Christmas Update Letter

"For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace."  Isaiah 9:6

This is one of our favorite Scriptures about the Lord Jesus coming as flesh to live as fully God and fully man to take away the sins of the world.  It reminds us of His humbleness and yet His power.  It also proves His grace and faithfulness.

This year we have been made vividly aware of God's faithfulness.  He has proven over and over in big and little ways how He never fails, never changes, fulfills His promises in His Word and always provides.  Hence, the Adams Family Update is entitled: "GOD IS FAITHFUL"!  Also, you'll understand our mantra from Deuteronomy 7:9  "Know therefore that the LORD thy God, he is God, the faithful God, which keepeth covenant and mercy with them that love him and keep his commandments to a thousand generations."

We hope you have fun with our highlights from 2013 in a crossword puzzle! =)  For those who need a little help, look at the bottom - answers may be found there. =)

Merry Christmas and may God abundantly bless your 2014!
Nick & Kelly
Madelyn, Abigail & Gray

ACROSS:
1. ____ __________ celebrated their 20th wedding anniversary this year on January 23, 2013!! In over a month it will be the 21st year!  We can truly say that God has had His hand on our marriage and has continued to grow us closer to Him!  We are best friends and still in love - we feel abundantly blessed!
4. We're down to one pet, from five.  ________, Abigail's bunny, is enjoying being the center of attention.
5. All _______ of the Adams children sing in the Victory Baptist Choir at church.  We think they're quite an asset with their love for God and joyful spirit.
8. ________ can be found fishing, gardening, playing guitar, target shooting, building with wood and sportin' new bow ties while at church.  He participated in a Ministry Leadership Training at Higher Ground Ministry.
9. The ______ are both going locally to Victory Baptist Bible College and come home continually excited about what the Lord is teaching them through this special place!
10. _________ works different jobs but, not full time at either one!  She teaches piano, nanny's, is a bookkeeper for an attorney, works in a frame shop, and occasionally pet sits and babysits.  She also helps with singing and piano where needed at church.  She served at Higher Ground Ministries by teaching discipleship classes through horsemanship.
14. _________ is teaching preschool at Warren Baptist in the 1 year and 3 year old classrooms.  She loves her littles!  Before this she taught at A Child's World Daycare for 9 months.  She occasionally babysits too.  She is also teaching the 3rd grade girls Sunday School part-time at church and sings at church.

DOWN:
2. He turned 14 this year, he's in 8th grade, and this was the year he grew taller than his sisters (and liking it!)!  You know who this is, it's ______.
3. _____________ at our house loves to serve the Lord in different capacities; whether it's to help bring church to local Assisted Living facilities by singing and/or playing instruments (with Nick preaching sometimes), work VBS, serve food at Youth Ralley, traveling with Pastor in choir to camp meetings or evangelistic meetings, participate in singing for College/Singles, teaching or wherever we find a need!
6.  Madelyn and Abigail got a ____ that they share! They've named her "Channelle" and she's always on the go!
7. God has been ____________ this year (and every year)!
11. Working in Columbia, SC for a year and a half has been a blessing and a challenge for ______.  The job is a blessing, the commute of 3 hours a day has been a challenge.  Nick is faithful though, and God is even more faithful!
12. _________ is in her 9th year of homeschooling (yee-ha!)!  She teaches the 2nd grade girls Sunday School at our church.
13. We had a house ______ in August.  Thank the Lord no one was hurt.  We had smoke damage and some burn damage.  We are quick to say though, what's most important to us can't be burned up!

ANSWERS:
Across:  1. The Parents, 4.Razberry, 5. three, 8. Gray, 9. girls, 10. Abigail, 14. Madelyn
Down:  2. Grayson, 3. Everyone, 6. car, 7. faithful, 11. Nick, 12. Kelly, 13. fire

Grayson is 14!!

