2 weeks after Thanksgiving, we received a letter from Virginia Military Institute that offered him a conditional appointment (that is acceptance at regular universities). This was a great moment for Andrew. Here are some pics of our celebration. Here is the video him opening the packet:
Madi completed another successful semester at Liberty. She came home for a well deserved Christmas break. She made a day trip to NYC with her roommate and Rebekah. She celebrated Christmas with us and then headed on a trip to Arizona and California with her boyfriend Clark to tour and see college bowl games. Here are some pics of her adventure.
Christmas was good. Abby got an Ipad as her main gift and the older kids got mostly money. Here are some pics from Christmas morning.
Abby started her swimming season. She is off to a good start and continues to lower her swimming times. Pictures are tough to come by, but here is her swim photo.
We spent New Year's at my Mom and Pop's for seafood then spent the night at home bringing in the new year. Abby made it to midnight.
Andrew has taken the winter to continue to train for track. We ran a 3200 meter race at Liberty University in December, a 1600 at Prince George's County Complex, and a 1600 at Susquehanna University. He ran well and training is going well. This has been fun and a good experience. Unfortunately, low lighting and poor opportunities did not allow me to get pics....apologies.
In mid January, after completing most of the paperwork for VMI, we were given the go ahead from the Coach a VMI to verbally commit to VMI athletically for cross country and track. This represented any honor and a goal achieved for Andrew. He had an opportunity to make is social media post.
Also mid-January, Madi moved into her DC Fellowship room. It is near the Supreme Court Building and not too far from Congress and public transportation. She has an internship with the National Journalism Center where she will be associated with the Washington Times. This is a great honor and also represents the achievement of a goal she had when she entered Liberty U as a freshman. She will spend the semester in DC. She is excited about it. She has already started to explore and started her internship. Here are some pics so far.
Her building in DC
At the end of January, Abby turned 10!! Wow. Madi came home for her celebration.
We started with lunch at Arby's, her favorite. She had a kid party and chose to have it at Magic Elm Skateland in the afternoon. It was a good time.
Madi will be working in DC for the semester and pursuing internships for the summer, Andrew will continue to train for track season and wrapping up his senior year, and Abby will finish up her winter swim season, AWANA, and other things 4th grader do.
Hard to believe that it has been 10 years since returning from Afghanistan. It is amazing to look back over the past 10 years at all the positive changes and blessings that have come our way as a family.....
Thanks for following along.....until next time....
