Monday Night Dinners

Every Monday night, for many, many years my family has eaten dinner with the Rabenhorst family. One week my mom would make the meal and Judy would make the dessert. Then the next week, vice versa. This offered not only the opportunity for our mom's to get a night-off from cooking every other week, but it provided a great time of fellowship around a meal. I cannot tell you how much the memories of Monday night dinners mean to me and how important it was to have another family to grow up with and share the good and bad aspects of our lives. The Rabenhorsts were/are great examples to me of how the love of Christ causes people to care for others and I consider them all 'family.' Our parents continue to meet weekly to this day.

Of course, it didn't hurt that my best friend, Annie was a member of the Rabenhorst family. We were born just three months apart and have been friends as long as we can remember. We have shared many experiences including growning up at Wallace Presbyterian Church, going to ERHS High School, being the wife of a Seminarian, and most recently, giving birth to a baby boy. It is crazy that now, 27 years after we were born, we both had a son within a month of each other. Where I was my mom's third child and Annie was the first, our sons are the opposite -- Rock is my first and Annie's little boy, Clip is her third child.

Both of our husbands graduated from Seminary (Nick went to Covenant in Saint Louis, MO and Fix went to Westminster in Escondido, CA) and have taken on jobs at churches in the area. The good news is that now we can all get together for Monday night dinners once again. Although we can't come weekly, our plan is for all four families (Hathaways, Rabenhorsts, Brockmans, and Fixes) to meet together once a month. The pictures in this post are of the first dinner with the new babies. Above is my mom with Rock and his "Going to Grandma's" shirt. She bought this for him the week after we told them I was pregnant. Since this was his first trip to Grandma's house, he wore the appropriate outfit.

Here's another picture of Rock looking cute -- this was before all the families arrived and it got crazy...
Annie and I holding each other's little boy. Daniel Clipston Hathaway -- they are calling him Clip -- is her son's name and of course, Rock Daniel Fix is in Annie's arms. Annie's younger brother Daniel died unexpectedly a few years ago and he is just one of the many wonderful Daniel's that we named our son after. At dinner, Marty gave a beautiful toast to honor Daniel Capell Rabenhorst and the two new Daniel's in our lives. It was bittersweet to not have Daniel R. with us, but exciting to introduce Monday night dinners to a third generation. A good reminder that no matter what happens, the Lord is blessing our families and using all things for our good.
This bassinet is the one that my mom slept in when she was an newborn. I also slept in it (and so did my three sisters) when we were infants. It was so fun to put Rock in it. And then of course, we couldn't resist throwing Clip in there with him. In the picture above Aiden, Annie's oldest, and Sophie, her second child, are looking in on the little guys.
We pray that these boys will grow up to love the Lord the way that their parents and their grandparents have done before them. It really was SUCH a treat to be with all four families. I wish I had better pictures. But you can check out more shots on Annie's blog... http://thehathawayhome.blogspot.com