Category: Family Life

Summer Road Trip 2024: “Motor City” and back again

This year’s epic summer road trip led us on many surprise adventures! We knew that we were going to see some fantastic friends along the way, but we also got a lot of surprise adventures in this road trip as well! Come along with us as we road trip from South Carolina, a stop in The Great Smoky Mountains of North Carolina, through Kentucky, a stop in Ohio and onto Detroit, Michigan and back!

We kicked off this trip with a familiar and place dear to our hearts: Maggie Valley, North Carolina. This trip we booked a night at The Rollingbrook Inn and enjoyed breakfast on the creek. We also took a familiar trip to Santa’s Land Theme Park and Zoo in Cherokee, North Carolina. Those people are like family, who recognize us year after year and you always go and feel like you have the whole park to yourself! (and most importantly, you have to put in your Christmas orders with the man in charge, Santa Claus). Santa’s Land is closed after Oct. 31st (you understand why…Christmas season and all), $27.67/person over 2 years old, opens mid-May – October, closed every Tuesday and Wednesday.

We had a stop over in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, which is home to the famous Oak Ridge Lab of World War II and The American Museum of Science and Energy. The lab is still used today (but I’ve said too much already…plus the museum is the part open to the public unless you work there.) They did a great job of presenting “big science” and complex ideas about plutonium and splitting atoms for younger children to explore and they have lots of hands-on exhibits at the museum and live demonstrations about static electricity experiments. Adults and teens would also enjoy the history and reading behind all of the hands-on stations. Adult tickets were $10, kids ages 6-9 were $3, youth ages 10-17 were $5 for general admission.

Next, we traveled to Mammoth Cave National Park in Kentucky and stayed in Glasgow. There isn’t an entry fee to the park, but you do have to pay for the cave tours. We opted for the Discovery (self-guided) Tour, which was $12 for adults/$9 for kids. It took us 45 minutes to explore the cave rooms, including the famous “Rotunda” room and you could spend even longer in the Visitor’s Center reading about cave features and history. Mammoth Cave has over 600 miles of unexplored cave system and to date they have mapped about 420 miles! America’s (and the world’s) longest cave system was certainly impressive! Plus, no spelunking cave tours are required to see its grandeur!

We took a second day in Kentucky to see The Creation Museum, in Petersburg, Kentucky. This is a sister museum of The Ark Encounter, but since our time constraints only allowed for one museum, we chose this one as it was en route northbound. This museum has A LOT of reading, which we ran through most of the museum to catch up with our smallest who wanted to only see the dinosaurs (which are at the back of the museum). The animatronics of the museum are very cool. This museum makes a case for the Creationism theory, so the first part of the museum is making a Biblical worldview point (distinguished from over worldviews, such as evolution). There is a lot of history and more reading than we realized, but the highlights for us were the dinosaurs, the Noah exhibits (which covered some of what is at The Ark Encounter) and the 4D theatre experience of “Six Days.”

In Ohio, we stayed in Columbus for a night with our friends, the Lunas! It was fun to reconnect with them and we saw a lot of their favorite things around Columbus. We ate at The North Market (an indoor food court) with many food stalls and vendor shops. Upon their recommendation, we chose Serafino’s Pizza (so good!) We drove around the campus of The Ohio State University and explored Upper Arlington. We also spent the day at Olentangy Caverns in nearby Delaware, Ohio. Olentangy Caverns is a kid-friendly attraction park with self-guided cavern tours (about 30 minutes), a rock and gem shop, a treasure-hunt maze to get lost in, gem-mining, a petting zoo, mini-golf and museum. We opted for the all-access wristband ($27.99/adults, and $24.99/kids) that let’s you do all of the attractions (takes a few hours), or you can choose to do activities a la carte. Note: Olentangy Caverns shuts down November – March, but will reopen in Spring due to weather.

Hocking Hills State Park is also Ohio’s gem in the foothills! An immaculate state park, which is FREE to visit, with beautiful trails through the woods and a raptor rescue center to check out! The Grandma Gatewood Trail is also at this state park, but due to time, we opted for the easy Rim Trail and Old Man’s Cave Trail. The trail was partially paved and easy for families with small kids. The caves were a highlight to check out! The Visitor’s Center had a lot of nature info, aquariums and a riverbed with a cavern playscape to climb.

Coming up through Ohio, we also made a lunch stop at Maumee Bay State Park, near Toledo, Ohio. Maumee Bay State Park was also a free state park, with an inland pond/beach clearly marked by the shorebirds as bird-friendly only. There was another beach for public use that overlooked Lake Erie. We were advised by our friends to not swim at this park; however, there was one brave person out there swimming between the cove. There are many paved walking and biking trails here and plenty of picnic shelters and spots to relax. We opted for lunch at a pavilion and some beach time to play in the sand and run around before getting in the car again to head towards Detroit.

