A Visitor

Donna came to visit.  All the way from West Virginia.  She came to meet Kristen and I and stayed at Kristen's house for several days.  There is always a little bit of anxiety when meeting someone for the first time.

Will they like me, will we have anything to talk about?  Will they have wished they'd stayed in a hotel so they could get away in the night and sneak back to West Virginia without us knowing?  That sort of thing.

The long awaited day arrived and Kristen and I drove up to the airport to meet Donna.  We waited and waited and watched every single person who came to baggage wondering, anticipating, laughing/giggling, and then....... we saw her!

I don't know about Donna but I know our anxiety melted at that moment as we embraced and our eyes got a bit watery because of allergies and we were laughing and standing back and looking at each other.  Looking at each other in person.

We'd 'conversed' for several years through our blogs and Facebook and emails.  You think you know a person, and there is a certain level of intimacy....... and then you meet for the first time face to face and you breathe a sigh of relief that you did know this person like you thought you did and they are just as ever wonderful as you'd hoped!

We spent several days crafting and laughing and talking about our love of God.  It felt as if a long lost sister had come home and we started where we left off.

On the day we had to take Donna back to the airport, we drover her up into the mountains so she could see our fall colors.  The mountains did not disappoint.  They put on a spectacular show.

The colors were vivid and bright.  We'd just had a rain so the air was clear and clean.  The mountains, majestic and adorned with a costume full of spectacular color.

We needed to get Donna to the airport but we kept driving further up the canyon just to see a little bit more. Just around that next bend and then we'd turn around..........

And then we'd drive a bit further...........

And why pray tell do I not have any photos of Donna that can prove she was really on this adventure?

Because when I took photos of Donna, I used Kristen's camera so we'll have to wait for Kristen to do a write up about this past weekend.  She'll do a far better job than I anyway......

Donna did a write up and has some photos posted on her blog.  You can read about her view of the adventure here.  (Click on the word here.)

I did how ever catch this.......  which speaks of how we all felt.  The beauty around us, spent with each other, trying to take it all in...................  an exultant YES!!  How could we stand it!?

We were like children in a candy store.  Gasping and pointing our cameras.  Look here at this display!

Look over here!  Hurry!  Come look!

And nestled down next to a little stream, I found these dainty little pretties.  Quiet and content in the splendor around them.

Spilling forth.  Happy.  Bubbly.  That was us.