"The best country in the world is a donation!" - mayor summey

Saturday, we celebrated with a home dedication for Annette Lemon and her family. They are moving in as we speak..or I type....hmmm...

Lots of smiles! Hugging! Clapping! People! Food! Good times!

Above is me and Annette! She's become a great friend...gives good advice and has a great giggle with an echoing affect!

These are the Lambright brothers with Annette. They grew up on the piece of property where we built the Lemon's home. Both brothers have moved away, so they donated the land to Habitat. They both came in town with their families to see the finished house and celebrate with the Lemon family!

Here is Bakker Bishop and his son. His family foundation has sponsored (I believe ) 154 Habitat Home construction projects! He and his wife just had a baby girl. I think it's a pretty cool example, as he states, to set for your children on giving.

One of the sweetest parts of the day was after the ceremony....I was looking for Annette's sons and I found Trea (11) hiding in a back bedroom. I asked what he was doing in there all alone...he said he just wanted to hang out in his room! Be still my heart....he is the sweetest ever!

Annette's other son, Greg (22) and his son, baby Greg stole the show! Here is baby greg buldoze-hugging Isabella, my co-worker's daughter.

 

Lots of volunteers who helped build the house came out to celebrate as well!

Mayor of North Charleston Keith Summey gave the dedication speech. My favorite line was what someone once told Mr. Summey: "The best country in the world isn't the U.S., it's a donation." Building this house was a combination of lots of different types of donations. Land, money, materials, time, sweat, blistered hands, fear of heights...all things most like to keep for themselves or avoid giving....so in this case....I think the quote is true! Thanks to all who donated!

Pecans from another world

I spent Thanksgiving in Gordon, GA with my mom's side of the family. This is where my mom and her 4 siblings grew up. I relate it best to Mayberry. It's small...one caution light....everyone knows everyone.
A few cousins and I went into the "D & L Video" store and the lady working immediately asked whose grandkids we were. You kind of stand out when you're not from there.
Everyone knows my grandparents. They lived in Gordon their whole lives. My Papa was a train engineer.

My mom said the first time she came home to visit since she had Stephen (my oldest brother) that they Gordon newspaper wrote an article on it. The paper also used to annouce her weekend visits from college.

One of the great things about Gordon is the pecan trees! I have a hard time buying pecans at the grocery store at $10+ for one small tray...C'mon! Really?!?! Here they are all over the place, but it requires a little more work....some picking, cracking, and shelling, and I've got gallons of pecans to last me...well, honestly not very long beause I eat them too fast!

Here are my cousins with a bag-full of pecans - Justin (aka Jacward....any twilight fans figure that one out?) and Joe...both 17 yrs old ....hearthrobs if you ask me!

This is the home that my Papa built....and I mean he built it all....dug the foundation out and all! And yes, that's a pecan tree right in front of it! =)

It's a great home! And seems like a great way to grow up and live with such close community...where neighbors drop in (often unannounced) just to check on each other, to drop off some fresh baked goodies and cakes, to look out for one another, to not worry about locking your doors. Is that really all in the past? Is it really a world that doesn't exist anymore?