Wow friends!  I finally made time in my schedule to write a blog post. I want to get back to consistently sharing more about life and ministry, but I am also aware that life happens, and just like that, it is two months gone by. So here is an update on our last few months:

We have spent lots of time adding decor elements our house. Ed put subway tile as backsplash in our kitchen and we painted the front door. Yellow is a hard color! Needless to say, Ed was a great sport when he painted it, I decided it was too bright, he had to prime it, and paint it again. He didn’t complain once – what a man.

We are so thankful to live closer to these friends and get to do fun things like apple picking with them!! Their parents were some of our best friends in NC, they moved to SC, we kept in great touch, and then we moved to SC. That may or may not have been a motivating factor in us coming back to SC :). So grateful our kids love each other and how they spur us on to love and serve Jesus.

Our friends and old neighbors from NC came for a visit – they came to visit us in NYC and now in SC. What a blessing they are in our lives. We always pick up like nothing has changed. I love that they love our kids almost as much as we do. Grateful for ya’ll!!

Oh, Covid. We have had quite a few Clemson students and student leaders get Covid and have to be quarantined, so we put together these fun care packages to deliver to them. This is what campus ministry looks like in 2020. Masks and Covid care packages.

This girl turned 8 the end of October!  She chose a Hershey Bar Cake with pink icing and Barbie’s on top. It was only fitting that the Barbie’s were also gymnastics Barbie’s, as she loves gymnastics as well. She has been such a trooper through all the transition and has made friends at school quicker than anyone i know. She gave out my number to a few friends and before I knew it, I was getting more calls for her than me!

Yes, this cute Springerdoodle puppy is ours! The kids have been asking ever since our first year in New York when we would get a puppy. Apartment living, landlords who wouldn’t allow puppies, and city living didn’t jive for us with puppies, so we kept telling them “if we ever move, we will get one.” Well, they didn’t forget. In fact, it was one of the first things they asked for when we told them we were moving. So, let us introduce Jax!!

He is about 8 weeks old, he will be about 40-50 lbs when grown (hopefully!), and he is all puppy. Our kids adore him and it has been so much fun (and lots of work!).

This girl is so brave and strong. Kinsley, starting about 6 weeks ago, started all of a sudden having trouble swallowing solid food. She said it felt like it was stuck in her throat and hurt so bad. After an urgent care visit (where they thought it was allergies), a pediatric visit (where they did blood work and a strep test), an ENT visit (where he did a scope down her throat), a swallow test (which she despised), a GI visit, and an endoscopy which was delayed 2.5 hours because the hurricane remnants knocked out power to the hospital, she was put on a medicine that coats her esophagus and ulcers so that they can heal and she can swallow food without pain. After just a few doses, she is already better and has been able to eat solid food. We are only a few days into the medicine working, so time will tell if it continues, but we are hopeful. My best guess is that acid reflux caused an ulcer in her esophagus that continued to cause pain even when the acid reflux went away. She is so strong and most adults couldn’t go through what she has gone through. Please pray for the medicine to continue working and for her to keep eating even when she is scared that it may start hurting again. 

Halloween 2020. Evie and Uma from the Descendants, the Gold Ranger, and Marshall from Paw Patrol. Our little neighborhood is mostly retired older people, but because there aren’t a bunch of kids to hand out candy to, our kids got lots of candy including some full-sized bars!

And one more picture of Jax, mostly because he is our 5th child and is lots of work, but oh so cute.