Curtis and Margaret

Update on My (Margaret's) Health Part 2

2012-02-03T12:05:00.000-08:00

If you've been following my blog, you may remember my post in December about my health since the partial molar miscarriage. If you didn't, here's a link so you can catch up now. Things have been progressing just fine as my pregnancy hormone (HCG) count has continued to decrease. A good sign!

I have had 2 more blood drawings since that post and I have continued to be "negative" (under 5):
Date - Count
12/28/11 - 0.4
01/23/12 - less than 0.1

I am now more than halfway there and I think that this break from trying to conceive has been good for me, especially for my walk with the Lord and for my marriage. It has been incredibly emotional, but we have continued to cling to God's promises for encouragement during this waiting period. Curtis and I ask for your prayers as we approach Brooks' original due date on February 23. We are sure that it will be a day of sadness for us, but also one of hope.

A Celebration-Filled Weekend

2012-01-17T14:49:00.000-08:00

We went to Jacksonville last Friday to celebrate lots of things - see a Broadway show (as we had originally planned for our 3 year anniversary), witness the wedding ceremony of a special friend, and celebrate my Grandmother's 80th birthday.

Since we didn't get the opportunity to see Wicked in New York City (because we lost the lottery 3 times), Curtis and I had planned to do this when it came to Jacksonville. The show was amazing - full of fun surprises and very entertaining! I definitely recommend you seeing this show, if you haven't already!

We also got to celebrate our friend, Natalie Haynes, get married to Damon Webster. The ceremony was beautiful and it was wonderful to see lots of old friends from Pinewood and RUF!

Lastly, we got to sing "Happy Birthday" to my Grandmother on her 80th birthday. She had a yummy cake! Most of her family was able to come other than one of her sons that called during our celebration since he couldn't make it.

Side note: During this trip, I had a chance to talk to several people who read my blog. Thanks for your sweet comments! Please feel free to reply to my blog posts, if you would like. I love to get feedback!

New Year's Celebration

2012-01-05T13:50:00.000-08:00

Curtis and I had the special treat of having my older brother (Tim), his wife (Monica) and my two nieces (Charlotte & Adelie) visit us for a few days. They live in Galveston, Texas, and it is very rare for us to spend time together! The last time that I saw Tim and his family was in December of 2009. I hadn't even had the chance to meet my youngest niece, Adelie, because she wasn't born yet.

I love how Charlotte (age 3) and Adelie (age 1) match! Monica told me that Charlotte always wants to match her sister. How cute is that!

Curtis spent lots of time with Charlotte. We could tell that Uncle Curtis was one of her favorite people in the family.

We went to Paula Deen's famous restaurant, The Lady & Sons, with them. Here's a great picture of Adelie smiling with her big sister at the restaurant. The food was yummy - Tim and Monica really enjoyed their ribeye steak. Curtis and I love their mint sweet tea!

What a beautiful family they have! I enjoyed every moment that I had - my conversations with Tim & Monica, cooking with Charlotte and just holding Adelie.

Here I am spending some quality time with Adelie!

On New Year's Eve, we all went exploring in downtown Savannah for the day. I just loved these sunglasses that Charlotte had! They perfectly matched her outfit. She really likes penguins!

We walked into lots of little shops, we tasted local wine and honey, and walked through several of Savannah's squares. Here's Charlotte posing in front of a huge Christmas tree in Ellis Square.

Uncle Curtis and Charlotte ran around in Ellis Square also.

Adelie was content to watch under her stroller shade.

Here's a girl shot!

Charlotte had the Balloon Man make her a special penguin balloon to match her outfit.

She was so happy with her balloon!

Uncle Curtis is very silly - he wore Charlotte's glasses.

Charlotte posing with a huge Nutcracker and her penguin balloon.

A family shot of the Curtis' in Johnson Square: Tim, Monica, Charlotte and Adelie.

Charlotte threw in a coin into the fountain after she made a wish!

We even explored an antique store. Charlotte got bored and began feeding Adelie her lollipop.

After visiting downtown, we spent time hanging out at our house. Curtis and I got Charlotte Candyland for Christmas, so we played a few rounds of that.

Before we knew it, it was time for the girls to go to bed and the festivities continued in anticipation of the new year.

We played Yahtzee & Apples to Apples until midnight came. We celebrated with some bubbly and watched the ball drop! I think all 4 of us are looking forward to a new year, hoping that this year will be better than the last one! Then, off to bed we went so that we could go to church the next day to worship the Lord. The church service went well - I think Tim and Monica were really encouraged by the sermon.

After all of their stuff was packed up, they continued their trek down to Jacksonville to see our parents.

We had a great time, but in the end, we were really pooped! I don't know how we are going to have the energy when we have children in the future, but we are still looking forward to that day!

A Curtis Style Christmas

2012-01-04T14:30:00.000-08:00

Here's our McDaniel family Christmas 2011 picture:

I mentioned that our Christmas was "Curtis Style" - in case you didn't know this, my maiden name is "Curtis" - so, we spent Christmas this year with my side of the family, the Curtis'. Before I go into all of the Christmas festivities with the family, I will start with the cat family...

Here we have Buddy Curtis (left) and Regis Curtis (right) meeting Lion-O McDaniel. We say these are his uncles. Regis was my cat when I was living with my parents, but they didn't let me keep him when I moved out and got married.

I thought this photo was just precious. Buddy is checking out the toilet while Lion-O is hiding in the bathtub.

Here's a picture of my mom holding Regis.

Regis must have remembered me because he snuggled up to me while I was on the couch and made himself at home.

In this photo, Lion-O is wearing a Mexican hat that he received from my parents for Christmas.

Here we have Curtis & Lion-O taking a cat nap on Christmas Day.

OK, so on to the rest of the family:

We spent Christmas Eve going to a candelight service at Pinewood. Afterwards, we headed over to Uncle David's house for a nice family dinner. In the above picture, we have all 3 of the Leinecker kids. Uncle Rick, my mom and Uncle David.

Here's my grandmother, Margaret (Marge) Leinecker. I was named after her. :)

Here's my grandfather, Richard (Dick) Leinecker.

Here's a good picture of my cousins, Jason & Jennifer, sandwiched in with my parents.

...and here we are with my cousins, too!

Aunt Ginger & her dog, Lucy. Ginger is also carrying a baby that is due in May.

The next day, we woke up very early and opened up gifts. We had a nice breakfast and then we went to a Christmas Day service at Pinewood. It was very encouraging - they even spent some time talking about dealing with loss during the holidays. It was very emotional for Curtis and I, but we are so glad that we made the decision to go!

Curtis and I also had the opportunity to skype with his family in Pennsylvania. We would love to be able to celebrate the holidays with both sides, but it can be so difficult when they live so far apart.

Later on, we had almost the entire family on my mom's side come over for a Christmas dinner. Everything was tasty! Afterwards, we had some entertainment for the whole family with a Wii game called "Just Dance 3" that Curtis got me for Christmas.

Here I am trying to emulate the dance moves on the screen - it was more difficult than I thought!

Here's my younger brother's attempt!

Curtis did a great job. We even have some of his footage on youtube, if you are interested, click here.

Ben & Uncle Rick - dancing together!

Jason, Curtis & Ben dancing.

My mom, Jennifer & Jason getting down.

A father-daughter dance!

Curtis & I danced to "A Crazy Little Thing Called Love."

We had a lot of fun!

Two days after Christmas, we headed to Melbourne to visit some of my dad's side of the family - two uncles, an aunt & a little cousin.

Here I am spending time playing with my cousin, Elle, in a tube! She was so cute and we had a great time with her. We even played on her playground outside.

Here's Curtis & I on the swing! We bought Elle a Looney Tunes mix-and-match game for Christmas.

We immediately started playing the game. I think Elle really enjoyed our gift!

Curtis and I were able to see most of my family on both sides - we were missing my older brother and his family (but we got to see them for New Year's - post will come soon), 3 of my cousins, and one aunt! Now that we are all getting older and moving all over the country, it can be difficult to get everyone together. I'm very thankful for my family and the new memories that we made this year.

Heather Graduates

2011-12-23T07:01:00.000-08:00

On December 17, Curtis' youngest sister, Heather, graduated with honors at Clarion University! She received her Master's degree, with top honors, in Speech Pathology. She worked very diligently and we are so proud of her and all of her accomplishments! We are praying for her that she will be able to find a job in her field very quickly.

Christmas Time 2011

2011-12-21T09:29:00.000-08:00

It's almost that time again! Christmas - when we remember that our Savior came to this earth as a man. As Hebrews 2:17 says, "Therefore he had to be made like his brothers in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people." If Jesus hadn't become a man, he would not be able to sympathize with our weaknesses or understand what we are going through. He was able to live on the earth, be tempted as every human is, and yet able to be without sin (Hebrews 4:15). It is so encouraging to think that we have Jesus interceding on our behalf to God our Father!

We had lots of Christmas parties to celebrate - Progressive Dinner with the youth group, one with all the reformed pastors and their wives in the area, an open house at our senior pastor's house, a youth ministry leadership team party, a shepherding group party, and our young marrieds' small group (see more by going to Laura's post). One of the parties at my house was a Park Lane jewelry party. Here's some of my decorations:

Of course, the Christmas tree :)

Kitchen towels

Bathroom towels

Our stockings - Lion-O, Curtis and mine

We are now "partied-out" and ready for Christmas! We look forward to celebrating with my family!

Birthday Celebration with Friends

2011-12-16T12:19:00.000-08:00

So, the fun just kept on going right through the weekend. We had 11 of my closest friends celebrate with me at Jalapeno's! In the above picture, I'm wearing a lot of my birthday gifts - red shirt (Megan, Curtis' sister), cardigan (Curtis), bracelets (Megan), earrings, not really shown (parents), and shoes, not shown (Curtis).

Here I am with Jen. :)

Here's Curtis with Chris (Jen's husband).

And here is the entire group! Miguel, Laura, Sarah, Curtis, Chris, Allen, Heather, Becca, Jen, Me, Amy, Jim.

Miguel & Laura

Amy & Jim

Sarah acting like she has James with her. (We missed you James!)

Allen & Heather

Chris & Jen

Becca with her "date" :)

and us! While we were there - all of the sudden the music changed and the waitresses came out with this HUGE pink sombrero for my birthday and a shot of tequila:

It really caught me off guard!

After I learned the appropriate way to take a tequila shot, I attempted! But apparently, I still didn't take it the right way because I only took a sip of the shot, LOL. It was too much for me!

We headed back to our house to play games and eat cake after dinner. My sweet friend, Laura, baked me a chocolate chip cookie cake. It was delicious! I had a great birthday and I felt very loved by family and friends.

Margaret's Bday & the Tybee Island Lighthouse

2011-12-16T08:37:00.000-08:00

I turned 27 on November 30. Even though it was my birthday, the day was beginning as any typical Wednesday morning - I woke up early and headed off to my bible study in BSF (Bible Study Fellowship). When I came home, my parents surprised me and came up to Savannah for the day! Curtis was in on it and he really had me oblivious to his plans for me. Unfortunately, we didn't take any pictures of our visit, but it was a lot of fun.

The next day, my birthday celebration continued as Curtis took me to see the Tybee Island Lighthouse.

The view was amazing...

Me!

Curtis!

Both of us!

The weather was perfect!

Here's the birthday girl again!

I thought this was a cool picture - while we were at the top of the lighthouse, we took this picture of the shadow of the lighthouse on the parking lot.

If we were doing a Christmas card this year, this one probably would have made it.

Here's our shadows. :)

While we had our fun, Lion-O stayed home and slept under the Christmas tree.

Curtis also took me out that night to Outback Steakhouse and to see a movie (Breaking Dawn Part 1). The greatest part about this day was that we didn't have to pay for anything! We had gift cards for the lighthouse, restaurant and movie! It's my type of birthday date - free! :)

Update on My (Margaret's) Health

2011-12-13T13:46:00.000-08:00

As you probably have read through our previous posts, I had a miscarriage back in September. We had a pathology done on the baby's tissue to find out why our baby died. Our doctor informed us not only that our baby was a boy, but that I had a partial molar pregnancy, something that occurs in 1 out of 1,000 pregnancies. The genetic makeup of our baby boy was so abnormal that this type of baby never survives. It was encouraging to us to find that it wasn't something that I did wrong or that could have been prevented. We also found out that this isn't a genetic condition so the chances of it occurring a second time are very rare.

