Weekend in Southern California

I alluded to traveling over the time of Lily's birthday. Here is the recap. We went down to So Cal because Dave had to attend the American Academy of Dermatology conference at the San Diego Convention Center.

We got to spend a couple of nights in LA, visiting both Dave's side of the family and mine. It was sweet to have the kids play with the cousins. In San Diego, we stayed with the dear dear Z family. They are wonderful friends of ours. We met them 10 years ago when Dave began his medical residency at UCSD. We only had baby Matthew back then, and we met Jason and Jeanette at fellowship on Sundays. Back then, they didn't have any children yet.

Well - fast forward to now. Though we moved away from San Diego about 8 years ago, we have kept in touch. We now have 4 children, and they have 3. All the kids got along swimmingly, and it is beautiful how they can just kind of pick up and play together no matter how intermittent our gatherings are.

The Z's have an incredible wonderland for kids in their backyard.

My kids especially enjoyed the giant trampoline.

And the zipline. . .

But most of all, just being with friends and hanging out together. The weather was awful (for San Diego) forcing us to stay close to home and not plan any big outings. It was actually a blessing to be able to rest and not feel like we should be doing something else. Jeanette and I got to catch up. It is always encouraging being with the Z family.

Here you see Matthew and A (the Z's oldest son)together. The sweetest thing was the first night we were there, A volunteered to pray. In his prayer, he thanked the Lord that the Peng family could come and stay and that he could play with "the cousins." It took me a moment to realize that he was talking about my kids. Cousins of the heart.

The crown of our visit, though, was an extra special treat. An unexpected opportunity to get together with another sister in Christ who also used to meet at that same fellowship in San Diego way back when. Nicole has since moved on to marry and move to the east coast and have 2 beautiful children. Nicole's husband, Kent, is also a dermatologist - thus the totally unexpected "same place at the same time" divine appointment. K was attending the same AAD conference as Dave.

That's Jeanette on the left, and then me, and then Nicole holding her baby Everett on the right.

We haven't all been together for the last 8 years. It was so wonderful (although too short) to catch up a bit and fellowship together.

There were many many stones in the front yard and I challenged the children to find the roundest one.

I feel so thankful for the family of God. I feel blessed that my children can also have this heritage of so many families praying for them and loving them from afar.