We've grown!

It's been almost a year since our last past post, which I guess means it is more than time for an update.

First some confessions. We are not marketers and fundraisers, but we have big dreams. We've learned no one is going to get people excited about our ideas for us.

So, here we go.

We are committed to the High Ridge neighborhood. We are committed to seeing a reduction in poverty in the Keystone Heights area.

We believe poverty is not as much a money issue as it is a relationship and education issue. We want to help people build relationships and provide educational opportunities.

We believe that the people living on Purdue, Bowdoin, and Clemson (the names of streets in High Ridge Estates) need the people who live on Lakeview, Magnolia, and Palmetto (streets in the city limits of Keystone Heights) and vice versa.

We believe relationships and education change people. We believe they change the middle class, the poor, and the rich. And we all need changin'.

We haven't written in almost a year, but we haven't been idle. Here's the overview:

We were practicing what we preach in our personal lives (relationships = Carey adopted two boys; Teri's daughter was married quite recently; education= teaching, teaching, teaching which means learning, learning, learning).

We gave away oranges. Twice. That's a good story that we'll have to tell on a separate post, but let's just say...it's the little things, people.

Carey was ordained. Remember that church we might need to start ? Well, we are working on it. It's slow work, but good work that I can't wait to have more to tell you about.

We've kept putting one foot in front of the other. We took 15 Book Bus trips this year, and recently we estimated that means we spent about $1,000 on gas alone. We almost always have some books in the back of our car that someone gave to us.

We have some great friendships with people in High Ridge. Before I started writing this post, I went and looked at the pictures we've posted over the last few years. We have several elderly friends in High Ridge, and there were their faces on the blog. When we posted those pictures, we didn't really know their stories. They were exciting new faces then, but now they are warm friends who we look forward to seeing each month or who we greatly miss when they can't make it.

We've taken dinner to our friends, prayed with them when they are sick, rejoiced with them when their husband went to church.

One little girl who was one of our original "visitors" is in Teri's class this year! She is an avid reader, and we like to think we are partially responsible. Although her grandmother gets most of the credit!

I guess, we didn't write for a year, because it seemed like we didn't have anything to say. You know how when your kids are growing up, you don't really notice that they are getting taller because you see them everyday. And, then, all of a sudden, you look at them, and think, "Oh my! Those jeans are WAY too short!" I think this past year has been like that for us. We didn't really think much was happening, but now when I look back on it....God did a whole lot!