THANKSGIVING 2008

We had a great Thanksgiving - actually we had two of them. On the "official" T-day we went over to Elisha and Daniels house. Sean & Rhiannon and the kids went to Sean's parents. Then, on Saturday we all gathered once again at Rhiannon & Sean's house for T-Day #2! This time Israel, Erin and Ava were able to join us, along with Brenda's parents, so we had four generations together again! Doesn't happen often enough these days. We put these on our facebook page, but thought we would share them here also.

Hope and Freedom

Chris' niece, Lelia, lives in Nebraska. She is a white woman married to a black man. She had an interesting take on the recent election that she expressed in her blog. Although we put the link on our Twitter, we thought it was so good that we would share it here also:

Hope and Freedom

Tuesday night my little girl Alivia was tucked in bed and was supposed to be asleep, but was trying her hardest to hear the results of the election coming from the television. She would occasionally yell out, "what's the score?" referring to the number of electoral votes each candidate had.

As many of you know I am a white woman married to a man of color. A black man as he calls himself or as many call him an African American.
To me, I am simply married to my Gene.
 
One thing we kept hearing on television the night of and the morning after the election from many people that have the same skin color as my family does was how history has changed. I watched Sherry Shepard on The View, which I never watch but did yesterday morning cry as she said how her son now "has no limitations".

This is MY opinion as a mother of 3 children that are bi-racial but in the worlds eyes are African American or as their Daddy says, his black babies.

Unlike Sherry's child, my son never had limitations before Tuesday, November 4th.
Why?
Because God said Aaron doesn't.
According to Philippians 4:13 Aaron can do ALL things through Christ who strengthens him.

Obama as President does not open the doors of Aaron's future that ONLY God can open. Having a man with the same skin color as my son has in the highest office in the US of A does not mean that NOW Aaron can be whatever he wants to be. No, the job Obama holds does not make God's plans that he has for my children any different than they were before the 4th of November. The only limitation that will be put on my children and will hold them back from being all that God wants them to be will be their choice to not cooperate with their Heavenly Father in living out His plans for their lives.

If my son, daughters or granddaughter looks to anyone for hope for their future I want it to be Jesus Christ. Yes, history books have a new chapter. We have lived the day to see the first African American President, but Oprah is wrong in the statement she wore on her t-shirt yesterday of HOPE WON. Oprah honey, Hope didn't win on November 4th because of the vote you publicly cast. HOPE won on Calvary. HOPE won 3 days later when the tomb was empty. HOPE wins each time someone kneels and invites Jesus into their lives. HOPE is not our new President...the real and only HOPE every person in this world has is Jesus Christ. Period.

My kids...my kids that tan easier than I do, my kids who have hair I don't know how to manage, my kids who embrace both their black and white heritage....my kids have hope for their future and have no limitations because they are children of God.

I want my kids to look to God as their door-opener, hope-giver and according to His will no limitations-giver. One who believes that all life is important while still in the womb. The Only One who knows what truly is best for my children and the land they live in.

We've also heard a lot of people say that November 4th is the "first day they felt freedom".
How sad to base one's freedom of who moves into the White House in January.
Anyone who has ever invited Christ to take over their life knows real freedom is granted the day the Holy Spirit takes up residence within you. The day that Jesus Christ moves into the Oval office of your heart.

That my friend is real freedom.

Christ...the real Hope and the real Freedom-giver.

May God bless America,

Lelia
 

Here is a copy of our article that ran in the Opelika-Auburn News recently.

  Recently we received two phone calls out of the blue from old friends in Colorado. Neither of them had talked to each other in years and neither call was related. One call was from Gayle Lammers, a former colleague of Chris' when we lived in and worked in Battlement Mesa, CO.  The other call was from Ron Cloninger, the owner of the company they both worked for when we lived there in 1982-1986. They were all contracted to Exxon Corp to start up and operate the water and wastewater plants on Battlement Mesa.  Shortly after we moved there, Exxon shut down their Oil Shale facility they were developing and laid off 2000 workers on May 2, 1982. We didn't know what we were going to do for a while, but we wound up staying in the area for several more years.

What a beautiful area to live in. We owned a little house (little is no exaggeration, it was 800 sq. ft finished!) Here is what it looks like today (Thanks, Gayle for the updated pictures) :

When we lived there and look out our rear windows, this is the type of view we saw:

Truly beautiful! The area has an abundance of deer and other wildlife. Some mornings there would be 10 or more deer (big mule deer) in our yard. There was also several spots where wild asparagus would grow in the spring. We would take the kids down to the riverbank and pick 30-40 lbs of asparagus and freeze it for later. Yummmm!

Shortly after Exxon shut down, we moved to Rifle, CO just a few miles down the highway. While we lived there Brenda operated a licensed child day-care in our house. It was great getting to know everyone in that small community. At one point she had children from several teachers, the Garfield County School District's Superintendent, a local police officer, a city council member, the local County Health nurse and the local game warden. We knew everything about everybody!!

In 1986 we moved to New Jersey for a year while Chris worked in Philadelphia. In 1987 we moved to Alabama. For the next twenty years we lived in our house in Pelham. Earlier this year we began a new chapter when we moved to Auburn and started our business in Opelika. We love living life in a small(er) town environment.

We've only been here a few months but have fallen in love with the area. The people, the history, everything - we just love it. We are set for the next twenty years!

Our business is going well, we are still very much in the start up phase but getting calls on a regular basis so we are very excited and encouraged.

Last Thursday night we went with Rhiannon, Kali and Kassidy to a play about the life of Laura Wilder. The performers were all students, elementary to college, but they did a wonderful job. Kassidy was quite excited to get the autographs of several of the actors after the play.

We've also enjoyed Music in the Park and Noon Tunes in downtown Opelika with Elisha, Daniel and Anjali and Jaiden. They are both growing up so fast!

A couple of weeks ago we were very excited to get a visit from several old friends, Greg & Renea Karr, Matt & Jessica Powell, Ron & Debbie Powell and George & Kathey White came down on a Sunday morning to visit. We were able to go to church together, then out to lunch at Good ol' Boy's restaurant. After lunch we took them to our office and we just hung out for most of the afternoon. We really enjoyed their visit.

Things are still going great at the church. We still have to pinch ourselves occasionally to make sure we are really able to be a part of what God is doing in Auburn/Opelika. We are very excited about the upcoming series called OnePrayer coming up in June. If you are not aware of what that is, you should check it out at OnePrayer.com. It's really very exciting. We are going to use it as a basis for our small groups during the summer semester.

So, that's a quick update for now - more later.

Play Time

Rhiannon with Kade, Kassidy and Kali

Anjali & Poppy

Anjali swingin' with Mica

Anjali & Poppy in the Park

Poppy & Mica with Kade and Kali

Kali Rose 

Jaiden, our little Chunky Monkey