Restoration

We have now been in Buffalo for 3 months.  That's really hard to believe in a way.  But in a way it feels like we've been here longer.  We haven't given an update on how Restoration Church is going in a while, so I wanted to do that.  The short answer is that it's going great!  Since October the church had been meeting on Sunday evenings every other week.  Two Sundays ago (on January 4th) we started meeting on Sunday mornings every week, and that has been wonderful.  Sunday evenings were great too, but there is something about starting your day out by worshipping the Lord, and also having the sun shining through the windows and reflecting off the snow that makes it feel more joyous!

Wes is loving his job as a worship pastor.  He is super busy, especially now since we are meeting every week, but it is a good busy with a great purpose.  He is doing such a good job, and everyone seems to love him.  He has also had several opportunities to lead worship at a couple other churches for youth meetings, and he is going to be leading at a youth camp later this month which is very cool.  He loves doing stuff like this, and it's great that he has been able to meet other pastors who have asked him to help out with these things.

I have been involved by helping with the set up of our gathering each week, helping set up the coffee and snacks, and last week I started singing with Wes on the worship songs.  This is something he asked me to do, and though I love to sing, I'm not a real fan of singing in front of people into a microphone -- however, I really want to help out the church in any way I can and it's good to get out of our comfort zones every now and then!  I also have to remember that the only audience I'm singing for is God, right?!  I will also be helping out in the children's area about once a month, so that will be fun.  

We have a small group now that has started meeting every Thursday night and I think that is going to be a huge part of our lives here.  We currently have about 8 people (including Wes and me).  Our small group won't be the same every week, which will be exciting.  We will either be discussing scripture, discussing the previous Sunday's message, playing games, eating, praying, or serving out in the community.  We are really looking forward to the wonderful relationships I know we will (and already have) form through this.

We have new faces at Restoration Church every week and that is very exciting.  It is VERY different living in western New York as opposed to the Bible belt of the south like we always have.  It seems that everyone in the south is either a Christian, claims to be a Christian, or at least knows the "story" of Jesus.  There are so many people here in Buffalo that do not know or understand the love of Jesus.  They do not realize what He did for us by dying on the cross.  Or maybe they do, but they don't understand that salvation is a free gift.  You don't have to earn it.  You don't have to be worthy of it.  Many people here have backgrounds that were very "religious", but they don't get that it's all about a relationship with Jesus.  Dan, the pastor, has already talked to so many people who have been deeply touched by what they have seen or heard at Restoration.  That is why we are here.  Yes, we miss our families terribly.  Yes, it's hard to deal with blizzards and driving in several inches of snow and walking the dog in sub-zero weather.  Yes, we miss living in Nashville and the great friends we have there.  But is it all worth it knowing that we are living in obedience to God and His call on our lives to live in Buffalo for a time?  Is it worth it knowing that people may come to know the Lord and that we have the privilege of being a small part of that?  ABSOLUTELY!  We are thankful and humbled to be a part of what God is doing in western New York.

Also, real quick, I wanted to give a shout-out to my sister's husband, my brother in law, Josh!  I failed to mention in my Christmas post that he was not able to be with us on Christmas Eve because he is a fire fighter and was working on Christmas Eve.  While we were enjoying lots of food, family, and presents, he was working hard saving lives and protecting the people of Anniston!!  I'm sorry you weren't able to be there, Josh, but thank you for risking your life to protect others!  Here is a special picture of Josh since I didn't have any of him in my last post:

Christmas celebrations & Bringing in '09

We had a wonderful Christmas in Alabama.  Leslie's entire family lives within 20 miles of each other, so it's great that we get to see them all at the holidays.  We started off at Granny's on Christmas Eve with lots of delicious goodies and presents.  Here is Granny and Mom:

Here's  a shot of all the ladies - four generations of females only!  And my sister Ashley has one more girl on the way! :)

Me and my beautiful (& preggers) sister Ashley:

After Granny's we headed over to Grandmama and Grandaddy's for a fabulous Christmas Eve dinner and more presents.  Here is G'mama, Ashley, and my niece Rylie:

And Mom, Dad, and Aunt Susan... and check out the spread!  Yum-O!

