After the funeral in Illinois, we continued driving south to spend a few days visiting friends in Jonesboro. We lived in Jonesboro from the fall of 1999 to the fall of 2007...eight full years. We never realized how much of a home Jonesboro was to us...until we went back after being gone for a year and a half.
It definitely took a few years for us to find our groove in Jonesboro...but once we did, we really built an amazing community of friends there. Friends that really functioned more like family to us. We had a built-in community of athletes, including coach Earl Bell and his parents, who everyone calls Grandma and Grandpa Bell (grandpa Bell holds the world record for his age group (88) in the pole vault). Several of those athletes are still our dearest friends. But many of those athletes have moved away, retired like Joe has, gone on to other things.
In addition to pole vaulters, we were also fortunate to have a whole other community of friends in Jonesboro...friendships created through work, random connections, and a cool little house-church called New Thing.
So Saturday night we rolled in and went straight to the Wilkies. Jason and Julie were some of our first friends in Jonesboro. We knew them before kids...now they have Duncan, 6, Quinton, 4, and Lillian, 2. Julie was my OB-GYN during my pregnancy with Rowan and delivered her (and sustained me) after a hard, long labor. We ate dinner with the Wilkies, talked and played, then put all the kids to bed and talked and talked some more. We spent the night at their house, Jason made us waffles in the morning, and we just hung around until lunch-time. These are the kind of friends that it's easy to slip back into a comfortable routine with...going deep right away. They know us intimately...and love us anyways!
Then we headed across town to our friends Amy and Lon's new house. They used to live in a house across from us on Nettleton...but recently moved. Lon and Joe coached together at ASU. Elijah is their 2 year old son...we were especially excited to see him because the last time we saw him, he wasn't quite a year old..and he has changed SO much! Eli was born with a cleft palette (which has been fixed) and many digestive issues which are probably all related to each other. He has had a tube going directly into his intestines (by-passing the stomach) since he was a baby...and it's always been uncertain whether he'd tolerate any solid foods through his mouth. During the last few months he has begun to eat solids (and not throw up!) and we just celebrated with Amy as we got to watch Eli eat! Amy is an unbelievably patient, loving mother to Eli. I marvel at her. Amy and I (and the kids) also got to go to the nature center together the next day...and play at the park a bit. The weather was beautiful the whole time we were in Jonesboro--what a treat to have 60 degree + days and sun!
Sunday afternoon I got to meet up with an old friend, Saraya, for an hour at the mall. Saraya was one of my after-school kids back in '99 when we first got to AR...so I have known her since she was probably 8 or 9. She's just finishing up her first year at ASU and is a great girl.
Sunday evening we had dinner with James (and Dana joined us a bit late!) and their daughter, Saraya, who is 5 (and yes, I think I'm the only person who knows TWO Sarayas!). Saraya was born in February almost exactly a year before Rowan...and those two have been friends since Rowan's birth. Mostly on account of Saraya's sweet, kind, super-compassionate spirit, honestly. The girl is just too good to be true! And Rowan adores her. It was so much fun to see them re-connect, laugh, chase each other, and just disappear into their own little world together.
James and Dana were literally our first friends other than pole vaulters in Jonesboro. And after only a few months of knowing each other, they invited us to come live with them for awhile (long story--we needed an interim place to stay in a hurry, they offered, we said sure!)....which turned into 6 months...which turned into a really fast, meaningful way to forge a friendship! Before we had kids, we would get together every Thursday night, take turns cooking dinner, watch Survivor, and then play a very competitive game of Settlers of Catan.
Phew. And this was only Day 2! Sunday night we slept over at the Matthews...and remained there as our home base for the rest of the trip. We met Dave and Rebecca through the Wilkies. Dave eventually became our pediatrician, and I eventually worked for Rebecca at PACES, then she became my lactation consultant after Rowan was born...and through all and in all of this, they have been dear friends to us. We have also gotten to know their grown children: Micah, Ben, and Meghan...and we'll be photographing Meghan's wedding this June. The Matthews have loved us like family, looked out for us, cared for us, fed us, called us, asked us good questions, thought often of our needs, laughed with us, and always answer the phone when we call for advice or an opinion. The Matthews actually used to live in Stockton...so we had the bonus of visiting with them when we were out in CA a few times! It was nice to be based at the Matthews...while we were running around most days, we knew that a calm, good conversation would await us at their home after the girls were asleep. My only regret was not taking hardly any pictures of our time at the Matthews...it felt too much like home, I guess, and I just relaxed from photo-taking duties! Oh well, I'll have more photos of their family than I will know what to do with after June 20!
