New Buds!

I am happy to announce that as of Sunday morning Eli officially has a friend. He had a hard time accepting that he had to say goodbye to his buddies in Goshen. He would say, “I’m gonna miss my buds.” I assured him that I would miss my friends too. I also reminded him how good he is at making new friends. We would try to guess what his Canadian friends’ names would be. Sometimes he was excited about that prospect. In his angrier moments he would defiantly declare that he would NOT make any friends up here. Anyway, all that to say that we had played up the new friends bit a lot. So, 24 hours into our new life in Canada Eli announced accusingly, “I haven’t made any friends yet!”

On Saturday we had a big group that included some kids at the guesthouse. I saw Eli following another boy around. He stayed about 10 feet behind this boy, waiting for the boy to notice him. He followed him around a group of people and to the entrance of a motor home. When the other boy disappeared inside the motor home, Eli stood outside waiting. I felt so sorry for him. He never did get to play with that boy, but there was still hope for Sunday at church.

Sure enough, by the time Sunday school was over, Eli was excitedly telling me that he had a new friend and already begging to sit with him during the service. After church Eli and Evan went outside with the other kids. And that evening we were so happy to be invited over to Eli’s new friends’ house to play (3 brothers with a baby sister). The boys had a blast. It was so good to see them with friends again.