Dinner Invitations

It is the running joke in our ward to see how long you can go before getting an invite to dinner at the Palmer house. :) I don't mind. I do like inviting people over. I took advice from my mom when I first moved here. If I wanted to have friends I would have to make the first move. I couldn't sit around and wait for people to initiate. I needed to be the first. It was hard the first year. I felt I spent a lot of time inviting but many didn't come and there wasn't much reciprocation. Then Lorilee moved into my ward last August. By the end of September we were good friends. I had met alot of people in the ward but it wasn't until Lorilee moved in that I started to make friendships. I don't know if it was the security of her friendship or just timing but things began to change. I had stopped inviting people over as often after we got back from Canada. I was just too tired and overwhelmed. But starting in October I started up again. Landon was a wonderful supportive husband who allowed me to invite random people over all the time. And I have now had two people say the same thing after I have invited them over. One was after I had invited Sara, her husband and her adorable son Charlie over for dinner. (Think Ice Age baby and you know what Charlie looks like.) As they were leaving that night she said, "Now I feel like we are apart of the ward. We have friends." Today I invited the Kavans over for dinner. They sit in front of us in primary. Today I thought she might be pregnant but didn't want to ask. I did ask a member of the primary presidency and she didn't know. We laugh all the time with them. I have been meaning to ask them over for awhile. After primary I mentioned that I was sorry the invitation was coming after being in the ward for so long but I was wondering if they wanted to come for dinner. (They moved into the ward in June right after they got married. He is just finishing his counselling degree and she is finishing her social worker internship.) Heidi is usually really quiet but she quickly said, "Yes! What can I bring?" I explained that Landon was leaving after church for three days but what day after Wednesday would work for them. They said next Sunday so we set the date. He then said, "Do you guys actually want to be friends with us? Its felt like all people do is call and ask us to do something and we don't know anyone. We thought that Heidi being pregnant would get us an in since everyone is pregnant." They hadn't had anyone in the ward to share their news with. And she is almost 20 weeks along! I assured them we did really want to be there friends and they will find that lots of other do to. I am so glad that I took my mom's advice and reached out first. I have made many friends and have helped others make connections and friendships. I am not saying this because I think I am better than others I am far from perfect at this. I just want to make sure that I can remember the advice when I start to feel lonely and to pass it on to my kids. The next family on my list is a new family to our ward that is a blended family with 8 kids. Both came to the marriage with 4 kids each (between the ages of 11 and 3). They both have custody so it makes for a full house. His name is Jon so Landon always forgets her name because he wants to call her Kate. Landon even agreed to me inviting them over. Now that is a miracle. :)