Life Moves Pretty Fast

The new year has brought with it, another season of change. Our last blog post was on January 09th, and that post was about Jay's sermon, preached the Sunday after Christmas at our church.

Since then, the Higham's have been whisked up into a whirlwind of change. If you've watch our weekend vlogs, you've seen and heard about some of the life changes we've been facing. From engagements, kids moving out, ministry stuff, and house projects to a spontaneous wedding, the welcoming of our new daughter, our first grandchild, and a journey that will become public later this evening, Life in the Higham House has been quite an adventure!

​​As we come to the final days of February, we're amazing at just how much the first two months of 2022 have changed our lives. So here's a quick update on what's been happening in the Higham House.

First - A Christmas Engagement!
- During the week between Christmas and New Years, we made a trip to visit our families in Maryland and Pennsylvania. It was a great trip as we took that time to be with our parents and siblings. But during that week, Nate proposed to his then girlfriend, Amaris, and she said yes! Yeah! We were very excited.

Second - Nate Moved Out!
- Shortly after the engagement, Nate moved out into his first apartment. So in January, we helped him load up the vehicles and a borrowed open-trailer, and we moved him to be closer to his soon-to-be-bride.

Third - Home Improvements.
- With Nate's departure, we dove into a few projects that would make life in the Higham House a little more comfortable. With a little elbow juice, muscle, and fresh paint we freshened up Nate's room, turning it into a workout space. This allowed us to move our home gym equipment and cleaned up the basement.

Four - A Spontaneous Wedding!
- Shortly after that, Nate called and said that he and Amaris were getting married the weekend before Valentine's Day! WOW! Yeah! So off we went to watch Nate and Amaris make their vows before a small gathering of family, in what might have been one of the most beautiful wedding services we've ever attended. In an afternoon, our family welcomed a new daughter, and her sweet 2 year old. We are now Grandpa Jay and M'Amy. ​(Though we're still considering our grandparent names. Don't laugh, it's a real thing.)

Five - Ministry is Great But Busy!
- In the midst of all of these amazing life changes, God has blessed both our family ministry at C3 and Amy's ministry with Young Life Capernaum. We have stayed incredible busy working with Kids, students and families at church and Capernaum.

Six - Winter Weather That Impacted Life.
- As you know, we love winter and snow; the more the better. Since the start of the new year, we have had 3 major snow storms. Unbelievably, each snow storm, though incredibly beautiful, impacted our ministry in negative ways. The first 2 storms caused the cancelation of our student ministry 2 weeks in a row! That was a first for me (Jay). But not the only first. Just before taking 55 students and leaders away for our winter retreat, a significant ice and snow storm (storm number 3) hit our area, bringing devastation and destruction.

Many in our area lost power as the ice brought wires, limbs, even whole trees down. Some were without power for 4 days. Our community looked as though a small tornado had come through the area a mess everywhere. It was incredible, probably the worst ice storm we've seen since leaving Philadelphia 24 years ago. Needless to say, we had to cancel our retreat, the first time Jay has ever had to cancel a retreat with students in over 30 years.

But that's not all. We have one more life changing moment that we will be sharing in a post coming soon. For that news, you'll just have to wait.

2022, the year of change. Who would have thought we'd see this much change so quickly? Yet in it all, we continue to see the hand of God. His faithfulness and grace continues to guide, protect, and care for us, and we super excited about that.

We have often said, the blog and the vlog exist so we can tell our story, and in telling our story, encourage other families in their journey. We do what we do to point you to God. We believe deeply, that God has a purpose and a plan for each one of us; as individuals and as a family. We share our story because we want to share all that we are learning and experiencing. We share our story because God is good, and we want you to see that he is full of love and grace. We share our story because we hope to encourage you and your family to know and love the God who loves you!

And like I said, we're not done yet. The next big life change is a big one; maybe our biggest adventure so far. But even as we begin to look at what's to come, we believe that God is still working for the good of those who love him. And we sure do love him.

So buckle up, because if you think these first 2 months have been crazy, just wait, this is only the beginning.

As always, we invite you to follow along! Join us here on the blog as we will for sure be sharing what's to come. Look us up on social media and follow along as we post and share more of the day-to-day adventures we're having as a family. And subscribe to our YouTube channel, Life in the Higham House. We have committed to posting vlogs on a more regular basis, and you will not want to miss some of the things that are coming up.

The great philosopher, Ferris Bueller, once said, "Life moves pretty fast. You don't stop and look around in a while - you cold miss it." Truer words may never have been said.

- the higham family

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