We had all of my side of the family together in November and were able to get a great snapshot of our newest member of the family and I have two nephews getting married this year so we had the addition of their beautiful fiances too!
Some highlights that may seem minor to you but are huge to me are:
1. No more pull ups for anyone. (Big for the budget!)
2. My children are doing their own laundry!!!! I cannot tell you how huge this is for me! Eli does his, Isaiah & Jesse do theirs together and Carmen & Ciera do theirs. They wash it, they dry it, they fold it and they put it away! They are learning responsibility and they do it without complaining! Huge!
3. My kids remained on the honor role all year!
4. We survived Eli's broken thumb and Isaiah's broken collar bone.
5. We had a fun summer with a trip to Mobile and a dream Orlando vacation.
6. Eli decided that, for now, his favorite sport is basketball! Yay for air conditioned games!!!
Of course a huge highlight was the birth of Samuel Emmitt!
Our church family is embarking on a new adventure and it all hit reality in December! We sold our facility to an organization that helps adults with Aspergers to transition into real life. The owner of the company came to us a year and a half ago asking us to pray about it. Our location was perfect for them because it was right across the street from Brevard Community College (It's a university now but I can't remember it's name :/) which is where these adults attend. As we prayed, we became excited thinking about reaching beyond the walls and having the opportunity to reach a different area in Melbourne. We finalized the sell in December and are temporarily renting a Seventh Day Adventist Church for our service on Sundays. We are continuing to seek where God would have us on a more permanent basis, but for now we will reach out to the neighborhood where we are! This is a picture of our last Sunday in the old location.
We ended 2013 in a new way as well. We took the kids out to Seaworld to bring in the new year with their fireworks over the water. Fun times!