lunch with Hannah

Several weeks ago Ian, the littles and I had a special lunch date.

Natalie for one could hardly believe her eyes when she saw who it was...after all, we did part ways with "our Hannah" in Changsha back in September.

We were blessed to share a meal with three-eighths of the Samuels family!

Just who are these folks?

Well, Hannah spent a crazy week with us as we not so gracefully transitioned from the M6 to the M7.  She helped us find amazing food (I still long to return to our little pink restaurant and have some vegetables), served as a 24 hour translator, and was an insight into a culture that we respect but have yet to understand.  In addition, she was resourceful and thoughtful and was an amazing blessing to our family.  To this day Natalie sees her picture and says, "That my Hannah?  She live in China with me.  I like her!"

And dad and eldest brother ~ Brian and Jeremy ~ of the family...well, they were part of Daniel's story before we were.  They knew him back in the time he was called Jamison, when his color was primarily blue before heart surgery and through his days of physical therapy to catch up on developmental milestones.  As the years have passed, Daniel can't quite seem to place them, but it is clear that he feels a connection on an instinctual level.

jeremy is the pied piper with kids!

This is a family (along with the other five members, an amazing mom, another cool brother and three sweet spirited younger sisters) that is near and dear to our hearts.  We're pretty sure that these are folks we'd love to be in community with on a regular basis.  There's just the issue of an ocean between us...

Anyway, Hannah and Jeremy are both in the states to take some classes for a season, and Brian came over with his oldest kids to help them get settled into their digs with friends.  During a brief time in NC to visit family, they managed to squeeze us in for a lunch date.  We were honored indeed.

We laughed and chatted and reconnected.  All too soon though they needed to get back on the road to help prepare for a big family dinner.

you really have to go now?

But we sure enjoyed our little piece of time with some amazing folks.  We got the scoop on the latest of what's going on up in their corner of the world.  It's exciting stuff y'all!  We'll be following their work at New Day North and if you like to see miracles happening in the lives of beautiful orphaned children, I suggest you do too!

Real time 5/07/14...better late than never, right?