Wonderful Church Family

I don't know if it's the fact that I work at a church or the fact that I am growing up and my eyes have been opened to the blessings of a church family, but I have been learning how beautiful the body of Christ is! When my ceiling caved in (yes, ceiling tiles fell on my bed out of no where), different people in the church were willing to use what God had given them to help me out. Due to the year in which my apartment was built, my dad was a bit nervous that the tiles might be asbestos tiles and suggested I get them checked out. With that warning, I spent the night with the Farmers...and several nights thereafter. The next day I spent most of the day trying to find a lab that would test a tile. I was unsuccessful and frustrated. Upon hearing about my dilemma, Mr. Lawrence, who works in construction, called the same people that I called earlier that day and was able to get an answer--no asbestos!  Isn't it great to know people who have different expertise? After hearing about the good news, I was able to go back into my apartment, and Mr. Willie took time out of his busy schedule to put the ceiling back up! There is no way that I could have done this process on my own!

When my grandfather passed away two weeks ago, almost everyone in the church sent a card, messaged me on facebook, or said something to me. Everyone was so sincere.  I can't begin to tell you how that made me feel. I was very close to my grandfather and was a bit emotional around his passing. I praise the Lord that I know He is in a much better place, free of pain and suffering.

Also, the Lavenders offered their beach house for John and I to spend some quality time together. They are SO generous and have continuously showered us with blessings since I moved here. They let John stay at their house whenever he came to visit...which was almost every week.  Anyhow, due to their big hearts, John and I were able to relax on the beach!

There was NO ONE on the beach this day. I read The Help while John played on his iPhone, looking at football info in preparation for this next season!

Unfortunately, there were jellyfish EVERYWHERE, so we couldn't get in the water. 

We also were able to fix our seafood cravings! We ate at Tacky Jacks and The Original Oyster House.

 We got ready to go out to eat and I wanted to make sure and get a family picture. For my birthday, my parents got me a tripod, so I decided to put it to work. We had a bit of trouble trying to get Eli to cooperate. We took several pictures, but these were my favorite!

Eli got a bit bored...

This was our most successful!