2025 A Year in Review

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Happy New Year!

It's time to say goodbye to 2025 and hello to 2026. But before we do that, let's take a look back at the last year. A lot has happened in the Higham house. 2025 has been a year of changes, growth, and new experiences. In many ways, the Higham house doesn't look like it did in 2024. So come along and let's take a walk through 2025. This is our 2025, A Year in Review.

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Saying Goodbye to West Virginia and Hello to Ohio

2025 started with a relocation and saying goodbye to wild and wonderful, West Virginia. We were headed west to the mysterious land of Ohio near the great lakes. At the end of 2024, Jay was offered the opportunity to serve as the Director of Parenting and Student Ministry at Bay EPC. So right after Christmas, we packed up the house and made the move to northeast Ohio.

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Saying Goodbye to the Boys

2025 also brought the changing of locations for the boys. It started in 2021 when Logan began building a life in Florida and continued in 2022, as Nate started his adventure in New York. But with our move to Ohio, Aiden and Asher were left with some options. With Aiden's career taking him to Florida for longer and longer stretches of time, he decided to leave the nest and fly south. Asher, a student in college, decided he would stay in West Virginia while he finished school. With these two joining the world as productive members of society, we had to say goodbye. All four boys, actually, all four young men, are now living independently as they pursue the callings that God is has prepared for them. And might we add, saying goodbye, was a lot harder than we thought. But that's content for another blog post.

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Breya Thrives

Moving is never easy, especially for the kids. As we transitioned to our new ministry in Ohio, Breya was asked to start over. Fortunately, she was ready for the challenge, and by God's grace and through His provision, we are watching her thrive. 

Don't get me wrong, it was an adjustment at first. It wasn't all kittens and roses. But God has opened the doors to a great group of friends, and academic and athletic success. We are looking forward to what the 2025-2026 school year will bring.

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Ministry Still Drives Much Of what we do

It's now over 30 years and we are still chasing the call to serve students and families. As we already mentioned, our move to Ohio came with the opportunity to serve as the Director of Parenting and Student Ministry at BPC. This role is an exciting chance to connect with and disciple both students and parents. But Amy too, has been called into ministry here in Ohio.

As many of you know, Amy was on staff with Young Life while in West Virginia. She served students and families as the Regional Capernaum Coordinator and the Ohio Valley Capernaum Director. Capernaum is Young Life's ministry that ministers to students with disabilities. Obviously, we had to say goodbye to that ministry when we left WV. However, it prepared Amy for 2 new ministry roles that allow her to continue to serve the community in life changing way. The first is with Safe Families for Children, an organization that responds to God’s call for the church to practice radical hospitality within communities, addressing the challenges of social isolation, limited access to resources, and parental stress that often leads to foster care and family separation. (As per the website.) Her second ministry is with BPC as the Disability Discipleship Coordinator. This new role will combine much of what she learned and did with students and families in WV, and apply it to the students and families here at BPC and in the surrounding community.

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The Summer of Weddings

The summer kept us busy with the regular events such as summer camp, a mission trip, and summer jobs, but it also hosted two weddings. The first was for Logan and his bride Andrea. In late July, we made the trip to Florida where Jay officiated a beautiful, service with a handful of family and friends. Andrea is a sweet and wonderful addition to the Higham family and we look forward to what God has in store for their family.

About two weeks later, the family gathered again for the uniting of Asher to Alaina. Jay officiated another beautiful service as Asher and Alaina said "I Do."  Alaina has been part of our family for a number of years, but to make it official was special. It was a wonderful celebration of love and joy. We are thrilled to watch our family grow and can't wait to see what God will do in the years ahead.

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WE have a podcast: Gathered in the Higham House

Late this fall, we finally took the leap and started a family podcast. Gathered in the Higham House, is where faith meets family and real life happens. This is our space to share stories, celebrate traditions, talk about the ups and downs of family life, and encourage families to live life in view of the scriptures. From holiday memories and parenting wins to lessons learned through laughter and faith. We were able to drop 6 episodes before the end of 2025, with plenty more to come in 2026. You can go back and listen to the first 6 episodes. New episodes will begin again in mid January 2026.

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We Moved, Again

Don't worry, we're still in Ohio, but we are in a new house. When we moved to Ohio, we decided to rent instead of buy. We had hoped that renting would give us time to get to know the area and find a house that would allow us to continue with our homesteading. God had other plans. Despite a multi-month house search, we haven't been able to find what we were hoping for. But to our surprise, God opened the doors to a beautiful rental house that checks most of our boxes. So, instead of buying, we decided to continuing renting, until God shows us where he wants us to settle. On Thanksgiving weekend, with a couple inches of snow on the ground, a small army of friends showed up and helped us move. We are so grateful for the friends we are meeting and making here in Ohio.

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We Got Puppies, Yes, Puppies (plural)

As if all the change and transition wasn't enough, we decided to add 2 new puppies to our family. Bentley and Behr, 2 Sheepadoodles, were welcomed into the Higham House at the beginning of December. These 2 sweet boys are full of energy, personality, and mischievousness. It was meant to be an early Christmas  surprise for Jay and Breya. In fact, we made a vlog of the surprise, you can watch it here: An Early. Christmas Gift.

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Everyone was home for Christmas

With the family spread out in 4 different states, we were super blessed to be able to welcome everyone home for Christmas. We had all 5 kids and spouses and grandkids and puppies and Jay's mom all under one roof for Christmas. It was a beautiful, chaotic, messy, joyous, unforgettable weekend of family and Christmas. It was truly a sweet time together with plenty of tears when it came time to say goodbye.

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2025. It was a wonderful adventure-filled year of change, growth and transition, and looking back now, we can't believe just how much our lives are different. But through it all, God has continued to reveal himself. 30 years ago, we said "I do" to each other and to whatever God had planned for us. Of course back then, we had no idea of whatever might look like. But we committed ourselves to following Him; to trusting that His plan for us was good and faithful.

2026. What does this year hold? What new adventures await us? How will God use, move, and minister through us? How will the family grow? How can we continue to encourage families through our story, the blog, vlog, and the podcast? Let's find out together!

Happy New Year!

​- jay & amy

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