There is a slight chance that if the baby's tissue wasn't completely removed during the D and C procedure that I had on 9/16, the tissue could invade my body, similar to a cancer. It is my understanding that I would then have to have chemotherapy to fix the problem. In order to monitor this, our doctor has told us that we have to wait 6 months from the time that my pregnancy hormone levels reaches a negative count of 5 or less. This also means that we are unable to try to conceive another baby until this testwork is completed. As you could imagine, it was very difficult to swallow all the information that we heard. Six months seemed like an eternity to wait. Not to mention, I would have to continually go back to the doctor to have my blood drawn. And if anyone knows me well, I have a serious fear of needles/blood/medical stuff.

This is probably more information than most would like to know, but I'm going to include this for anyone who comes across my blog that may be going through the same thing and would like the details.

Found out I had a miscarriage on 9/14
D and C performed on 9/16
Here are my blood results:
Date - Count
10/10 - 17.8
10/24 - 5.9 (so close!!)
10/31 - 4.1 Praise The Lord - 6 months from now

Now that I have reached "negative," I have to wait 6 months before we can try to have another baby again. I had my first monthly appointment on 11/28 (count of 1.2). My next appointment will not be until after Christmas - probably around December 28 or 29.

During this time, we are praying that God would knit together a healthy baby once we do start trying again. We are finding ourselves encouraged by the Bible - 2 Samuel 12:23, Psalm 56, Psalm 139:15-16, Psalm 147:3-5, Lamentations 3 (especially verses 31 - 33), Isaiah 40-41, Isaiah 43, Isaiah 51, Romans 8:28, 2 Corinthians 1:3-11, to name a few. Please continue to pray with us as we wait on God's timing.

Thanksgiving 2011

2011-12-13T10:11:00.000-08:00

Curtis couldn't wait for Thanksgiving, as you can see below:

He loves being able to take his time reading the newspaper and drink his coffee. Haha - I told him that he's beginning to turn into an old man. ;) I spent my morning looking through the ads for Black Friday (which Curtis also did once he was finished reading the newspaper) and cooking! I made homemade mashed potatoes and sweet potato casserole, with the help of Curtis.

Of course, we had to take occasional breaks to give Lion-O some attention. He doesn't like the focus to be away from himself for too long. Curtis is cradling him like a baby in this picture. He doesn't mind doing it for short amounts of time.

Off to the Kornblatt's we went! We had a wonderful Thanksgiving meal with over 20 other guests. We celebrated Thanksgiving with the Kornblatt's 2 years ago and we were excited to have the opportunity again.

Look at my sweet place card!

Family picture shot! We were stuffed!

Most of the guests were people in the Kornblatt's family, but one of the other families went to our church - the Taylors! Debbie, Tom and Becca sat across from us. We had a great time of fellowship with them as well as the other guests. Thank you, Joan & Brian Kornblatt, for your hospitality!

Visit with the Warrens

2011-12-13T08:50:00.000-08:00

On November 13, Mr. & Mrs. Warren traveled to Savannah for an opportunity to share with our church about their plans to be missionaries in Ukraine through Mission To the World (MTW). They are in the process of raising support so that they can hopefully depart between March and August 2012. The Warrens have had a special role in my life as I have known them as faithful servants at Pinewood Presbyterian Church, the church where I grew up.

As you may recall from a previous post, Mrs. Warren spoke with me at a Women In the Church (WIC) meeting about mentoring relationships in March 2011. She has been a dear friend that has helped me cling to the Lord during various trials that I've gone through and I am so thankful for her investment in my life.

Mr. Warren did a great job during the presentation to our church and they had a chance to meet some of the sweet people in our church. Curtis and I also enjoyed spending quality time with them the following day during their short visit. As you can see from the picture, the Warrens really enjoyed meeting Lion-O also.

*Special Opportunity: If you would like to help the Warrens get to Ukraine by next year, please help by donating to them through the following link. Randy & Debra Warren's designation number is 18132.

Mission Trip to Dalton, GA

2011-11-29T14:33:00.000-08:00

Yes, I have a new skill: dry walling! I'm also using a fancy tool to cut the sheet rock around the door, but I can't remember what it's called.

From October 19 - 23, I had the opportunity to go on a MNA (Mission to North America) mission trip with several members from our church. We headed to Dalton, Georgia to assist families who needed relief from the tornadoes in April of this year. A few months earlier, three women from our church went to Dalton to assist and they were able to recruit five others (including myself) to come back on their second journey. We worked with a local ministry called "Rebuilding Hope." Pictured above is the entire Grace Church of the Islands team plus Mr. Arthur (the man that we helped). Note the HUGE tree that fell down from the tornadoes in the background.

Our task for the next three days was to dry wall a house. The really neat thing about this is that we were fixing up Mr. Arthur's house, which is one of the families that the three original ladies helped in the first trip. Mr. Arthur is a sweet man that is very passionate about the Lord. On our last day, he prayed and said "Lord, I don't praise you for the storm, but I do praise you for the aftermath and for all my new friends." It really made me think about how I handle trials and wonder if I would praise God for the aftermath.

I had a great time with our team and I was so glad that I had the opportunity to go! If I still was working or pregnant, I wouldn't have had this chance. We have talked about having another mission trip to help Rebuilding Hope in other areas of Georgia in the near future. If I am able, I would certainly do this again!

Ryan's Wedding

2011-11-23T15:10:00.000-08:00

In mid-October, Curtis and I headed to Chicago, Illinois to witness Ryan Fields' wedding. Ryan is Curtis' best friend - they were roommates in college and have been best friends ever since. I also knew Ryan in college through RUF, a campus ministry.

Ryan is about to be a College Pastor at Creekside Community Church, this was the church that Ryan and I both attended when we were in college.

Here we have Curtis assisting the groom as he gets ready for his wedding! They are a lot alike. Both Ryan & Curtis are pastors, they have a similar sense of humor, and they are both INFJ's (if you know anything about the Meyers-Briggs personality test).

In fact, they both married women that have the same birthday (not year): November 30th.

The other two gentlemen in this photo are Ryan and Curtis' other two roommates in college - Josh and Jeffrey. Josh was married just five months earlier in May.

I'm not usually one to take pictures during a prayer, but this was just such a cool moment. I thought it was beautiful to see all these godly men praying over Ryan before the ceremony, asking God to be glorified. (I thought their wedding ceremony was beautiful and I couldn't help but worship the Lord for His goodness to Ryan and Emily.)

Off to the ceremony we go! We somehow stuffed 8 people into Ryan's little Taurus. (Side note: I hear this was one of the last memories that Ryan had in his Taurus before it died.)

Here's 4 of the 5 of us stuffed in his back seat.

Emily and Ryan make such a beautiful couple! Here they are making their vows to each other, before God and all the witnesses.

Announcing for the first time:

Mr & Mrs. Christopher Ryan Fields!

The 4 roommates: Jeffrey, Curtis, Ryan, and Josh.

And here are all the wives with their husbands! I had a great time getting to know Josh's wife, Alicia, while our husbands were performing wedding duties. Alicia and I will look forward to getting to know Emily more in the future! :)

Curtis and I were so happy that we could make it to his wedding! Curtis was a groomsman and he was so glad that he could see God answer his prayers for Ryan to find a wife. He had been praying this prayer over the past 4 years. Praise the Lord for answering prayers, even if it isn't in the timing that we expect.

Welcome Home, Brannon!

2011-11-11T09:02:00.000-08:00

On October 30, we were so happy to welcome Brannon back to Savannah! Brannon is the Senior Pastor at our church and he had been gone for almost 4 months. He was deployed near Afghanistan as a Chaplain in the National Guard. While Brannon was away, Curtis had a lot more responsibility at our church and I think he did a wonderful job. As you can see, about 60 people came to the airport with smiles and signs.

Everyone was in line hoping to get a hug from Brannon!

It brought tears to my eyes to see all the little kids at our church excitedly running towards him when they first saw him. I couldn't help but think about how this was a small taste of how awesome it will be when Jesus Christ returns - when there will be no more partings, no more crying, no more sorrow, or death, or pain any longer (Revelation 21:4). How I long for that day!

In Memory of Brooks

2011-11-11T08:40:00.000-08:00

We wanted to have something that would remind us of our first son - John "Brooks" McDaniel. So, I purchased blue cardstock and an 8x10 picture frame. We put his name, his 9 week ultrasound, and one of our favorite verses on the cardstock.

The verse that we chose is from the hymn "O Love That Will Not Let Me Go." Here are the lines:

O Joy that seekest me through pain,

I cannot close my heart to thee;

I trace the rainbow through the rain,

And feel the promise is not vain,

That morn shall tearless be.

If you would like to hear a sample of this song, click here.

Here is the final product:

We put it on the wall along with all the other pictures in the Dining Room:

We are hoping that one day we will be able to put up more pictures of future children.

Beautiful Flowers

2011-11-11T08:26:00.000-08:00

Some of our sweet friends and family sent us flowers right after we found out about the loss of our baby. They really made our house smell nice! Here are some pictures that I took before they died:

These flowers were given to us by Miguel & Laura Amador.

These flowers were given to us by Allen & Heather Akins.

Close-up

These flowers were given to us by Curtis' family - his parents and his two sisters, Megan & Heather.

Thanks for thinking of us during this difficult time!

Sermon After Miscarriage

2011-10-11T09:35:00.000-07:00

Some of you have asked about wanting to hear the sermon that Curtis preached only 4 days after we found out that our baby boy (John "Brooks" McDaniel) had died. I just uploaded it to his site on Sermon Cloud - it is approximately 28 minutes long and is entitled "Reflections on the God of Comfort" from 2 Corinthians 1:3-11.

There are two ways that you can get to it -
1. You can click the link on this page entitled "Curtis' Sermons" or
2. You can click here.

Once you get to the site, you can either click the headphones icon to stream his sermon or you can click the arrow icon to download.

It was a difficult sermon for me to hear, but I think it helped Curtis to work through some of his grief.

Meet Our Kitten "Lion-O"

2011-10-07T20:27:00.000-07:00

I went to Florida to visit my family last weekend and I came back with a new addition!

Here he is in action!

As you know, we haven't had much luck with our newest additions lately. So, we decided to try one more time. Instead of a dog or a baby, we opted to adopt a 4-month old rescue kitten that we named Lion-O. (This is a Thundercats reference)

He really loves to snuggle next to Curtis' leg.

He is very playful! He loves to play with the toy that Uncle Benny gave him. You can see how tiny he is compared to the hamper. When I took Lion-O to the vet, they told me he weight 5.25 pounds.

He is a very attractive kitten. Do you see his little beauty mark? He looks very similar to Regis, the cat that I grew up with for the last 6 years before I got married.

It's pretty impossible not to love this little guy.

Whate'er My God Ordains Is Right

2011-09-21T12:18:00.000-07:00

Last Wednesday, Curtis and I went to our third OB appointment to check on Baby McD. Thinking that I had now surpassed the first trimester, I found myself more calm about this appointment than I had been at the previous two. When they searched for the baby's heartbeat with the doppler device, I was told that she was not able to find a consistent heartbeat and she would have another woman come to check. I tried to think positively during the 30-minute waiting period, but we couldn't help but start to think that perhaps something was wrong. One of the RUF hymns that Curtis and I sang often in college - "Whate'er My God Ordains Is Right" came to mind during this time:

1. Whate’er my God ordains is right,
Holy His will abideth.
I will be still whate’er He does,
And follow where He guideth.
He is my God,
Though dark my road.
He holds me that I shall not fall
Wherefore to Him I leave it all

2. Whate’er my God ordains is right,
He never will deceive me
He leads me by the proper path,
I know He will not leave me
I take, content,
What He hath sent
His hand can turn my griefs away
And patiently I wait His day

3. Whate’er my God ordains is right,
Though now this cup in drinking
May bitter seem to my faint heart,
I take it all unshrinking
My God is true,
Each morn anew
Sweet comfort yet shall fill my heart
And pain and sorrow shall depart

4. Whate’er my God ordains is right,
Here shall my stand be taken
Though sorrow, need, or death be mine,
Yet I am not forsaken
My Father’s care
Is round me there
He holds me that I shall not fall
And so to Him I leave it all

If you wanted to hear a portion of this song (verses 1 & 4), you can find here. I knew that whatever happened, God was still in control. If there was a problem, we would walk through this trial knowing that the Lord would carry us through it. The Lord has always been faithful in various trials that Curtis and I have both gone through individually and as a couple, so we had that confidence.

