Christmas Letter 2009

WOW! Between Tommy's graduation and sending out resumes, I thought Christmas 2008 came upon us fast, but 2009 has that beat!! Let me begin by apologizing for not getting out Christmas letters or Christmas cards to everyone this year! About 2 weeks ago, I started frantically trying to get my friend Michelle to come over and take our Christmas picture and I started rounding up new addresses and such trying to make sure I could get my cards out in time!! And then I read my friend Tara Dew's blog and it just so happened she had written that day about simplify Christmas...about how we get so wrapped up in the hustle and bustle that we don't reflect on the real reason we celebrate Christmas, which would be to celebrate the birth of our Savior!

But the angel said to them, Do not be afraid; for behold, I bring you good news of great joy which will be for all the people;
for today in the city of David there has been born for you a Savior, who is Christ the Lord

(Luke 2:10-11 NASB)

So at that point I realized that I was getting so wrapped up in trying to rush to send out the cards and letters that they weren't really going to be that meaningful anyway, so I decided for this year I would write out our letter on our blog and leave it at that! So to all my faithful blog readers, I hope you will help us to pass the word, we did not intentionally leave anyone off our list this year, please send them here to our blog to read our letter!! Now on to the letter!!

2009 has been a whirlwind of sorts for us!! After Tommy's graduation we had decided to stay put in Wake Forest, NC, let Chase finish her 7th grade school year and see if we got any calls from the resumes that we had sent out! Tommy was working driving the sweeper truck and I was keeping Isabelle and we were still in seminary housing, so we really had no reason to leave!! January was good, North Carolina had a good snow, we celebrated Tommy's birthday, all in all it was great! I believe it was around February that we started feeling restless, it just so happened my brother had a house he had been unable to sell and he offered it to us for the same rent, actually less than we were paying at the seminary. This would put us back close to our boys and the rest of our family, so Tommy and I both prayed about it and we talked and since a few of the resumes we had sent out were in GA anyway we decided to go for it!! So we began to make arrangements to leave the end of February and move back to GA. It was also in February that Tommy and I realized how fast our little girl was growing up! Chase went to her very first school dance in February! This was a dance that Chase helped to organize for Pennies for Peace, Chase and her classmates helped to raise alot of money to help children in Afghanistan to go to school and have school supplies and such! We are really proud of her!! By March we had moved back to GA and had already received several calls and letters about Tommy's resumes, we had a few churches looking at him and we were so excited to see the Lord working in our lives! So as you can imagine March flew by then April, we celebrated Chase's 13th birthday on April 23rd!! I still can't believe our baby is a teenager! I have to say we have had many people with teenage girls warn us about this age and though we might have our moments we are finding this to be a special time with Chase, just like every stage has been, she is growing up to be such a wonderful young woman, she loves the Lord, and is eager to serve Him!! Tommy and I are just so thankful to be her parents!! We celebrated her birthday with a party at the house! Chase like many teenage girls could not decide on what kind of party she wanted to have, so I finally convinced her to trust me and we had a GREAT party!! We used all her favorite colors, we played games, and opened presents, we had a cupcake bar instead of a traditional cake and the girls loved it!! (That idea was thanks to my daughter in law, Hester) Chase's friends left that day saying it was the best party they had ever been too!! So Chase has started to trust me more!! LOL!
Between March and April, we celebrated Jacob, Hannah, Billy, and Chase's birthdays so that kept us pretty busy, not too mention Billy and Jacob started T-ball this year and the nice part for Granddaddy and Mimi was that they were both on the same team!! :) In between all this fun family time that we were having we had started talks with Luthersville Baptist Church. Before we left for Tommy to attend college at Southeastern we lived in Newnan, and Luthersville is only about 15 minutes outside of Newnan, so we were excited about the opportunity to be able to be back home! As some of you may know the interview process can be long and drawn out, we actually filled out paperwork for them back before we ever left Wake Forest, so we weren't really sure if we were still a candidate or not!! Anyway, May brought us to Luthersville, Tommy preached at our home church, Northside Baptist Church, in Newnan, for the Pastor Search Committee of Luthersville Baptist. The committee then presented Tommy to Luthersville Baptist Church as their recommendation to become their new Pastor!! He preached for the church on