Me and Susie:

G'mama and G'daddy with his new present:

And Rylie chilling out with her Uncle Wes:

On Christmas Day, for the first time in all my 29 years, we did not go anywhere!  Wes and I were at Mom and Dad's and we just relaxed, watched Christmas movies, and ate all day until Ashley, Josh, and Rylie came over that evening.  It was wonderful.  Here is Boston loving all his toys from his stocking that his Gram and Pop gave him:

Approximately 5 minutes after this picture was taken, he had ripped the head off the stuffed cat.  Oh well.

Mom and I made lots of treats on Christmas morning:

That evening we did our family's gifts.  Here is the awesome shirt we got my dad:

And for some reason I didn't take many pictures of us opening our presents, so that's all for that.  We had lots of fun, though, giving and receiving all the great gifts and spending time together!  After presents, we all watched "Christmas Vacation" which is the perfect ending to Christmas Day.

The day after Christmas we had our festivities at my Big Daddy and Nanny's house (my other grandparents), but I believe I forgot my camera and therefore have nothing to show for that day.  It was a great time too, though!

December 27th was my cousin Kiley's 8th birthday, and I am so happy she had a skating party!  Wes and I have been roller skating three times in the last four months -- it's been a good year.  Here is the birthday girl in her birthday shirt:

Rylie and I had a blast skating together.

And Wes had to show her the proper form at skee ball.

Later that day we had some Wal-Mart fun, of course.  We couldn't believe what we saw at the Gadsden, Alabama Wal-Mart!

Trust us, that is nothing like the real thing.  And Wes and Rylie having fun at the after Christmas sale - how cute are they?

Another highlight of the holidays was getting to see some dear, dear friends who were also in Gadsden visiting.  It was SO GREAT to see Brandie, Kinsey, Michael, Ashley, and their precious kids since this only happens once a year if we're lucky.  I have been friends with these girls for almost 20 years.  I cannot believe I can even say that.  Yikes!

So we drove the (terribly) long journey back to Buffalo and got ready to bring in the new year.  We had a Restoration Church staff Christmas/New Year's party on New Year's Eve and it was fun.  This is how you store your sparkling grape juice in Buffalo:

Here is a shot of everyone right after midnight enjoying our sparkling grape juice.  This is Alex, the executive pastor and his wife Jennifer.

And our children's minister, Derek, and his wife Michelle:

Here is Sam and Nick, Pastor Dan's 9 year old twin boys.  As you can see, they were excited to be awake past midnight.

And the pastor, Dan, and his wife Gina:

And us:

Whew, that was a lot of pictures.  What can I say?  I love pictures!

Our first real blizzard, and part 1 of Christmas 2008

First of all, we of course have to include some pics of our Boston.  Here we are doing his favorite thing - cuddling.

And here he is under the blanket his Nana knitted for us.  He loves to get under it and stick his nose out to sniff.

So the week before Christmas, we experienced our first real snow storm in Buffalo.  The only time we had ever seen this kind of thing was the big snow storm of 1993 in Alabama!  We had to go out and play obviously!  This is in our front yard.  Check out how deep it is:

And I thought I'd throw in a pic of our cute little tree.

Back to the snow.  Here is our balcony.  The snow is up to the seats of the chairs!

This is in front of our house as we were leaving to drive south for Christmas:

And here's our little Saturn amidst the snow:  (Isn't the street beautiful, though?!)

We set out for the 11 hour drive to Nashville while we were under a lake effect snow warning.  It was not fun.  For the first 6 hours of the drive, we were in snow and had to go 20-40 miles per hour.  Here are some shots of what we were driving through in New York, Pennsylvania, and Ohio:

We were SO excited when we saw our first bit of grass that wasn't covered in snow about 6 hours into the trip.  Needless to say, the drive to Nashville took 14 hours instead of 11, but we were very thankful to make it there safely.

The next day, we met several of our Nashville friends at Chick-fil-A for lunch.  We had to eat there since the nearest one to Buffalo is 105 miles away. :(  Man, it was good!  Here are the dudes - Kevin, Wes, Zeb, and David:

And the girls - Melodie, Amber, Sara, Leslie, and Jennifer:

The Brown family also came out to eat with us.  Here is Chanda and Cadence:

Sweet Cayla:

And here we are playing with smiley Annika:

It was really great to get to see and hang out with our Nashville peeps for a little bit!  After lunch, Wes, Boston and I got back in the car for the rest of the drive to Gadsden, AL.  The 3 hours was nothing compared to the 14 hours the day before!  I'll share about our Christmas celebrations in the next post.  Hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and a fabulous New Year's!