happy new year!

I've been gone since November, and while I apologize, we've had a lot of life happen these past few months!  

But, I'll start your news years off with one of my favorite stories - 

Jamie and I are a part of a church in Buckhead that we love, appropriately named Buckhead Church.  From the time we committed to making this place our church home, we were well informed of their vision for members - Connect. Serve. Give. Invite.

Today's story comes from the Serve aspect.

Because of really great experiences that Jamie and I both had with our own college ministries, we decided to invest our energy and resources into the college ministry at BC.  And our lives will never be the same.

Three and a half years ago, we became adult leaders (ha! makes me feel old!) for a small group of freshman college students who would gather at our house once a week and attempt to learn more about Jesus and grow in their faith.  While we've seen some of those students come and go, there are a few who have stuck with us and we've had the privilege to watch them grow, mature, wrestle through some serious stuff, and become somewhat like our surrogate children.  Thankfully, we have at least a year left with most of them, but...

Two of those boys were Lucas + Victor, international student athletes at Georgia State.  They both came from Brazil and played tennis for four years.  Both of their stories were different, but the two became like brothers, and partly because they were so far from home we became their American parents.  

We've had the huge honor of seeing incredible life change happen in them over the years.  Victor made the decision to give his life to Jesus and got baptized (you should check out his video here!), they won countless tennis matches and even got to go to the NCAA tennis championship as doubles partners (and made it to the round of 16!), invested and changed the lives of all those that knew them, and brought such fun, hysterical laughter, and life!  

Victor and Lucas graduated from Georgia State University this past December, graciously spent the Christmas season with us, and then headed back to Brazil to begin their post-graduate lives at home with their families.  We are so excited to see what's to come for them, and yet sad to see them leave.  

Victor & Lucas, we consider you a part of our family (Hammond already misses his big brothers!), and can't wait to come visit soon!  

And here's an awesome video they put together for us just the other day!

highlights

I know I've been a bad blogger lately, but I've got some good stuff coming up this week that will hopefully make up for it. :)

Meanwhile, here are a few of today's highlights...

the weather forecast for this week; yes, i see the rain, but do

you see the ONE day this week that it's going to be over 80*?

HELLO FALL!

which leads me to spending lots of time (esp. in the morning) on our front

porch sitting in a rocking chair doing this. can you say "ahhhhhh?!"

our college small group is starting back up (we've added lots of guys and girls...yay!),

and last night we got together to hang out and celebrate Lucas's 21st birthday!!

have i told you enough how blessed we are by this guy?

another article praising our fabulous little area of town. i do love it so!

and, finally, one of my all-time favorite shows gets some well-deserved

emmy love. cannot wait for the season to kick off so that i can laugh

my little booty off with the Dunphy's, Pritchett's, and the Pritchett-Tucker's

Happy Monday, friends!

Random-ness

Sorry for the lack of posts, but here's a little series to catch you up....

Two weeks ago, we headed to the mountains with the good looking group pictured below.

We considered this our wrap up weekend of an amazing year with some amazing freshman. We spent the weekend hiking, watching movies, roasting marshmallows, and just hanging out. It will be bittersweet picking up a new group next year, but then again we had no idea what we were in store for this go 'round. And it was awesome.

And Scout got his first taste of lake water!!

Last week, co-worker Blake brought his son, Blue, into the office. Blue was bound and determined to teach Scout a few tricks. However, Scout just couldn't pick up "shake." Maybe next time.

Jay Jay watching on as Blue tries to teach Scout

This weekend, we went to Charleston to celebrate Mimi, Jamie's grandma's, birthday. We surprised her on Friday night, watched her perform w/ her local choir, spent some time on the beach, and took her out to a nice dinner.

Happy Birthday, Mimi!

I even tried some paddle-boarding. So fun!

Just about the worst view, but you get the point