Our home away from home

On the road again! Who needs carseats anyways?

A perfect Fall day on the Quad

Our little Duke meets Duke Dog!

Noah enjoyed the game and somehow fell asleep just before the halftime marching band show

There's nothing quite like Harrisonburg in the Fall. Last weekend exceeded our expectations for a beautiful visit. We had the joy of being hosted by Justin and Jacquie at Chez Prather. We felt so at home with sweet friends and their 2 cats (Tang and Lady Grey). We got to visit some of our professors and captivate many college students by the site of a baby on campus, not to mention one wearing a pumpkin sweater! Now, don't think we parade Noah around just to get attention, although that is fun. His pumpkin outfit is simply one of the warmest things he owns, and it was surely cool and crisp outside this past weekend.
We attended a Madison Project concert in TDU on Friday night, which Noah enjoyed so much he decided to sing along a times - nobody seemed to mind, besides who could tell a baby in a pumpkin sweater to be quiet? Saturday, we got the chance to go to the Homecoming game vs. William & Mary, courtesy of Linda Allen, a colleague of Michael's from Gunston Middle School. She and her husband graciously offered us two of their season tickets - what a wonderful gift!JMU won and the Marching Royal Dukes played a fabulous show - now that's a sweet homecoming game.
That night, we got to briefly attend the missions conference dinner being hosted at our former church, Covenant Presbyterian. We saw many friends that were in town for the conference including Bill Allen, a missionary in Cuzco, Peru. We got to hear him share a little bit about his ministry in the Andes as a pediatrician - what an encouragement that was.
Sunday we attended church at Covenant where we witnessed our good friends' baby, Noa Noll get baptized. What a blessing it was to be reminded of how the Lord treasures His covenant children and calls us as parents to shepherd them and raise them by His Word and the power of His Spirit, for we couldn't possibly do it on our own. We rejoice in having so many friends with babies right now, that we can challenge and hold each other accountable to being parents who fear the Lord and want to raise up our kids by His Grace. After the service, where Dan Iverson (Sara-Beth's dad) preached on the topic of missions minded families, Eric and Sara-Beth invited us, along with their LARGE (c:) family and many other friends over for Noa's baptism reception. There again, we got to enjoy sweet fellowship with friends. What an encouragement this weekend was.