Africa and Arkansas

Evan and I have these wonderful friends, Preston and Erica. They are the parent's of Kendall's best buddy, Sawyer. I'm sure you've read about them on our blog before. :)

We met Erica and Preston at the new member's breakfast hosted by our church, but didn't actually hang out with them until over a year later. We would often see them in passing, and each time, Preston would say, "We've got to get together sometime soon." Last spring, we went over to their house for dinner. I remember I was a little apprehensive about how the evening would go--we didn't know them very well at all--but I figured we had nothing to lose. We ended up having the BEST time--Erica made lasagna (key to Evan's heart right there, Italian food!) and we talked about everything under the sun, just laughing and laughing. I will NEVER forget Preston telling the story about going to Disney with his high school girlfriend and just cracking up the entire time!

From that point, I'm not really sure how the friendship blossomed. I remember that Evan started his job at BT&R, and since his new office was so close to Preston and Erica's house, Erica volunteered to watch Kendall several days of the week for the remainder of my school year. I just know I was so thankful to finally have a friend that wasn't going anywhere (Preston and Erica are both from Louisville) and was honored that with all the friends and family they already had around, they still wanted to be friends with us. Erica's parents (aka Sawyer's Mimi and Papaw) have embraced us like their own, too, which is another prayer answered--to have family when we are so far from ours. Erica and Preston are probably the kindest and most sincere people I've ever met and will go out of their way to help anyone, and I'm just so thankful for them.

Preston is also going on the Africa trip. Evan is really excited to serve along-side his good friend (as well as another one of our good friends, Ryan) and it's just really neat to see how God put this team together. Often when Erica and I are together, our conversations turn to the Africa trip and how we are both a little nervous for our husbands to be on the other side of the world for a whole week, but ultimately know God has complete control.

This past Saturday, Evan and I invited our Arkansas friends, Matt and Lynsey over to enjoy a fabulous Petit Jean ham. Erica and Preston chose to spend part of their date night having dessert with all of us. The Africa trip of course was mentioned, which somehow turned to a conversation about what Erica and I were going to do while our husbands were gone. We started talking about how I really wanted to take Kendall to Fayetteville, but we just couldn't commit to the plane tickets since we didn't know how much out of pocket we would need to pay for Evan's trip AND the thought of driving that far, alone, made me sick to my stomach! Evan pipes up with, "Hey, Erica and Sawyer should just go to Arkansas with Leah and Kendall." Preston then said, "They should. They can just take my company car since the miles don't matter." Then Erica says, "We should! That would be so much fun. Let's do it."

Seriously, people. Who VOLUNTEERS to take a 10+ hour road trip with two toddlers, while her husband is on a different continent in a completely different hemisphere? Not to mention the fact that her family is HERE???? Of course, I've asked Erica about 5 gazillion times if she's sure about going and EVERY TIME she answers "Yes" with a big smile on her face. I'm blown away.

So, on July 24, when our guys head on a big plane to Africa, Erica, the girls and I will load up and head to Fayetteville. Am I excited??? Very much so! Arkansas (and Africa)...here we come!