Farewell 2008

I was driving home from Target this morning, teaching Grey some really good new car dance moves, when a song I have heard a million times came on. I don't even know the name of it but I do know it says Hallelujah lots. As I was singing, I realized that tomorrow is 2009! So I began to tell Grey about how tomorrow starts a new year and 2008 will be over. Then I was asking Grey if he liked the year 2008 and in Grey fashion he said "Yup." So I kept on singing the song praising God for 2008 and really started to think about the year. It brought me to tears. I began to really think on God's perfectly orchestrated plan in the past year. I became so overwhelmed with who He is and why He does the things that He does and chooses to use me to bring Himself glory. Here are just a few of the things I was thinking about:

• Matthew and I's (is that correct English?) decision to move from Columbia to Fort Mill trusting this is where God wanted us to do ministry
• Trusting the Lord to provide financially with 2 house payments
• The training on in-depth study of scripture that we received upon moving to Fort Mill. Through this, understanding that seeking the Lord through His Word is the most important thing that I can devote my time to and then watch the way that He glorifies Himself through teaching me His Word
• Through scripture and other Godly wisdom, understanding the Lord has called me to our home as a wife and a mother; trusting Him completely with our finances again in deciding I would not work
• The understanding He gives us ALL things: our life, our breath, our children, our spouses, our gifts, our jobs, our salaries, our food, our clothing, our shelter, all our possessions, our time, etc. - it is the furthest thing from ours...it is His.
• He provides always what we need and not always what we want and this teaches us
• Having the opportunity to study Romans and understanding my salvation in greater depth
• Having the opportunity to do ministry with Matthew and learning tons and tons from Johnny and Trish whom we are very grateful for
• new friendships in a new place
• The opportunity to watch the Lord grow our son physically and mentally
• Having the opportunity to shape lives for the glory of God
• Learning my spiritual gifts
• God providing a beautiful home here and selling our other home in His perfect timing
• Learning that the Lord desires for us to give to others the way He has given to us and actually doing it
• Watching my husband grow in the Lord and seeing it seep out into every single area of his life
• Understanding greater my role as a mother
• Understanding that God creates babies and we do not; experiencing another life that He created inside of me
• Learning from my parent's walk with the Lord
• Studying God's character and seeing him all around
• Spending time with close friends and having really good family time
• Celebrating Grey's first year of life on May 4
• Having the opportunity to encourage others as God leads
• Understanding that it is all about Him and His kingdom. He desires for His children to seek Him and in turn follow Him. This is what our lives are about.

These are just a few of the things I was thinking on. I noticed something similar in all of these. God has been revealing Himself over and over and over again and His true desires are becoming clearer and clearer. Though things weren't completely easy all year in many different circumstances, His faithfullness continued and we had much hope because of who He is. I am so thankful for this past year and cannot wait to see more and more of who God is and let that shape us to His image even more in 2009!

Christmas with the Cavins

We are now in touch with things due to the world wide web. It's a big step for us but one we saw paying for internet very necessary. We also got channels 2-21. No more fuzzy T.V. with the bunny ears. We will pretty much always have a signal of some sort. We are moving on up. I should be blogging a little more often.

We had a great Christmas! It was so much fun this year with the ol' Grey Bear. Before we left on Sunday for our Christmas week travels, I realized Grey was hot and had a fever. He went downhill from there. Luckily on Monday we got to go to our old Pediatrician in Columbia and discovered he had a really bad double ear infection. He was really sick actually. There were absolutely NO warning signs until the fever. I just wanted him to feel better before his first really fun Christmas. He is just now starting to get back to his normal self. We really felt so bad for the poor little guy.

We woke up Christmas morning and he was in a little better mood. He still didn't feel too good but sure did enjoy opening his presents. He wanted to take each thing out of it's manufactured packaging (and we all know what a pain that is) and play with it before he moved on. It was really so much fun to watch him. Matthew and I were both so happy just being with him. We left my parent's house about 1:30 to head to Columbia where we enjoyed another Christmas and a great dinner. We had such a great day!

