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Offer hospitality to one another without grumbling. ∞ 1 Peter 4:9 New International Version)

LPA’s mission—to improve the quality of life for people with dwarfism—is largely achieved through a network of people with short stature, family members, and professionals who support and encourage one another. Hospitality is a big part of how this is achieved. LPA members open their homes for local chapter meetings and welcome those visiting from out-of-town. Churches encourage home fellowships where people are accepted, encouraged, and loved. Families and friends enjoy a special bond maintained by spending quality time together. What better place than in your home?

As Little People with a limited number of steps in our day, my husband Robert and I developed our own brand of hospitality. After a grand tour of our home that includes showing the location of food and supplies, guests are encouraged to make themselves at home and help themselves. In our first year of marriage when we lived in Baltimore, our proximity to Johns Hopkins Hospital allowed us to shelter LPA families of hospital inpatients or outpatients returning for follow-up appointments. The special adaptations we’d made in our apartment also gave parents ideas on how to modify their homes for their child with dwarfism. We also hosted a boys’ weekend retreat when a couple asked us to help their son who was having difficulty adjusting to his size.

Robert organized the boys weekend to include swimming, pizza, a Star Trek movie, and the boys helping to cook breakfast. Billy—the inspiration for the retreat—had started the weekend making excuses whenever he was asked to do something, “because he was the smallest.” Well, in the company of five little people he’d definitely picked a losing argument. By Sunday, Billy’s perspective had improved and he stopped making references to his size. More than 25 years later, we learned that the boys retreat had made a big impression on “Billy.” The revelation occurred at the wedding of Mr. Bill Klein whose bride, Dr. Jennifer Arnold, had been the flower girl at our Florida wedding in November 1981. Who could have imagined that the two children whose lives we separately touched in Florida and Maryland would meet as adults, fall in love, and star on TLC’s reality show, The Little Couple.

Extending hospitality to others has enriched our lives. How have you benefited from giving or receiving hospitality? This post was adapted from Angela Muir Van Etten’s book—PASS ME YOUR SHOES: A Couple with Dwarfism Navigates Life’s Detours with Love and Faith—a new release in October 2020.