I've known Amber since she was nine or ten years old.
Her parents saw a starving for family time, struggling spiritually Penn State college student and adopted her. They'd invite that gal out to their home in the middle of almost nowhere rural central Pennsylvania, feed her good food, talk about life, play games, and just let her be a part of their family. The only thing the gal ever did in return was help load the dishwasher after many of those meals - and tease Amber's mother about washing the dishes first....
That college student was me.
And about 13 years ago, Amber was our nanny. I'd watched her grow up and walk through some challenging times. She had a gentle maturity about her and I always wondered how she could get so much accomplished while never actually appearing to be frantically busy. In my mind, she was a perfect answer to prayer so we asked. She accepted... and that meant she traveled with us to Québec to help care for our children while we studied French in preparation to leave for Niger. She even lived in a 4th floor, 3 bedroom, 1 bathroom apartment with our gang for a good part of that year. She started dating her now husband long distance that year. And she became an absolute favorite person of our three oldest.
It never fails. Each time we've seen her (and her family) since, she becomes an instant favorite of the rest of our gang as well.
They live just a few miles from the church we were visiting last weekend. They not only came to the evening service, but also invited us over afterwards for cake, ice cream, pop corn, coffee and cheese puffs. It may not have been healthy for the body - but it was the best "meal" imaginable in many other ways.
She even confessed last night that she tells her kids she "loves them like a chicken..." just because she heard Tim say that to our crew so many times that year she spent so intimately acquainted with our family.
We ALL love Miss Angaber (Rebekah's pet name for her... Nadia just called her Miss Hamburger!), so some time with her and her precious family was the best treat we could have imagined last night!
A few of these photos were stolen from Amber's facebook page. I didn't think she'd mind.
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