By the time we got to Detroit, we knew we were going to love it! The old, Gothem-style architecture, where art-deco meets new was very cool! This trip would not have been nearly as much fun if we didn’t get to stay and hang out with our friends, The Coffmans! They really took care of us around the city (thanks for helping us re-park downtown to avoid that parking ticket) and show us your favorite things about your city. Even if you all forgot you moved this year and gave us your old address, so some random person’s Ring camera in Detroit has a very confused Jen Carter on it one summer afternoon wondering why Mrs. Coffman wasn’t coming to the door. However, once we found your current home (which is a beautiful Detroit-style masterpiece by the way), you showed us a wonderful time with eating Detroit-style pizza (they claim that Jet’s Pizza, is the BEST).

We explored The Eastern Market, which is America’s largest flower market and is in the “Top 3” largest farmer’s markets in the U.S. and has an abundance of food stalls, flowers, vendors and street performers to check out on a Saturday. We want to give a shout out to Josh and the folks over at Anthology Coffee (around the block from the Eastern Market) for making such good Nitro-brew coffee tonics on such a hot day! Thank you. Also get a homemade popsicle from inside the Farmer’s Market, totally worth it.

Now, legend has it, that there are two competing hot-dog restaurants located side-by-side in downtown Detroit. So the next day, we knew that would be our lunch spot. Prepare to pay about $2.35 for a plain hotdog at Lafayette’s Coney Island. The price is the same at American Coney Island next door. Expect to pay more if you want toppings or a side of chili cheese fries to go with it and a drink. So which one is better? You will have to go and try them both to decide for yourself! These are also fighting words depending on who you talk to, so we will let you decide for yourself (although we favored Lafayette’s if you are comparing a chili cheese coney as your test subject. There are many factors we could judge on, but we were trying to just go with one food item.) Watch the video to see why.

We also took a tour with our friends to some of Detroit’s famous buildings to learn a little bit of state history and city history. The newly renovated Grand Central Station was massive and had a quickly moving line to enter. The kids loved the Lego display inside and we enjoyed the greenway. We also loved touring The Guardian Building to walk off all of those hot dogs and the kids LOVED the Detroit People Mover. All of these things (except lunch) were free things to do in Detroit with kids!

We are very grateful for our friends, both The Lunas and The Coffmans, for having us and for your hospitality and friendship! It was so good to see you!

On our way home, back through Ohio, we stopped for a free picnic at Cuyahoga Valley National Park. Brandywine Falls is a beautiful and easy hike (mostly on paved trail or boardwalks). There were plenty of biking and hiking trails here and the kids enjoyed the Visitor’s Center (and ice-cream) near the bridge and old buildings. This national park makes you feel so “far away” even though you are very close to big cities.

Passing back through Kentucky, we stopped at The Birthplace of Abraham Lincoln’s National Historic Park. We are almost certain there was an episode from “The West Wing” where the characters are arguing over “What is on the mantlepiece of Abraham Lincoln’s boyhood home?” and the characters go into debate mode because there are many boyhood homes of Lincoln. Which one? Well we made it to two: his birthplace home and his boyhood home. We also love that the nearby township is all Abe Lincoln themed and that was neat to see, along with learning some history along the way.

We also wanted to make one last stop in West Virginia on our way home. We chose the beautiful scenic route through Pocohauntus County to check out the silent town of Green Bank, home of the famous Green Bank Observatory and the world’s largest steerable telescope! Be prepared to have zero Wifi or cell service as the town forbids all of it, as to not interfere with the telescope. We enjoyed the observatory and just opted for the free museum exhibit hall. You will pay $10/person if you opt for an additional bus tour.

All in all, this was one of our cheaper road trips to take for the summer and we would highly recommend doing things in the Midwest USA. We realize we did a lot of cave tours this time and have no regrets, except that if we had more time in Kentucky, people say that The Gorge/Crystal Cave underground kayak tour is supposed to be amazing! Until next adventure, thank you for joining us on our Midwestern Roadtrip in 2024!

On By David CarterIn Family LifeLeave a comment

We Are Off To Niagara Falls!

In the Summer of 2023, we set off from South Carolina to head North to Niagara Falls! Well, actually, we had some dear friends, The Enslows who moved back to Dryden, New York that we had to see as well! They were the pinnacle of the trip and while we were up there visiting them, they said, “Well you know, Niagara Falls is ONLY a few hours away…” so we took them up on it!

This led to our beautiful road trip where we ended up doing even more than we had anticipated and so we tagged on the beginning of our homeschool year with this adventure. Buckle up!

Days 1-4 Washington D.C.