The whole Christmas season was really great. We enjoyed Christmas shopping, decorating the tree, making cookies together, watching Christmas movies, telling Grey about the birth of our Savior (and praying that one day that will be incredibly significant to him), going to see Santa, Roper Mountain lights, family, Christmas parties and so on. Here are a few pictures from the season.

Matthew and I with a sick Grey Bear on Christmas morning

Grey's tool bench from Santa

Eating Marmie's signature gingerbread men

Helping me make cookies

Cousins: Grey, Greer, and Garrett
The tree Grey decorated and he was clearly so proud of himself
Grey loved this light up gingerbread house that played music

Picking out a tree with daddy

I convinced him he looked like Ho Ho with powdered doughnut residue on his face. He was thrilled

Grey got to meet my Grandpop!

A Renewal of Many Kinds

Last Sunday night I got to open a rather large Christmas gift that Matthew and Grey had wrapped for me. (due to Grey helping, half the gift was covered in tape) I knew that I was going to be getting my Christmas present early but I had no idea it was going to be so awesome! I opened the box to find a new set of luggage. As I unzipped and opened every piece, I was getting more and more excited. I figured I was going to get to go on some sort of trip and I LOVE to travel. I opened the smallest piece to find my itinerary and a note telling me to tell Mrs. Erin Timberlake hello. It took it a minute to sink in that I was going to get to actually go to Los Angeles to visit one of my greatest friends for four whole days! Matthew has been planning it since Katie and Mark's wedding in June and was so excited to tell me all about it. All of his secret keeping and effort to make this possible is more appreciated than he will ever know!


So here I am. I had a full day of travel Wednesday in which I had a short layover in Dallas. I was quite nervous about that seeing as that is the very airport that Matthew and I switched gates at about 20 times before not getting to make it to Hawaii until a day and half late for our honeymoon. (that's another long story) I could just imagine myself running through the airport trying to get to the right gate in time. That didn't happen and I was thankful. I love airports and flying and everything that goes along with it. I love getting a free drink on the plane. It does stink you have to pay for any food you want but I didn't care about that. I just didn't buy any. I don't even really mind how close we all are to each other. I sat next to a nice lady from San Diego on my way to Dallas. On my way to L.A. I sat next to a man that I talked to for a few minutes before I realized he did not understand a word of what I was saying. Needless to say I had a really good travel experience.

I love being here. I love being where Erin and Andy live and getting to see their lives here. I have had the past two mornings to myself with lots of time to rest, read, and get online a little bit. It is refreshing beyond words to have a little time to myself. Yesterday morning I had uninterrupted time to read my Bible. We just finished a study on Romans (I recommend any believer study Romans immediately if you haven't already done it) and I was going back through summarizing paragraph by paragraph the first two chapters. I just cannot express how alive and humbled I am when I am in the Word of God. It's very purpose is to renew my mind and that It does each and every time! The Truths of God put everything about my life into perspective and therefore my life looks very different after I dive into those Truths. I find it hard to get uninterrupted time at home so it was really great.

Yesterday Erin and I went to Manhattan Beach and had sushi then had a long walk along the Pacific Coast. (yes it was romantic in a friendly way) Then last night we went to Redondo Beach. The little town where all the shops are was having a Christmas festival of sorts. All the shops had cookies and cider and the Christmas spirit was alive! There were tons of kids and Santa was there! Then we went to Erin's favorite Mexican restaurant that was delicious. I'm looking forward to another really great day today. I also might get to see Laura Nutter and Megan Mueller/Ferrier while I'm here!

My time with Erin so far has been so wonderful. I know that Matthew's intention in sending me here was to have a great time and a change of pace. More than that he wanted me to encourage and be encouraged in a very old familiar way with someone that I have known and loved for quite a few years. It's so great to have the familiarity of Erin's walk with the Lord and even to be in very different places than we were in college but still be able to point everything about our lives to the glory of God. This is so much of a renewal as well. I am excited about the rest of my time here and wanted to share a little about the beginning of it.