C-L-E-M-S-O-N fight tigers, fight tigers, FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT

can you tell we're ready for some Tiger football?! last saturday we went to Freedom Park in downtown Charlotte and Matthew, in the spirit of "there's exactly ONE WEEK left," insisted we all wear our clemson attire. we had a great time and are ready for the real thing this saturday!

an ode to 13 woodhouse court

goodbye little home
because of you we did not roam

we painted your walls and made you ours
we were a family under your roof

thank you for your warmth in the winter and cool air in the summer
we had send you on your way so that you could grow
it was both a joy and a bummer.


we sold our "summer home" yesterday. sorry to all of you who were planning to vacation to the booming metropolis of irmo, south carolina. what a great feeling it is to know that is done. we decided to walk through our first house one more time before it was officially not ours. it was a little sad. we have the best memories there because it was our first house. we brought our precious baby boy home there. we planted flowers and an awesome tree in the yard. needless to say, after a year of trying to sell that cute little house...IT IS DONE and we are happy.

matthew has lovingly referred to the woodhouse court home as the thorn in our flesh for the past 9 months. let me expand on that. you see, the Lord has chosen to teach us about Himself through such a huge financial burden. for that, we are more grateful than we can begin to express. in only the way that He has chosen, He has provided every need. even when we have absolutely no idea how we have paid our bills, bought our groceries, given to others, etc. He has provided.

We have learned eternal things. the Lord entrusts us with His money to ask Him what He wants us to do with it. it is not ours to buy more stuff for ourselves. He wants us to give give give in order to bring Him more glory. again, that is our purpose here. He expects us to trust Him. He expects us to listen and be joyful in difficult times. He expects us to see Him working in all things.
He has changed our perspective on needs and wants. He is teaching us to obey and to trust Him when He tells us to do things that don't make sense.

this is how the Lord has chosen to grow us in this time and we will always (so we pray) consult Him in how we use the monetary things He entrusts to us in this world. it's not to say that we don't struggle with worrying sometimes about how it's all going to play out in the ol' checkbook but when we step back and refocus on the Lord's character, our perspective is changed completely.

we are so thankful to ALMOST only have one house payment but are more thankful for the eternal lessons we could have only learned through this! thank you to all of our friends and family that have prayed for this certain situation in our lives. you have played a huge part in what we have learned.

simple friendship

i have been humbled by the simplest and the greatest acts of friendship recently. i will not go into detail of those events but i am certain that the Lord has allowed me (and matthew for that matter) to bond so closely to those which he has chosen for us as friends. i have experienced one of the deepest levels of friendship and love this past week and am so thankful the Lord allowed me to be humbled and blessed through a friend.

simple friendship to me is to journey with my friend in their walk with the Lord. i love to watch as they grow and learn through their obedience to what He has called them. i love to listen to a heart that is seeking Him every second. i love to share struggles and joys. i love to know that they are pushing me and challenging me to know my God more and more intimately. i love to encourage them through the living and active Word of God. i love knowing that they will speak the truth to me in love. i am so blessed to actually have been given people like this in my life. i don't thank God enough for them.

i have been thinking on the subject of my friends all week. i am realizing how specifically God has placed each friend that i have at the most perfect time in my life. hopfully He has received more glory because of these friendships because i know that was His purpose. i have such strong lasting relationships because our common bond is our Eternal Father. such a sweet thought.

we had dinner with some of our "newer" friends tonight and had a great time! Greg, Ashley, and Brooke are great and they are moving about 2 minutes from us next weekend. :) i have thoroughly enjoyed hanging out with Ashley and our children at least once a week since we have lived here. i learn so much from her gentle and patient parenting and find she has so much wisdom to offer. how cool it is to have a friend in her.

Brooke and Grey

Brooke brought her left over b-day cake and shared it with us. This is a two year old eating cake.

and this is a 15 month old eating cake.

Beach Pictures

Here are some pictures from the beach.

cousins
dudes

maxin' out

kayaking

rockin'

splashing like a maniac

mmm popsicle

ins and outs

so much has happened the past three weeks...or has it been four? we are home from all of the summer travels and it feels good to be back to a little normalcy (if that's a word). next is FINALLY getting our house in some sort of working order. yes, we've lived here almost 4 months and it still needs some major organization. unfortunately that is not one of my strengths and i often times find myself bogged down from the chaos of my mind. thankfully the Lord gave me a wonderfully organized husband. here are a few ins and outs of the past weeks:



the beach was awesome as usual with the whole Cavin family. i love getting to spend time together when there are no pressures of the world weighing any of us down. Grey LOVED the beach for which i was thankful. he's still a bit skeptical of the water but once he stares it down long enough, he's good to go. we just dug big holes for him so he could have his personal pool. man did he love "playing" with jacob, maddie, and hannah! my favorite was when the three big kids pretended like Grey was a monster and when he touched them they would shrivel up and die. (i don't know the real story but that's what it seemed like to me) i did get in a little reading on the beach. that's a personal favorite of mine. to sum it up we ate SO well, relaxed, played major bocce, and walked on the beach. it was good.



we were home for a week in which we celebrated our 3rd anniversary. sometimes it doesn't seem like we could possibly have been married that long and then i think about all that has happened in the past 3 years and i realize it definitely should be longer than that. we did get to go out to dinner in charlotte and that was really fun! matthew gave me a foot massage and pedicure at this fun spa in fort mill so i am looking forward to doing that soon. can i just give a horray for marriage?! sometimes i just get used to it but really, it's a gift that i cannot begin to describe. God in His sovereignty has written out the rest of our years TOGETHER in order that we bring Him more glory. how awesome.



Matthew and I had the privelege of taking 10 of our leadership students to Mt. Bethel, PA for a week. we went to help staff a StudentLIFE camp and it was so great. the weather for one was awesome. it was about 10 to 15 degrees cooler than it is here. it was so good to be with that particular group of students and have some intentional time. there are lots of fun stories and memories i will forever hold dear to my heart. what a great opportunity!!



So as we get back into the swing of things, I will hopefully be updating more often. (and that also depends on the availability of the ol' internet connection) i cannot seem to successfully upload pictures at this time. i will have some soon.