We spent the first few days of our trip squeezing in as much of the free Smithsonian Museums and free things to do with kids in Washington D.C.! We stayed in a comfortable AirBnB in the Shaw neighborhood and opted to walk the few miles everyday (at least one-way, walk around all day and then Uber back “home”). The location was great because it was a mile to Chinatown, the National Mall, and only a mile or so more to the Museum of Natural History, The National Air and Space Museum, The National Botanic Garden and close to food trucks and local parks. We also appreciated the free parking at this neighborhood that did allow us easy access to the car everyday. We would stay there again if we visit DC. There are so many cool spots that we know we missed only having a short time so we plan on coming back here to explore more!

Days 4-6 Delaware! (Dela-where?)

All jokes aside, we drove to northern Delaware to meet up with former coworker and friend, Julia and her beautiful family! Julia and her husband Chris are in the crabbing business, which runs throughout most of the year on the Chesapeake Bay, when they are not teaching and working. It is also important to note that Chris is also an accomplished chef and he generously treated us to a crab pot. The kids were intrigued and he demonstrated how he layers the crabs with a secret blend of spices (like you would layer a lasagna) and steam them. Once they were cooked, he patiently taught us how to “pick” (eat) a crab. They were indeed the BEST (no exaggeration) crabs that we have ever eaten! Julia and Emma also took us to a fun state park, just up the road from where they live: Killens Pond State Park! This park had a herpetarium and Nature Center, lots of biking and walking trails and water activities.

Day 6-7 Gettysburg and Williamsport, Pennsylvania

After we left Delaware, we drove to Gettysburg, PA to visit the National Battlefield and listened to Jonny Cash’s version of Abraham Lincoln’s famous “Gettysburg Address” speech. We found the South Carolina memorial and got our stamp at the Visitor’s Center. The kids will probably remember it being very hot and “there’s nothing here but corn fields.” (But the corn fields are it, where in one day of battle, it was the bloodiest day in US History, on American soil and became the turning point of the Civil War.) After the somber drive through Gettysburg, we drove through Harrisburg and landed in Williamsport for dinner. We ate at a pizza shop on the downtown main street and there also happened to be the inagural parade for the Little League World Series. The Grand Slam parade featured baseball teams from regions across the US as well as hosted teams from other countries. They do parades very well here in Pennsylvania. 18-wheeler trucks passed out cases of Pepsi products and a chip truck passed out entire bags of chips and all the floats had some sort of candy or prize on board that they gladly threw at bystanders.

Days 8-10 Dryden and Ithaca, New York

Spending time with our friends was amazing! It was an honor to meet Bill’s parents, Heather and Bill’s kids (whom we hadn’t met in SC) and to see the sights around their hometown. Buttermilk Falls is their favorite falls in the area and was a nice hike for the kids. We also visited an indoor playground and recreation center in nearby Lansing, NY. Enslows, your hospitality was amazing and we are so grateful for all of you and for showing us around “gorges” Upstate New York!

Days 10-12 Niagara Falls, New York

We stayed at a cheaper hotel because of it’s proximity to the Falls. Driving up to Niagara Falls State Park is really exciting because the rapids in the river are huge! We stopped on the Goat Island pedestrian bridge to watch. We explored the top of American Falls and walked the walking/bike path to Hennepin View and the trails that led to the Powerhouse and Discovery Center (which was seasonally closed). We rode the trolley back to the main parking area. The next morning, we got up, bought sweatshirts (it was that cold in August!) and went to Terrapin Point, where we saw rainbows and beautiful views. Then we toured Cave of the Winds (no line in the morning) where we walked under the spray of Bridal Veil Falls! We had lunch and stood in the afternoon line for Maid of the Mist boat ride up to the base of all three falls: American Falls, Bridal Veil Falls and Horseshoe Falls (which belongs to Canada). Note: if you are towards the back of the line, they fill the bottom of the boats first, so we ended up getting to ride on the top of the boat to catch all the views (and all the water!) Even though we opted to not visit Canada on this trip, we really felt like we were able to enjoy all the things we wanted to do.

Days 11-12 Harper’s Ferry and Beckley, West Virginia

On the way home, we made stops to Harper’s Ferry National Historical Park and hiked to St. Peter’s Church and up to Jefferson’s Rock. This is also on the Appalachian Trail, so naturally we had to also visit the Appalachian Trail Conservancy headquarters. This is the mental “half-way” point on the AT. They say, if you can make it here, in either direction, you should keep going. (The physical halfway point is Pine Furnace, Pennsylvania). Miriam got herself an AT shirt and some white-blazed earrings. They have a kids area to play in an AT shelter/play structure and to learn about different hikers who built, preserved and crushed goals on the longest footpath in the US. If you are a hiker and stop in, they have a hiker lounge with free wi-fi, resupply and shuttle services.)

