Happy New Year from the DeWalk's

The crew all stayed up this year. Happy New Year from the DeWalks.

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What a Year - 2012

So 2012 is officially in the books. It was a full year of obeying, stretching, learning and loving!

In short our year looked like this:

Obeyed - as we pursued adoption

Prayed - that God would provide us a Child

Cried - when we got word that we lost our first adoptive son when birth mom decided to keep her son.

Welcomed -Jeremiah Michael (AKA - Butter Bean)

Loved - Our new family

Prayed - for God to show us what's next

Visited - Charleston

Obeyed -  Got new Job with new company

Cried - when we realized we'd be leaving everything we'd come to rely on and love

Moved - to Charleston

Searched - for a new church

Closed - on our old house in Greenville

Cried - as a family because we were leaving

Visited - with family over the Holidays which refreshed our spirits

Comforted - our son as we prayed with him to make new friends

2013

Anticipating - what God has in store for us

Someone thinks he's big stuff

Thankful to have Jeremiah in our lives this year. Love this little guy, and love watching him grow.

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"Someone thinks he's big stuff"

12/12/12 @ 12:12 pm

Today on 12/12/12 @ exactly. . . get this. . . 12:12 pm, our oldest son officially turned eleven. Happy birthday, Gabriel William DeWalk


We are so proud of you and the young man that you are becoming.  

A real tree?

We've never done the "real" tree, but since all of our decorations are in storage we thought we would make the best of things.  It was a little strange getting a Christmas tree with it being 75 degrees, but we had a great time and made some fun memories.  

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Thankful for a new beginning - Charleston SC

We are all moved in down here and starting to settle in to our new life in Charleston, SC.  It's hard to believe that we are really living here.

God started tugging on my heart early this year and after avoiding it for a while I asked Melissa to start praying about whether we were being called to move.  Since Melissa was born and raised in Greenville I understood what I was asking her to do and to my amazement she agreed to start praying.  This speaks to her trust not only in me, but more importantly in our God. To be honest we had no idea where God was calling us to move, but out of obedience we decided that we needed to explore opportunities and see where He led us.

To be honest, I was kind of hoping that it was all just a "test", but in my heart I knew God was calling us out of our comfort zone and that we needed to follow him.  As we started to pray about various opportunities one seem to stand out above the rest.  As the interview continued our prayers became more focused and after a six week interview process I was offered a job in beautiful Charleston, SC.  It's the kind of place where no one says - oh, you're moving there.

We still don't know why God called us to move here, but we are confident in His plan and purpose for this next chapter in our lives.  We're nervous, scared, and sometimes lonely, but confident that He knows best.  

It's been a crazy year so far for the DeWalk family!  I heard people tell me that the most stressful times are when you have kids, switch jobs and move.  We did it all in just six months!

So this Thanksgiving we are thankful for new beginnings!

Lucky Man!

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"I'm a lucky man!"