Unfortunately, we found that the baby had passed away when they performed an impromptu-ultrasound. I had to have surgery (D&C) to remove the baby's remains on Friday.

It has been a very hard week as we have had to come to grips with the reality that we will not be having a baby in February. We didn't realize that we could love someone that we've never met as much as we loved this baby! We prayed often that this baby would never know a day without the Lord, so we hope that one day we will get to meet him or her when we arrive in heaven. At this time, we are in need of prayer as we mourn the loss of our little one.

Curtis Performs His Second Wedding Ceremony

2011-08-25T09:19:00.000-07:00

On August 13, Curtis performed the wedding ceremony of Donnie Arpin and Melani Jones. They were married in the beautiful chapel at the Bethesda Home For Boys. It was special not only because it was their wedding day, but also because it was Melani's birthday! Curtis and I enjoyed getting to know this lovely couple and we look forward to more times with them in the future!

Updates

2011-08-22T08:03:00.000-07:00

1. Sweet Pea - We had 4 sweet weeks with her before we had to send her back to her foster home on August 1st. Unfortunately, she was too young to run around the house when we were away (she'd chew everything up) and we had no way of containing her. We don't have a fenced-in backyard and she was smart enough to figure out how to break out of two different crates! We hated to send her back, but we realized that she needed a home where she would have more people around and she wouldn't have to be cooped up in a crate as much. We felt like we were torturing her! Curtis and I keep remembering fun memories with her, but we realized that she probably wasn't the best dog for us with the "bun" coming. (See #3)

2. My Job - On August 5, I worked my last day at work. It was a hard decision to make, but I am confident that Curtis and I made the best choice for our family. The main reason for leaving was because of a conviction that Curtis and I had about the company itself. We prayed about it for almost a year before we got to a point where we realized I needed to leave. (Note: If you are interested in knowing more about this, I am happy to share, but I'd rather share one-on-one than to type in a blog post.) A secondary reason for leaving was because of Curtis' need for me to help him around the house while he takes on more responsibility at work. The senior pastor of our church is deployed as a Chaplain in the military, so Curtis is the only pastor at our church until November. Even though I knew about #3, it wasn't the reason why I left. It just further confirmed that I needed to go. I am now beginning week 3 of not working and I am really enjoying it! I think I was really burned out! The only downside is that I miss the people that I worked with.

3. Our "Bun" - Yes, in case you didn't understand the post below, Curtis and I are expecting our first baby on February 23, 2012. We are excited and nervous! I am about 13.5 weeks pregnant today and Baby McD is doing well. I am looking forward to getting out of the first trimester in the hopes that I will have more energy and I won't be getting as nauseated when I smell certain things! We plan on finding out the sex of our baby on October 5th.

Guess Who Has A Bun In The Oven?

2011-08-15T07:22:00.000-07:00

Sweet Pea

2011-07-18T10:39:00.000-07:00

On July 4, we brought home the newest addition to our family - our new puppy, Sweet Pea! She is a 9-month old lab/boxer mix. Sweet Pea was living in a foster home waiting for a loving home to take her. We loved her personality when we first met her, and it brought back memories for Curtis because he grew up with a dog that looked similar to her.

Sweet Pea loves to be around us. If one of us is not at home, she gets very sad that her "pack" is not together. Here is her reaction when Curtis left. She just stares at the door and whimpers.

...but she'd rather have one of us than none of us! When she saw that I was still home, she came happily over to me. The worst part of her day is when she is put in her crate, especially during the day. She is slowly beginning to learn that she will be sleeping in the crate throughout the night, even though she likes to tear up all our bed sheets that cover her crate. Silly dog!

One of her favorite times of the day is when we take her for a walk. She loves to meet other people, other dogs, and cats! Sometimes, Curtis and Sweet Pea run together, but Sweet Pea is much faster than Curtis. We're very happy to have a little friend at the house that is always excited to see us! :)

VA Beach Days 6 - 10

2011-06-28T14:05:00.000-07:00

The next day we travelled to Virginia Beach for the annual Presbyterian conference called General Assembly, where pastors and elders in our denomination meet to discuss business.

We had quite an adventure getting from NYC to VA Beach! We planned to take a bus; however, we failed to notice that the address was on East Broadway Street and brought all our belongings to Broadway Street. By the time we were able to figure this out, we had 10 minutes before departure to get there (and we were supposed to get to the bus station 20 minutes early)! We caught a taxicab and they speedily brought us to our correct destination. Thankfully, the bus was running a little late and we were able to make it to Virginia Beach as planned.

Here was our view out our hotel room. It was beautiful (and very different from NYC)! Thanks to Carol (our senior pastor's wife) for picking out a great hotel for us! It was definitely nicer than the hotel we stayed at in Queens.

The weather was wonderful while we were in VA. This little walkway was right outside of our hotel.

Unfortunately, Curtis was feeling very sick on our actual anniversary, but he did feel well enough to go to the beach with me! You can see our anniversary date (6.7.08) in the sand.

Here's a closer up view.

It was really relaxing to be there! Curtis had to spend most of his time discussing church business throughout the day and voting.

Curtis and I also went to Ruth's Chris Steakhouse on our anniversary! It was very special because Curtis hadn't ever been there before. He thoroughly enjoyed the steak!

I had a lot of fun getting to know Carol (the senior pastor's wife) during the trip. It was also encouraging to spend time with other fellow pastors' wives in our denomination. We were there from June 6 to June 10. We were happy when we arrived back in Savannah after a long 10 day trip! It was very memorable! :)

NYC - Day 5

2011-06-22T07:40:00.000-07:00

This day was our last full day in New York City. We went to Redeemer Presbyterian for church. It was a great service! Curtis really respects Dr. Tim Keller, the Senior Pastor of Redeemer. Even though he wasn't preaching that week, we were happy to visit. (Besides, we knew we would hear him at General Assembly in just a few days!)

We decided to go to John's Pizzeria for lunch. This was recommended to me by a co-worker and it was rated very highly on Tripadvisor.

This pizzeria is one of the largest in the United States! This restaurant was previously a cathedral and over 500 can be seated. The pizza was yummy!

Next, we went to Central Park. It was refreshing to come here after spending several days in the city because the pace was much slower here. I think it was one of my favorite places to go. Pictured above is a structure that we saw as soon as we entered Central Park.

There were lots of large rocks that you could lounge on.

Here's Curtis relaxing.

Here I am!

The view was great!

I really wanted to see the fountain.

Here's an up-close picture!

Curtis and I in front of the fountain! :)

Isn't this gorgeous!?

After this, we went back to Times Square to try for the Wicked lottery again. And we lost for the third time. :( At least we will get to see it in Jacksonville!

For dinner, we went to a restaurant called Via Della Pace in Little Italy. The food was awesome - probably one of our favorite places to eat! Here I am in the restaurant, it was a cute little couch with pillows that I was sitting on!

Our final plan before we left NYC was to have a caricature taken of the two of us. We had this taken in Times Square - I love how the artist put an "I <3 Margaret" shirt on Curtis.

Next up: we'll be traveling to Virginia Beach for General Assembly tomorrow!

NYC - Day 4

2011-06-15T19:10:00.000-07:00

On this day, Curtis woke up feeling sick. This was a real bummer because it seems like one of us always ends up getting sick whenever we travel. We took it easy in the morning and then we went to the NBC Studios tour!

We weren't allowed to take pictures on the tour, so we snapped some shots of both of us holding our tickets.

We got to see Dr. Oz's set, Late Night With Jimmy Fallon's set and the Saturday Night Live set! It was pretty cool and probably one of our favorite parts of the trip!

We decided to try to get discounted Broadways tickets through TKTS. While I waited in the long line, Curtis was sweet and got us pizza from a place called Patzeria's Pizza. Unfortunately, we didn't realize how expensive the Broadway tickets would be, so after we heard the how much the prices of the top 3 shows that we wanted to see, we left empty-handed. I was pretty disappointed about it so I think we're planning on trying to see Wicked when it comes to Jacksonville in January of 2012.

Before we went to NYC, I got a deal through LivingSocials for a wine class at a restaurant called Giorgio's. It was a lot of fun to try the different types of wine.

Lambrusco was my favorite! It was fizzy.

Curtis is a big fan of Seinfeld, so we planned on going to a well-known restaurant that the tv show references called the Original Soup Man. This is the place where the man always would say "No Soup For You!"

The soup was pretty delicious! Curtis got the seafood bisque soup and I got tomato basil soup. They even give you fruit and an amazing chocolate candy with every soup order!

Next up, we went to the "Top of the Rock." We tried to get there before so that we could see the cityscape before the sun went down.

The view was amazing!

There's the Empire State Building!

Of course, Curtis made a funny face to show our amazement!

...and so did I!

We even got a picture together with the Empire State Building between us.

As it got darker, we were able to see all the lights.

That big batch in the middle of the city is Central Park.

I love the way we can see a little bit of the sunset in this picture. Another fun-filled day in NYC. :)

NYC - Day 3

2011-06-11T19:59:00.000-07:00

So, we tried to mimick the famous kissing shot in Times Square above. See original below:

I think it our picture is surprisingly more similar to the original picture than I expected. Just different types of hats! It took us a while to find someone that we were willing to kiss in front of them. Haha!

We planned on visiting the Statue of Liberty, but before we did, we ate lunch at a restaurant called Gigino's. This was the view from the restaurant, isn't it a great view!?

Unfortunately, there wasn't any shade in the restaurant because the wind was blowing and the umbrellas wouldn't stay up. So, we had to eat with our sunglasses on!

This was our view as we arrived from the Liberty cruise ship -- I had no idea that the Statue of Liberty was so huge!

We had a great view of the cityscape as we were visiting the Statue of Liberty.

The black building on the left is the new Freedom Tower that they are constructing. It's weird that the Twin Towers would have been in this picture if we would have visited 10 years earlier.

Here's a good view of the front of the Statue of Liberty.

You can get an idea of how big the statue is in comparison to Curtis and I in this picture. All you can see is the feet of the statue!

For dinner, we went to Qdoba. This was very exciting for us because Curtis has so many free burritos that he acquired when we lived in St. Louis and he isn't able to use them in Savannah because we don't have a Qdoba. We stumbled upon one downtown and we were excited to get to save some money!

This is the Rockefeller building - on Day 4, we spent a lot of our time in this building visiting the NBC Studios and the top of it!

One of the beautiful churches downtown.

This is a statue of Atlas holding up the world. I know it from the beginning of the television show "30 Rock."

This is inside St. Patrick's Cathedral. Heather (Curtis' sister) recommended that we visit this ornate Catholic church. It was really awesome to check it out and see how large it was! It's definitely not like any Presbyterian churches that I've ever been to.

This is the outside of St. Patrick's Cathedral.

One of my new favorite tv shows to watch is called "The Voice." Here Curtis and I are posing in front of an advertisement for it. We are holding up "V"'s like the celebrities behind us are doing (even though you can't see it from this picture).

So we were able to see where David Letterman has his show around Times Square.

Here's a large Superman figurine that is inside the huge Toys R Us store. We went back to the huge Toys R Us because we knew there was an ice cream shop inside it called "Scoops R Us." It was so expensive that we decided to go somewhere else for dessert.

So, we found ourselves at a place called Roxy Delicatessen. We are sitting on the second floor in this picture, but you can see some of the sweet treats below.

I got the chocolate covered sugar cookie. It looked so yummy!

Curtis got a peanut butter brownie. It was delicious!

We finished off almost all of the sweets!

Curtis was full! A nice finish to another fun-filled day in New York City!

NYC - Day 2

2011-06-09T19:59:00.000-07:00

Our second day began with a trip to Chinatown. On our way, we saw the Brooklyn Bridge.

Curtis enjoyed this huge building, so he snapped this shot.

