Big Changes

We have moved to Eagle Springs, NC, which is near Pinehurst, NC! On October 26th, we loaded all of our earthly possessions into a U-Haul and headed down to our new home. There was a wonderful group of friends from our Sunday school class that came to help us load the truck. My dad, both of my brother-in-loves and so many others made sure that it all happened efficiently and that it all got down here in one piece. On this end, our new church kindly showed up with food and help. The truck was unloaded in just under an hour and then we all collapsed with thankful hearts.

Since March of 2012, I had been interviewing with Eagle Springs Baptist Church, having preached once for them in July, there was a vote to extend the offer to us to come and become their new minister over Labor Day weekend. I was able to preach Homecoming weekend in mid-September and then finish out his time at UNC by the end of October.  

This beautiful historic church is over 100 years old with some of the nicest believers we have ever met. We are so grateful for the church and their love for the people of Eagle Springs, NC.

It is a bit overwhelming to see my name on the church sign as the new pastor of Eagle Springs Baptist Church. I feel very blessed and a bit overwhelmed by the great honor and privilege of pastoring these very sweet people.

We were very blessed that not only did they have a parsonage for us, but the parsonage was brand new! Our new address is 522 Eagle Springs Road, Eagle Springs, NC 27242. The parsonage was particularly a blessing as we were not ready to buy another home just yet and were very thankful to not have to go out searching for a place to rent. 

There is a wonderful unfinished walk up attic that the church has allowed me to set up as a home office. While we hope to finish this space out eventually, it has already been a HUGE blessing to be able to have a home office and storage area. Lindsey even has a great deal of room for her crafts. Sometimes, I even get visits from my sweet ones!

Mountain Wedding!

A few months ago, Matt was asked by a good friend of his from preschool to officiate her wedding! We got the honor and joy as a couple to get to know Terra Warwick and Juan Sosa a little better until the time that their wedding date snuck up on us... 10/10/10! (Isn't that fun? They'll never forget their anniversary. And I say that because I am the one who forgets our anniversary date in our marriage!)

So two weekends ago, we drove up to the beautiful Linville, NC area (near Boone and the Blue Ridge Parkway) for the weekend to participate in their wedding. Granddaddy and Nana B. graciously offered to keep Kenna until Sunday when they drove up for the wedding, and Matt's sister Leanne's family kept our dog Pontouf, so we truly had a free weekend just the two of us! (Thank you all again!)

It was a new experience for Matt and I for him to officiate a wedding on his own. For me, it was fun because I got to hang out with and get to know the wedding party during the rehearsal and all of the wedding events! The weather was beautiful all weekend, and we couldn't have had a better or more refreshing time in the mountains.

We drove up Friday night just in time to settle in and change clothes for the rehearsal. I never got a picture of the cabin we stayed in (even though every time we left to go somewhere I said "I want to remember to get a picture of the cabin before we leave"- ask Matt), but it was a beautiful place in a really adorable small mountain village. Matt and I were not sure we wanted to leave! The rehearsal was our first glimpse of the beautiful wedding site Terra & Juan picked out. Here is the only picture I got of it right before the sun went down among the amazing fall colors:
After the rehearsal, we made a beeline for Matt's favorite barbeque place, Pappy's, where we ate the most delicious corn fritter appetizer I've ever had! Matt loves this barbeque place, and has even driven all the way to Banner Elk just to eat there a couple of years ago only to find that it was closed for renovations. It's open now and even better than we remembered!
I resisted the urge to force him to stand in front of the restaurant with the sign for a picture and took this one of his delicious dinner arriving instead!

On Saturday, we had a wide open day until the rehearsal dinner that night... and we packed a whole weekend into that one day! We started out by sleeping in and then getting coffee and breakfast out at a really cute local cafe called The River Dog. I felt SO SPOILED- those of you who have kids can understand how just sleeping in and having an uninterrupted, un-rushed breakfast with your love is an amazing "break!" Oh how we used to take that for granted!

