And I went to Nogales, Mexico with Grace Fellowship's youth group where I got stuck at the Atlanta airport on the way (but my family must really love me b/c my parents, sister, brother in law, and two nephews drove three hours to come see me at the airport for an hour! I was sooo happy though b/c I hadn't seen them in months!), helped build homes, got to play with kids, and experience serving the poor with high school students.
Once back, I got to run/bike the Muddy Buddy race in Richmond, VA with my best friend Lindsay who finally came back from Malawi, Africa after being there for a year and a half in the peace corps! We had a great time....as you can see :)
At the end of August, Mike got to come with my down to South Carolina to visit my whole family! The guys were beat by the end of the weekend from setting up tents for Caleb's first birthday, but we had a great time and still had enough energy to go to the driving range, swim in the pool with my nephews, and go to church as a family. I miss them so much and can't wait to see them all in December!!
Now that Shockwave and Young Life have started back up, Mike and I spend a good amount of our time hanging out with and loving high school students. Please pray we are able to balance work, time with each other, family, and friends, SLEEP, and also focusing on our ministries and our own personal walk with Christ. As you can see, Mike is loving getting to be a different character every week!
At the beginning of October, I ran a 5K race with a couple girlfriends from work to benefit one of their niece's schools. I somehow managed to come in third in my age group and the girls made me wear the medal for the whole rest of the afternoon!
Mike's birthday was this past weekend....the big 25! I took him to the Raven's game to celebrate (my first one!) and even got to hang out with his dad and grandfather in the Box seats for a little while! The next weekend we headed to the drive in with homemade
lasagna and got rained on, went out to dinner with Mike's family, and hung out with friends that night. I hope it was a special quarter century birthday (week) for him :)!
I've now gotten to meet Mike's grandparents and they are just as welcoming and loving as the rest of his family! I'm so blessed to get to be around a close family when I can't be around my own!