Mother's day and as you all know the rest is history!! Tommy was indeed voted in as Pastor at Luthersville Baptist Church in Luthersville, GA. He officially started June 1st and we turned around and it's Christmas!!! Seriously though, it seems like this whole process was just taking place yesterday and here it is 6 almost 7 months later!! I will try and sum up June thru December for you!! June is a faint memory, we celebrated my birthday, and Tommy began his new responsibilties as Pastor, that was also a time of getting to know everyone and making some dear friendships! July was a very special month in the Worthey family this year!! Nathan and Hester told us we would be having a new granddaughter due March 4th! This makes 6 grandchildren for Tommy and I now! In August Chase started 8th grade, she also became a member of the Pep Squad this year, she has done a great job cheering on the football team, their team was undefeated! Unfortunately, they lost the championship game!! :( She will start next month cheering the boys and girls basketball teams to victory!! September brought several birthday celebrations starting with our two youngest grand kids, Kaleb celebrated his 2nd birthday on the 3rd and Kinley celebrated her 2nd birthday on the 11th. One of the best things for me this year has been getting back in touch with my best friend Michelle, we have been friends since we were like 6, but we moved around alot, but after high school we really became close friends, more like sisters, anyway for some reason we drifted apart a few years ago and although we saw each other occasionally it just didn't seem the same...I guess it was around the beginning of September I got a text from her, and we started talking and it was as if no time had pasted, I am so thankful the Lord has brought Michelle back into my life, and not only her but her kids as well! Chafin is married now waiting on her husband to come home from Iraq and Michelle's two boys are living with their dad, so I don't get to see them as often as I would like too, but Mary Caitlin came over September 25th and spent the night with us to go to the Auburn game with Chase and I...Chase and some others from her pep squad were invited to the Cheer America event at the Auburn game and were able to go out and cheer with the Auburn cheerleaders, it was quite an experience!! Anyway, we decided from that point on to just keep Mary Caitlin!! We let her go home on occasion but only when Michelle forces us!! As you can probably tell from our pictures and blogs Mary has become a big part of our lives and we love it!! Chase and Mary have become like sisters and our family has never been the same!! LOL!! October was a special month as well, though we are so very grateful to my brother and his generosity for allowing us to live in his house, even when we couldn't afford to pay him rent!! (As a side note because of my brothers generosity the Lord provided a buyer for his house, just days after we moved out!) We wanted to find a home of our own! And like always the Lord has been so faithful to provide for us in every step of our journey!! We have been obedient and the Lord has truly blessed us!! Tommy and I closed on our new home in October, we are still settling in, finding a place for everything, but we love it here!! I also started keeping baby Matthew this month, he was just 8 weeks old when I started keeping him, he is such a joy to have at the house, even Tommy can't keep his mind totally on studying when Matthew is here, he has to come and play with us!! It's so much fun having a baby in the house even if it's only 8 hours a day!! November will always be a special month for Tommy and I, this year we celebrated 15 years of wedded bliss!! This has been quite a year for us!! Tommy has experienced alot of firsts this year! He is pastoring his first church, and if it's the Lord's will maybe his only church!! Unfortunately, he officiated over his first funeral, and has had 5 more since then...the one comforting part for Tommy has been that all had made professions of faith, so that made his job easier to be able to comfort the families! As many of you know our oldest granddaughter, Hannah Grace accepted Jesus as her Savior this year and Tommy was so excited at the thought of her being his first to baptize, but because of them being in Texas they haven't been able to come here and we haven't made it out there yet! Since then we have had some young people at our church who have been saved as well, so Tommy was able to go into the baptismal pool for the first time just a few weeks ago on December 13th and baptize 4 new believers!! He was so excited!! I haven't blogged about that yet, but I will!! Many people have asked us how things are going at the church, we can't even begin to describe all the wonderful things the Lord is doing at LBC. We have had several families to join, as I just shared we have baptized 4 new believers, we voted 2 weeks ago to bring on a part time Student minister, and we vote next week for a new Music minister. Please continue to pray for Tommy as he seeks the Lord's leadership in all he does and remember to pray for our family as we support Tommy and serve the Lord along side him at LBC!

