A Bates Family Visit for Mother’s Day
Ring Ring! We all ran to the phone, eager to find out if it was the Bates family. And it was! They informed us that they were leaving….
Now we only had a little time left for final preparation. We all quickly got back to making beds preparing food. The hours flew by as we checked off our to-do list. They had been invited to West Virginia for Mothers Day, and we were privileged to be their hosts. Three of the Bateses were coming in from Illinois with James and Daniel, while the other 16 were coming from their home in Tennessee. Nineteen guests for three days! Could we do it? Of course we could. The Staddon Brigade swung into action and with God’s blessing and lots of cooperation it worked out wonderfully.
James, Daniel, and the three oldest Bateses stopped at Hocking Hills State Park on their way home which gave us some time for family night with our Grandparents.
After supper and Rook our Grandparents had to leave. Just after saying good-bye and seeing them disappear out of our driveway we heard somebody honking; James and Daniel had arrived! After greeting them and showing them where they would stay we played a few games of chess before going to sleep for the night. 
The rest of the week flew by as we played ping pong, hiked, went bird-watching, felled trees, rode bikes, played chess and many other exciting 
games. On Saturday we were invited to attend the 40th anniversary celebration for the church that the Bates family’s pastor had
started in Clarksburg. At the service the Bateses were such an 
encouragement as there whole family joyfully sang together. We were blessed and encouraged to have the Bates family visit. Their joy and dedication to the Lord shone through as they diligently took care of younger siblings 
and helped out in 
innumerable ways. Praise the Lord for such a Godly example.
More pictures from James coming soon!
Wow! Thanks for letting me know how it went, Jonathan!
I’m glad that you all had a nice visit with the Bates family. They seem like nice folks.
That said, the plural of Bates is Bateses. It’s either the Bates family, or the Bateses when referring to them as a group.
Ya’ll and the Bates seem like wonderful families and I’m glad that ya’ll were able to spend some time together! One of these days, as our family expands I hope that God blesses us with friends with large families. We are almost the largest family in our church and we only have 5 kidos. It just feels like there is something missing.
God Bless
We taught the Bates how to play Dutch Blitz and they caught on fast!! I learned to play “Slap Jack” from the younger Bates children and we had a lot of fun playing that too. It was neat to see them more concerned with how much fun each of the others was having than about winning. It was fun showing them the honey bees and looking for snakes and flowers and flying squirrels. Look forward to next time!
Thank you Denise for correcting me and for leaving a comment. We made the changes. 🙂 Appreciate it.
Hello!
I found your site a few months ago when trying to find more information about the Bates family. I subscribed to your feed and have really enjoyed reading about all your family does and the ministry of Living the Journey.
I appreciate you sharing your pictures and for sharing about the Bates family’s recent visit. It looks like you all had a great time of fellowship!
Wonderful post, and wonderful comments too! I’m going to hurry home and get some more pictures posted tonight!
By the way, West Virginia is a great place to come for Mother’s Day. The official Mother’s Day Holiday in the U.S. was established by the efforts of Anna Jarvis from Grafton, West Viginia, and West Virginia was the first state to officially proclaim Mother’s Day!
I had no idea that was where Mother’s Day originated. I learn something new everyday! Thanks for sharing that information Michael.