The OK Trip, Part 2: The Farmers

The gang at Guyer Hill (our friends' farm)

Our friends have become farmers. I'm not sure how it happened, because I don't think any of them come from farming families. Our second week in Oklahoma, we got to spend a lot of  time with friends, including those of the farm variety. It's a different world for us urban dwellers. But looking out at the sunset over the sixty-some acres of our friends' land in rural Oklahoma, I could see the appeal of pastoral life. (More on that below.)

Relaxing at Guyer Hill

Sunday through Tuesday, Tabitha and Gracie attended a worship arts day camp in Oklahoma City. We were grateful that our friend Gina from Portland Avenue Baptist Church (the church where Harvey grew up and where we attended while we were living in OKC last year) had spots for the girls to join their kids at the camp. While they were singing and doing drama and art, I reconnected with friends: I met my friend Katie at Dynamo Gym, where our girls could play together and I got to meet her baby boy; I also had breakfast with my friend Stephanie, who recently began fostering a boy from the school where she works.

Judah with friends Kara and Anna

Judah and I also spend time with Harvey's mom (Gamie), shopping, having lunch, and getting our nails done together.

At Flip's with Gamie for lunch

Loving our Italian lunch date with Gamie

Tabitha and Gracie had their worship arts performance Tuesday evening. Gracie had a solo; Tabitha had a drama part. Of course all parents and grandparents beamed with pride in the audience. Since we live so far away from them, the grandparents normally don't get to see the kids perform in sports or the arts, so this was a special moment for us.

With Oma and Opa after the Worship Arts Camp for Kids performance

The next two days Tabitha and Gracie stayed with their friends Alli and Maddi, who have been so sweet to remember and stay in touch with us. When they got together, it was like they'd never been apart.

Friday, my mom (Oma) took the kids and me to Main Event for bowling, laser tag, ropes, pool, and food: an action-packed day! 

Wrestling the machine at Main Event

On the ropes at Main Event

Then we packed our bags for an overnight visit to Tulsa to see friends from college and church. We stayed outside of Tulsa in Mounds with Scott and Carrie, two of our friends-turned-farmers. They built a beautiful house on a few acres with a pond, zip line, chickens, and rabbits. They made us feel at home and we had a lovely time. I am always impressed with how quickly our kids and our friends' kids mesh so well together when they barely know each other and haven't seen each other for years. Before we left, the seven kids were making movies together.

The next day we met friends Rob and Lisa and Aaron and Alicia at a splash park on the river in Tulsa. Aaron and Alicia's daughters (twins) are a year younger than Tabitha and have written back and forth with her since we moved away. It was great to catch up. (I hate that I neglected to take pictures while we were in Tulsa!)

Upon our return to OKC, Harvey preached Sunday morning at Lone Star Baptist Church, where he served as interim pastor when we lived there last year. They were gracious to welcome us back and give Harvey the opportunity to preach. 

Then Sunday night, we headed to Guyer Hill (our friends' farm in Pauls Valley) for a reunion of my best friends from high school and all our seventeen (!) kids. 

Seventeen kids, with number eighteen on the way (not mine)!

These four friends and I have stayed in touch over the years, and when I was living in OKC, they included me in their regular birthday gatherings. It was such a fun night. The kids all ran around and played, and we got to catch up and reminisce with everyone and just hang out and enjoy the scenery: cattle, horses, land, water, and sky. Beautiful all around. It was an adjustment for my friend Christy when they moved their family from the city about a year ago, but they have given new life to a run-down farmhouse, and they are learning to love the country.

Gathering of dear friends at the farmhouse table

Tabitha and Lilyan ready to dump the water bucket

Water fight!

(L-R) Sarah, me, Christy, Alisha, and Heather

Harvey and I have always been city people, and I don't foresee us ever moving out to the country. It's a lot of work and responsibility. But I think that kind of work would be rewarding if one were called to it. I know our kids would love having acres to explore and run free. And there's a peaceful satisfaction in being surrounded by acres of uninhabited land, God's serene creation, gazing on it and soaking it in. That's not our calling in life right now (and probably never will be), but it's a blessing to get to experience a little slice of farm life for ourselves through the generosity and hospitality of friends.

Read "The OK Trip, Part 1: The Ferris Wheel" here. "The OK Trip, Part 3" to come next week.