Part of the Family

Some months ago we thrilled the blogging community with the virtual tour of our 120 sq ft home, now we thought we'd take you all a little bit bigger picture and let you meet the neighbors. We consider ourselves blessed by our living arrangements for a number of reasons. First, we live a ways out of town in a pine forest at the foot of the hilly range that surrounds our city. Second, we live in a friendly little community, made up of three houses and four families, all but one of which (us) are related. The little gray house is ours (Roberto built the frame while we were in the States last summer and then we all came to the decision that we would finish the project and live there after being married) and the green one on the right belongs to our good friends Roberto and Vero (parents of the Marshmallow Girl, Yami). Vero's parents and her sister and brother-in-law live up the hill (their house is situated behind the trees in the middle of the picture).

We enjoy good relations and friendly exchanges with our neighbors in this secluded spot and joked with them some months ago about nearly composing our own village. Sarah and Vero often indulge in their mutual habit of generosity, usually expressed through food with Sarah taking them a loaf of banana bread or other American favorite that they normally wouldn't get to experience and Vero reciprocating with hot, fresh, home-made tortillas, a treat we never turn down.

Last week we had Roberto, Vero, and Yami over for dinner and a very special dessert - campfire roasted s'mores (we felt very acculturated as we burned a broken, upholstered kitchen chair for fuel). As we sat around the fire, we thanked them for all the generosity and hospitality they've shown us and stated that we almost felt like family. "We are a family," responded Vero, and I think we all agreed.


Vero's parents have also blessed us in many ways. They always invite us to eat with them whenever their family gets together to celebrate birthdays or holidays and helped us stucco our house. Sarah has used her nursing countless times to bring healing and comfort to various members of our "family" and we both enjoy participating in the responsibilities of living in community (such as cleaning out the well - which can be seen covered with planks in the bottom right corner of the top picture). We look forward to how God will use this humble, generous extended family to extend His kingdom and we are grateful to Him for providing us with such a great place to live.