We had seen posters around town that nearby Grandfather Mountain was having an "Octoberfest" so we decided to start the morning there. They had a small craft show with local artisans and lots of fun kid activities like a mini fair. Since we clearly didn't come for the beer, we got our funnel cake and apple cotton candy "to go" and took it on a ride up the mountain! It was so strange to see the ski slopes covered in grass and to take the ski lift with no skis, but also very peaceful and perfect, beautiful weather!
On the way up:

At the top, we hiked up to a little lookout point. The view from the top:
All those little green dots are Christmas trees!
After we left, we still had a little time before the evening wedding festivities, so we headed into Valle Crucis to go to Mast General store. We love this place! By this point, Matt and I were both seriously ready to move to the mountains. We didn't take any pictures, but here is a link to when we went two years ago right before Kenna arrived. We would love to make this a yearly trip!

We got back in time to change and head out to the rehearsal dinner- Juan's family hosted a delicious fiesta at a local Mexican restaurant with such delicious food! Right afterward there was a welcome dessert for all the out of town guests, with beautiful fall decorations and an amazing guitar shaped groom's cake (I somehow managed to not get any pictures of that either!).

The wedding itself was on Sunday afternoon, and it was the sunniest and warmest it had been all weekend! Because I was so focused on watching the wedding and listening to what Matt was saying, I didn't get as many photos as I'd like of the ceremony. But I am very glad we have some memories of this special wedding! Here are some of Matt and the happy couple:
and here's one that shows the total beauty of the area!
Kenna spent the whole wedding blissfully happy, running from mountain to mountain while her Granddaddy chased her. Two year olds plus four hour car trips make for very active toddlers!
The reception was one of the best I've ever been to, with a buffet of delicious food and a really great band! I visited with Nana B. and stuffed myself silly on mini crab cakes and sweet tea while Kenna burned off the rest of her energy dancing with Daddy and Granddaddy:
The reception hall alone made me want to get married all over again. There were large columns throughout the room that were actually large trees, and everything was covered in twinkle lights. When we saw it at the rehearsal, we thought it was a big, beautiful room, but at the wedding, we found out that the walls all opened up to make it like a huge outdoor pavilion! This picture truly does not do it justice:
Juan is a really talented musician (hence the guitar groom's cake, and the guitar that everybody signed with paint pens instead of a guest book!) and played and sang a song he wrote for Terra for the wedding. It was incredibly beautiful and sweet! One of my favorite things about weddings is seeing all the married couples in the room seeming to reminisce about their own weddings and how long they have been married as they celebrate with a new couple starting their own marriage. I thought my heart would burst when Matt and I danced with both Kenna and my pregnant belly squished between us! We stayed as long as we possibly could until we had to get back on the road.

I'm always a little sad to see the sun setting as the mountains move into our rear view as we head home. The drive home from Boone will always remind me of a long conversation Matt and I had on the way home from another good friend's wedding in Boone where we both were at a crossroads with our faith. We spent the long four hours seriously discussing and deciding whether we were going to truly live our lives for the Lord, or keep on calling ourselves Christians while following our own plans. I'm so thankful firstly for a loving heavenly Father that continues calling us into reconciliation and obedience to Him, even in the midst of our sin and selfishness, and for a husband who loves me and loves the Lord- I treasure the way we have held each other up in our faith through the hard times so far and that a weekend alone with him only reassures my certainty that he is the very best friend I could have!

What a good, good weekend. We came home happy tired, refreshed, and ready to sleep in our own beds. Congratulations to Juan and Terra, the new Mr. and Mrs. Sosa!

Easter Weekend: Sunday

Sunday
On Sunday morning we headed off to the early service expecting to work nursery, but instead we were able to go to service to hear Pastor Marty's great sermon out of the Luke account of the resurrection, and then had a great lesson in Sunday school as well. Both lessons taught one of my favorite verses: "Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here; he has risen! Remember how he told you, while he was still with you in Galilee: 'The Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, be crucified and on the third day be raised again.' " (Luke 24:6-7). Our Sunday school teachers brought photos they had taken of the empty tomb in Israel, and it was so amazing to see it, exactly as described in God's word.

