.01 January 19th Emily and I welcomed Kyla Faith Downing into our family. She has been such an amazing addition to our lives! My favorite nickname for her is K-love.
She truly amazes me! I call her my little cheer leader. When we're riding down the road she'll start chanting... Da-Da, Da-Da, Da-Da, just as though she were at a basketball game chanting... De-fence, De-fence.
I've also come to realize how incredible my wife is at being a Mom. She cares so much for Kyla. I think I better understand how to love unconditionally watching Emily and Kyla interact.
Through all the sleepless nights and the lessons being learned I truly love this "little" transition in my life. We've had so many memories already. I never knew how great a pink plastic cup could taste until Kyla came along. She loves sharing her tea with me!
.02 Sometime around Kyla's birth Emily and I also had a car donated to us. Yup, that's right. Someone gave us a car. God knew we were going to need a second car.
This 1998 Chevy Monty Carlo was just what we needed. It reminds me of my old Pontiac Trans Am; except- less horse power, no t-tops that leak, no flow masters, no air conditioning, slight oil leak and a window that jams when you roll it down. Okay, maybe its just the fact that its a two door car that reminds me of the Trans Am. But we are so grateful for this car!
.03 In March I traveled to Greenville, SC to help out at a children's conference. With the additional belongings that I had to bring for my family it was necessary for me to also purchase a car-top carrier and a travel "cage" (like you would use to load up your grill if you were going to a football game to tailgate).
After arriving, Emily and I had a couple watch us carrying all of our items for this conference, our personal items and all of our baby's items as well. At the end of this conference that couple went out and bought us a small enclosed trailer to travel home with. What a blessing for my family!
.04 Around April or May Emily and were also able to pay off our first car (SUV) together! And we did this all without Dave Ramsey's help! ;-)
That's right! I said it. WITHOUT DAVE RAMSEY'S HELP!
.05 August came and I took a new job working with middle schoolers at Mt. Paran North. This was another huge step for us. We moved from Baton Rouge, Louisiana to Atlanta, Georgia to join a local church again. Previously I was a state youth director for the Church of God (this position was a denominational position for the state of Louisiana at which I planned youth camps and resourced the youth pastors in the state).
Monopoly series: Talking about grace and using monopoly as an illustration.
Moving to Georgia was a great plan for us, especially since our parents lived in Georgia and South Carolina. So we moved in with my wife's parents for what was supposed to be about month and turned out living there for 5 months. Great times though. For instance, every time my wife's parents went out of town we had the pleasure of encountering wildlife up close and personal. Keep in mind this never happened while they were there. We killed a scorpion, 4 mice, and ran into a 5 foot long black snake, coyotes hunting in the back yard and deer groaning at 3:00 am right out side our window.
.06 In the midst of trying to settle down I had to plan our middle school winter retreat for the Church of God denomination (amplify) in November. I love working with Middle Schoolers!
This is my 6th year planning this event!
.07 In between Amplify and Christmas my grandfather passed away. He was a great man of God. He served his country in WW2 and was a great example to those who knew him! Sure do miss him.
.08 Finally in December we locked in a contract to buy a house. While the bank pushed the date back to the 4th of January we were finally starting to feel like we were going to settle down again.
This is looking out our bedroom window into the rest of the neighborhood.
This past year we've had a lot of memories but I'm so glad that its over. It feels like I need a year to relax now.
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