columbia

  • church,  columbia

    one year old.

    This weekend Columbia Presbyterian Church turns one year old. David and I have a joke that there’s going to be a big age gap between our kids because the church plant is our third child. It sounds like a stretch, but there are many aspects of planting a church that are similar to carrying and giving birth to a human child. Trying. After South Asia, some friends approached us and asked us to consider planting a church in Columbia with them. This idea became a dream in our hearts. It felt so vulnerable at first, almost like we didn’t want to get our hopes up or tell too many people.…

  • columbia,  our family hobbies

    a story about hospitality.

    If you know David well at all, you know about his love for people lingering in the margins of society. When I met him in college he was sharing his story of freedom from a life of drugs and violence and his hope in Christ with prison inmates. When we did youth ministry, he reached out to all the students, but always moved first to the outsider, that kid on the fringe dressed in all black with chains or the one who was too shy to navigate the complexities of high school social dynamics or the one who routinely got wasted on the weekends. He spent his first year of…

  • columbia,  food,  the kids

    june.

    Summer is my happy place. The hotter the better. I feel like my soul goes into hibernation in winter and now I’m myself again. I can just breathe better in shorts and flip flops. Great news: I’m working on a summer reading list for you. In the meantime, here’s what we’ve been up to lately: Afternoons at the park. Before the humidity of our South Carolina summer gets too brutal. Afternoons at the pool. As of last week, both our kids are swimmers and let me tell you what, it’s life changing. After 6 1/2 years, I’m here to tell you the pool is once again relaxing. Growing radishes. Today my daily salad consisted…

  • adoption,  columbia,  our house

    instagram.

    In general my phone photo quality isn’t great, but here’s some fun moments from the past couple weeks . . . Today’s my brother Danny’s 27th birthday. He recently moved to Florence, SC, so we’re missing him today.  We had a fun library/coffee date right before he left. Star Wars comic books were involved. Watching Frozen and cuddling. He’s growing up so fast. This room is going to get a makeover in the next few months because David and I are moving our master bedroom here to make way for the baby’s room. I’m both happy and terrified to lose our junk room (yes, that stationary bike has got to…

  • columbia,  s. asia

    03.09.14.

    One of the saddest thing about moving away from South Asia was leaving the friends God gave us. It was only for 18 months, but we made life long friendships there. Moving to another country rooted up the good, the bad, and the ugly in our hearts, and it was a gift to learn to love others and be loved through it. Our friends John and Alison and their boys Joshua and Caleb are in the States for a few months and visited us from North Carolina this weekend. It was a joyful reunion and after close to two years we were so happy to see our kids pick up…

  • church,  columbia

    our church.

    In December our friend Lucas Brown of Kickstand Studio came and took photos of a worship service for the Columbia Pres website. We love they way they turned out and I’m excited to give you a glimpse into a Sunday morning at our church . . .

  • columbia

    2013.

    january.10 states in 10 days. february. mna church-planting assessment, atlanta. march. support-raising and snowy weekend with david’s parents. april. our city. may. core group buddies. june. family reunion. july. our house. august. 300 panels. september. our church. october. trick or treat. november. school. december. cousins. [may photo credit: Ashley Essig] And if you’d like a look back . . . 2012. 2011.

  • columbia,  holidays

    decorating day.

    The day after Thanksgiving was magical this year. We stayed up very late on Thanksgiving night and then all four of us slept until 9:00 Friday morning. It was like a revelation: this is what life could be like! David drove to Publix and bought croissants for Brie-and-bacon sandwiches for the grown-ups and donuts for the kiddos, after which we took our respective coffee and tea to the living room and got to work Christmas decorating. It was the first time I let myself turn on Christmas music, and you better believe it will be playing nonstop in our house through December 25th. Judah and Amie took their tree-decorating responsibilities very…