Spring Travels: Trip #1 Mississippi and Tennessee

Posted by Dan and Carole McClelland |1 comments

Spring Travels! 

 

Olive and I had the joy of visiting 

my brother Joe and wife, Nicole and their new baby Joseph Alec in Miss!

We were so blessed to be welcomed by them during this time of adjustment into a family of three.
I got so much quality time with both of them and Olive got a lot of practice being a big sister
with her baby cousin, Joseph.

Nicole, my sister-in-law planned so many great activities, including visiting a zoo, going on walks and playing at parks and seeing where they both work!

   

At the Mississippi School for the Deaf, where Nicole is a teacher, one of the other teachers invited Olive to join her class.  They were letting butterflies free after seeing them grow from caterpillars!  As they were walking back into their classroom, Olive just followed like she belonged with them.

 

It was both of our first time in the South so we got to try many new things,
like grits, fried green tomatoes, gumbo and crawfish!

     

Nicole is a natural teacher and taught us about crawfish.
It was a hard process for me to get through to eat it, but when I got through it I like them.
Olive tried catfish and gumbo but would not go near the crawfish!

 

Finally, we were blessed to see two friends of mine from my Gallaudet days, who also work at MSD!

   

It was so nice to see Leona and her family as well as Kat and her family!
And Olive had so much fun playing with their children.

  

Tennessee is a great stopping place for the long drive.  We had the honor to staying with a very good friend of mine, Darcy, and her family.  Darcy and I worked at Camp Lions of Illinois, a camp for Deaf and blind children during the summer for multiple years.  We started as counselors together,  the next year, Darcy was asked to be director and she asked me to be her assistant.  We got/get along so well, worked together well and actually sounded so much like each other at camp that people that were blind would get us mixed up!  We had not seen each other in many years, but when we got together, we just were able to pick up where we left off! And had great conversations and times of prayer together, with and without the kids.

We made a visit to Tennessee School for the Deaf, where Darcy is a teacher.

      

Olive and I had so much fun getting to meet Darcy and Phil's, her husband, four boys!  I personally learned so much from this amazing couple as parents in just the few days I was with them.



  

Darcy and Phil also hosted a fundraising event for our family and ministry.  I had the opportunity to meet new faces in Knoxville, both hearing people and Deaf. It was so fun to have them both together and learn from each other.   The hearing people had really great questions about Deaf culture and language and I loved how much the Deaf people shared from their own experiences and added stories/comments to what I shared!  It was really fun sharing with this group.



Unfortunately, I forgot to take a group picture.  But I did get a picture of Megan, who helped interpret the event with Darcy.  Both of them were so gracious as I switched languages, English and ASL, throughout the event, so both groups could have some of what I shared in their heart language.  Megan and I took a picture, because we learned that we are almost pregnant twins, she is due one day before my due date!



Olive and I, had an amazing time visiting family and friends and sharing what we do with new people.  But after 10 days away from Daddy, we both were excited to be reunited as a family again.