I will end the letter this year with some great news for our family that we just found out a few weeks ago!! Our son Matthew and his family will be moving to Wilmington, NC. Matthew is in the US Coast Guard and has been stationed in Texas, it hasn't been easy to visit them because they are 3 hours away from the nearest airport that Delta flys into, so we have to plan trips very carefully!! But because of Matthew's outstanding record in the Coast Guard, they have approached him and asked him to come to Wilmington and serve at this station and run their galley, though this is not a raise in pay or rank at this time, Matthew will be doing the job of a First Class!! We are so proud of all Matthew has accomplished and we are so excited to have him, Sarah, Hannah, and Kaleb closer to home, now they will only be 20 minutes from the airport or if we did have to drive, it's only a 7 hour drive!! And hopefully when they come through Atlanta on their way....Granddaddy will get to baptize Hannah!!

Merry Christmas Everyone!!

Love to All,

The Worthey's

Tommy, Heidi, Chase, (and Mary Caitlin)

Our Home All Decorated for Christmas!!

I love the Christmas season, more than any other time! Most importantly to celebrate the birth of my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ! I also love getting together with family and friends and the love and joy that people have during this time of year!! (That is as long as you stay out of the malls LOL!!)

Christmas has always been a joyous occasion at our house!! So I wanted to share with you a few pictures of our tree and other decorations!! I love decorating for Christmas and this year I got to pull out all kinds of things that had been packed away from our time in seminary!! Like all our pictures of the boys and Chase with Santa and other decorations we haven't seen in awhile! We did decide to only hang our 3 stockings this year (Sorry boys, you have stockings at your homes now!! We still have yours though!!) We have already had such fun this year cutting down our tree and decorating! We have been enjoying our time doing advent with Chase and Mary-Caitlin, We enjoyed the Christmas musical at church last Sunday night, we also had a fun family night out the other night and then went driving around looking at Christmas lights!! And we are excited about coming events too!! We are very excited to be leaving today going to Cumming, GA and celebrating Christmas with our two oldest boys and their families!! Then we will be home Christmas Eve night for the Candlelight Communion Service at our church...Then Christmas morning...I can't wait!!

We wish you all a very Merry Christmas!

Cellphones!

It's so funny how we can't live without our cellphones...Tommy and I were just talking the other day about how people (he was mainly talking about me) rush to get their cellphone as soon as it rings like it can't wait! Remember when you were out of the house and didn't get interrupted by a phone call...remember when you had to wait until you got home to receive a call or maybe find a message on your answering machine!! YIKES!! I am glad those days are over! Personally, I LOVE my cellphone!! Tommy is right though, sometimes I spend to much time texting and not enough time enjoying the people right in front of me!! But loving me like he does and knowing how much I love my cellphone...Tommy upgraded our cellphones to Blackberrys...Sprint had a deal on Blackberry Curves...buy one, get one free and so we jumped at the chance to get a great deal on two Blackberrys...And believe it or not Tommy is getting the hang of his Blackberry alot better and faster than I thought he would!! This is the first time we have ever had a cellphone alike...Normally Tommy wants no bells and whistle, he just wants to be able to make a call!! But I think he is really enjoying his new Blackberry...Obliviously the orange one is mine!

