 Leaving friends behind has been the most difficult thing for
the boys so far. We lived in a great
neighborhood full of children, many of them close in age, so there was always a buddy nearby. We also had close friends at our church and
in our homeschooling circle. Now, their
playmates are whoever happens to be at the same campground at the same time,
and even those children are only playmates for a few days at a time. But, God has treated these boys so
tenderly. Knowing that they would miss
their friends, having never been away from them, He has provided great kids to
play with at every place we've stopped.
There were Jose and Jacob at our first stop. When Jose left we met Shawn and his sister
and played with them for several days.
Later we met Nate and his buddy, teenagers who played football and
basketball with the boys. Our kids were
in heaven and I was impressed. Those
boys were clearly old enough to be doing other things on their own, and were
surrounded by young children at their own campsite, and still they invited our
boys to toss the ball around and patiently played 2 on 2 with them. Our kids were half their size. After that we met Eddie, whom our youngest
son referred to as his "best friend" after one day. But it was just outside of Philadelphia where
we met our favorite campground buddy.
His name is Kevin and he's the only one that we've gotten
contact information from so far. They
met at the batting cage (which was very near where we parked). Although he's a couple of years older than
our boys, they immediately hit it off.
They were inseparable after that.
I was afraid that it would be hard for them to leave, but they took it
all in stride, especially after I informed them that they could become pen
pals. Of course, they had never heard of
that. I guess instead of writing letters
these days people just send an email.
That actually works great since they are learning to type. Now they can type Kevin an email whenever they
want.
When it comes to making friends they're actually doing very
well. Being homeschooled, they are used
to being in groups with children of all different ages, and get along well with
kids both older and younger. When it comes to playmates they aren't shy
about meeting other children. When we
pull into a campground the first place they want to go is the playground and if
there are children around it's not long before I'm hearing, "Hi. Where are you from?" But even if there are no other children
around for a day or two, they are very close to each other and are blessed with
a "built-in" playmate no matter where they are.
Plus our friends at home are only an email or phone call away.
After about 2 months on the road, I am very aware that the
Lord knows what is important to them and cares deeply about their
wellbeing. It's encouraging to see that
nothing (and nobody) is too small for His attention.
|
We're excited to be able to partner