Meeting Families Like Us

We have been living on the road fulltime now for just about a year and six months and just last week was the first time we actually met families just like ours.

Now we have met many great families in our travels of which some we really hated to say good bye to, but we have never met a fulltime family with six kids, like us, until this past weekend while traveling to Kentucky.

A while back a lady by the name of Deb left a message on one of our blogs along with her blog address.  Upon reading her blog it was easy to see that they were a family of eight who started out on the road just about the same time as us and for similar reasons.

Of course we started to correspond back and forth trying to see when our paths would cross and Kentucky gave us that opportunity.

While they were staying near Mammoth Caves, we stopped and visited with James and Deb Knabe with their six children, Jay, Philip, Carissa, David, Johnny, and Stephen.  

Bunny, Eric, Deb, James, Don, and Misty posing during our first get together.

Across the street there was another fulltime family who we met too.  They were Eric and Bunny Arnold with their two sons, Josh and Gage.

James and Deb Knabe (right side), Misty (middle), and Bunny and Eric Arnold (left side)

Since we were traveling they offered us dinner, which we gladly accepted.  It was slow cooker lasagna with rolls and it was very very good.  We ate it outside where the nippy temperature made it even better.

Ethan running to the table while Carissa enjoys her lasagna. 

The kids had a lot of fun playing together and it is always nice to see kids of this type of lifestyle, blending in together like they have known each other for years.

That is one example I always use when someone says home schooled children suffer in learning social skills.  I will bet my last dollar that our kids will interact better and quicker than most kids who go to public school.  They meet so many new kids along the way while we travel and love it.

LivelyRV and new friends eating lasagna on a cool Autumn evening.

Misty getting her plate of lasagna.

It is funny how Misty and I thought that we were unique living in a RV with six children fulltime, but come to find out, there are many, many families with six or more children living the same way.

Given the entire population of America it is well under 1%, I'm sure, but still more than we thought.  It was finally nice to run into some families like us.

Misty, Eric, Bunny, and Deb talking while getting their dinner.

We were also discussing how God has a plan for us and that he led us to the Arnold and Knabe families for a reason.  We just have to trust in Him and listen to what He says.

A great group of people who we are very happy to have met.

Our paths will cross again and actually we plan on meeting up with the Jame and Deb this coming Sunday.

If you are interested you can follow both the Arnold and Knabe families on their blogs.  You can either click on the links to their names above or in the Blog Roll on the right of our blog.

The last picture I took before we told them goodbye was one of all the kids.  It was getting pretty dark and my iPhone did not do too well, but it captured the spirit of the moment.

The Arnold, Knabe, and Lively kids.

We are very blessed and thank God for all he does for us.  We love our fulltime RV lifestyle and have met so many good people along the way.  It is a shame we can not always be with everyone we meet, but it's like the song says, we have to keep on moving.

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God bless and safe keeping.

Thanks!
Don, Misty, and Kids...