Blog Category: “family”

and so it goes

By admin,

“ian, do you remember that today is when your dad died three years ago?”
“he was a good man.”
that’s all that needs to be said and all that needed to be said. he was a good man. and we miss him.
love
i&l

  Filed under: "family", "the dross"
  Comments: 15

37

By admin,

happy 37 years to our incredible parents. thank you for teaching us that love never gives up. we won’t know until heaven the impact that your covenant has made on our own. 

we love you.
love
i&l

  Filed under: "family", "marriage"
  Comments: None

8/28

By admin,

supposedly it takes a village to raise a child. we think it takes one to build a healthy marriage too. gigi and pa paid for our dinner. my parents paid for our room for the surgery. mary watched the kids so that ben and jan could come be with us for dinner. and so even though our anniversary was spent with day-before-surgery injections, we had a wonderful evening escape. even baby scarlett met us in pittsburgh for a lovely outdoor dinner and jazz concert. and now scarlett is officially the cutest fifth wheel.
and we casually mentioned our anniversary to the waitress, who kindly brought us this, pictured sideways.
for all the ways that our family served us, ian says “they’re selfless” and it shows him that God is good.
one final anniversary celebration awaits us – setting off our two lanterns for the number of years we’ve been married when we head back up to our wedding spot next weekend.
for now, we’re off to a week on a lake with the whiteley’s. 
we’re continuing to pray for encouraging test results next week and that ian’s wounds heal quickly.
thank you, always
I&L

  Filed under: "family", "marriage", "work/life"
  Comments: None

emptier

By admin,

our house is getting emptier, ready to move. my family spent the whole weekend with us, packing boxes, cleaning under beds, putting up the original curtains and light fixtures, doing laundry. they’re such a gift to us.

  Filed under: "family", "work/life"
  Comments: None

a collection of friends and memories

By admin,

after a day of packing up boxes and tubs, we had a small group of friends over as a last party at our rental house. our good friends mike and jocelyn ordered these lanterns as a tribute to our wedding and first two years of marriage spent at this house. my family surprised us at our wedding by buying dozens of the lanterns that we all set off, followed by great fireworks. it was only appropriate to have them at this party.
we have many, many, many good memories here and are sad to leave. but hopeful that the work God will do through our book will have eternal impact, which makes this a very small cost. we will keep working on packing over the next few weeks and be moved before the end of the month.
thankful for family, and friends, even when we look weird and awkward.
love
i&l

  Filed under: "family", gratefulness
  Comments: None

a good little surprise

By admin,

after a somewhat stressful weekend, learning about the melanoma and dealing with unexpected flooding in our area, we had a great surprise treat. our roommate who moved out just one month ago was driving through the area on her way back from a weekend trip and was easily convinced that afternoon to stop in and spend the night with us, like the old days. it was simply wonderful. a great sister to us. i wish tonight was last night again.
we also got to skype with bethi and kbob and hang out with these little ones.
and jen got to love on this little dear. 
blessed by our family.
i&l

  Filed under: "family", "work/life", gratefulness
  Comments: None

what do i expect, from vacation?

By admin,

this week we head off to the lake for vacation with Ian’s extended family. it is an incredible place, with amazing family and tons of memories.

leading up to the lake, I’m praying for godly expectations. It may be super relaxing, or it may stretch me as we care for Ian. There are guaranteed to be tons of laughs and growth of our souls. but more than a tan and experimenting with our new juicer, I want to be looking forward to knowing God more. sitting on the kayak, floating on a tube with Ian, or just talking to our family, I want to clearly see God in it.

happy vacation season.

love
i&l

  Filed under: "family", "work/life"
  Comments: None

another bittersweet goodbye, for now

By admin,

these two faces are soon to be very missed, as they travel across the country to a new home in a much sunnier state. our little brother and my dear friend, who became my sister, will leave a huge gap in our lives when they board the plane with just their suitcases and hopes.
their story is beautiful – settling far away to help beth’s health and caleb committing his life to helping her in any way that he needs to. and even in its beauty, we are so sad to see them part. 
caleb is with us 40 hours a week, a constant servant who is also incredibly gifted in his music. of caleb, ian says he is faithful to his church, his wife and his brothers. caleb has been an incredible caregiver to ian, helping him to do things that neither of them want to do, but doing it without complaint.
bethi is a dear fellow sufferer. she has lived in pain for too many years and without description, understands our bad days and the days that could be better. she is the sister that can just be with me, without needing to talk or host. she carries with her a beautiful gift of capturing life in her photography. she knows her God. she also has a lot of sass, which erupts at the best times.
most of our memories from the first two years of our marriage are with these two. dinners on red chairs in our dining room. laying around on the patio. movies. gigs. making fun of caleb. laughing at ian being ridiculous. and that doesn’t even count the whole lifetime that ian has spent with these two.
we will miss them, more than words.
thank you, bethi and kbob, for loving us well.
love
i&l

  Filed under: "family", "work/life", gratefulness
  Comments: 7

Confession

By admin,

If you’ve followed our blog for more than two weeks, you’ll notice that we are horrible at posting on the weekends. I think it’s because weekends tend to feel like the time that life really happens – the unexpected and the mundane.

We’re thankful that weekends seem to always mean family and often friends. Laundry sometimes makes its way in there. And we try to shut our brains off.

So don’t give up hope on us:) I have a few new posts rolling around in my head for the week. Let’s hope they make it to the laptop.

Just a few highlight pics. Thank you, always

I&L

  Filed under: "family", "work/life", gratefulness
  Comments: None