One thing about not staying around an area as much as you used to, is that we don’t always see the differences in our loved ones around us. One of these pictures is from before we had hit the road, and the other picture is just a year later. The differences to us are astounding, while the differences to you may not be as big. When we’re not seeing each other on an everyday basis, we don’t tend to take people for granted, so we savor the time that we have together.

It is definitely more enjoyable to have time with family than to not have time with family. But when the time that you have can be more intentional and more purposeful it is just more appreciated by everybody.  Although our nephew and his family, the number of children have grown in the time that we were gone, our nephew and his wife are still the same people. While they have grown as individuals, we have also watched them blossom and grow as a family in a unique way. We’ve watched them go through COVID. We’ve watched them go through transplanting to a whole different state where there’s no family. We’ve watched them now transfer to a whole different state and start a new business. And we’ve watched them grow in a different way when we’re communicating a little less frequently, but more intentionally. 

Instead of meaningless chit chat, we have deeper conversations. Although it can be sometimes frustrating trying to find time to get together when everybody is so busy, and our time back home is so short, it’s all so much more meaningful. The thing that’s also really nice is when we were so busy wrapped up in our own lives, in our own worlds, with our families and doing so much and whatnot, it prevented us from traveling to see the rest of our family that was all across this country.

So now we get the opportunity to go see the rest of our family and we have seen our California family much more than we ever did before. This year, we’re hoping to have the opportunity to see our North Carolina family much more. We’ve seen our Florida family much more and soon we’ll have some in the Midwest as well and we’re looking forward to that. Although some of you may be much better at keeping in contact, even through COVID and doing zoom calls or FaceTime or social media, we were always those that did better when it was in person. 

It’s encouraging to us because we get to see not only the kids grow up and us as individuals and many of our siblings. And I’ve got a lot of them all across this great country, I have 13 brothers and sisters, Kurt has 4. But it’s also a blessing to be able to just sit and be able to have that time and not feel rushed and be intentional about that time.

So hopefully you too can be intentional this year as the year is winding down and we’re moving on through this great country, maybe you’ll set aside some time to be intentional about going and seeing some family. Maybe you haven’t seen in a while or to connect in person instead of just over zoom or over the phone call? But to actually connect in person, it’s much more meaningful as humans, we get a much greater connection that way. But it also can be limited, right? It doesn’t have to be a whole week; it could just be three days. But it’s still much more important to have that actual physical connection and stay connected in a very real, tangible way. 

So, we hope you do. We hope you enjoy time with your family this year and loved ones, and you’re much more intentional and purposeful about it as 2022 continues to scream by us.