A Great Influence

About four years ago, we moved to Baltimore so that my husband could to a business residency at Johns Hopkins Hospital.  It was wonderful living so close to so many historic sites and we tried to see as many as possible.  After a year, we still had much we had not seen, but my husband found a job in Texas and it became time to move on.  Leaving so much unseen was sort of sad (we never made it to New York City which was only 3 hours away! Though we did drive through it on the way to Boston once), but leaving my friends was the hardest thing of all.

I had only known them for a year, but it felt like I had known some of them my entire life.  One such friend was Angela.

Angela and I started running together shortly after I moved to Baltimore.  Getting up at 5:30 am was not hard when I had such inspiring conversations to look forward to.  We talked about everything.  She had recently decided to homeschool her son.   She would tell me all about the things she had been trying and learning.  It was wonderful listening to her insight and wisdom.

When we moved, it was a heart-wrenching good-by.  It sure was hard to leave her.  She and my friend, Amy, had taken my kids while I flew to Texas to find a house.   Amy and a few other friends came to help me clean our apartment (Angela was busy having a baby at the time) before the move and took my kids often while I packed.  We even stayed at Amy's house the night before the kids and I left, she drove us to the airport and made sure I had help with my 10 suitcases before she drove away.  I was so incredibly blessed with such wonderful friends.

It is kind of funny to look back now.  Angela was the only one homeschooling then.  Since then, I have started homeschooling (even though it took me another year after Angela's influence to work up the courage to try it), our friend Diana has started, and Amy is seriously considering it.  Too bad we weren't all doing it that year - we could have had some really great times together!  Spice was in first grade when we were in Baltimore.  I missed her when she went to school, but homeschooling seemed rather far-fetched to me.  Instead, I would try to incorporate the things that Angela would tell me about into the time that I had Spice at home.

Anyway, Angela is now moving to Australia!  On her way there, she drove across the country (from Maryland to Washington, where her mom lives) with her four children (her husband is already in Australia) stopping at historical sites and visiting friends along the way.  I was lucky enough to have her stay with me last week for 8 days!  She was actually here longer, but we missed her for the first 2 days because we were on a pioneer trek.  It was so wonderful driving home from the trek because we were all exited to come home and find her and her kids here!  She had even cleaned up our messes we made as we tried to leave the house quickly to be on time for our pioneer trek.

It was so wonderful having her here and talking.  We stayed up too late too much.  We discussed books and ideas.  She is still as inspiring as ever.  She made me feel rather like a slacker with all the wonderful things she does for her kids.  Her children were so good, they worked right along side my kids during morning jobs and they played so well together without a single argument the entire week.  It was pretty amazing.  Her son once commented, "Hey, I thought we were the only ones that did a 'kid of the day', but you guys do a 'kid of the day' and I thought we were the only ones that did hard jobs, but you guys do hard jobs, and I thought we were the only ones with a bean jar and you guys have a bean jar!"  Spice replied, "Maybe we got it from you guys".

It's true, I wondered where I would be without the example and influence of  my stalwart friends.

Some more pictures from a hike we went on while they were here: