"It takes a village to raise a child"

We all have heard the old African proverb "it takes a village to raise a child". It may be hold, but I love the idea of it and although times have changed and it looks a lot different that it did years ago, I still believe the value of it holds true!

Although our family is all over the country (with one in the States), and we do not live in a "village", we have another type of family here – our friends.

I don’t know what we would do without our friends. Not only for us to have people to have fun with, challenge us and be there for each other, but it also relates so much to Hannah.

(The kids from our small group, 

and to think not too long ago Hannah was the only baby of the group!)

I read in Sacred Parenting a section about how, I believe, on their daughters 13^th birthday they picked a few trusted women that she looked up to, to take her on different adventures to teach her life lessons. I loved the picture of how they could impact her life and how the parents realized that other people can offer different things and invest great values into their children. I immediately had no problem picking a tonne of people I would trust to ask to do something like that for Hannah some day.

The past 2 days we had to be away on a work trip. Although sometimes we opt to take Hannah, some are much less fun for her and much more difficult for us to get what needs to get done with a toddler tagging along – this was one of those trips. So instead Hannah has gotten to have one of the most fun tours of staying at houses of people she loves and best of all love her!  (3 houses with 3 families in 2 days = not bad!) Not only has she gotten other moms to take care of her, but shes had lots of fun with her baby friends and even the dads around some to play!

Such a special blessing!

(Hannah having s special snack with baby Gareth at her last house of the tour!)

And the best part is, that this is not an unusual event.

Once a week a friend supports our ministry in a very tangible and priceless way by taking Hannah for the day so I can be on campus working directly with students. Hannah loves going there so much, she prays for Meagan and “Packy” (her weird nickname she came up with for their cat Zarah...Im thinking she decided to adapt the name “Pekoe” the name of our cat, to something close since she knew they were different, but similar...), and every time we get close she excitedly says their names and barely has time to wave goodbye when she’s dropped off because she’s so excited to be there.

Other times at nights friends have come over so we could get out to meetings or do other things, or take Hannah for a special day or even just for an hour or 2 for an appointment or something.

Like really, what would we do without such friends? They are such a blessing. One that we greatly appreciate and love and ones that Hannah adores and looks up to greatly!

My prayer is that we can be there or others and help invest in their kids as much as they do for us. I love how close our kids can be and how we are a different type of family/village!

I truly believe children benefit from being around and spending real time with different people than just their immediate family. Others have so much to offer our children and I want to give Hannah the most I possibly can  and having the love of others is a huge one!