Northward Ho!

We left Little Rock on Tuesday morning after tearful goodbyes in Searcy at Christie's parents. The boys were soon distracted by Tiny Toons Adventures on the DVD player. My parents decided to follow us up to Dickson, Tennessee, so they met us for lunch in Brownsville at Dairy Queen. Kind of significant since this was the same DQ we used to stop at when I was a kid. Several aunts, uncles and cousins came to my Aunt Vicky's house for dinner. We felt so loved and supported, and the kids played until we thought they would pass out. Everyone met for breakfast the next morning at Cracker Barrell and said more tearful goodbyes.

We drove almost ten hours to Raleigh, North Carolina and stopped at Applebees for dinner with Hugh and Mindy (Rene) Hollowell. Mindy is a fellow HCMer who I met 8 years ago at Calvary Chapel Saline County when I was the pastor there. She was the first person to use the term "HCM" which allowed us to find information online, eventually leading to our discovery of the Tufts HCM clinic in Boston. We became good friends with Mindy and she even lived with us for a bit right after Brennan was born. This was our first time to meet her husband Hugh and we immediately hit it off. Such a smart, sincere guy - I could have talked to him for hours, but we had another hour to drive before reaching our hotel in Rocky Mount -  read more about Hugh's work with the homeless of Raleigh at Love Wins. 

Hugh & Rene (Mindy) Hollowell

We spent the night in Rocky Mount, then went to Lynsey's for breakfast. Lynsey is our oldest niece, the oldest child of Christie's brother, Reggie. She's semi-newly married, a new mom, a full time college student, and works full time. Yes, she is all that and a bag of chips. We spent most of our time passing little Peyton around. He has a huge smile and we couldn't believe how much he's grown since October.

Hunter and Haley (our nephew and niece) joined us for a quick lunch and we were on the road. 

We hit Pennsylvania after dark, trying to make good time and get to the Foley's before midnight. We pulled in at 11:30 with very excited boys. It was SO GOOD to see the Foley's again after being apart for four months. We stayed up until almost 4 talking with the kids playing hard. I'm posting from their house in Anneville, where we've eaten tons of food, stayed up late, played games, laughed, and celebrated New Years. Tomorrow morning we leave for New Hampshire. Check for an update in a few days.