This building says "The True Administration of Justice is the Firmest Pillar of Good Government." I thought this was a great quote and it goes along with Curtis & I's passion for justice.

When we arrived in Chinatown, Curtis mentioned that he enjoyed this area a lot more when he came with his family. We really didn't find it to be a place where there were many tourists. We left Chinatown and decided to walk towards the SoHo District, where Heather (Curtis' sister) had suggested was a great place to shop. On our way, we discovered the Chinatown that Curtis had remembered with his family's trip. Apparently, we had actually been walking around the authentic Chinatown, not the Chinatown you think of when you come to New York City (where they sell fake Coach purses and you can bargain for souvenir items). I never really felt comfortable to purchase a fake Coach purse, so instead I just negotiated with them and purchased a black Pashima scarf for $4!

In the SoHo district, Curtis and I didn't end up purchasing anything. I looked around at lots of clothing places, but I didn't find anything I had to have.

For lunch, we went to this cute little restaurant called the "Corner Shop Cafe." It was delicious! The waiter asked if we were from out of town because we were so friendly compared to his other customers.

I think we went back to our hotel to rest after all of that walking and shopping. We went to the Gershwin Theater and hoped to win the lottery to get front row seats for that night's showing of the Broadway show, Wicked. Unfortunately, we did not win and I think we had a lot of hope that we would win those tickets. So, instead we decided to go to hang out in Times Square for the night.

We ate a restaurant called "The Perfect Pint," but we didn't even have a pint of beer! The food was amazing and I think it was our favorite place to eat of the entire trip. We definitely plan on coming back here if we visit NYC in the future.

We went to the large Toys R Us - here's the moving T-Rex.

Curtis is very excited about the new Transformers movie that is coming out soon, so here he is posing in front of the huge Transformer in the Toys R Us. He looks so serious!

Here's the Empire State building. We took this picture on our way to the huge Macy's department store on 34th street.

I can't remember if Macy's had 7 or 8 stories, but it was overwhelming! I don't think I'm a shop-a-holic because it made me sick to even think about trying to shop throughout that store! There was a Starbucks on almost every floor.

We finished the night with an ice cream snack at Cold Stone.

As we approached the Subway, we saw this sign about Harold Camping, the man who thought the world was going to end a few weeks ago.

One of the final pictures of the day -- me on the Subway...

...and Curtis on the Subway too!

We were pretty exhausted after a busy day.

NYC - Day 1

2011-06-08T13:28:00.000-07:00

For those of you that have been following our blog for a while, you know that we go on an anniversary trip each year. We know that we won't always have the opportunity to do this each year, but we plan on doing it whenever we have the ability.

For our 3 year anniversary, we decided to travel to New York City.

We left on June 1st when a sweet friend from our church drove us to Jacksonville for our flight to NYC. (Thanks Becca Taylor!) Once we arrived in New York, got our subway tickets and checked into our hotel, we didn't have but a few hours to spend looking around the city. So, we headed to the Financial District to see some of the well-known buildings and figures.

I'm not really the best at explaining what each picture represents, so I will do my best, but you will find lots of pictures in the first day. (Hey, we were excited!)

This was the New York Stock Exchange.

This was where George Washington took the oath to become the first president of the United States. Notice the huge statue of GW!

Everything was huge!

Here's one of the Donald Trump buildings. I think this is the one that they show on The Apprentice.

Some cool artwork in the middle of the city. We eventually stopped taking pictures of the artwork because there was lots of it!

The famous bull. I wish I could say that I knew about this well-known bull before I went to New York, but I didn't!

Here is the new Freedom Tower that they are building to replace the Twin Towers. Apparently, it will be completed in 2013.

We walked far to get a good picture of Ground Zero, but I don't think it really helped that much. Ground Zero is in the top of this picture. It was all covered up and blocked, so we had to take this picture from several blocks away.

A dear friend of mine told me to check out the church across from Ground Zero. I wish I could have gotten a chance to go inside the church, but we just observed it from the outside.

There was a little park around there with lots of unique artwork. Here I am standing in front of this rainbow colored structure.

I loved the way this looked with the huge building in the background of the fountain.

Here's Curtis chilling out in front of the fountain.

Here I am in front of the fountain!

We went to a restaurant called "Biddy Early's" - it was not one of our favorite places to eat, but the food just got better from there at all the other restaurants!

Here I am at the restaurant too! :)

Curtis told me that we should head to Times Square to see what it looks like at night. Little did we know that we'd be going to Times Square almost every night! We went to the m&m's store and I took a picture of these rotating colorful m&m's because sometimes Curtis calls me his "m&m."

It really felt like we were at the center of the universe!

There were tourists everywhere! If I lived in New York City, I probably would avoid Times Square!

Here's the Nasdaq building.

Lastly, we got the courage to have a tourist take a picture of us in Times Square! You can see all the chaos behind us - I just kept telling Curtis throughout our trip that this place is crazy busy!

Josh & Alicia's Wedding - 5.28.11

2011-06-07T07:44:00.000-07:00

On May 28, Curtis and I traveled to Neptune Beach, Florida for a special wedding. One of his college roommates (Josh) was getting married to Alicia. Although I do not know either of them well, they seemed like a fun-loving couple with a goofy side to them. Pictured above is when they were first introduced as Dr. & Mrs. Josh Counihan! I love the sunglasses!

This wedding brought back the four college roommates for the first time since Curtis & I started dating in 2007. Even though 4 years had gone by, they had a great time hanging out and reminiscing about their days at UF. Jeffrey was involved in the wedding as a singer and usher and Ryan actually performed as the officiant for his first time! Ryan recently got engaged to a beautiful young woman named Emily (who I can't wait to meet) - so we're hoping the 4 of them will get to see each other soon in October (?). Ryan & Emily are still working out the wedding date.

Small Group Hangouts

2011-05-15T16:03:00.000-07:00

On April 30, we went out to Miyabi's, a Japanese steakhouse restaurant, to celebrate the birthdays of three people in our small group -- Allen (April 1), Laura (April 18) and Curtis (April 18). Unfortunately, Allen and Heather were unable to make it at the last minute, so we only celebrated with Laura and Curtis after all. Pictured above - the Roulos, the McDaniels (us) and the Amadors.

Because of the way that the table was set up, we decided to have the girls sit together and the guys sit together. Here's our girl shot! This is when we decided to have a Girls Night Out the next week (later in this post).

It was all of our first times to Miyabi's and we all thoroughly enjoyed it! Pictured above, you can see the large portion of rice that they give each person! We definitely came away with yummy leftovers!

Here's the boy portion of the table! It took me a while to get Chris to smile. I also had to crop Laura out of the picture, as she requested. :) Afterwards, we came back to our house to have a homemade Strawberry Torte cake that I made for Curtis. I wish I would have taken a picture of it, but it was delicious!

I was planning on blogging about our Girls Night Out, but I feel like Laura did such a good job of blogging about it already on her website that I am going to defer to her post instead: http://amadorpuppy.blogspot.com/2011/05/girls-night.html

We had a great time bonding together! I think this is my favorite picture of the night.

Ministering at Grace for the Past Year

2011-05-10T19:19:00.000-07:00

It's been a while since we've given you an update on Curtis' ministry at Grace. Although I was a lot more detailed in my post (last March 2010), this one will be much briefer giving you some of the highlights.

Last Summer, Curtis taught about the Ten Commandments in Sunday School. Each week, it became more and more apparent that we had all failed every commandment that God has given to us. Curtis also led youth group on Wednesday nights about the men of Genesis.

Curtis took the middle schoolers to The Edge, a summer camp that was located at Covenant College in Lookout Mountain, Tennessee. He also took the high schoolers to RYM (Reformed Youth Ministry) at Panama City Beach, Florida. It was a very encouraging time for Curtis to get to know the kids in the youth group.

In the Fall, Curtis taught about "The Objections About Christianity" on Wednesday nights. Topics included:

How Can A Good God Allow Suffering?
Hell
How Does Science Relate to Faith?
Is Christianity The Only Way?

He also shared his philosophy of ministry with the high school Sunday School entitling the series "Why we have the Middle Schoolers with us on Wednesday Nights."

One event that stands out to me from the Fall includes our Girls Night Out - we traveled to one of our youth leaders' cabin an hour away. It was a special time where we were able to share in each others' lives. Curtis and the boys camped out at the church and then had a "Turkey Bowl" where they played a game of football - adult men vs. youth boys. If you're wondering, the adult men won! We also had a great turnout for our annual Progressive Dinner around Christmas!

In the Winter/Spring 2011, Curtis has been teaching a study called "Face to Face with Jesus" through the book of Matthew on Wednesday nights. He is also teaching "God's Wisdom for the Confusion," a study on the book of Proverbs. I feel like I get so much out of his teaching!

I've already posted about the ski trip (in January), but we also had a Lock-In, another Pirate Scavenger Hunt in downtown Savannah and a Paint Ball extravaganza!

Last Tuesday, we had a Senior Banquet to honor our 6 high school seniors that are about to graduate. In the above picture, our seniors include Sarah, Kathryn, Reid, CJ, Alex and Julianne. We can't believe they are already moving into their next chapter of life, but we are excited to see how God will use each of them. :)

Easter 2011

2011-05-08T19:00:00.000-07:00

Our church has an annual Easter egg hunt for the children. The youth group assists by hiding the eggs. I helped hide eggs for the really young kids (3 years and younger) with two of our middle school boys, Nick & Daniel. Can you spot some of the eggs in the above picture?

While we were hiding eggs, the kids listened to Carol, our Senior Pastor's wife, share what Jesus did for us on the cross and how He was resurrected on Easter morning (the real reason for Easter).

Here's some of the older kids opening their eggs to see what kind of candy was inside. They had such a great time!

The next day, Curtis and I had members of 4 different families over for Easter lunch after our church service, a total of 13 people. This was my first time having multiple people over to our house for a meal. My mom gave me lots of advice and I cooked my first ham!

Gospel Coalition, Curtis' Bday, Family Visit

2011-04-22T15:46:00.000-07:00

From April 12-14, Curtis took a trip to Chicago to attend a conference called The Gospel Coalition. It worked out pretty well because Curtis got to spend time with his best friend and college roommate (who was also our Best Man), Ryan.

Ryan has been attending seminary at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, which is conveniently located in Chicago! Although I missed Curtis terribly, I’m glad he got the chance to go and come back refreshed. He tells me that the sermons he listened to were excellent, so I’ve already listened to Tim Keller’s (I agreed that it was very good!). I still have at least 2 others that he’s recommended for me to listen to.

Once he left for Chicago, I began feeling sick. I ended up missing several days of work and hoping to recover before Curtis got home. Unfortunately, I was still sick by the time he came back and I had to go to the Urgent Care Center in order to get effective medication. Here's some of the medication:

Apparently, I had an upper-respiratory infection. I was concerned that I wouldn’t be able to celebrate Curtis’ 27th birthday with him on Monday (4/18), but I did end up feeling well enough to take him out to Chili’s. He was pretty excited because his parents got him a Blu-Ray player for his birthday. Immediately after Chili’s, he wanted to go to Best Buy to see what type of flatscreen TV we would like and what the going price was. I think that’s one of the next big purchases that Curtis wants! I got him a laptop messenger bag so that he would stop carrying a backpack to and from the church. Here’s Curtis on his birthday with his new laptop bag:

On Thursday, I got to spend some time with my Uncle Rick and his two daughters (my cousins), Judy and Beth.

They were traveling down to Florida for Easter and I was able to meet them on the interstate and have dinner with them on their way down. I don’t get to see my extended family (let alone my immediate family) much at all, so it’s always a treat when I get the chance!

Now, off to preparing for Easter lunch. We’re having several families over after church this year. I’m excited about it!

Our Trip to Florida

2011-04-08T12:37:00.000-07:00

Last weekend, Curtis and I traveled to Florida for a weekend getaway to visit my family and witness a beautiful wedding. I took off Friday from work; Curtis took that Sunday off.

