Love.

Is it possible to love someone that you don't know?  Well, some would probably disagree, but I have to say yes, absolutely.
Thursday night I got a text from Jody, saying that Mel was having contractions.  Nothing serious, but since we had arranged that I would watch Kian when the time came, he was giving me a heads up, just in case.  Well, at 4:30 Friday morning I got a call from Jody.  "It's baby time!"  Long story short, I drove over, they drove to Peaster.  Kian woke up, was incredibly angry to find me in his house instead of his parents, cried for about 45 minutes and went back to bed until 11:30.
Eli was born somewhere around 10, and when Kian woke up, I called his dad so he could ask if it was a boy or a girl.  On hearing that it was a boy, he immediately decided his name should be Rusty Rust.  Jesse came over after work and battled Kian's ogre with Kian's dragon until Jody, Mel, and baby Eli got home around 4:30. 
One of the most amazing things is seeing a child become a big sibling.  Kian is one of the most loud, constantly going, rambunctious little boys I have ever met, but the moment he set eyes on baby, he was a big brother.  Little kids' "aawwwe!"s are so adorable, and seeing the four of them there was beautiful.  Kian kept trying to touch Eli's head, and hold him, and Jody was trying to keep Kian from accidentally kicking him in the head, or knocking him over.  It didn't matter how many times you explained to him that babies' heads are fragile, and Kian is not very gentle, he just wanted to love on his little brother, and he wouldn't back off.
That, my friends, is a prime example of loving someone without knowing them.  Eli is a part of their family, and has been for quite some time.  They all love him, even Kian, who is only 5, and loved him before they even met him. 
Another type of love attacked us at church on Sunday.  I guess we've been around long enough everyone decided at the same time it was time to rope us in. Maybe they discussed it at the last business meeting and wrote up a plan of attack. They are Baptists, after all... older man always greets us at the door, and this week he stopped us, told us that he loves us, and that he hopes we will join the church.  He said that he felt like he needed to talk to us about it, because we're good prospects, and it's a good church.  Being a PK, I understand when people see you as a "prospect", and I appreciated him taking the time to talk to us, even if it was a little awkward.  I'm not sure if Jesse saw as quite such a normal conversation to have, but that's ok.  I don't even know how many people came up to us that day to talk to us, introduce themselves or other people, invite us over for dinner, and just tell us that they're happy to have us around.  It was nice.  It was a bit overwhelming, but it is good to feel loved, even when it is coming from people you hardly know.  I'm sure there are plenty of not so great things that you can say about Texans, but they sure seem to know how to love on people, and that makes up for alot.