Seattle: Natalie and Adia

While Rowan and I were up in WA, we got to swing down to Seattle and spend the night with another old friend, Natalie, and her daughter Adia.

The summer after my freshman year of college (that would be 1996!) I did a program called Kingdomworks in downtown Philadelphia. The program was the brainchild of Bart Campolo, son of Tony. It put groups of 6 or so college students together in an area of need, partnered them with local churches, and had them live communally and serve the neighborhood/church that they were living in. So I was one of 6 that lived in a small apartment in Kensington, a rough neighborhood north of Philly. We ran a day-camp at the church, spent lots of one on one time with kids, and in our free time tried to figure out what it meant to live in community and negotiate all of our differences. We lived in a small space, cooked all our meals together, worked together....you could say we all got to know each other pretty well!

Natalie was one of the people I lived with that summer, and we have kept in touch ever since. I went to WA when she got married, she came to MI when I got married, and she made a trip to AR soon after Rowan was born. It had been a few years since we had seen each other, so it was especially nice to reconnect and spend time together. Natalie and her husband Silas have one daughter, Adia, who is 6, and are newly pregnant with their second. They live in Sunnyside, WA. We met at a hotel north of Seattle, then headed into the city for the afternoon. Nat and Si went to college in Seattle and then lived there for a few years...so it is sort of her old stomping grounds. We went to Pike's Place Market then out for dinner at her favorite Chinese restaurant in Chinatown. Then we headed back to the hotel for what the girls really wanted to do: swim! Never mind cool art, music, and fish being thrown through the air...for a 3 and 6 year old, not much can top a pool! The girls played and we visited, then we plopped them down for a movie so we could keep talking. In the morning we ate breakfast, hung out, then parted ways again.


I always marvel at friendships that can pick up easily after time and distance. There are just those people that are comfortable no matter what, who you can listen to and talk to with ease, who you feel known by and know, even across years and miles. Those kids of friendships are a real blessing. Natalie and Silas have had an amazing journey since 1996, and she has been gracious to let me in, help me understand her life, and teach me what it means to be a friend in new ways.


Natalie and Silas decided to make the trip over to Eugene to see Joe compete at the Trials, so it was fun to have a short good-bye and then get to see them again for a few days. Competition time is never a great social time for me or for Joe, but it meant a lot to us that they came out to support us. Nat and Si were both interested, gracious, and patient with the long days of competition! Kind of humbling, really, to feel all the love and support and prayers we have had from friends.

Natalie and Silas have a blog which you can visit here. They wrote a few nice entries about the Trials if you scroll down a bit...with a few pics.

To see a few more photos of our time together in Seattle, click here.