On Friday, we went to several places that aren’t located in Savannah with my parents. We went to McCallister’s for lunch and we shopped at Kohl’s! (Side note: Savannah really needs to get a Kohl’s.) We also watched the new movie, Hop. Hop was cute, but we really enjoyed the Netflix movie that we saw that evening – My Life In Ruins. That movie exceeded all of our expectations! It was a lot of fun to spend time with my parents. One of the most memorable things that we did was play the game of Scrabble. It was hilarious! We had to get out a dictionary because we were all struggling to come up with real words.

On Saturday, we traveled to Gainesville to witness the beginning of a godly marriage – Kenny and Rebeca Gilbert. This was a real treat for Curtis and I because it was probably the only wedding that both Curtis and I knew the bride very well. Usually, we’ll go to a wedding because Curtis knows someone or because I know someone. Rebeca was involved in RUF with both of us when we were at the University of Florida. She then graduated and went to Covenant Theological Seminary, where Curtis followed after he graduated, as they both attended seminary. I would spend time with Rebeca during my visits to see Curtis as we were dating. Then, Rebeca moved back to Gainesville after she graduated from seminary and we got to be better friends because I was still in school at the University of Florida. She is a great friend to me and she also has helped counsel me through some hard times in my life. We were so happy we could be there to celebrate with her! And we finally got to meet her new husband, Kenny!

While we were at the wedding, we had the opportunity to see old friends from college and seminary since we had so many mutual friends together! We also got to spend some time with Steve and Jenna, our campus minister and his wife. (Side note: I had every intention of getting a picture of Steve and Jenna, but I forgot, so here’s a picture of Curtis and I together at the wedding instead.) Steve was one of the pastors that married us and we hadn’t seen them in almost 3 years. It was a time of encouragement to catch up with them and share about our respective ministries.

We also spent a short time with one of my good friends, Kaylen. She and I were very involved in RUF and really bonded back in 2005 (and ever since). Here we are goofing off together in the above picture.

We went to one of my favorite restaurants, Chipotle. Yes, this is another restaurant that Savannah really needs to get! Here I am with Kaylen and another college friend, Megan. Megan was the pianist in our wedding.

Curtis and Jono (Kaylen’s husband) had a good time together too. Here they are trying to block the lights at Chipotle with their hands so that the picture would turn out, haha!

We traveled back to Jacksonville and went to the church that I grew up attending – Pinewood. Although it has changed a lot since I last attended, it was refreshing to visit, worship and see old friends! We also got to meet Pinewood’s youth pastor and his family and talk to them about our respective youth ministries. The weekend was lots of fun and very encouraging for us! It went by too quickly!

Small Group Date Night

2011-03-16T19:20:00.000-07:00

Last Saturday night, our young married small group had a date night! We were all pretty excited because all 8 of us would be together - it's been a while since that has happened. Unfortunately, we didn't take any pictures until after one of the couples left for the night. In the above picture, you will see me with two of my favorite ladies - Laura (left) and Jen (right). You can just imagine that Heather is in the shot too.

Ironically, the husbands are in the same order as their wives are in the above picture. Curtis is with Miguel (left) and Chris (right). Again, just imagine that Allen is in the shot too.

We went to Wild Wing Cafe for dinner and then Savannah Smiles Dueling Pianos to hang out afterwards. We had a great time and we can't wait to spend more time with these fun couples!

WIC Presentation with Mrs. Warren

2011-03-16T19:11:00.000-07:00

I had the opportunity to speak for our monthly WIC meeting yesterday. Rachel, our WIC (Women In the Church) President, asked me to share with the ladies about my mentoring relationship with my dear friend, Mrs. Warren. Rachel even requested that Mrs. Warren could share more about mentoring me from her perspective. So, Mr. & Mrs. Warren came to Savannah for this special event. It was a precious time to reminisce about our relationship that began when I was 9 (yes, that was 17 years ago...crazy!) We spent Friday evening getting our Powerpoint presentation ready and we practiced in front of Curtis and Mr. Warren. I think the presentation went well and I pray that the women at Grace church are encouraged to develop mentor relationships with some of the younger women in the church.

Spending Time with Curtis' Parents

2011-03-16T19:09:00.000-07:00

At the end of February, Curtis and I had the privilege of having his parents come down to Savannah for a visit. It was Karen(Curtis' mom)'s first time coming to Savannah to see our house, our church and our town. Part of the reason that they came was because Curt (Curtis' dad) was going to make a presentation to my company.

We had really nice weather, which was a real treat for his parents since they live in Pennsylvania. We took them downtown and we rode the Old Savannah Trolley tour bus. We ate lunch at Paula Deen's restaurant, Lady & Sons. It was delicious! We also took them to Tybee Island to view the beach since they don't get to see it that often.

It was very encouraging to be able to talk to them since his parents have also been in the ministry. (His dad is a pastor too.) Although we had every intention of taking a picture with them, we forgot until it was too late. Overall, we had a wonderful time with Karen and Curt!

Valentine's Day

2011-03-13T18:29:00.000-07:00

For Valentine's Day, we went out on a date; it was nice to dress up and celebrate with my husband. We went to a restaurant called Elé Fine Fusion. We had heard such good reviews over it and we were really looking forward to trying it out. Unfortunately, we had somewhat of a negative experience (our appetizer was sent to another table and Curtis found a nasty hair in his entrée). Thankfully, they mitigated the problem and didn't make us pay for anything other than my entrée. If anyone knows me or Curtis very well, they know that we were excited to save some money. :)

Curtis' Installation as Associate Pastor

2011-02-06T17:14:00.000-08:00

The session of Grace Church called Curtis as an Assistant Pastor in 2009. Now that we have been here for some time, Grace's congregation voted Curtis in as an Associate Pastor in December. Not too much will change other than his title and he now has voting privileges on the session.

Because this is considered a new pastoral call, Curtis was installed as an Associate Pastor on January 30. It was an encouraging night to spend with our church family. We're very thankful for such a warm and loving church family here in Savannah! We are always praising the Lord for his provision in bringing us to this church. The Senior Pastor, Brannon, has been an excellent shepherd both to the flock at Grace and also as Curtis' boss/mentor.

A few weeks ago, we learned that Brannon will be serving our country by deploying for 3 months as a Chaplain in the National Guard. As we think about the ramifications of this news, we are excited for Brannon's ministry in the military and also for the opportunities that Curtis will have while he is away, even though it scares us at the same time!

Our 1st Try at Skiing

2011-02-01T17:38:00.000-08:00

During MLK weekend, Curtis took 10 teenagers (ranging from ages 14-18) and 4 other chaperones (including myself) on a ski trip. We traveled to a resort called WinterPlace in West Virginia. Curtis and I have never skied before so we knew it would be quite an adventure.

Most of the kids were thrilled just to see the snow - one decided to snowboard and some others decided to snow tube only. I am very thankful that I took the ski lesson before attempting to ski - I think that helped me to avoid getting seriously hurt. Unfortunately, some of our youth had a few injuries and sicknesses along the way but I think everyone had a great time overall.

I learned that I am not a big risk-taker. I think about all the potential things that could go wrong and I get very scared as I'm flying down a mountain. Curtis, on the other hand, was exhilarated as he flew down the mountain and enjoyed learning a new way to exercise. I often find him in the skiing pose in his free time. He can't wait to go back.

Thanks to some of the Grace families that let us borrow their ski wear. Without that, we would have been very cold Savannahians.

The McDaniel Family Christmas

2011-01-31T16:40:00.000-08:00

Curtis and I traveled to Pittsburgh this Christmas to celebrate with his family (pictured above from left to right: Curtis, Me, Megan, Belle (dog), Heather, Nana, Karen, Curt).

Although a few family members (Megan & Curtis) got sick, we had a great time! Curtis and his dad co-led a Christmas Eve service together - that was really special to watch.

It was nice to get away, see snow and hang out with the fam.

Introducing our new niece: Adelie Rose

2011-01-31T16:34:00.000-08:00

On December 18, my brother and sister-in-law had their second child, Adelie Rose. She came about five weeks early. Both Adelie and mom are doing well. They make such a beautiful family! Curtis and I look forward to hopefully meeting her one day soon (they live in TX).

Christmas Card

2010-12-07T12:52:00.000-08:00

If this is your first time visiting our blog, welcome! The Christmas card that we sent out did its job – rather than writing a letter to update all our friends and family about our year, we thought it would be better to just lead you to our family blog. If you did not receive a Christmas card, please understand that it was very difficult to determine who would receive one. We really had to limit how many we sent out. For those of you who send out Christmas cards every year – I applaud you! I think we will only be doing this every few years because of the cost of photography, printing costs, time and postage stamps! Please feel free to visit our blog whenever you need a McDaniel update as we usually try to post whenever we have any events happen in our family life.

One of our friends, Sarah Kohut, who also serves alongside us in the Youth Ministry Team is a professional photographer (her website: http://sarahkohutphotography.com). She did an excellent job taking pictures for our Christmas cards this year. Although there were only 3 pictures on the Christmas card, we had many more that she took in front of our house and also in downtown Savannah. If you would like to see some of the other pictures that did not make the cut, please click this link. Although we have placed them on facebook, it is not necessary for you to have an account with them in order to view our pictures.

A few updates that have occurred since our last blog post:
-Curtis and I have now been married for 2.5 years!
-On 12/12, Curtis became an Associate Pastor at Grace Church of the Islands. He previously was an Assistant Pastor.
-We will be going on our very first ski trip (ever) with the youth group in January
-I have been working at my current job now for almost a year and I am loving it!

Curtis & Margaret’s 1st Car Purchase

2010-12-07T11:50:00.000-08:00

I love this picture because it shows you how Curtis and I show our emotions. Although we are BOTH very excited in this picture, you will notice that I am a lot more expressive than Curtis is! :)

I think that it’s kinda funny that we purchased a house together before we ever purchased a car together. We officially can say that we almost ran Curtis’ 1996 Nissan Maxima into the ground. It was beginning to be scary for me to drive his car since it needed brakes! We have spent the past several months researching and trying to determine what kind of car we should buy. We sought help from our parents and a few uncles (thanks Uncle David & Uncle Ed!) and we finally took the plunge and bought our first car together on December 4.

We purchased a 2008 Honda Civic. It is almost like a brand-new car because it has less than 11,000 miles on it and it has the factory warranty as well as a lifetime warranty. We were very particular about the color. Curtis refused to have a red car because of insurance purposes. We both weren’t really interested in a black or white option. Although I wasn’t opposed to a blue option, we didn’t want both of our cars to be blue. So, we chose a dark gray option (I think its official Honda name is “Polished Metal Metallic”).

We are very happy with our selection and we hope to get a good 10-15+ years out of it! We plan on trying to get at least another 50,000 miles out of my little Prizm. I think we can do it.

My 26th Birthday

2010-12-07T07:32:00.000-08:00

Last week, I celebrated my birthday. Curtis was a very sweet husband and took me to all my favorite places -- Chick-fil-A, Carabba’s and the movies. We saw the movie “Tangled” and it was super-cute! I think that will be one of those movies that I will want to own in the future. I also got to talk to a lot of family that I don’t usually get to talk to on a regular basis so that was extra special! On the weekend, my birthday was celebrated with some of our closest friends in Savannah (see above). We went to Toucan Café, had ice cream cake and rented a movie. Most of the friends that came are in our new small group. I don’t think I’ve mentioned this in our blog before, but we have a small group that we started for young married couples. We love this group because it is helping us to build a community in Savannah where we can pray for each other and share in each other’s lives.

Overall, great birthday! I felt very loved by family and friends.

Thanksgiving 2010

2010-12-07T07:08:00.000-08:00

We traveled to Jacksonville for Thanksgiving this year. It was a real treat because I realized that I haven’t had a Thanksgiving meal where my mom has cooked for 5 years (and she is a wonderful cook)! We had some relatives visiting from both sides of my family – the picture above is of my mom’s side of the family. It includes my grandparents, an uncle and cousin, my parents, my brother and us. I’m really glad that we were able to spend some time with my family during Thanksgiving since we stayed at our place for our first two Thanksgivings (in St. Louis the first year and Savannah the second).
We also got to spend some quality time with Mr. & Mrs. Warren. We hadn’t seen them since last Christmas! Curtis and I are very excited about their future plans to become missionaries in Ukraine. We were so glad that we had an opportunity to be with them on Thanksgiving day.
My cousin, Jane, was one of our visitors (pictured above). She’s the closest thing that I have to a sister and we always have a great time when we’re together. Here we are looking at the advertisements for Black Friday and planning out where we will go shopping!

