Merry Christmas! (our Christmas letter... for posterity and just incase you missed it)

Because this paper just won’t afford the space, and to show you how high-techie we have become, we will give you a website to venture to with each of our entries. This will tell you far more information than we can muster in one little letter.

To begin: The joy of our life has been Augustine! Born Feb 12th he has thus far lived up to his in-utero nick-name: Hurricane Augie. Jeff and Kel agree that the most standout lesson our son has taught us is how to be less selfish! It has been the most amazing learning experience, to be parents… and truly the most wonderful. I always thought that people felt they had to say how much they loved their children after an hour of saying how difficult it was to give up freedom, sleep, eating hot meals, making out on the couch or reading a more than one page of a book at a time. I now really understand that you can love someone more than you thought possible, even when they can be the most draining… I guess it is because he is the most filling too. For lots of pictures and updates you can frequent: http://augiebloggie.blogspot.com/

Jeff and Kel and several dear friends started a church in August. Just a week ago we moved into a fantastic new building. We are so blessed to have a congregation of about 40 dedicated, loving people beginning this experiment with us. How amazing it has been. Our goal is to reach the college and post-college aged people on the UNC campus who have never found a community with whom they could love and experience God. This has been such a blessing to us, to serve with and be served by the people of Atlas. As further proof of God’s graciousness, Jeff has been asked to submit his resume to the UNC philosophy department with the possibility of a job in the fall. Cross your fingers for us… better yet pray! To see the church go to http://www.whatisatlas.com/home To read up on Jeff’s one-day-I’ll-write-a-book thoughts (so you can say you knew him when) go to http://healingmalchus.blogspot.com/

Kel has been working part time for Frontier High School, and gets to do some administrative work from home. It has been a wonderful year. The kids love Augie. They think he is their own! I still love to teach, maybe more than ever. It feels like a great balance of stay at home mom and freedom to work. The best part is that Jeff and Kel get to “baby swap” which means one parent is always with the boy. We have also had a great deal of help from our families… as you can imagine, they hate to baby-sit ;). To see her school go to: http://frontieracademy.net/

We have loved to see our friends and family grow with us and support us. We hope you will have blessings in the New Year… and to see each of you soon and often!