night we enjoyed fellowship with several hundred people at an event promoting the voting rights of former felons (in kentucky, even after you have served your time, it is very difficult to regain the right to vote - Virginia is the only other state with such laws). it was a heavenly gathering of choirs and solo singers giving thanks to God and promoting restoration and forgiveness.
over the past week we have had the privilege of hosting some of our favorite people in the world. First we had John and Glena Smith of Melbourne come and stay...they are life-long family friends of Geoff's family as well as co-workers in the founding of Communality over 10 years ago. lot's of catching up about family and culture, mission and ministry, not to mention the very particular pleasure of face-to-face meandering conversation in the "australian language". here's glena, geoff, and john at our favorite bakery, sunrise.
yesterday another dear friend and mentor arrived to stay with us - Mary Fisher. Mary lives and works in Sydney. here she is at our dining room table with Sherry and some other guests (from England and Columbus, OH).
as the east end project liaison for the legacy center, sherry has been working with a local non-profit to host a grassroots leadership course. last week they met at the city council building. the vice mayor and several council representatives were there to greet the students and talk about how local government works. it has been an important exercise in civic engagement and a key learning experience for those eager to make a difference in this city. many of the participants are neighbors and friends from our east-end neighborhood. (sherry is standing on the far left).
here sherry and isaac cuddle in the back row of the council chambers. and here's sherry talking with the vice mayor.
last week we received the beautiful present of handmade kitchen furniture. Sherry's dad (Paul) is a gifted furniture maker and crafted this piece from an idea-sketch Sherry had. after our bathroom/kitchen disaster of the summer '08 we made do with a potting bench from the shed as our kitchen countertop. now we have this magnificent piece to use and enjoy. thanks Papa!
we added a family member this week. sherry's sister had been fostering a dog in Birmingham Alabama for an animal shelter. she told us about Lilly and after much prayer, discussion, worry, discussion (we talk a lot), and excitement we decided to adopt her (the dog, not sherry's sister...Dacy already has a family). Lilly is an 18 month-old Kelpie - an Australian cattle dog. how could we say no? she just weaned her litter of 9 pups and has been spade so there's no more of that business. she is house trained and a very sweet natured puppy - and hardly sheds any hair (very important). isaac is over the moon and we can't help but love her too. here she is enjoying the warm Fall sunshine today.
