Meet Nduku!

Meet Nduku, our "adopted" child through Compassion International that lives in a village called Kaani in Kenya. Nduku's 11th birthday was on Sunday, so I thought it'd be a great time to introduce her! We adopted Nduku a little over 2 years ago, and it has been a complete joy to be connected with this child!

It's amazing to have a relationship with a child that is over 8,000 miles away and has a completely different lifestyle than we do. Nduku lives in an agricultural type village where homes are typically earthen floors, brick walls, and iron sheet roofs. Nduku is responsible for carrying water and gathering firewood. How different than our daily duties!!! But the really amazing thing is the personal letters we get from her. We've received six so far, and they are full of thanks, prayer request for her, questions about us, and comments about how she prays for us and our family members (she will specifically name them, which is adorable.) She also talks about what she is learning about different characters of the Bible, and thanks us for the specific Bible verse that we've included in our last letter. Compassion also gives the opportunity for you to give a birthday, Christmas gift, and family gift each year. It is unbelievable what Nduku has told us they've been able to do with our rather small gifts! Everything from buying chickens, goats, a "petticoat", food supplies, a BED, and construction materials for their home. It melts my heart to think how God can use [what we think] is a "nominal" amount to extraordinarily affect others' lives. 

When I say "adopted", I mean that we give $38 a month to provide Nduku with an opportunity to be involved programs that reveal the gospel to her and train her in the Bible. It also helps to provide basic needs like clothes, food, etc.  If you have ever given a passing thought to something like this, I strongly urge you to consider it and check out the Compassion website. We spend more than $38 on a tank of gas!!This is an awesome investment in a child's life to help them know Christ and have opportunities that they otherwise would not have. 

"A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another." -John 13:34-45

"This service that you perform is not only supplying the needs of God's people but is also overflowing in many expressions of thanks to God." -2 Corinthians 9:12

The Wells Take the Field!

This past weekend Jeremie & I made the looooooooong (a zero for each hour of driving) trip to Starkville. Starkvegas. God's Country. The Dawghouse. Whatever you want to call it, it's heaven to us. It was Homecoming and we had the rare opportunity to go on field for the game! And let me just tell you. IT. WAS. AMAZING. As cliche as it sounds, everything is just seems bigger on field! The players are bigger, the stadium looks bigger, and yes, those cowbells are much louder! I was so hyped up I wanted to chest bump somebody. No wonder the players are always on the sidelines, because the energy is electrifying! But I figured shaking it on the 50 would get me & Jeremie kicked off the field quicker than two shakes of a lamb's tail. (I was tempted to payoff Bully to let me wear the mascot outfit and ride in on top of the Dawghouse, but again, the risk of getting kicked out was too great.) After the players ran in, I shaking with excitement. Jeremie and I agreed that aside from getting married, (just two buildings away) this was the about the coolest thing that has ever happened to us. During halftime, we were able to go up to the Pressbox, which was so neat. We got to see all the reporters and the Middle TN coaches even passed by us on their way to the locker room. And let's just say they were NOT HAPPY. We sat with Mom for a while in our seats and then went back on the field to "Wrap it Up in Maroon and White". And although I didn't make it on ESPN or the Jumbotron, I DID manage to get some great pics. HAIL STATE!

Aside from the game, we got to hit up some of our favorite Starkville restaurants and spent some quality time with Mom and Amy at her darling new house. The weekend was fabulous and it's always fun making more memories in our favorite place. Go Dawgs!

Home Improvement: Part I

Whew! Home ownership has proved to be hard work!!! We have been working on projects ever since we moved in it seems like, and I'm finally able to post some pics of a couple finished (or mostly finished) endeavors.

The upstairs bathroom was something I wanted to tackle right away; it was an "English Pea Green" color, and let's be honest, does ANYBODY actually like English Peas?  

So here's a Before: 

And after: 

The color still doesn't really show up in the picture, but it's a soft grey.  I love it and LOVE all the colors in the shower curtain! One room down......all the others to go! HA!  

While I did the bathroom, J started on a much bigger project that took more than a weekend! He wanted a media unit that would hide hold all of our electronics and also give us some more storage. So after MUCH planning, calculating, drawing, and a few trips to Lowe's, the carpenter went to work. 

We started out with this: (obviously the TV, stand and side table were on the wall to the right, I just forgot to take a "Before" picture)

And our house was full of this: 

And the final product looks like this: 

We are waiting for some cushions to be sewn that will go on top of the benches on each side.....but hey, we've come a long way, baby. There are no words for how PROUD of my hubby I am!!! I knew that he had skills, but honestly, he completely impressed me with this. He worked so hard; the only thing I had to offer were my painting skills. The best thing.....there is not a cord in sight! LOVE it!  

And here are some extra pics of the living room for those of you requesting pics.  There is still a lot of decorating I want to do.......but it's  HOME. : ) 

Our First Visitors

Although our house looked like a construction zone this week, we swept aside the sawdust and welcomed our very first visitors in our new home.....Jeremie's grandparents, AKA "Grandmother" and "Grandad". They were one their way back to Mississippi from their Western Road Trip, which was a celebration of their 60th wedding anniversary. They had already hit up Jackson Hole, Mount Rushmore, The Grand Tetons, and Old Faithful. But they were equally excited for the next attraction to be Dallas : )  J had to work a half day on Thursday, so I actually had them all to myself, and we had a blast! We started off with breakfast and chatting in our pajamas, then I took them for a spin around the neighborhood, and  we went downtown to the JFK Museum. Later we met up with Jeremie (or "Sunshine" as Grandmother refers to him) and visited the Dallas Arboretum, which was absolutely gorgeous. There was every type of plant and flower known to man, plus an amazing glass sculpture exhibit and a pumpkin village which was just about the cutest thing I've ever seen.  Here are a few pics from their visit!

