The Stinsons

I got ready for work and came downstairs to say goodbye to the Stinsons yesterday. They were leaving later in the day but I wouldn’t be around. Kelly and the girls said their teary goodbyes around noon when Kelly took Shawn, Kal and P to the airport.

It was a bittersweet day. So much excitement for them and their return to Charlotte and family and friends who love them so much. And so much anticipation and hope for Redemption Church and their desire to bring some of the Seattle-meets-Acts Biblical culture back to Charlotte. And yet of course it was hard for those of us here who love the Stinsons and have seen them become such an integral part of our lives over the last two years. Some band-aids come off easy, some come off with a lot of pain because of all of the glue involved. There’s a lot of glue on the Stinson band-aid:

The Stinsons lived in our home for three of the twenty-three months they were in Seattle, not even mentioning all of the Tuesday night Idol nights, camping trips, weekend get-togethers, or the occasional times they spent the night in our guest bedroom.

Our kids ask to pray for them every night before bed (including them in the list of Mimis, Pops, Nanis, Poppis, Uncles, Mommys and Daddys).

When you ask G to say the Cowan names she says Daddy Cowan, Mommy Cowan, "K" Cowan, "G" Cowan, "S" Cowan, Shawn Cowan, Kalle Cowan, "P" Cowan. Hilarious.

They were in our house enough that in the last month I expanded my before-bed routine of coming out onto the upstairs landing and praying over the house and the neighborhood and each occupied room to pray not just for our room, and K and G’s room, and S’s room, but added prayer over P’s room and Shawn and Kalle’s room.

They spent almost every significant holiday with us and our extended family – Easter, a Mother’s Day here and there, both Thanksgivings, both 4^ths of July.

They got to know and love my parents and felt really comfortable in their home and in their care. My parents love them as children and friends with the incredible gracious love my parents always give.

Even my sister and her family came to know and love them (my sister cried when they said their last “see you later”).

The Stinsons were counselors to us through some difficult times, including a painful family situation.

We walked through a period of deep grief with the Stinsons that rooted our hearts together forever.

Kelly and I both built on our friendship with Kalle. Kelly has been in Kalle’s life since she was about ten years old, and I’ve known her since she was fourteen. We’ve watched her grow up to be this amazing godly Mommy and wife and it’s been a great joy.

Kelly and I also both built on our friendship with Shawn. While we knew him as Kalle’s husband and had a friendship with him, I was able to build a solid and close friendship with this mature, solid, Jesus-loving Daddy and husband that I very much value.

And lastly, we fell in love with that little P-diddy and his sweet gentle spirit. He has the biggest smile and the saddest sad face ever seen!

We are very thankful for the Stinsons and for the depth of relationship that God gave us while they were here. I think both couples learned from each other and I know he rooted our hearts together and showed us what true community looks like. It will be hard to replicate, in part because the opportunity to “live together” and do life together in such a close and intentional way is so rare in our American and Christian culture. But we will pray to Jesus for more of it.

Likewise, we will continue our close relationship with the Stinsons. We’ll have to be even more intentional, but they’re important people to us, so it will be a natural intentionality.

Thank you Jesus for good friends! Thank you for these two great years with the Stinsons!