finally home

Daniel and I just got home from a weekend in northern VA with my family. What is normally a 6 hour trip from NoVa to Charlotte turned into a 9 hour trip!! We didn't really think too much of the fact that we would be traveling on THE MOST traveled day of the year...the Sunday after Thanksgiving. It was the craziest trip...a parking lot pretty much the whole way. Oh well...what can you do? We spent the time laughing, talking and listening to lots of Christmas music! I'm so glad for the day off tomorrow to relax, clean the house and prepare for these weeks of school before Christmas break. I'll post Thanksgiving pictures tomorrow.

i like this pic

I took this picture this afternoon, its one of my favorites. The church is an old, abandon church across the street from us. Its for sale and we hope that it gets sold to someone who doesn't want to tear it down.

my "surprise" birthday party

What a great night we had...Daniel planned a little surprise birthday party for me tonight at a great restaurant here in Charlotte! I had a hunch a few days ago and relentlessly asked questions to see if my hunch was right...it was! I vowed next time to just not ask questions and let the surprise be a surprise. It was still a fabulous evening with our close friends...i love them all!!

Here are a few pics (we missed a few people) and video (that actually was a little dark) from the new camera...we were having fun with it!! It was such a fun evening...a perfect end to my birthday weekend!

Ryan, Daniel and Zach

Zach and Jami

Rachael and Matt

yummy, yummy sushi

Ashley and I sporting our new haircuts!

Daniel and I

Lauren and Ted

Ryan and Ashley

a few of my favorite things

While having a birthday is not really one of "my favorite things"...getting presents is! :) Yesterday I turned 31...YES, CAN YOU BELIEVE IT??? Me either...ha ha. I really don't feel much older than 23, that is until I wonder into the mall or onto a college campus...but that really is another post! :) So, yes, back to my birthday. It was actually a great day, how could it not be when it landed on a Friday this year! My kiddies were so excited and brought presents in and homemade cards...so cute!! Homemade cards by adorable 4 year olds is definitely one of "my favorite things" ever!

My present from Daniel and his family this year was a nice, new, loaded digital camera...I LOVE IT! It is a smaller one but has a lot of power...the kind of power zoom that the bigger digital SLR's have but without the bulkiness. I have been wanting a new digital camera especially before we go overseas next summer. Taking pictures is certainly one of "my favorite things"...and so is my husband and my family! I love this picture of Daniel and our niece on his side of the family, Emma! She is now 1 1/2 years and SO FUN! There were many, many months that she would have nothing to do with Daniel...but now she is all smiles! I love these moments...and will miss them terribly next year!

A quiet weekend

Well, I was sitting here looking at my blog posts and realized that I just haven't had much to post about this past week since its been kinda quiet. BUT, then I realized that my husband just sent me an email at work proclaiming that we have now reached the $10,000 mark for our Malawi support! That is news worth posting for sure! I can't believe that this much has come in with just one prayer letter and one e-mail! This is truly something to be THANKFUL for this week! Only $30,000 more to raise before we leave the country in July!

I've been pretty fearful this past week about leaving and giving up "things" but it seemed that the more time I spent worrying the more God has been whispering to me, "My GOODNESS is bigger than anything you are leaving behind!" Daniel and I are both finally at jobs that we love waking up and going to each day! So some days (like today) it is hard knowing that we are walking away from our jobs to move to the third poorest country in the world. The donation and meeting the $10,000 mark came on the perfect day to confirm God's work throughout this whole moving/giving-up process! We continue to trust Him in fulfilling the details of the move to Africa!

A Saturday at the Biltmore

After being gone for 3 weekends in a row, I was a little reluctant to wake up so early on Saturday morning. But we did and left the house by 7:30 am for a wedding at the Biltmore House in Ashville, NC. For those that don't know about the Biltmore, its actually pretty fascinating...it is the largest house in America...still after all these years, it was built in 1895 by George Vanderbilt and is still privately owned by the Vanderbilt family!

A teacher-friend of mine from school got married on the Biltmore property on Saturday...it was a gorgeous wedding! The leaves have just passed their peak here in NC, but still beautiful and colorful which made a great background for her wedding. So after the wedding (around 2pm) Daniel and I headed over the the actual house and went for a tour. This past weekend was the first weekend that it was decorated for the Christmas holidays. Daniel's brother and sister in law, Jon and Elena, actually were there too separate from our plans, so we had a few minutes and a few pictures with them! Daniel and I just took our time touring the house...its more like a gigantic hotel...if you have never been you should go! We had a great Saturday together!

