Our Revolving Door and Why We Love It

My friends and family often comment on the amount of guests we have coming through our doors. I often hear, "How do you do it?" So I've been reflecting on it lately and asking myself this same question. How do I do it? Why does it always seem like so much work to everyone outside of our house but yet I don't feel overwhelmed by it? Since Teyah was born, less than 3 months ago, we've had a friend/intern from France stay for a week, a friend from Abbotsford stay for a week, my parents stayed for 2 weeks, and PeaceChurch friends (Fread, Reg, Kathleen) staying countless nights in between or even at the same time as other guests (luckily we have a comfy couch!). And this only includes night guests..... PeaceChurch gathers in our home every Wednesday and one Saturday a month and all kinds of friends are visiting throughout the week on top of that. Sounds tiring, right? But you know what.... it's not! Here's why....

1. Our friends are helpful. Its often actually less work to have friends over because they entertain the kids, do dishes and clean up after themselves. We may not have a dishwasher, but we have countless "dishwashers" who love us and enjoy helping out.  After a PeaceChurch gathering there are always volunteers to clean up, or else they just play the Filipino version of "rock paper scissors" and the job gets done :)

2. I'm an extrovert. Actually, our whole family is. We're not the kind of people who need a lot of quiet  time by ourselves and for the most part, we are energized being around friends. The boys absolutely love the many friends who fill our home and Teyah is already full of smiles for any face that greets her.

3. We make family time a priority. While we often have an extra "family member" with us, we also carve out time to be just the 5 of us and always make it special. We love to have extra guests, but sometimes it is important to be just "us" and we make sure that happens one night a week and we do something fun on the weekend too.

4. Sometimes I do say no. I have also learned that when I/we need our space, its okay to say no to guests. I never used to feel capable of doing this, but since trying out the "no, sorry" to guests a couple times now, I have felt confident in my decision and guess what? People respect it and we haven't lost any friends :) And sometimes just going to my room to nurse Teyah when the house is full gives me the rest I need by myself.

5. Sam is amazing. Ever since Teyah was born, our dear friend and helper, Sam, started working 4 days a week for us (used to be 2 days) and let me tell you, it is wonderful. The cooking, baking (I've taught her well!) cleaning and childcare she fills her days here with is a lifesaver. Because of her, I can host without breaking my back, spend more quality time with the kids, go on dates with Darnell, have some time to myself (like right now I'm writing this in a coffee shop with Teyah sleeping in her stroller beside me and the boys are at home baking cookies with her) and have a clean house. We are incredibly thankful for her.

5. Its what we're called to. Darnell and I (and the kids) are church planters. We have the personality for this, the calling from God for this, and the heart for this. So we open our home, again and again, to the variety of people who we call family. And we do it with arms open wide, embracing these people in the love Christ shows us with hearts full of thankfulness for the ability to extend our home, our food and our joy to those we meet.

So there it is..... why we love it and why we do it. It feels good to reflect on this and it renews my heart and energy to give, serve, and bake cookies for friends who call our house a second home..... you are welcome to visit anytime :)