Grayson

"Full of Wisdom"

"A wise man is strong; yea, a man of knowledge increaseth strength."  Proverbs 24:5

Nicholas

"Victorious Heart"

"The Lord liveth; and blessed be my rock; and let the God of my salvation be exalted."  Psalm 18:46

We can't believe our baby and only son is 14 today!!  We love the way you are growing and changing into the young man that you are!  We love that you are named after your Daddy!  There couldn't be a finer man to be named after!  You're still the same adventurous and exuberant guy you were when you were just two!  No one has determination, persistence, and creativity like you do and God put it in you to get any job done that you start, whether it's memorizing Scripture, cutting grass, school work, playing guitar, gardening, cooking, fishing, or all the million projects you come up with!  Everything you do you do it with vigor and passion and we know God will use all of that one day when you are a man!  We love when you care about each of us and want to spend time with those you love.  We love your concern for the hurting and lost souls and how you can't stand to miss church!  You encourage all of us to live for God and give with all we've got - just like you!  Thanks for making this world a happier place to be!

~HAPPY 14th BIRTHDAY, GRAY-MAN~

With all of our LOVE ~

Mama & Daddy

xoxoxoxox

Extraordinary Times with Esteemed People!

Wouldn't trade this friendship for the world!

We go to Victory Baptist Bible College with these dear friends :).  Y'all are such a blessing!  These pics are from some of our choir trips to churches in GA, SC, and NC!

Fun fellowship with church family!

Madelyn's poor ankle :(

(thanks Mrs. Andy for the great action shots and Tristan for sharing them!!)

Happy Fall Y'all!!

Summer Happenings...in September - Part II

Jumping right in to the second part of our summer/September post here - we're starting off with Abigail's birthday that was on July 6th!

Abigail

"Source of Joy"

"Thou wilt shew me the path of life in thy presence is fullness of joy; at thy right hand are pleasures forever more."  Ps. 16:11

Susan

"Pure in Grace"

"For the Lord God is a sun and shield; the Lord will give grace and glory: no good thing will He withhold from them that walk uprightly."  Ps. 84:11

Happy Birthday to our baby girl!  No one can ever take your place in our family!  I'm proud to call you my namesake and you truly do bring such joy to us all!  You are always so unselfish, encouraging, caring, and desire to deeply connect with all you know!  You always care about sharing the love of Jesus with others around you wherever you go!  It is encouraging to see you look for people to invest in to help them grow in the Lord!  Your willingness to stand alone has proved your loyalty to your Lord!  You're such emotional support for all in the family and you always bring such sunshine to every room you enter!  Your love and gift of music fills the house when you're here and it's never the same when you're not!  It's so exciting to see you reach such a big milestone with so much depth in your walk with the Lord!  We're proud of you! 

~HAPPY 18th BIRTHDAY, CHIPMUNK~

With all of our LOVE ~

Mama & Daddy

xoxoxoxox

*A side note:  For those of you that are wondering if I made a type-o on putting "Susan" as the middle name for both the girls' birthday posts, it's not a type-o.  They both have the same middle name and it is also my middle name!  It is the Adams family female name!  It was Nick's idea. =) We had named Madelyn's middle name after me for two reasons.  The first reason was because Nick wanted her named after me.  The second was because my only sibling, Mark Anthony King, died when I was pregnant with Madelyn.  She was born only 6 days away from his birthday.  I wanted to name her after him some how, but, as you can see, the name would be difficult for a female.  My brother was 3 1/2 years old when I was born and he picked out my middle name - Susan!  So, that was as close as naming her after him as we could get.  When Abigail came along Nick wanted to use it again to make it a tradition and have her named after me as well.  It means more to me than I ever imagined it would. =)  Wow, that was a long side note! ha

Good times with family and the summer rolling along...

 

Our church, Victory Baptist, had a vacation Bible school with the theme Armor of God.  I'm so thankful for a church that keeps the themes actually Biblically focused.  I lead the crafts for approximately 150 children per night!  I had lots of help.  The girls helped me help the children with crafts, media, and sharing the Gospel (6 got saved that we know of!).  Gray was a troop leader of smaller children & helped the children with crafts.