It was such a beautiful day...I love this picture of the sun, the trees, the cows grazing on the hill.

Here we are, the girls from our school with the bride! Katie was a beautiful bride!

Katie's wedding was just so incredible...I mean, how could it not be at the Biltmore?? This is just a shot of the centerpiece, I loved the idea of it being in the pumpkin!

Daniel and his brother, Jon, in front of the house...I think I took the pic as Jon was in mid-laugh!

I love this picture...I took it in the car as we were heading away from the house!

Daniel and I trying to get a pic in front of the huge Christmas tree in the front lawn! I'm so in the mood for Christmas now!

The Envelope

As I have mentioned before, Daniel and I are raising support for our big move to Malawi, Africa for 12 months. We originally sent out a support letter about 2 months ago to family and friends and then recently sent out our first monthly e-newsletter. It has been extremely humbling to watch God provide for us in this way. I mean, for God to call us to do something big like this is pretty HUGE but then to watch God use other people and have them give in sacrificial ways is even more humbling! Well, tonight when Daniel came home he checked the mail and set it on the counter when he walked in the door. And as is my new custom, I scanned through it for any support envelopes but there were none...just a few bills, mortgage statements and junk mail. Not a big deal, I went back to preparing dinner. Well about 30 minutes later, there was a knock at the door...it was Brandon from upstairs and he handed me an envelope. As I said thanks, I reached out my hand for the envelope...there it was...one of our support envelopes! I couldn't believe that he was handing this to me...he was on his blue tooth but I assumed that it had mistakenly been placed in his mailbox. As I opened it I thanked God that it had been returned to us....and as I opened it I screamed...it had been the BIGGEST check we have received so far! I couldn't believe that the biggest check we had received so far for support had ALMOST been lost in someone else's mailbox! Oh wow! Daniel and I are just so thankful that God is stretching us this way through our faith...that He is providing for our needs with this huge adventure and journey that awaits us. We have just no idea what this next part of our life holds for us...but we know that it is going to be HUGE! Thank you, God, for showing us affirmation to this journey, we are so pumped for all that You have done and will do!

CONGRATULATIONS

Congratulations shout-out to Christy...my roommate from my freshman year at Liberty! She and her husband had their first baby yesterday! Gabriel Alexander Valasquez. No posts yet on her blog, but stay updated with the link on the right! I can't wait to get the whole baby story and pictures soon! Love you, Christy!

another weekend away

I took off of work this past Friday and drove up to northern VA to celebrate Bella's (my niece) 1st birthday! I kept my visit a secret from my sister-in-law which was fun...I called her as I was driving up to their house and told her to come to the door...she was so surprised and we had a great weekend together! It was fun too because I was able to be there to see the girls dressed up in their costumes. My brother and sister-in-law had something going on that night at their church so my dad babysat the girls and I was able to help assist him in the walk around the neighborhood for trick-or-treating! Anna was dressed up as a Fire-woman and Bella was dressed as a zebra!

Saturday morning Anna came waking me up with the flick of the light switch at 7:30am...I entertained her and let my brother and sister-in-law sleep in a bit. It isn't every Saturday that I get woken up to little Anna's voice saying "ah ha, auntie, I found you!!" I had a great Saturday seeing all my family and my other little niece, Chloe, at Bella's first birthday! It was a great day! I left Sunday morning to drive back to Daniel in Charlotte...he hated missing all the fun. We have been out of town the past couple of weekends and so he couldn't take another Friday off of work.

This is my favorite picture from the weekend...Anna loves her cousin Chloe so much! She was so happy to hold her all to herself!

Auntie and the birthday girl! Happy birthday, baby Bella!

My dad and Chloe, the youngest niece...my brother's Jeremy's little girl!

Bella and Justin...as we sang happy birthday to her.

Auntie and the girls on Saturday morning!

my dad and the girls before heading out for our trick-or-treating walk.

Bella in her zebra costume!

Anna as a fire-woman.

i love this girl! This picture shows her beautiful smile...she looks so grown up!