My Dad's Special Birthday Gift

2010-11-29T19:42:00.000-08:00

My dad turned the ripe age of 60 on November 6th. As I thought about this milestone in my father's life, I got a great idea from one of my dear friends, Kaylen. I was hoping to create a booklet with sweet messages from family and friends about what my dad meant to 60 different people. Two months before his birthday, I sent out emails, facebook messages and even a letter to try to reach as many people as I could. Praise the Lord - I ended up with 77 messages for my dad! I feel like I learned so much about my dad through this gift and it was so neat to be able to see how many lives my dad has touched through his godly example.

I entitled the booklet "What Does My Dad Mean To You?" and I presented it to him when I went home for Thanksgiving. Both my dad and I were tearing up as he read some of the messages. Curtis was sweet enough to take a picture of this moment (see above). Even though it was a few weeks late, I think my dad really loved my gift!

I am so thankful for all the 76 others that participated in this gift and kept it a secret for almost 3 months! If you were one of these people, please feel free to talk to my dad about it now. I think this will be a gift that he will cherish for the rest of his life.

Deaths in the Family - Grandma & Cleo

2010-11-13T14:07:00.000-08:00

Grandma on her 90th birthday (2009)

I know it has been a little while since we've posted. Bear with us, we've been dealing with some losses in the family. On October 2, Curtis' grandmother passed away. We traveled to Hopewell, Virginia to attend her funeral. Although it was sad, it was a precious time to spend with his family - some of whom I had never met. Curtis' father showed us where he grew up (as he would say "his stomping grounds"). I've attached her obituary below, she was an amazing woman of God:

Velma R. McDaniel, 90, former resident of Enon and Hopewell, passed away in the early morning hours on Saturday, October 2, 2010 in Butler, PA after an extended period of declining health.

She was born October 26, 1919 in Malvern Hill, VA, the daughter of Harry Rathien and Bertha Cornelia Foster Rathien. She was preceded in death by her devoted husband of 30 years, Henry Curtis McDaniel, Sr. who died November 20, 1981 and twin sons Mark and Scott who died shortly after childbirth in 1960.

Velma graduated from Hopewell High School in 1936, then went on to Business/Secretarial School under the sponsorship of Dr. Joseph Osborne before working for 17 years at Allimac Stamping Company in Petersburg. Following her first family respite, she worked for fifteen months in 1957-1958 for Continental Can Company in Hopewell, then returned after a second family respite to CCC and served for 22 years as a production secretary until her retirement in October, 1983.

“Babs,” as she was affectionately called, was a member of Woodlawn Presbyterian Church in Hopewell from the late 1920s until the late 1940s. Following a 1949 Jimmy Mercer Evangelistic Crusade, she united with the congregation of West End Presbyterian Church (PCA) in Hopewell in 1950. For more than fifty years, she served her Lord and the West End Congregation in numerous ways: as a teacher in the Primary and Junior Sunday School Departments, President of the Women in the Church (WIC) in 1959, a WIC Circle Bible teacher, administrative and correspondence secretary for the World Missions Committee, Director of the Church Christmas Play and as a faithful member of the church’s prayer chain, hospitality committee, Christian Day School Commission and mercy committee to the sick, bereaved, elderly and shut-in. She is humbly remembered as a devoted wife, loving mother, grandmother and sister, tender caregiver, faithful Bible teacher to children and to women, persistent prayer warrior, sacrificial giver, and a passionate advocate and staunch supporter of the church’s missions and Sunday School ministries.

She is survived by a daughter, Ellen M. Garrett and her husband Frank in Glen Allen, VA; a son, the Rev. Dr. H. Curtis McDaniel and his wife Karen in Butler, PA; six grandchildren, the Rev. H. Curtis McDaniel III and his wife Margaret in Savannah, GA; Megan E. McDaniel and Heather P. McDaniel in Butler, PA; Lieutenant B. Camm Garrett, United States Army, Laura Garrett and McEnery Garrett of Glen Allen, VA; a sister, Doris R. Hubbard in Fairfax, VA, and a brother, John Rathien in Chester, VA along with numerous nieces and nephews.

Visitation will be held on Wednesday, October 6, 2010 from 4:00-8:00pm at the Hopewell Chapel of J.T. Morriss & Son Funeral Home. A worship and memorial service will be held on Thursday, October 7, 2010 at 11:00am at West End Presbyterian Church in Hopewell with Velma’s son, the Rev. Dr. H. Curtis McDaniel presiding and her grandson, the Rev. H. Curtis McDaniel III assisting. A graveside service and interment will follow at the Bermuda Memorial Park and Cemetery in Enon.

Serving Pallbearers are Curtis McDaniel III, McEnery Garrett, John Partin, Col. William Butler, Johnny Partin, Ken Tomko, Rolf McDaniel and John Hartman. Honorary Pallbearers are Camm Garrett, Frank Garrett, Charles Sadler, Paul McCullough, Jim Copal, Gene Wilkes and the ordained ruling elders and elders emeriti at West End Presbyterian Church. In lieu of flowers, the family requests memorials be given to the missions ministry of West End Presbyterian Church, 1600 Atlantic Street, Hopewell, VA 23860-3761.

As you can see, Curtis was heavily involved in the funeral service. He not only assisted in the funeral, but he was also a pallbearer.

In my family, we also had a family pet loss. Cleo had been in the family since 1998 and she passed away last week after having a cardiac arrest as she was in the animal hospital. She had been missing from my parents' house for about a week and she dragged herself in pain out of the woods in my parents' backyard. My parents took her to the hospital and she was beginning to get better. We thought she was going to make it through and become an inside cat. Instead, we got the bad news after church last Sunday. Thankfully, she didn't pass away on my dad's 60th birthday last Saturday.

Cleo was a sweet cat and it will be weird not to have her around as we celebrate Thanksgiving this year.

Mini-Vacation to ATL

2010-09-06T11:13:00.000-07:00

This summer was a very busy one for us. As much as we love Savannah, we felt that we needed to have a small getaway to relax and re-connect before the school year started up. We chose to go to Atlanta from August 27-30!

My favorite place that we went was to the World of Coca-Cola. If anyone has been around me long enough, they know that I am a huge Coke fan. Even though I don't usually like museums, this one was very entertaining and enjoyable for me. We had a great time trying the different types of sodas from other countries. Our favorites? A carbonated lemonade (Asia), apple-kiwi soda (Asia) and blue-raspberry Fanta (North America).

We also went to a Braves vs. Marlins baseball game. It was fun to go to it, but we are definitely more of Cardinals fans...especially once we heard that the Braves' fight song was the same as the Seminoles'. Boo!

We also went to Perimeter Church, a large PCA church in the area. It was very different from what we were used to, but we enjoyed it. We FINALLY got to eat at Qdoba again! We have been trying to use up our free burritos for a long time, but there aren't many Qdoba's in the south. Only 17 free burritos remaining. We also ate at other favorites like The Cheesecake Factory and The Original Pancake House.

Jenna & Dan's Reception

2010-08-12T10:08:00.001-07:00

Last month, Curtis and I traveled to Gainesville, Florida to celebrate the marriage of Jenna & Dan McMicken. Curtis gave a few words of encouragement as they were announced for the first time as husband and wife.

Here I am with 2 of my close buds from college -- the bride, Jenna & my old roommate, Catherine. We had a great time celebrating with them!

Curtis Performs His 1st Wedding Ceremony

2010-07-09T12:33:00.000-07:00

I am so excited to share this post with all of you. On June 19, Curtis was the officiant in Heather & Allen's wedding. We have grown to love this couple, and it was providential that we met in the first place! I met Heather on my last day of work at KPMG. She was an internal auditor at a company in Savannah and I was an external auditor for her company. She found out that I lived in Savannah (even though my company was based out of Jacksonville) and she asked me if I would be interested in exercising with her. As it turns out, she lived only blocks away from our home. I praise the Lord that He brought this precious friend into my life! She and I have become good friends through our walks. Curtis and I were honored when Heather and her new husband, Allen, asked Curtis to be the officiant on their special day. Although Curtis and I don't have much experience with marriage, we enjoyed getting to know this couple through our pre-marital counseling sessions (and we look forward to spending time with them outside of a counseling session).

Heather & Allen got married in Jekyll Island, Georgia. As the ceremony went on, it looked as if it was about to start pouring down rain. All of the wedding guests (and wedding party) were praying that the rain would wait until after the ceremony. The ceremony ended, the guests and wedding party made it to the reception, and the rain came pouring down! What an answer to prayer! Curtis did a great job proclaiming the gospel through his mini-sermon. I am so proud of him and how God used him!

I'm certainly not trying to infringe on the photographer's rights by posting the above picture. The photographer, Brooke Roberts (http://www.brookerobertsphotography.com/), did an excellent job taking pictures. If you look in the top right picture, you can see Curtis after he pronounced them husband and wife! :)

Celebrating Our 2 Year Wedding Anniversary

2010-06-23T17:51:00.000-07:00

Curtis and I traveled to Charleston, South Carolina to celebrate our 2 year anniversary. Even though it is not that far away from Savannah, it was both of our first times visiting this beautiful town. One of our favorite memories from the trip was taking an eco-tour that included watching dolphins as they swam and played together, hanging out on a deserted island for an hour, and ending with a sunset (pictured above).

We also enjoyed visiting Fort Sumter (pictured behind Margaret's right shoulder) and walking around the Waterfront Park. Our hotel was only block away from this beautiful view!

We loved strolling around the area and checking out Rainbow Row, the Battery, and the Aiken-Rhett House. We spent lots of time walking around and eating. We're hoping that the walking took care of all the eating!

We ate at some great well-known restaurants including the following: High Cotton, Slightly North of Broad (S.N.O.B.), The Buccaneer, South End Brewery, Poe's Tavern, Joseph's, and Bocci's. Poe's Tavern was probably one of our favorite places to eat, we really liked the atmosphere. Curtis really like Joseph's because he had sweet potato pancakes for breakfast! South End Brewery was another favorite because it reminded us of one of our favorite places that we liked to dine at back in St. Louis called Granite City.

Curtis and I had a great time. The time flew by while we were there, but it always makes us excited about planning our next anniversary together!

To see a more extensive album of our Charleston trip: click this link.

More Visits!

2010-04-20T16:04:00.000-07:00

Our weekends seem to fly by because of the wonderful fellowship that Curtis and I have with our out-of-town visitors.
On March 27, we had a couple, Sean & Jess that we knew from college stop in to our home. Jess was surprising Sean with a visit to Charleston and we got to be a part of the surprise!

Sean was one of the groomsmen in our wedding (and Curtis was one in theirs also). It was refreshing to spend some time with our RUF friends!

The next weekend, Rebecca (a good friend that I've known since junior high) came up to visit! We had a wonderful time walking around downtown Savannah and trying out new restaurants. It was fun to look at old pictures and talk about all the memories we have from our senior year of high school!
This past weekend, my younger brother, Ben, came to visit us! He was on a vacation from his job and wanted to spend some time with us. Ben was able to get to know lots of people at our church, we celebrated Curtis' birthday together, and we played some Rock Band (of course). It was a really special time to reconnect with my brother. According to Twitter, Ben said his vacation was going "awesome," so I'll take that as he had a good time! :)
Back to Curtis' birthday - we had a great time celebrating his life together yesterday. We went to Carabba's and ate SO much that we didn't eat breakfast today! I am so thankful for my wonderful husband, he always points me to Christ in the way that he loves me. So, I'm glad we had some time together so I could show him how much I love him! :)

Family & Friend Visits

2010-03-14T14:00:00.000-07:00

On January 2, 2010, one of my cousins, Judy Leinecker, got married! This was my second cousin to get married -- the first was in a prior post (in October 2009).

We welcome David Strobolakos into our family!

Curtis and I took the trek to Reidsville, North Carolina on New Years Day to celebrate with them.

On February 5-7, my parents came and visited us in Savannah. We traveled downtown and learned more about the history of Savannah. We ate at some fabulous restaurants and enjoyed the time with my parents. We had such a great time that we forgot to take pictures!