Saturday Punchlist

There isn't really one thing that I have to blog about so I'm going old school bullet point list: 

• For all of you who are requesting pictures of the house: I would LOVE to be able to post pictures, trust me; but we're not completely finished with any one room in the house that I'm confident enough to post a picture of. The bedroom is getting pretty close, but the lack of bedskirt and lampshades still wrapped in plastic made me decide against it.  I was afraid it'd show up on Pinterest as a "What Not to Do."  
• Projects that have been completed: painted the bedroom, loft, and started the upstairs bathroom today. Changed 80's gold doorknobs to bronze. Changed 80's black electrical covers to Ivory. Changed 80's doorbell to one that is safe to touch.  It's the little things that add up to BIG $$$ and lots of time. All this being said: I LOVE our home, it is so fun finally being a homeowner.
• J started a new big project today: he is building an entertainment center! He has been very strategic in his planning and it's going to look great. BUT, any big construction project can be nerve wracking, so his prayer at suppertime last night sound like this:  "Dear Lord, thank you so much for this day. Please bless our efforts on our new project and grant me the artistic ability that I don't have to do it right."  I cracked up. I think the Good Lord did too. 
• Our new house is close to EVERYTHING, including the new Trader Joe's which is a specialty grocery store. Jeremie and I do "App (Appetizer) Night" every Friday, and we thought we had it perfected. Usually it consist of cheese, olives, salami, bread, etc. Trader Joe's has opened up a whole new world to us.  Mac n' Cheese Bites. Mini Tamales. Wantons. Twenty extra pounds. 
• I have started a new bible study on Genesis. I'm gonna be honest-I automatically thought: "Genesis....I know all the stories in Genesis"......Oh, but I hear God cracking up again......there is more packed in those first two verses than I ever even knew.  Looking forward to what it ahead!  
• The Bulldogs are undefeated. This bullet point list is now complete. 

Happy Trails from the Wells!

In Loving Memory: Our Papaw

A midst all the joys of life, we all know there are also sorrows. On August 21st, Jeremie's grandfather-more lovingly known as "Papaw" passed away. We are sad to have such an important person missing from our family, but as it was JOYFULLY mentioned so many times at his funeral, the Lord gained another member of his kingdom. Papaw LOVED the "homeplace" (in Beaumont where J grew up), and Jeremie and his Dad have followed in his footsteps; I don't think you could find 3 more people who love to walk around that pond more. Fortunately, Papaw was able to visit with his whole family in July, and even got to meet his great-grandson.  : ) What a blessing, and just another way that the Lord shows that he orchestrates all things. Thank you, Papaw for loving and leading your family......now THREE generations. : ) 

"Surely your goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever."  Psalm 23:6

Home. Sweet. Home.

So we are FINALLY moved into our first home!!! I am so excited to finally be able to say that we own a house. Ever since we got married, we have been house hunting, and came so close a couple times; I was devastated when those homes didn't work out.  BUT- now I see that God had a different path laid out before us! (A path that was 876 miles away to be specific.) 

We almost found this house on accident. We started looking in the beginning of July and saw several homes that just didn't work for us. They looked great online, but let's just say the photographers were really talented.  Therefore, we decided I needed to do drive-bys before actually going in. So I pretty much spent an entire week driving all over the DFW area. (I called it TourDallas.com, because I really felt like I did.)  The drive-bys weren't successful because of neighborhoods, homes being on powerlines, etc, and there was nothing closer than a 45 minute commute for J.  So that Saturday, J joined the tour and we did more drive-bys. After again seeing nothing we were interested in, we were frustrated, hungry, and honestly, both had to go to the bathroom after being in the car for 4 hours. (I admit, we were not being patient Christian examples.) Before swinging into a Mexican restaurant to drown our cares in cheese dip, a nearby house popped up on J's phone (thanks to the Realtor.com app) and we decided to swing by, thinking it was probably a waste of time. To my happy surprise, the neighborhood was adorable and so was the house.  It was an older, established neighborhood with...wait for it....TREES! Who knew they actually grow trees in Texas? 

We were cautiously excited and knew we need to move fast. So the next day, our sweet realtor, Helen, met us at the house for a tour. (Plug for our realtor: this was a Sunday afternoon and she met us literally on her way back from her Colorado vacation. She. Is. Amazing.) We LOVED the house and put in our offer the next day. Begin the waiting. I was eating chewable Pepto like it was candy. We finally got the counter back (in the middle of the night) and accepted! Inspection went well enough and we signed our lives away on August 16th! I ALMOST cried during the closing, but didn't want to embarrass J. I was that excited. 

That weekend we got to work on fixing enhancing some of the colors. Painting looks so fun and romantic on HGTV, but all it gave me was a back ache. BUT, it looks great and it was fun knowing we were doing home improvements on OUR house! 

                              

We moved everything in on Monday with the help of our little moving angels Dee and Vee. They helped us move into our rental, and they are the jolliest, hardest working movers ever. They are also cousins with Beyonce, so maybe I'll have her at my housewarming party. Couldn't have done it without them. 

 This week has still been a little chaotic with finishing the rental and weeding through boxes, but we are so happy to be here. J loves the commute, I love being settled, and Manny loves the neighborhood because it is over-populated with bunnies. All is Well(s).