Chase has always shared my love of technology, so she loves to have the latest, coolest cellphone out! So her contract was ready to renew in November, but she thought she had to wait until January, so I had a plan to get her a new cellphone and surprise her Christmas morning...well unfortunately her old cellphone died on her, so we had to go ahead and replace it last week! Although her cellphone is still her "big" Christmas present!! She has been enjoying it for a week now!!

Here is a picture of Chase's new Palm Pre...her qwerty keyboard slides out, but the rest of the phone is all touchscreen, she already has it all personalized with pics of her and her friends!!

And here she is enjoying it...Talking to Mary no doubt!! :)

The Season of Advent

Tommy and I started a tradition with Chase about 7 years ago of doing Advent! I wish we would have started so much earlier and done it with the boys as well...We have always done like an advent calendar starting the first day of December, but this is alot more in depth and really brings Christ back into Christmas!

The season of Advent is about anticipation and hope! Advent begins on the fourth Sunday before Christmas day, and ends on Christmas eve! The word Advent means "coming" or "arrival." The focus of the entire season is the celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ in his First Advent, and the anticipation of the return of Christ the King in his Second Advent. The colors of the candles vary with traditions, but are there are usually three purple or blue candles, one pink candle, and the center candle, the Christ candle, is always white! Scripture readings precede the lighting of the candles. A new candle is lighted each Sunday during the four weeks, and then the same candles are lighted during the week.

We have loved this tradition of celebrating Advent, it brings us close together as a family and instills in Chase and reminds Tommy and I the true reason we celebrate Christmas! Tomorrow begins the second Sunday of Advent, so we will light two candles every day this coming week, but as we light the candles and read the scripture every day as a family and pray together just spending that time together as a family thanking God as we celebrate His birth, His First Advent, and thanking Him for the hope we have in His return for His Second Advent! It has just become a very special time together that we all enjoy!

What traditions does your family do to celebrate the birth of Christ??

15 Years of Wedded Bliss

As many of you may know, Tommy and I had our 15th wedding anniversary on Wednesday, November 25th! Unfortuantely, we were unable to celebrate that day because our church and some of the churches within our community have an annual Thanksgiving Community Service on the Wednesday night before Thanksgiving! The deacons were very gracious to tell Tommy that they would handle the service, but it was our church's year to host the service and Tommy and I both felt it wouldn't be right for the new Pastor and his wife not to be in attendance especially since our church was hosting!! I have to be honest, that was the last place I wanted to be on my 15th wedding anniversary, but now I am so glad that we didn't slip out, we would have truly missed a blessing! Apparently the tradition is to have one Pastor from a visiting church to preach, well since Tommy is new to the area and didn't really know the pastors that well, he thought it would be nice to have all the pastors speak for about 10 minutes a piece with some singing inbetween! What a great idea!! It was such a blessing to hear from each man of God and also the different things the Lord had laid on their hearts to speak about! After the service we had refreshments and fellowship! It was a great evening and it just put you in the right frame of mind as we celebrated Thanksgiving the next day!! We truly had much to be thankful to our God for!! :)

Tommy and I were able to celebrate our anniversary tonight with a dinner out to our favorite steakhouse (the church so generously gave us a gift card to Outback Steakhouse and also a gift card for Walmart as well). And my best friend Michelle and her daughter Mary-Caitlin came over and stayed with Chase, so that we could have a night out alone!!

Here we are getting ready to leave on our date!

As far as Anniversary gifts Tommy knew that I wanted some new things to decorate our new home with because we sold so much of our things when we left for seminary, so he gave me some money to go and buy several things to decorate the house!

I had several ideas about what to get Tommy for our anniversary, but I decided on a Garmin (GPS), as a Pastor he travels alot more making visits and so the Garmin is going to be a great help to him and peace of mind for me that he is not getting lost!!! :)

Some people think that Tommy and I were crazy to get married during the Thanksgiving holidays, but I love having our anniversary this time of year! It makes us even more grateful for the gift of marriage, and for each other!

I love you Tommy with all my heart and I am so thankful to be your wife! Thank you for the best 15 years of my life!!