These are my thoughts about life. A life that I live with my wife, two children (so far ;)) four dogs, four cats (well five, but mine left for an old lady I’m convinced who feeds him steak down the street), some fish and a whole lot of different. My wife and I met in college, another story altogether, and make decisions as we feel led and do so with little compromise as it relates to our faith and family.
We come from similar but different places. I grew up in a small town in northern South Carolina that has turned into a rather large suburb. I insisted to my parents shortly after we moved there, that when they built the four lane highway to the interstate and the Winn-Dixie, that it was over. I was right. There was even once a movement of longtime residence that wanted to build a wall. A real wall. A very real wall. A very real and very tall, thick wall to keep the town from being ‘infiltrated’ any further by big business transplants that liked our ‘small town feeling’ and schools. There was even an article featuring the idea in the local newspaper. I have one sister and parents who instilled hard work and independence in their children along with a foundation for loving the Church and God. Good Presbyterians. That’s where I started.
My wife, Morgan, she grew up in a real, small, town in the middle of South Carolina. This is also where we live now. I like it here. It is my home. She grew up on lots of land with a big family. When her mother’s side of the family amasses it constitutes a larger population than the small community where their ‘farm’, for lack of a shorter description, is located. All told, about 75 people (this is strictly a guess, it’s a lot) who are made up of directly related brother and sisters, their children, grandchildren, and a 95 year old matriarch. She calmly presides over the gatherings from the corner of the kitchen with a smile and her hearing aids switched off. More on her later. My wife is the oldest of four girls. She too grew up with parents who taught her the importance of hard work, faith and the force of honesty. Good Baptists. That’s where she started.
We married right after college. She went to the fine university in SC, Clemson, for her Master’s in Teaching (MAT). We lived in the upstate of SC during this time and I worked for the church as my degree was in Religion/Christian Education. I was the Youth Director for a small town Presbyterian church for two years. A failure that has brought a deeper faith and more fruit to my own life than any success could have possibly awarded. Being paid to do the work of God can lead to some interesting and dark places for some people, I am one of them. I now serve as a Financial Aid Advisor and Veteran’s Benefits Coordinator for our local community college. It is a wonderful place with wonderful people and a very rewarding career. My wife teaches from home for one of SC’s online charter schools. She is in my very biased, but also confirmed, opinion an incredible teacher. She loves science and her children. She teaches to make them the best humans they can be.
These are our stories and my thoughts about stuff. This is a very technical terminology to categorize my feelings about being a father, husband, and man who attempts to follow a Redeemer that has given us a perfect gift. Our children.