Old Photo Phenomenon

Ever noticed that it seems every picture of every missionary family you've ever seen is about 10 years old? The pictures are usually faded a bit, you can't even recognize the kids because they've grown so much since the picture was taken, and the hairstyles leave much to be desired? I always wondered why this was, if the families had ever heard of Glamour Shots, and in secret, felt a little sorry for them and their outdatedness.

We have joined the ranks, my friends.

One of our supporting churches has asked for a family photo to post on their missionary bulletin board, a nice big one if you please. We've been packing like mad fools these past few days, and the only 8x10 we can find is a lovely Olan Mills creation that was taken for our last church directory. It's almost 3 years old, which means Jonathan is still an infant, Chloe has tiny little pig tails, and I'm still carrying a bit of baby weight in my face. Steve, oddly enough, looks very much the same. In fact, I'm pretty sure he still wears that shirt that he has on in the picture.

I think the Old Photo Phenom must be a sort of unspoken missionary right of passage. It's a way of looking back on Life Before and saying, Good-bye, been nice knowing you, but we're looking forward now and don't have much time to be concerned with contemporary photos. That, or it's some cruel initiation joke.

Look for our Old Photo on a bulletin board near you.

In other news, I found really cheap tickets from Detroit to LaGuardia last night, so it looks as if the kids and I are going to fly on Aug 9 rather than drive through the night. I'm thrilled. Steve and his brother, David, are still driving the UHaul, but now I don't have to follow them in the mini-van and have David drive it back. If you're ever looking for good deals on tickets to NYC, it seems that Spirit Air runs specials quite often.