Mini Me

If you ask many people that know us, they would say that Eden gets her fun, silly personality from Clint.  It is no secret that he has a TON of personality, and I am known to be the reserved listener.  However, as Eden's first year has progressed, and she has learned more and more things...it is apparent that I have indeed reproduced myself.

It all started when I figured out that Eden liked to play hide and seek.  I would run into another room and she would come find me, then turn around and crawl faster than I ever imagined possible, and scream.  I was so confused by this for weeks.  One day I decided to show Clint our new game...and told him I wasn't sure why she screamed when I chased her.  He watched, and laughed, and then informed me it was because when I ran from her I screamed.  Great thing to teach her!  I have since taken this shadowing to a whole new level.  I have successfully taught my child how to do a heel stretch, a toe-touch, and the sign for Touchdown.  These are 12 month old versions, of course, but quite impressive ones if I do say so myself! 

I secretly love this.  I love that she wants to be like me.  It feels amazing to have someone look up to you and want to mimic your every move.  I learned in college, as I started walking with God, that I needed to be an example ALL of the time.  I hated it at first, I felt like I could never not care what people thought of me.  But eventually I learned that I was representing Christ, not Rachel, ALWAYS.  When I walked to class, led Bible studies, ate dinner, watched movies, went to basketball games, I had to be a light to darkness.  I never thought people were looking at my life.  I found out as years passed that women all around me were indeed watching my every move.  I pray that I represented Christ well to everyone who was watching! 

I am thankful I learned that lesson in college!  I am living it out in a very real way now!  As Eden grows by the day, it is becoming more and more obvious that Clint and I are her examples of what to be.  I pray we would not only reproduce our love of football, cheerleading, eachother and family.  But that we would ooze the love of Christ and that she would see that all the days of our lives.  The pressure is on!  As my little mini me grows up and learns more it intensifies my need for Christ for multiple reasons.  I can not love if I am not first loved by Him (1 John 4:19).  I can not have patience to discipline and correct her if I am not meeting with God.  The fruits of the Spirit are a necessity more than ever in my life.  I can not teach her about the Lord if I do not know His character.  My knowledge and love of the Word needs to grow!

I can rest in that the Lord gives more grace (James 4:6), and to know that he will graciously give me what I need when I need it.  We have the opportunity to teach her the goodness, loving-kindness, sovereignty and hope of the Lord before her mind is filled with any other lies!  What a gift!!  I pray that we would take hold of the command to teach her diligently the words of truth!  Lord fill our hearts with your love, that we might gracefully teach her your ways!

A Season of Change...

If you haven't heard yet....
Were Moving! Yep, that's right...moving. Through a sequence of events in our ministry, the Lord has led us to a new city. Our friends Dave and Carrie Russell have been praying about launching a region in Washington DC for years now. As of this summer, the prayers began to take shape! In May, Dave, Carrie, and their 3 little ones will be moving to Washington DC to begin building laborers in our nations capital!

So...what does this have to do with us? Well, we will be taking Dave and Carrie's place as the area directors over Elon University, UNC-Greensboro, and Wingate! Though our excitement to move to the Triad region (Greensboro!) is great...we are beginning to feel the loss of many things the Lord has uniquely blessed us with in this season. We love living in Wingate. Our days are spent walking around campus mingling with students and often, having them over to our house (which is in walking distance). Clint is the chaplain of the Wingate football team, I am helping coach the cheerleaders for the 3rd year. Many of our students have become family to us. This is where we started our life together as a married couple. Our first home is here, our first baby was born here. Memories in this sleepy little town abound for us. We will deeply miss this place. This will be a season that we will look back on our whole lives. I am sure of this.

To ease our pain...there are a few things we WILL NOT miss about Wingate....

1) The Chicken Plant- There are days where the stench of the Tyson plant (which is actually in MONROE) is unbearable. In pregnancy, you have a heightened sense of smell. The summer heat coupled with this reality kept me inside, not even daring to check the mail some days in the summer of 08! This smell is not constant (praise the Lord), or predictable. There are just some days were exercise outside isn't an option if you'd like to not throw up.

2) Highway 74- If you live in Wingate, you are giving me AMEN's. There is one way in and out of Wingate. Highway 74. We hate 74. Though we are thankful to have a road to get in and out of here...we wish there was at least one detour to take. But there isn't. There is always traffic on 74. There is the morning commute traffic, lunch rush traffic, 3-6 o'clock traffic.... If you want to miss the traffic, you must travel at 3 am. We've done it. We will NOT miss 74.

3) Random power outages- A few weeks ago, we had a play-date with our friends Kelly and Luke. For such an occasion, I splurged and bought pork ribs to cook in our crockpot. At 3:30, I put them in to simmer for hours...at 4:00, the power went out. It stayed out until 9:30 that night. The ribs were ruined and so we walked to McDonalds...where the power was also out. This is not unusual. Within the past week we have had more than 10 outages! Most of them in the same day. It is a mystery why this happens. But we certainly will not miss it.

4) Water Quality- On more than one occasion, people have defined our water's smell as "like dirt". Nice. This is especially true after it rains. We get an annual water quality report which, in a nice way, states that our water is not entirely safe to drink. We have a water filter and apologize to guests that have to brush their teeth with water that smells like mud.

5) Fire Ants- Union County is known to have especially bad fire ants. When they bite, they HURT, a lot! We have found them in Eden's bed this week...and it makes me want to set fire to every ant hill I see. We have to be very careful when we play in the yard...only on blankets. They frequently take over the entire town...and get worse when it rains. We will NOT miss them.

Though these few things drive us crazy from time to time, we will still deeply miss the people, the campus and the memories we have made here! We love you dear, tiny, sleepy little Wingate!