On February 20, we also had one of my good friends, Jenna Handley, and her fiance, Dan McMicken, come visit us in Savannah. We enjoyed our time getting to know Dan and hanging out with them as a couple. We are excited to attend their wedding on July 24th in Gainesville.

Ministering at Grace for the Past 7 Months

2010-03-13T14:33:00.000-08:00

We've been living in Savannah now for about 7 months, and we thought it might be nice for those of you that are following us/our ministry to know some of the events and activities that Curtis and I have been doing at Grace Church of the Islands.

If anyone knows me, they know that I am a huge fan of playing board games (and the Wii, but that's for another event) so I set up a Girls Game Night shortly after arriving back in August.

One of our favorite games was Mad Gab -- here's a shot of four of the youth girls and one of the youth leaders, April. It was a nice way for me to get acquainted with several of the youth girls.

We also had a day where the youth painted the High School room at the church. The picture below is the section of the wall that the girls created.

I thought the girls were very creative in thinking of this verse for our section of the wall. You can see me & Sarah (another youth leader) displaying our wall for you.

The boys were in charge of another section of the wall...

Timmy M created this beautifully detailed ship on the boys side. We had a lot of fun making the youth room look better!

Curtis then organized a Wii (video game) Rock Band Night at our little apartment in September. We had all the youth divided up into "bands" and had a show-down to see who had the best skills at Rock Band.

In this picture, you can see several of the youth watching as Timmy B (the winner) got a 100% on the Expert level. You can tell it wasn't his first time! :)

We were invited to our first birthday party for one of the girls, Sarah, who turned 16. She had a scavenger hunt to celebrate.

In this picture, you can see Curtis' team taking a picture for the scavenger hunt on the playground. Almost every person in this picture has been involved in our youth group.

Another event planned in October was a Movie Night -- the movie shown was August Rush.

In this picture, you can see lots of the youth huddled around for the main event. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to attend this event because I was still working in Jacksonville.

In November, we had a mini-retreat at Tybee Island. We spent the day at the Fresh Air Home and Curtis led the group in a discussion about how to make our youth group better.

In this picture, Nicole (one of the youth leaders) and I are hanging out with some of the youth.

In December, we had a Christmas Progressive Dinner. We traveled to 3 different church members' houses for appetizers, an entree, and lots of yummy desserts. At our final destination, we also enjoyed a White Elephant gift exchange.

Here I am with several of the youth girls and one of the youth leaders, Danielle. We had a wonderful time!

Even though I only have pictures of the fun events, Curtis taught the high school students (in Sunday School) about the gospel in a unique way -- Creation, Fall, Redemption, and Consummation. Each Wednesday night, Curtis taught the high school boys about Becoming a Man through different scripture verses. Meanwhile, the high school girls were going through a book study over Lies Young Women Believe And The Truth That Sets Them Free. During this time, Curtis organized a group of adult volunteers that were willing to invest in the lives of these young people -- The Youth Ministry Team (YMT).

In January, the YMT decided to change the format for Wednesday nights to include both middle school and high school students. This was done to create a culture of intergenerational ministry - where the adults minister to the high schoolers; the high schoolers minister to the middle schoolers; and the middle schoolers minister to those younger than them.

On Wednesday nights, Curtis teaches the youth group about their identity (Who Am I?) -- in their purpose, future, relationships, etc.

On Sunday mornings, Curtis explains to the high school students what it means to be a Christian as he teaches through the book of I John.

One of the most popular events that we had was the Pirate Video Scavenger Hunt in January. The students dressed up as pirates and walked around downtown Savannah creating videos of the tasks to complete. After the allotted time was up, all the groups met at the Pirates House for lunch and the viewing of the videos.

Unfortunately, I had to work so I became one of the tasks on the hunt! This picture was taken from a clip with Curtis' team of pirates. You can see that we have very different attire for our lines of work!

Since then, we have had another board game night and we are about to have a lock-in and a dodgeball tournament.

We are excited to see how God will use us in the lives of these young people as we continue to serve for God's glory, even if we never get to see the outcome. We'll make sure to post more as the months and years continue at Grace.

If you are interested in hearing some of Curtis' sermons that he has preached over the past year, I have attached a new link to our webpage (or you can get it right here).

Margaret's New Job

2010-01-23T10:27:00.000-08:00

The same day that we left Jacksonville for Christmas, I was requested to go to a job interview with a short-term loans company, TitleMax. The interview went well and I was hired as a temp accountant at their headquarters. Within a week, they quickly offered me a long-term position as a Project Accountant with opportunities to advance and a much better work life balance than my former career. I enthusiastically accepted the position, happy that this job does not include travel. I am really enjoying what I am doing and I am looking forward to seeing how God uses me here.

Curtis and I were praying about how God would provide for our needs and He graciously provided more than we could imagine. We give God all the glory for my new career at TitleMax!

We celebrated last night by eating at a local Savannah restaurant called Moon River and finishing it off with dessert at Dairy Queen.

Christmas 2009

2010-01-23T08:50:00.000-08:00

Our 2nd Christmas together was a wonderful time of fellowship with friends and family.
Curtis' best friend, Ryan, came to visit us in Savannah right before Christmas. Curtis and I hadn't seen him since February when he visited us in St. Louis. We all had a great time together sharing in how God has been working in us.
We took Ryan to Tybee Island to show him the beach. It was a little chilly in December, but it was nice to spend some quality time with Ryan.
Curtis and I attended the Christmas Eve service at Grace Church of the Islands before we drove to Jacksonville to visit with my family for Christmas. Here's a picture of Curtis with 3 of the high school students (Kathryn, Michael, Sarah).
We had a lovely time with almost all of my mom's side of the family for Christmas. Everyone loved to gather around my niece, Charlotte. She is so adorable and she is getting to be so big! In this picture: my cousin, Jennifer; my aunt, Ginger; my cousin, Jason; my mom; and Charlotte.
We brought our Wii with us and rocked out to Rock Band I & II with our family. Here is a shot of my cousins playing along with an audience. They didn't want to leave because they were having so much fun!

Curtis bought me the Wii Fit for Christmas, so we spent time with my family playing all sort of fun games that helped us to get in shape and work on our posture. I think that playing the Wii Fit with my mom, dad, brother (Ben), and Curtis was my favorite thing about Christmas this year.
The day after Christmas, Curtis and I finally got around to eating the top layer of our wedding cake. This was the first time since we had been married (1 year 6 months later) where we had the opportunity to eat our wedding cake because Curtis and I hadn't been in Jacksonville since our wedding. The cake even had a few of our wedding napkins in with it!
We thought it was only right to go ahead and cut the cake together, just like we did back in 2008.
Sadly, we had some sort of sickness come upon almost all of the Curtis [my maiden name] family 2 days after Christmas. Here Curtis is pictured laying in bed as he was sick. My cat, Regis, is laying beside him trying to help him feel better. I miss Regis!

Overall, Christmas was lots of fun...it just ended somewhat abruptly as everyone ended up getting sick.

Additional Photos

2009-12-19T13:13:00.000-08:00

For those of you that have been wanting to see pictures of our new houses (inside & outside), I have finally posted them on facebook -- here is a link for those of you that are not on facebook: Our New Home

You can also see more pictures of Curtis' Installation & Ordination Service here: Reverend Curtis McDaniel

Lastly, I forgot to post during October when I traveled to Williamsburg, Virginia to attend to my cousin's wedding. These pictures are available here: 10.10.09

In the future, I will post these links along with the original posts so that you can look at additional pictures that are not included on our blog.

Margaret's 25th Birthday

2009-12-10T11:09:00.000-08:00

On November 30, Curtis and I celebrated my 25th birthday. Mondays are Curtis' day off and it just so happened that my birthday was on a Monday! He was super sweet and took me to Forsyth Park because I love going to parks. That was the first park that I've been to since we moved to Savannah. You can see the pretty fountain in the background.

As we walked around, I found this amazing tree that looked like God made it just for me to sit on it!

One of my favorite birthday gifts this year was this purse that my mother-in-law made for me! It was very thoughtful.

I had a great time receiving birthday wishes from all of my close friends and family. Thanks for making my day so special. We celebrated by going to Long Horn and we watched the movie, New Moon. It's hard to believe I'm already 25!

Reverend Curtis

2009-12-04T08:00:00.000-08:00

On November 22, Curtis was ordained by the Savannah River Presbytery. For those of you unaccustomed to the Presbyterian Church of America (PCA) denomination, this is a thorough process that Curtis has been working hard towards for the past 3+ years. He had to obtain his Master of Divinity (strenuous 3 year program), work as a pastoral intern for at least a year, take 5 written examinations, stand before a Candidates & Credentials Committee, preach a sermon before the Savannah River Presbytery, and take an oral examination in front of all the elders of the Savannah River Presbytery. After a unanimous presbytery vote from all the elders, I am proud to share with you that Curtis was approved in October and ordained on November 22nd.

The picture above shows Curtis giving his first official Benediction (as a teaching elder) to the congregation at his Ordination & Installation service.

Praise the Lord that He carried Curtis & I through this time!

During the service, we sang 2 great hymns - "Before the Throne of God Above" and "In Christ Alone." These are 2 of our favorites, especially "In Christ Alone," which we sang at our wedding.

These are all of the elders (teaching and ruling) that served as Curtis' Commission, along with some guests of the Commission: Curtis' dad, Curt; My dad, Rick; and a good family friend, Randy. These were the men that prayed and laid their hands on Curtis, which symbolizes that that they believe God has called Curtis to this special role as a pastor.

I Peter 5:1-5
So I exhort the elders among you, as a fellow elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, as well as a partaker in the glory that is going to be revealed: shepherd the flock of God that is among you, exercising oversight, not under compulsion, but willingly, as God would have you; not for shameful gain, but eagerly; not domineering over those in your charge, but being examples to the flock. And when the chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the unfading crown of glory. Likewise, you who are younger, be subject to the elders. Clothe yourselves, all of you, with humility toward one another, for "God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble."

Pictured above are 2 of my uncles, my aunt, and my cousin, Elle, that traveled from Melbourne, FL.

We had lots of friends and family come and support us as Curtis achieved this life goal, including Curtis' dad & sisters from Pennsylvania. We were so blessed to have the support and encouragement of those that we love.

And here we are with Elle! :)

We've moved!

2009-11-20T06:11:00.000-08:00

Last week, Curtis and I moved into our first house! God has been so gracious in providing this house for us just in time before our 3 month apartment lease ended. We are very excited about this and we desire to use this house for God's glory. We pray that our new home will be a place where we can minister to others. Our Grace Church family, once again, helped us move across Wilmington Island from our apartment into our house. We are so thankful for their support during the move!

Now we are slowly unpacking and finding that we have more stuff than we ever realized that we had! We're hoping that we can have our house somewhat put-together as we have lots of family and friends coming into town this coming weekend for Curtis' upcoming Ordination and Installation Service. (I am so proud of my husband!) Although this picture is from the previous owner, you can see the beautiful airy kitchen nook that we have to your left...even though we have a different table there now.

I hope to send out an email with our new address shortly. If you would like to be included on that email and do not think that I have your email address, please email me at mrs.margaretmcd@gmail.com and I will include you on the email.

Remembering Saint Louis

2009-09-01T12:38:00.000-07:00

Now that we are in Savannah, we've been finding some pictures of good friends from St. Louis and places we visited in St. Louis:

Curtis had asked me where I would want to visit in St. Louis before we left and I had always wanted to visit the Jewel Box in Forest Park. We went on one of our final days in St. Louis, only to find that it wasn't as wonderful as I had imagined in my head. Still, it was a beautiful little green house that was built a long time ago. It was nice to look at and I'm glad that I can finally say that I have been.

Jessica Lyle, a fellow neighbor and seminary student, has become one of my best friends. While I was in St. Louis, I prayed and asked the Lord to provide me with a good friend, and my prayer was answered with my friendship with Jessica. I am excited for her as she will be an intern with RUF at the University of South Carolina starting in January. We're excited that we will only be a few hours away from each other.

This picture was taken on our last night in St. Louis with some of my favorite women: Riva, Kami, BeCa, and Jessica! Each of these women went to my church and either were seminary students or worked to support a seminary student (like me!).