After church we headed to Sandy and Leanne's for lunch, delicious homemade cheesecake, and an egg hunt in their backyard. I'm not sure who had more fun, the kids or the grandparents!
There were lots of eggs to go around and lots of fun hiding places to find them in!
There was even almost some impromptu gardening when Nana B brought out a fun shovel toy set!
I thought I had forgotten my camera at home, only to find it in the bottom of the diaper bag the next day... luckily Granddaddy took lots of good ones and we got a family picture (this was just minutes before Kenna ate an orange jelly bean and covered herself in bright orange drool!):
After that, a few of us ended up out of the dress-up clothes and into some play clothes...
...which was way more fun anyway!
We had such a fun and busy day (and crashed out so hard when we got home!) that Kenna didn't get to open her Easter basket here at the house. So, today I put her dress back on and re-created the moment so that we'd have pictures of it! As my Mom would say, a hundred years from now, no one will ever know the difference!

Her favorite thing was the thing I was most excited to give her... bubbles in little peep-shaped containers, found at the dollar tree! The bunny was found among Nana Dean's things last winter (it doesn't look like it, but it does have ears!)
Our little book-loving girl:
Our sweet precious girl. What a gift to get to teach her about God as she grows, and to hopefully get to be instrumental in her coming to believe in Christ as her Savior. Happy Easter!

Easter Weekend: Saturday

On Saturday morning we headed out to the farm for Bayleaf's Easter Egg Hunt. What a big, fun production! It was so nice to just enjoy attending the event rather than being in charge of planning one like we did last year. We were so thankful to all of the volunteers, and it was fun to see our friends hiding eggs for the kids between each age group.
Kenna was a little more interested in watching what the other kids were doing... I love this age where it is not about getting the most or the best eggs, but just their pure little amazement at the pretty colors and loving the power of putting things in and dumping things out.
It was so nice to be together as a family!

Easter Weekend: Friday

We had a really great weekend together as a family for Easter! (So busy and fun, in fact, that I have to split it up into 3 separate posts so that I can upload all the pictures!) Since Kenna was only about 4 months old on her first Easter, we excitedly looked forward to this year when she would be a stumbly little toddler, reaching over to pick up one little egg at a time, all while trying to not let all the eggs fall out of her basket. Little did we know that Kenna would get to participate in three Easter egg hunts this year!

The weather has been an absolutely gorgeous reminder of celebrating the resurrection of our Savior Jesus Christ. Something about the flowers blooming at this time of year just reiterates in my mind the way God renews our hearts and the birth of the new creations we are in Him! "See! The winter is past; the rains are over and gone. Flowers appear on the earth; the season of singing has come." (Song of Solomon 2:11-12). Season of singing, that's exactly what spring is to me!

Friday
The first on Friday was technically our monthly ladies' lunch for our Sunday school class, hosted by our friends the Bryants. Let me tell you, Scott and Sarah know how to throw a party! We had a picnic lunch, a craft, went through the Resurrection eggs for the kids, hunted for Easter eggs, and even visited with the Easter bunny!

Seeing all the big kids when we first arrived at the Bryant's house... if there is a dog anywhere to be found, Kenna always wants to say hello.
She did a really good job of keeping her balance long enough to pick up the eggs and put them in her bucket. She was so excited to carry her own little bucket on her arm like a purse.
I was really impressed that Kenna didn't cry around the Easter bunny and awesome giant carrot. Most of the kids did really well, I remember seeing only one or two cry.
Letting it all hang out and eating a peep. It was so sunny and hot!
Inspecting her candy loot! I let her eat the melted chocolate right out of the wrapper. Yes, she had marshmallow peeps and melted mini kit-kats instead of lunch!
Friday afternoon we walked around our neighborhood and gave out small gift bags we made with Easter eggs full of candy, a note inviting them to church with us, and some really great tracts Matt had ordered earlier in the week. We wanted it to be an encouragement to those that already are believers, and an open door to get to know everybody in our neighborhood a little better!
(PS- didn't Target have the most beautiful colored eggs this year? I kept going back for more because I wanted to have a few left over! Love them!)
After Kenna went to bed, Matt and I watched the movie the Passion of the Christ together and decided it will be a new family tradition to watch it each year on Good Friday. It was such a special and awesome time for both of us to remember the sacrifice Jesus made for us on the cross, and I actually love how graphic the movie is because it makes it just that much more real that we don't celebrate the "Easter story" we celebrate a risen and living God!