Jared and Lindi invited us to their house for a get-together of close friends, and we were excited, but a little stumped. People we’d only known for a few weeks were bringing us in and covering us in hospitality, but we weren’t sure why. Lindi announced that she was pregnant, and we all cried, and Travis and I got in the car saying these people will be our people for a long time.

The next week, we found out I was pregnant. We drove to Mama Carmen’s coffee shop where Lindi worked to see her and Jared. They looked at us for a few seconds and knew. We laughed and cried and it hit us again. These people will be our people.

Jared and Lindi brought us into a community of Christ-seeking, love-abiding sinners who drank in the Spirit of God in all ways they could muster. Our first evening with this group, I walked into the kitchen and met our new friends. Amber was pregnant and excused herself for looking so big and round; I thought she was the prettiest and sweetest thing I’d seen in a long time. Lindsey had just had Nora, and brought us into her home with such grace and warmth, I could barely contain my emotion.

We were home.