17 years

 Yesterday we celebrated the life of Dylan With Chick Fil A for dinner and a “brownie fudge” cake made by Ashleigh!! Happy 17th birthday!

Trees at Christmas

 Christmas tree fun with the family!A couple weeks ago after church, Chris, the boys, and myself went to a local  place to pick out our tree. The tree is from Boone, NC and it smells perfect!  Ashleigh was away with friends when we picked out the tree, but she approved. We all decorated the family tree and the kids decorated a tree dedicated to the ornaments the kids have made over the years at school and/ or church. I love reminiscing through the memories!

Ashleigh’s Christmas tree

December Days

 Classes for Ashleigh have ended- (Most prior to Thanksgiving with exams online) with Public Speaking that she took online the full length of a “normal semester”. She  took classes related to her minor and major totaling  21 hours. Her work effort and endurance  is amazing. Giving God the Glory for all His work in and through her!! She has definitely grown in Christ through discipleship and as a nursing major. It is hard to believe that she has finished three semesters of classes and is almost half way through her college days. She was also to have some clinical time in the hospital this last semester. We are so grateful for CSU and all the opportunities and precautions during the Coronavirus times. Continue to pray for her to grow and her light shine serving Christ and sharing His love with others. She also found out that she will have the opportunity to serve families and peers at Mount Hermon this summer in California. A couple of her friends (one being her roommate)  will be serving there too! Please continue to pray for her and her friends as they make plans to road trip and work in various places throughout the camp. Austin and Dylan did well first quarter. We are half way through second quarter. Pray for Dylan and school as he has a new teacher this year and the transition with understanding has not been the same as in past years. Dylan is working with a communication device at school. Sentence structure and vocabulary are improving and communication with others outside of family is becoming less stressful for him. We can’t wait to learn more about the device at home. Austin continues to trudge along and report his progress. In the afternoons, I also tutor. These students have my heart and they struggle especially during Covid 19. Thankfully learning platforms for teachers and students are being purified to ease teaching and learning for students and teachers. While I am sad that in Jan the students that are currently in my class and have chosen to stay blended will be leaving my class because I will be teaching traditional students, I am also thankful to be able to lessen the juggle load teaching both platform. Pray for this transition and safety and health. Chris received  a promotion a couple of weeks ago so his role at work is changing. He will be a Supervisor over Project Managers in various neighborhoods. Pray for his guidance and support. Yippee !Worship during covid has been awkward but even more out of touch since summer 2019 due to other circumstances. We attended a church in downtown Charleston, but when Covid hit no longer attended as worship was moved to online. However we did continue to worship online with the church each Sunday morning during breakfast. We especially miss the connection and community of friends and other believers. Songs and worship are also important part of worship to us. We have definitely enjoyed having this part of each service online also. It quite strange, but heart- warming and glorious to hear all the members in our family sing worship songs together. When this school year began and with the lift of Covid restrictions, we decided to give Church Of Cane Bay a try once again.  We have been attending there for worship and  we are part of a chuch plant missional community. The families in this group are very amazing and supportive. Ashleigh has also been able to serve in various ministries at The Church of Cane Bay in one of the morning worship services and in the evenings she is able to lead a small group of middle school girls.  Austin  and Dylan are able to attend Student Group on Sunday evenings too! Continue to pray for us that God may continue to provide and lead us to share, serve, and worship.