We celebrated the homecoming of our nephew Jake today after serving in Chile for two years. It’s amazing how much a young man grows in two years. I took this picture the day before he left.

He was young, naive and had all the confidence needed to take on the world. And then two years passed and he returned home clearly more mature and grown-up in more ways than one.

We had quite the crowd waiting for him at the airport with some pretty excited kids (especially his siblings).

And then he walked through the doors and there was cheering and hugging and even some tears of gratitude and happiness.

These two, brothers, hadn’t seen each other in over three years (they overlapped on the mission) and it was touching to see their reunion, knowing they’ve both grown up considerably while away.

Jake gained two new cousins since his departure, we introduced him to Can-man for the first time.

So happy to have him home safely. We still have a nephew serving in Brazil and since praying for Jake and Paxton has become a daily occurrence with our kids I have a feeling Jake will get many more prayers as a missionary. Old habits are hard to break and “Jake and Paxton on their missions” rolls off the tongue so nicely and has become second nature!