What's In A Name?

Jake, Jake, Will, Will, Sam and Katherine

One of the highlights of our summer has been the visit of our friends from Doha, the Van Hoozers. They came to stay with us for a weekend and we did our best to entertain them. (bowling and Schlitterbahn-Galveston for the kids, shopping and wine in the driveway for Krisitie and me.) Now, there is a whole story behind our friendship with the VH clan. If you will remember from a previous blog, Sam made friends, not long after we moved to Doha, with the Van Hoozer boys, twins named Will and Jake. When I took him over to the Van Hoozer's house for the first time and met their mom, Kristie, I was further amazed at our connections. They had also lived in Singapore, but moved there a year or so after we left. Get this...they lived in the same apartments, same building, same floor as we did and knew many of the same people, including my next door neighbor, Elena, who was a tennis partner of Kristie's, and another dear friend, Nancy.

Now, back to the story at hand. One reason I was so excited to have the Van Hoozers to our house, was to get Will and Will and Jake and Jake to finally meet. Good thing we went out to dinner that first night, because the Shrull Will and Jake were gone for most of the rest of the weekend! I did manage to snap the above photo....what a treasure! Poor Sam and Katherine felt a little left out, but we reassured them that they were special too, even if their names did not match! (Kristie, you could change your beautiful daughter's name to Samantha!)

Hopes are to see the Van Hoozers one more time before they leave for Doha on Aug. 1. We just can't get enough of them!!!