Extreme Sports

I would not say that I am an extreme sport type person. I don't really like extreme weather and really would not do any sport extreme or not in extreme weather. I probably wouldn't jump out of a plane. I wouldn't even bungy jump. On my senior trip in high school, I paid, went to the top and chickened out. So, that would probably lead you to believe that I would not do anything extreme on my vacation. Well, you would be wrong.

Last summer, our friends, the Pearsons, came to visit. Genna talked me into making a quilt for Lillian. I did and I said that I wouldn't do it again for a least a year. Last summer, Genna and I also talked about making friendship quilts. We would do them together, but separately as she is in CA and I am in MO. Well, we started talking about the friendship quilt. We found a pattern and we bought fabric separartely and online. We called and sent digital pictures. And the whole thing progressed. We discussed flying out to CA for spring break and it didn't work out. Genna decided to fly here to work on the quilt. She would bring Noah because he is nursing. Well, you have to bring Abby or Lillian will just die. Matthew was working, so we ended up with four kids and a quilt project. Abby (6), Lillian (5), Grayson (almost 3) and Noah (almost 1) This was a recipe for chaos. And we suddenly had all of the ingredients for an extreme vacation.

We watched, entertained, feed, mediated, played, laughed, etc with the four kids. When some of them were sleeping, we cut 196 squares times two for the two queen sized quilts we aimed to piece. At night, we drank wine, talked, and worked more. We borrowed a sewing machine and sewed side by side for several nights until close to midnight. Somehow, we finished piecing them both about 10 minutes before we needed to leave for the airport. It was crazy. We named the quilts "bananas" because they look wild and the experience was so wild.

To be honest, the week was very intense, but in the intensity was a deep joy. It was so good to be with Genna to talk, to laugh, to dream, to cry. It wasn't about the quilts. It was about the friendship. Our lives continue to intersect on the big and small things. I could write pages on all the ways big and small that God continues to intertwine our families. God is so faithful. I feel like this quilt will be a monument to our friendship. I will look at it and think of the Pearsons and I will think of God's collective mercy in our stories together and separately.