so close

Since we moved to NC, we have been blessed to live closer to Curtis' cousin Mary Ellen and her family. (By "closer", I mean that they are now only 3 hours away from their home in New Bern instead of 8!) Right now, it is just Mary Ellen and her two girls at home, because her husband Kevin deployed last August for Afghanistan.

Recently, at our church, we prayed for a military family as the husband was about to leave for deployment. It broke my heart and amazed me at the same time; this brave man leaving his beloved family in order to serve and- maybe even more so- the family standing strong in his absence. Curtis and I immediately were convicted that we hadn't taken advantage of the sweet gift of having Mary Ellen and her kids so close... so we called, invited, and they came!

I have never seen Cooper take to another person quite like he did to Hadley, Mary Ellen's oldest (3 1/2 yrs). The Bells arrived around 5:00 one evening and these two were BFF by their 8:00 bathtime!

Please don't judge the "dumb and dumber" haircut on our son.

A visit to a downtown park so that Curtis could love on Hadley a bit.

Curtis helped Cooper and Hadley build and fort on the back deck one night. They sat out there forever, just the two of them, without requesting anyone or anything from us. They played, then ate dinner together...

... and danced together. We just couldn't believe how well they got along!

This is sweet Ellen Kate, 4 months old. If you do the math quickly, you'll realize that Kevin had to deploy before his baby girl's birth. I tear up just writing that. He has not been able to meet this precious one yet, but I am sure he is counting down the days!

Annabelle sure liked having a little buddy around!

 

Meanwhile, I loved having this sweet opportunity to get to know Mary Ellen better (more than the yearly Thanksgiving or Christmas extended family dinner). She and I are a lot alike and hit it off almost as well as our kids did. :)

A few more of my favorite shots:

We have already booked some more time with the Bell ladies in the next few months.  Not only that, but we're hoping to get to visit with the whole family when Kevin comes home in several months. We really can't wait for that!

By the way, Cooper is already asking daily when Hadley is coming back. I would start to wonder if he had met his soul-mate at such a young age... that is, if they weren't blood-related. Ha!