These two ladies (fellow seminary wives) were some of my good friends that I met with every Sunday: Esther & Robyn. This was Esther's last night in St. Louis before they left for her husband, Gavin, to start an internship at a church in Washington, D.C. (a month before we left).

Ironically enough, this picture matches each of the ladies above to their respective husband. Curtis was good friends with these guys - Gavin & Brandon. They also would meet each Sunday night.

Although we already do miss these friends, we are looking forward to making more good friends in Savannah.

Settling into Savannah

2009-08-29T13:23:00.000-07:00

It's been a little while since we last updated the blog. Our apologies - we do not have the internet until next week. We also can't seem to find our camera cord, so we are unable to upload pictures currently.

As for the actual move to Savannah, it went relatively smooth. I (Margaret) had my last day at KPMG in St. Louis on August 14 while Curtis packed most of our belongings. The Penske truck was loaded up within 2.5 hours in St. Louis on August 18th. We barely fit all of our stuff into the 16 foot truck, Curtis' car and my car. Some of our very good friends, the Lyles, graciously hosted our goodbye party at their apartment. We were able to say goodbye to lots of good friends and some family before our trek across half of the United States. Curtis and I think that night was one of of most memorable times while we were in St. Louis together.

The next morning we set out -- Curtis driving the Penske truck and trailer (carrying my car) that couldn't go faster than 55 mph, while I lead the way in his car. The trip took longer than we expected to get into Chattanooga where we planned to stay for the evening. We dined in a nice restaurant -- The Big River before heading straight to bed for the last half of the trip. The next day, we arrived in Savannah with 30+ church members from Grace (our new church home)waiting to help us unload the truck! It only took about 40 minutes for all of our belongings to make it into our apartment! Curtis preached a sermon on our first Sunday night that he entitled, "Great Expectations."

Now that we've settled in a little bit, we're really excited about being back in the southeast. Curtis loves that everyone greets you when you are on walks, I'm STOKED about the Publix (even if it is a little pricier than the Kroger), and we are looking forward to a warmer winter. Not to mention, we are so much closer to my side of the family. The church has done a really good job welcoming us. On Wednesday, Grace had a reception in our honor. Everyone seems to be excited about Curtis. He has already started meeting up with parents, youth, and volunteers to start planning for the Fall semester. I've also been able to meet up with some of the youth and volunteers and I have really loved getting to know everyone so far.

To give you an update on my job situation, I was fortunate to transfer to the Jacksonville office with KPMG. I will be working some of the time in Jacksonville and some in Savannah. I will be leaving on September 13th to start working for about 8 weeks before I will start working on Savannah clients. Pray for us during this time as it will be hard for me to be away from Curtis during this transition.

Savannah, here we come!

2009-07-13T18:20:00.000-07:00

Good Evening friends and family,

We are excited to share with you that Curtis will be the new Assistant Pastor of Youth at Grace Church of the Islands Presbyterian Church in Savannah, Georgia! While this position will focus mainly on high school ministry, I (Curtis) will also be responsible for middle school, college, and some general pastoral ministerial duties. We are very excited about this opportunity and the church has welcomed us warmly. We are praising the Lord that He has guided us to where He desires us to minister in His perfect timing. We both feel confident that God has called us to Grace after spending many months in prayer wondering where God would lead us.

As this position is needed as soon as possible, we are planning on moving to Savannah by the 2nd week of August (Lord-willing). Please continue praying for us as we work out all the details including Margaret's job situation, moving from St. Louis, and where we'll live in Savannah, etc. We are confident that the Lord will provide as He always has! We would also ask that you pray for me (Curtis) as I will be traveling to Savannah next week as I am the speaker for the high school youth retreat (July 22-25). Please pray for me as I prepare the talks for the retreat.

Thank you for your prayers throughout this long process as we now know how they have been answered. We are excited to celebrate with you what the Lord has done for us and how He has used your prayers on our behalf. We look forward to sharing many more adventures with you as the Lord uses us to advance His Kingdom in Savannah.

Grace and Peace,
Curtis & Margaret McDaniel <><

The Waiting Game

2009-07-10T10:16:00.000-07:00

Psalm 27:14 "Wait for the LORD; be strong, and let your heart take courage; wait for the LORD!"

Curtis and I are waiting patiently for the Lord to show us where He wants us to minister. We are very excited to start dreaming of how God can use us wherever Curtis receives a call. We hope to have news to share with you very soon. Please keep praying for us!

Celebrating Our 1 Year Wedding Anniversary

2009-06-09T19:45:00.000-07:00

Curtis and I spent five days in Chicago, Illinois to celebrate our 1 year wedding anniversary last weekend. We had a wonderful time together, we can't believe it's already been a year of marriage! Although it has been a very challenging and transitional year, we are so happy that the Lord brought us together. My work scheduled me to travel for three weeks in June, so it was nice to have some time with Curtis before I would be sent all over the place.

We purchased CityPasses so that we could explore the different attractions around Chicago for a reduced price! One of our favorite locations was the Adler Planetarium. It has a beautiful view of the cityscape of Chicago and Lake Michigan!

Curtis and I also had the opportunity to go to the John Hancock Observatory and watch the sun set over the city. It was gorgeous! We also visited the Signature Lounge on the 96th floor for some dessert to see the sparkling lights of the city at night.

We also visited Millenium Park and viewed the famous bean that reflects the city of Chicago in it...

We quickly found that it also reflected ourselves in it!

Curtis certainly enjoyed playing inside the bean with his own reflection. I also did! We can be so goofy together! :)

Of course, while we were in Chicago, we had to try some of the deep dish Chicago-style pizza. Some of our friends (and our hotel's concierge) recommended us to go to Giordano's. Curtis and I are now convinced that Chicago-style pizza is delicious!

Another place that we went to was the Field Museum. Here I am standing in front of one of the few actual full-size T-Rex fossil skeletons in the world!

Another attraction that we went to was the Shedd Aquarium. We were able to stand right next to a huge aquarium filled with sharks, watch dolphins swim swiftly, and watch beluga whales dancing together in the water. We also went to the Planet Earth 4D, and we looked great sporting our 4D glasses!

On one final note, if you EVER go to Chicago, you've got to check this restaurant out -- it's called Billy Goat Tavern. It has the best hamburgers/cheeseburgers that Curtis and I have ever had! The original owner was known for having a pet billy goat...the restaurant is very unique and casual, but it was somewhere we plan to go back whenever we visit Chicago!

We can't wait to see where the Lord leads us in this upcoming year! Please keep praying for us as we discern where God wants us. We do hope to provide you with an update soon on a call (job) for Curtis in the near future, but we'll have to see what His timing is for us.

We also can't wait to see where we get to visit for our next anniversary! :)

Curtis graduates from Seminary!

2009-05-22T09:44:00.000-07:00

On May 15th, Curtis graduated from Covenant Theological Seminary! He spent three years working hard for this day to arrive, and he finished with the highest honors, Summa Cum Laude. Curtis now has his Master of Divinity! He had most of his family with him to celebrate this milestone in his life: his wife (me), his parents, one of his sisters, one of his aunts, my parents, along with several professors and friends. Chuck Colson was the speaker at his commencement, giving an excellent message on making the invisible kingdom visible.

We had several celebrations on behalf of his graduation, including a lunch with both sets of parents at our apartment and a cookout with a few of his good friends and their families.

We also celebrated by having a nice Italian dinner at The Hill with our families. The night ended with a McDaniel family game of Rock Band 2. Here's a picture of Karen (Curtis' mom) and I playing the drums together.

It was a treat to see my parents because I hadn't seen them much since Curtis and I got married last June. My dad had never been to St. Louis before, so we spent some of the weekend showing my parents around the area including the St. Louis Zoo, Ted Drewes Frozen Custard, and Grant's Farm.

I was very fortunate to have four days off during my busy season at work to celebrate Curtis' wonderful accomplishment! I am so proud of him! It was great to spend a weekend with both of our families and make lots of really sweet memories.

Megan's Graduation

2009-05-20T08:35:00.000-07:00

Last week, Curtis & I traveled to Anderson, Indiana to celebrate the graduation of his sister! Megan graduated from Anderson University with her Bachelors degree in Music Business.

We had a great time with Curtis' side of the family. We also got to meet Megan's fiance (Joe)'s side of the family because they prepared a cookout in Megan's honor right after the graduation commencement.

While we were all together, we also got to celebrate Curt (Curtis' father)'s 50th birthday. Here's a picture of Curt's new Cardinals hat that we gave him for his birthday.

We also had the privilege to be with them on Mother's Day. Heather, Curtis' younger sister, created a beautiful slideshow with each family member explaining why Karen (Curtis' mother) was such a wonderful mom written on a heart. It even included their newest member of the family, Belle, their dog. Karen loved it!

The weekend was fun and quick! Curtis had to study for finals on the way to and from Indiana, which made the trip challenging. One final goofy picture to end this post:

The McDaniel siblings!

Margaret's 1st Cardinals Game

2009-04-25T11:21:00.000-07:00

Last night, we went to the Cardinals vs. Cubs baseball game. I (Margaret) was really excited because it was my first Cardinals game! We went to the game as part of Curtis' birthday gift...but also just because we wanted to do something fun. I've been in St. Louis for about 11 months now, and I was excited to finally be able to go. You can tell by the extremely cheesy face I have in this picture.

Now that I'm in the second round of "busy season" at work, it is difficult for Curtis and I to spend time together, so we try to enjoy the little bit of time that I have available together. I've been working every day until about 9 or 10pm, and next week I'll start working on Saturdays. Thankfully, my direct supervisor understands the significance of the Sabbath, so I will at least have Sundays off.

We had standing room only seats, which was kind of a bummer, but eventually we were able to sit in better seats as the innings went on. The Cardinals won 4-3, it was a close game! I had a great time and I will remember this for a while! Now that we are thinking we may be in St. Louis longer, we hope to go to more baseball games together. :)

An Exciting Weekend!

2009-04-21T18:07:00.001-07:00

This weekend was one that will be remembered for a while in our family. My (Curtis') sister, Megan, got engaged on Friday! Her fiance, Joe, flew down to Disney (where she is doing an internship) to surprise her and propose. She was totally caught off guard and was thrilled at the proposal. My parents were able to fly down and be there with both of them. They had a great weekend and were able to have a lot of fun celebrating their new engagement! We are both very excited for them as they start their lives together. :)

Curtis celebrated his 25th birthday on Saturday. I (Curtis) played in the seminary basketball tournament in the morning and then spent the day with Margaret opening gifts and relaxing. I had some great gifts from friends and family, and we spent some time enjoying them, especially Rock Band 2 that Margaret got me. We then went out to eat that night and then watched a movie. Margaret even made a wonderful birthday cake for me that was delicious (the rose was for her though ;)! It was a great birthday and we all had a great time.

On Sunday, we had the privilege of seeing our new Senior Pastor at the Kirk-of-the-Hills. Mark Kuiper and his family worshipped with us as he preached in the morning services. We then had a congregational meeting that night and elected him as the next senior pastor. We’re both very excited to see how the Lord has provided for our church, especially since we haven’t had a senior pastor in 2 ½ years! Whether we are here to see him in action or not, we look forward to seeing how God uses this man and his family to do great things!

So, this was a big weekend for us! We’re thankful for the weekend and are looking forward to seeing how God continues to work in the coming months!

The Death of a Good Friend

2009-04-03T12:04:00.000-07:00

This is the last time that I saw my good friend, Ben McCollum, before he passed away on March 30, 2009. He had Cystic Fibrosis for all 21 years of his life. Although this picture was taken at my wedding, I look forward to seeing him again when Jesus comes back and marries his bride (the church) at that beautiful wedding celebration [Revelation 19]. I miss you Ben-jammin'! I praise the Lord you are finally out of pain!

Yay! New Blog!

2009-03-20T12:21:00.000-07:00

This blog is intended to help us keep in touch with our friends and family, regardless of where we end up living after Curtis graduates.

We are very excited to see where the Lord calls us! We have applied all over the United States, praying that we will be able to advance God's kingdom wherever we go. We are looking forward to begin dreaming about what our lives will look like and how we will be able to serve, but we cannot do that until we receive a call. Please pray for clarity as God directs us in the way that we should go. :)