October was the month of giving and receiving visits. We kicked off the month by driving up to State College, PA for the weekend and visiting with Becca Sharpless. After eating breakfast together, David and I went for a hike Becca recommended and got a great view of the city.
Becca went shopping for supplies for the Chinese Moon Festival the China Outreach Ministry was hosting that night. We spent the afternoon filling up water balloons (and getting quite wet in the process!). That evening we got to meet many of the students Becca has been building relationships with through her class and Bible study. We also got to try moon cakes, which have an egg yolk in the center of a sweet cake. It was sad to say goodbye, but wonderful to see the impact she is having on the students there.
The very next weekend we got a surprise visit from my Aunt Lana and Uncle Ron.
You never know when RVer's will roll into your part of the country : ) Uncle Ron was doing some research on his genealogy, which led him to Gettysburg where one of his ancestors was an indentured servant who eventually acquired some land. We had a wonderful time exploring the battlefield, checking out the shops in downtown Gettysburg, eating Uncle Ron's delicious pork & potatoes on the grill and soaking in the local culture at the Apple Festival. It was a great visit and we were sad they couldn't stay long enough to spend time with our next visitors...My parents : )Mom and Dad wanted to squeeze a visit in before the cold weather set in. They couldn't have timed it better. The fall color was at it's peak the entire two weeks they were with us.
David had to work during the day so I gave Mom and Dad the South Central PA tour : )It was a great time of cooking together, exploring new bookshops and farmstands and of course, finally getting to show them the house David and I would be closing on at the end of the month. Mom and Dad didn't realize when they planned the trip they'd get to help us pack yet again!I'm not sure what I'm going to do when I have to move and don't have mom to pack the china for me! So far she's been the one to assure it made each one of my moves safely. As if buying a home weren't exciting enough, I was beginning to have suspicions that I might be giving my parents some more exciting news during their visit. Sure enough, on October 24th, we got our big-fat-positive on the home pregnancy test!
David and I were thrilled and proceeded to share the news with my parents. Guess what guys, you're going to be grandparents! David's family got the call next and everyone was very excited about our good news. We tried to keep it on the down low, but I think by week 9 basically everyone knew, including our Realtor and mortgage officer who we told the day we closed on the house. Of course, in true small town fashion, they had become more like friends than people we were doing business with by that time. Closing went smoothly and we were very thankful we were going to actually have space for our little one to run around in (not to mention all those bookshelves that were cluttering up our two bedroom town home...two bibliophiles under one roof gets interesting at times : ) Saying good bye to Dad and Mom just two days later was especially hard. I had already started to feel the first trimester side effects of pregnancy like exhaustion and nausea and having their extra hands had a been a huge blessing. So David and I waved goodbye and got packing,
but that's next month's story : )