I made these medieval costumes for the girls.

These are from the VBS play that was awesome!  Bro. Mark & Kelley did a great job heading up the whole week.

Our church had a Youth Ralley with about 2,200 in attendance from churches all over the southeast!  The choir is filled with youth folks.  It was very powerful & approximately 50 received Christ as Savior or renewed their commitment to Him!

They wrote a play that is a modern day rendition of Judgement Day.  It was incredibly moving and brought a realization to many of what the Revelation of John, as Pastor calls it, tells us will happen on that day.

Here are our fave angels that were in the play. =)  Aren't they adorable?!

Nick & I helped with lunch time.

There were some parody's done of some Southern Gospel songs that were shown at the Youth Rally on the big screens.  They were HILARIOUS!  The girls helped film one of them.  This is one from the song "All the Way".  Their theme was hash browns all the way from, yes, you guessed it - or should you admit that you recognized it - Waffle House! ha   I like to go for a smothered and covered once in a while too. =)

The girls went to Six Flags for the day with the college/singles group at church! 

Well, we come to the last documented event of our summer...Madelyn went to Canada and was in the wedding of one of her best friends, Leah!  The girls met while on a mission trip to Taiwan and China together and they worked together at IBLP HQ.  Madelyn did everyone's hair for the wedding.  I wish I had pictures of all the beautiful twists, curls and braids of how she put each girls hair up.  Congratulations Leah & Steve!

Summer Happenings...in September - Part I

Yes, "Summer in September"!  That's a new one, huh? =) Well, that's what happens when  too much time slips by and we get behind on the blog. =)  We have to post what happened in the summer in September. =) We thought this would be kind of fun too though; a fun variety of happenings at the Adams' abode.  We find it a blessing that the good Lord has blessed us with a busy life though.  I wouldn't want it any other way.  If it changes one day, I may be at your house, if you're having more fun than me. ha

I guess the best place to start is at the beginning - the end of May...Gray-man and I finished his 7th grade school just days before the Advanced Training Institute yearly home school conference.  We love that yearly trek to Nashville, TN for deep spiritual enrichment, growth and lots of fun.

Before the conference we visited the Reckner family in KY though.  It was alot of fun for all of us and it was the first time Nick and Madelyn could visit.

   

   

Here are some pics from the ATI Conference

This is probably difficult to see but, this is a former missionary, Otto Koning.  The girls loved working with him briefly while on staff and going to the Northwoods with him.  His personal life lessons of relinquishing all to God are humerous and life changing.  He was just one of the amazing speakers that challenged us to live this Christian life with vigor and genuineness.  

Sweet friends and beautiful singing!

 

 These are the Alert cadets.  If you look real close you'll see Gray! ha ha =)  That's all my camera would zoom, sorry. =/  He is up there though.  He just loves all the physical challenges and spiritual lessons.  All the singing is fun too.

These are the three best children (ahem, two are adults) in the world!  We love having a closeness within our family that only God can create.  He is our glue and the center of our worlds and it is through Him that we have the blessings of going through difficult and joyous times together! =)

Me and my soulmate and best friend...Nicky =)

This is Abigail and alot of her NoteWorthy buds from NoteWorthy August 2012.

They had a great "reunion" singing together

The following are precious friendships that are the sweet fellowship we look forward to year after year. =)  We definitely did not get pics of everyone we wanted to.

You know where this was taken - the red room!

Having fun at the Grand Ol' Opry outlet mall...

 

 

On our last night in Nashville we had an amazing time with very special friends, the Pinkerton's.  We stayed at the Grand Ol' Opry Hotel!  The hotel rooms face inside of the "glass-topped city".  It is filled with lucious foliage of all kinds, meandering brick walkways with bridges, and quaint shops.  Thanks Dan, Katherine & family for everything!!