On Monday I visited at my old work, PACES, for awhile. It was so good to see Qubilah, Danae, and some new employees. We went to the nature center with Amy and Eli while Joe hunted for oil (got 3/4 of the tank full...it got us all the way back to MI!) Then we showed up out at Bell Athletics to see Earl and whoever else was around.
Monday afternoon/dinner/evening we spent with the Reeves family. Dan and Veronica were also some early Jonesboro friends. Dan led that cool little house church called New Thing. They have three daughters who are each unbelievably beautiful and unique from each other. Camryn is 11, Carson is 8, and Callie is 3. Rowan, of course, had a fabulous time getting reacquainted with them and exploring their fun girly toys! And we could talk to Dan and Veronica for days on end, literally. We would not run out of things to talk about. They are real, faithful, warm, spiritually deep.
Tuesday we explored town a bit, stopped by some places we loved, stopped in on a few old friends. Dana and I visited for awhile and took the girls out for ice cream. My friend Beth came over and we took a long walk on a sunny, 68 degree day. I hired Beth to work for me at an after-school program I was running when she was a senior in high school and have loved her ever since. Now she is a k/1 teacher and is a gentle, loyal spirit.
Tuesday night the Matthews fed us. They are adventurous cooks and we enjoyed a yummy paella. Then we headed over to our old house to retrieve a few things we had left in the garage attic. Eric and Kristie are the couple that bought our house...and we didn't know them when they bought it, but they are also friends with the Reeves. They were gracious enough to help Joe load his things....and let me and the girls visit inside for awhile. It was a lot of fun to see the old house! How many memories we have there...our first home...Joe did so many projects there...we brought Rowan home there...we really really loved that house. Eric and Kristie have great taste and the changes they made I totally approve of. Mostly they just re-painted some things that definitely needed it! I'm really glad we got to go through the house.
So we were planning on leaving on Wednesday...but decided that we hadn't seen everyone we wanted to see, and stayed another day! Wednesday we surprised Grandma and Grandpa Bell...salt of the earth people who play a big role in holding together the community of pole vaulters that come to be coached by their son, Earl. Then we went back out to the building because our friend Daniel was back in town and we wanted to see him. So we played and watched vaulting for awhile. That felt familiar!
Joe went to practice at ASU and got to see a lot of athletes that he coached. Then we went over to our friends Jay and Jenny Little's house for burgers...and they were nice enough to let anyone else stop over to see us again...so we saw the Wilkies, Hewitts, Reeves, and Beth all again. Watched our crew of kids play. Got caught up on each others' lives. Good conversations all around.
We ended Wednesday night with what was supposed to be a quick stop at Chris and Polly Harrell's house. We got to know Chris and Polly during our last few years in Jonesboro. They have 2 boys...Jake and Isaac...who were very sweet to Rowan! We had a great time talking to Chris and Polly...stayed later than we had intended...and had a lingering good-bye in the driveway as we each continued to think of things to talk about!
We left Jonesboro on Thursday morning with heavy hearts. When we lived in Jonesboro, we always thought of Michigan as "home" and would look forward to our visits there.
Now we are living in Michigan, and while Michigan will always be home to us...we realized that now we will look forward to our visits to Jonesboro in much the same way. We have a second home. So much for visiting exotic locales when we have vacation time (one of my arguments for us to move to MI :))....it will be hard not to seriously consider a trip to Jonesboro on a regular basis!
We are abundantly blessed by the relationships in our lives...across the country!
By the way--the girls did GREAT on the trip. Piper was amazing in the car....she slept a lot and didn't do too much crying. Rowan is a trooper and found things to keep herself busy in the car...and LOVED all the visiting we did in Jonesboro. I told Joe that having Rowan at 4 and Piper at 3 months on a long trip was infinitely easier than Rowan by herself at 3 months!
To see a bunch more photos of our time and friends in Jonesboro, click here.
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