Spotlight on: The Luikarts

Throughout this whole ordeal Mary Jane and I have been blessed to be surrounded by countless people who have gone above and beyond the call of duty to help us. We couldn’t possibly do justice to thanking them all. That said I want to try to at least chip away at the block a little. So I will, when time permits, begin a series of “spotlight posts.” This, in some ways, is actually the second of them, (I mentioned a few posts ago how thankful we are for the support Pastor Biermann has shown us) however the first to actually be designated a “spotlight” post. All this said, before I continue, I want to assure Liz there will be another post sometime later today with actual update information. Some of you know that I will sometimes pre-post things to show up later the next day. You can usually pick these out because they are posts with no real update information.

This post is dedicated to Paul and Emily Luikart. To say they have gone above and beyond the call of duty is to say too little. The Luikarts have been friends of ours for quite some time. Paul when to college with me and was the best man at my wedding. Emily went to High School with Mary Jane and was one of Mary Jane’s bridesmaids. They had met once before our wedding, but we kind of hooked them up at our wedding, making for instant and wonderful couple friends. They live in Chicago and had already been planning to visit us. The original plan for Labor Day weekend was for Emily to come down from Chicago and travel with Mary Jane to Chattanooga where Mary Jane was going to have a baby shower at home with her family. Meanwhile, Paul was going to come on a later train and spend the weekend here with me in St. Louis helping me paint the baby’s room and just generally hanging out and being stupid (something we excel at). Emily was just getting up at 5 or so in the morning Thursday the 28th when she learned Mary Jane’s water had broken. She came anyway. She came and helped in more ways then I can count. She sat with Mary Jane when I or her mother could not. She ran errands for us. Then Paul got there and they both jumped into high gear. They did everything from pick up our dry cleaning to helping with laundry and even folded and put clothes away. Paul worked with my dad to prime the baby’s room. Emily sat with my mother-in-law while I was with Mary Jane in the Operating Room. Paul sat with Pastor Biermann while they waited for the chance to come back and baptize the babies. (Paul is the one who took the pictures I posted earlier) They laughed with us, they cried with us, they even filled the gas tank on our car (behind our backs) before leaving town. In short, they lived life with us and were the hands of Christ to us.
Your friendship has always meant the world to us, and was more appreciated that weekend then you’ll ever know.

PS. Paul and Emily are Parker’s godparents.


here are just a couple of other pictures. This is another of the almost family photos. One day, Lord willing, we will get all four of us into a room together. Pictured here is mom, dad, and Emma Jane.














This is a picture of Parker's monkey. I'm really excited about it and hope it becomes "the" stuffed animal. You know, the one that is loved forever and is secretly kept even into adulthood. (Not that anyone would ever do that....certainly not either of her parents...nope...never.)