Visiting Miss Fran

Spring Break 2014 has come and gone.  We had a wonderful time!  Cruz headed back to preschool this morning and he was VERY excited about it.  So, things should start to return back to normal around here- if you can use the word "normal" to describe our life, ha.  As I mentioned in my last post we traveled to Pigeon Forge, TN for Spring Break with David's family and spent several days there together. We had so much fun while there and I'll spend most of this week trying to catch the blog up on all we did over the break. 

 

We left on Friday, March 7 and traveled to Gadsden, AL.  It was about a six hour drive from where we are.  Our purpose for stopping there was to visit with our dear friend Miss Fran.  She is in a retirement facility in Rainbow City, AL which is right outside of Gadsden.  We loved getting to see where she is living.  It is a really nice place and she seems happy there.  We arrived in the afternoon with time to visit before going to eat supper together.  As you can imagine most all of our conversations centered around Guatemala- the places, the people, the food, etc.  It was so fun to reminisce with her about life there.  It was obvious that she misses it greatly and that made us a little sad.  But, in spite of that, she seems to be adjusting well to her new home and life in the States. 

 

We also got to see Dr. Linda Jones.   We worked with her many times in our Kekchi days as she brought down medical teams to help us.  She came by to visit us while at Miss Fran's.  She blessed us by taking the boys on a nature walk around the facility so we could visit with Miss Fran without interruption.  They both took an empty sack and came back with lots of interesting things to show us that they picked up.  

 

Cruz and Ben on Miss Fran's patio

Both boys loved playing in the yard and running up and down the hills outside of her apartment.

We joined Miss Fran for supper at the dining room where she lives.  It was pretty fancy for small kids, but they did okay.  All of the other residents loved seeing our boys there.  I think they brought a lot of smiles to many faces. 

It was hard saying goodbye to her.  She and I both shed some tears.  We might not see her again in this life but we know without a doubt that we'll see her again in Heaven.  We even talked about that some.  We had a few laughs as we talked about visiting her mansion in heaven and maybe doing a few Kekchi grammar lessons while there.  She loved that!  We'll forever be grateful for how Miss Fran invested in us during our early years on the mission field.  Her help in both language and culture will be knowledge that we'll use for many years to come.  Her life is such an inspiration to all that know her, and we are blessed to be two that her life has touched. 

our family with Miss Fran

 

We stayed overnight in Gadsden and the rest of the family joined us there at the hotel.   We got up the next morning and continued on to Tennessee together.  My next few posts will be about our time there.