A very important anniversary.

Matt, Mary, Leon and me, at our nice anniversary dinner in their dining room.

One of the reasons that we decided to go ahead with this homeless challenge so soon is that our good friends, Matt and Mary Thomson, have invited us to move into their guest house temporarily. It came very suddenly, right when we had to be out of our apartment in September, and it was one of the confirmations that Leon should be homeless while I was able to stay with friends. Mary has been here since the beginning of the development of all this and is one of my closest and dearest friends. Therefore, staying with her while Leon is out on the streets, gives me a little bit of comfort knowing I won’t be alone.

Matt and Mary had been going to our church longer than we have, but for some reason, we were at the church for a whole year and never really knew them. Sure, we saw their 4 little children in matching clothes every Sunday, but we never really had a chance to get to know them. Until one day, they overslept, and instead of going to their usual 9:30am service at church, they came to the service where Leon and I lead worship.

The kids danced to the music and loved the service, so they ended up staying in the second service, and everyone started to get used to “that cute family on the front row with all the matching kids.” Slowly but surely, they started learning the songs we sing in second service, and eventually, Ryan, their oldest son, had watched Leon play guitar and sing enough, to start asking his mom for guitar lessons. Mary asked Leon if he could teach, and he gladly volunteered to teach Ryan, but would not allow any form of payment...instead, he asked for quality time. 

Little did we know, we were unleashing a monster with that request. Every Thursday, Leon would give Ryan guitar lessons and Mary and I (and all the other kids) would hang out and chat for an hour. That turned into dinners at their house on Thursdays, which turned into multi-night hangouts with our families. And fasting forward a year, here we are, living in their guest house. 

Very few people in my life have I had that cliche “feel like I have known you forever” feeling...my husband being one of those, and Mary being the other. So one little guitar lesson turned into a lifelong friendship, one for which I am eternally grateful and of which I am completely undeserving.

So October 14 was Ryan’s first guitar lesson in 2011, and October 14 was the first anniversary of the “ThoReyes” family, and we had a nice dinner, complete with Steak, Salmon and Silver Oak to commemorate the occasion. We love you Thomson family...thank you for the incredible gift of your friendship!