Busy Bees

Once again, I'm playing catch-up. So much has happened since my last post, I'll try to keep everything brief.
- We had several more house guests including Aaron's two youngest brothers and his mom.
- We had a great week at Super Summer Bible School where Aaron and I were crew leaders for the upcoming 7th graders (who are now in the youth group). It was a great week and a wonderful time for them to start to get to know us and vice versa.
- We celebrated July 4th with our best friends and had a wonderful evening.

- Two of our good friends were united in marriage on July 9. Aaron had the privelege of performing the ceremony and Desmond and our niece, Kiersten, were the ring bearer and flower girl. It was a wonderful celebration of Tonya and Carter and Kiersten and Desmond did a wonderful job walking down the aisle.

Aren't they A-DOR-A-BLE?

Desmond with his candy!

The Pontious Family

As soon as Desmond turned the corner and saw me, he yelled "Hey mom, where's my candy?" He was rewarded BIG time!
- We went to the National Association of Free Will Baptists in Charlotte, North Carolina. We saw our TDF kids compete, our brother-in-law speak at the National Youth Conference, lots of friends from high school and college. At the awards assembly, we were caught off-guard when they announced the "youth leaders of the year" award. They began the list of things "they" do (as described in the application letter from teens/parents/churches,etc.) and my honest to goodness thought was "I'm so glad someone's doing those things!" As they proceeded to describe these people with phrases like "they are always there when we need them," "they are always available to counsel," "they invest their lives in their students," "their home is just an extension of their ministry," "they have taken the opportunity to feed a high school football team nearby," and "they even have a student living with them." I was finally clued in to the fact that someone had nominated Aaron and myself. I could not believe it! It was an AMAZING HONOR and we were so grateful to receive such an award. That's not why we do what we do, but it was nice to know that we are appreciated. It meant a lot, but come to find out, our students are the ones who nominated us. That meant SO MUCH MORE!

- We went to meet our new niece, Rachel, on the way home from Charlotte and dropped Desmond off with Aaron's mom in Bristol.

- Desmond stayed with Aaron's mom for a couple of weeks while we were at camp in Panama City, Florida. They all had a blast and Desmond was spoiled to pieces.

- Meanwhile at camp, one of our young boys gave his heart to the Lord! Several other students made life-changing decisions. It was an incredible week of camp!

Lincoln thoroughly enjoyed the beach and being spoiled by 75 people!

- We got back from camp and all other travels and finally settled day for a little bit. Clifford is still living with us and we are loving having him as part of our family. He's such a huge help. He will be going to Tennessee State University studying Agriculture Science in a couple of weeks.

- Lincoln is now 7 months and is CRAWLING and pulling up already! WOWSERS! That flew by. He's getting so big and is such a people-person. He LOVES to be the center of attention, and is not lacking in the love department.

- Desmond is 2 1/2 and potty trained. He's doing really really well....with the exception of #2 sometimes. He is conversational like never before and picks up on so much that we don't even realize. His new love is bowling. He loves it!

We had quite a busy summer, so I just covered a FEW of the highlights. I'll honestly try to take more time this fall to catch you up on other things. We are so blessed!!! Thanks for reading...