  This is the view from our hotel room balcony!

On our way back we stopped to see one of my best friends, Melissa.  She and her family are like my own family.  When I lived in the Chattanooga, TN area to go to college she and I were roommates.  With me living 12 hours from home during college the Lord sent me her and her family to stand in the gap.  They are still precious to me, and now to my family.  This is a picture of us at 20 or 21 years old.  This is us in our bridesmaids dresses for our  roommate Beth's wedding.  The idea was the higher the hair, the closer you were to Heaven. =)  If that were only true I would've glided right in, huh? =)  Praise the Lord it is the free gift of the shedding of His precious blood and my belief and acceptance of that grace that affords me Heaven as my home one day!   

Abigail left the ATI conference with the Reckner family to teach at the SUMMIT camp at the Higher Ground Ministry in KY.  (She'll be sharing about that in another post soon.)  So, this is the rest of the Adams' kiddos before church one Sunday morning.  

The Augusta minor league baseball team is called the Green Jackets.  Here we are taking in a game against the team from KY (the name of their team has left me, sorry....it's not the first thing that's left my mind!).  "Green Jackets" came from the green jacket that is a donned when a professional golfer wins the Masters, along with fame, the title and all the money!

The Green Jacket's Mascot

We ran into one of Gray's little friends from church.  He was proud to hold Gray's #1 foam finger!

Nick & Gray double dug their garden this year.  That was a very old process where they only used shovels to till the garden!  It's back breaking work but, good exercise and super daddy - son time! =)  They also used a different process this year from this website here.  It will be well worth your time to watch the video "Back to Eden".  An avid gardener searched God's Scripture and sought God as to why there was so much toil in growing and tending to his garden when the plants and trees in the unkempt forest flourished .  Watch and see what the Lord revealed to him.  It is quite a ministry for him and it was a fun new way of doing things this year for the guys.

Due to the approximately 46 inches of rain our area got this summer the garden didn't produce as much as we had hoped.  It was still a fun process and enjoyable project.  It reminds us that it is the Father that brings forth the fruit in the Christian walk and life, not us.  We may see areas that we work and strive in and we may think that it should have more results, different results, or results at all.  It is God who decides and produces and His ways are not ours for a very good reason!  He knows what is coming next in our lives - we do not.  He knows what we need - we truly do not.  He knows what He is working and weaving to get results He knows what is important to yield - we do not.

  "Lord, have mercy on us when we work in our own ways, even doing good works, expecting what we should leave to You!"  

"And, thank you Lord that you produce the fruit, not us, help us to remember that we are merely the branches!" 

"I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing."  John 15:5     

A fresh summer garden meal - yummy!  (A few things on the plate weren't from their garden.) 

 Happy Father's Day!!

Yes, that's right!  He gets breakfast in bed!  He deserved that and much more too!  It was a fun way to start off his special day.  It's an honor to honor this man.  He has protected, sacrificed, loved, encouraged, listened, directed, corrected, and just plain ol' worked hard for these children (me too!)!  I can't imagine parenting without him.  I truly would be at a loss.  They really love and admire their daddy. =)  Thank you Nick for being all that and more and for being the father to our children that I'd always prayed and dreamed for!  You're an answer to over 35 years of prayer, literally!

 Next Gray and I and his friend Broughton went to the Atlanta Aquarium.  It is the largest aquarium in the world!  It was our first time and quite a treat!

 
We tailgated our lunch!

 

 Ok, so I'm not the most tech savvy gal in the world.  Here we are in line for the 3-D movie sporting our oh- so-cool glasses trying to get a self pic....as you can see, it didn't go so well. =/  I had a really old phone too though, does that count? =)  I think the point is to get everyone in the pic, right?!
Attempt #1

 Attempt #2

Attempt #3

This is where we just laughed so hard at not being able to do it that we just settled for part of poor Broughton in every pic! =)  We figured we got alot of good pics of him elsewhere. =)