On the way home to continue to stretch our legs and get out of the car, we stumbled upon the Beckley Exhibition Coal Mine. This was the coolest stop-over, where we ended up spending three hours exploring and got a tour. The tour goes inside an old mine (which is open for teaching purposes only) and the tours are conducted by volunteers who used to work underground. Our tour guide, Mike, was excellent! He was full of knowledge and stories and did a great job explaining everything to kids and adults. He made the journey so much fun! Your entrance fee also gives you access to the Coal Miner’s Museum and the Appalachian Mountain Home Museum, AND a hands-on Kid’s Museum which has animation and film themes. After this experience, we headed on home; tired, yet so full of all we saw and experienced! As always, it’s the people that make these trips so worth it! And we are grateful for our friends who hosted us, as well as the new friends we made along the way!

On By David CarterIn Family LifeLeave a comment

Meet “Pearl”, the new Team Carter Van!

On By David CarterIn Family Life, UncategorizedLeave a comment
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For six months give or take, our family had seriously been looking for another vehicle. My trusty 2001 Dodge Neon had surprised us all and has gotten me through ten years of awesomeness. We knew that eventually we would outgrow this car, but we really wanted to hear God in buying a newer car. Two weekends ago, we were driving up to Rock Hill to see family and on the way David and I both thought (but didn’t say it out loud to either of us) “Hmmm, this car is almost at 150K miles….I wonder if this can be it’s last leg?” We even drove around the dealerships, “just to look.” Then we felt totally called out on the whole thing and we were declaring all of the good things about my car because it is/was a great car. When we would look around for our new car, the timing (and money) never seemed to match up, so we kept patiently waiting. God was telling us “when you need a car, you will get a car.”

Ironically, coming home from Rock Hill, we did get in a wreck. Praise God that everyone was ok. Our girls slept through the whole thing and we had air-conditioning for the whole hour we waited for a ride and the tow-truck! (Later, the technician told us that the car’s AC was not working at all…hooray for supernatural AC in the Columbia heat!). The guy that we hit, who thankfully was ok as well (just some fender damage) was on his way to Ft. Jackson and he stayed with us until help arrived. His fatigues displayed his last name, “Blair.” David’s sister wonderfully gave us a ride to the rental car place and we were so grateful! We were thinking: “Ok God, we guess we REALLY need a car now….so you are going to have to show us one much sooner.”

We got a rental car through insurance to get us home, and my parents generously lent us one of their cars for the past two weeks. Then God creatively stepped in and we received an unexpected inheritance from my recently deceased grandmother that was totally unexpected. I really hope that God was able to tell her before she left to be with him (or else she is hearing about it now) that she was able to bless our family so much with what we had been needing and praying for! So the problem of not having a down payment for the car was solved in less than 48 hours after the accident! Wow, thanks Mimi!! We also had a generous gift given to us from family members to contribute to our future car (little did they know that we would use it in a few weeks) oh wait, it gets better:

So I am depositing that check into our account and I was doubting what it should be used for. I’ve never been given a check that big before and I was contemplating what else it could be used for, or stored up. Then the verse from Matthew 13:44 came to mind: “the kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field that a man found. In his excitement, he buried it again and sold everything he had and bought that field.” Remember how the guy we hit, his name was “Blair”? I looked up what that name means and it means “field”. That was my confirmation that that money was specifically for our car! (cue my happy dance).

We prayed about what kind of car to get and David and I agreed we wanted a newer model. It didn’t have to be “brand new”, just newer than say 2008 (which is the year that VHS tapes officially died, y’all.) I kept hearing “white Honda Odyssey”. There are many Honda Odysseys for sale all over the internet webs, but we were “to wait for the one.” So we kept waiting and frustrating things were happening all around us. We had so much opposition this last week, it was CRAZY. But then we received a call that the 2014 white Honda Odyssey that we looked at online was available for us to look at, at Carmax (which was our first experience with them and it was awe-some!). We knew it was ours when we test-drove it. We named her “Pearl” because this van is a long-awaited treasure for us! (and Miriam thinks the van is a spaceship…)

This car was a huge lesson for us in patiently waiting and stewarding well what we had. It is repayment for things we had previously lost or given up. It is proof that God fights for us and truly wants to give us his best! I was listening to a podcast by Eric Johnson about “Kings Give to Kings” on the Bethel app and in it he was talking about living in abundance. “We give our best to God, so why don’t we expect the best from him? Abundance teaches us about the very heart of God and we don’t get to tell God when or how to stop blessing us…but we do have permission to ask for more.” (Seriously, so much good stuff in that podcast, I highly recommend it for a listen.) We contemplated just getting “a cheaper car that we could pay off instantly.” Perhaps that makes more “logical sense”, but instead He challenged us to not want just ANY car, but the most expensive brand out there! And we thought, “how can we afford the most expensive one?” but then he said it was a “future investment.” And we knew when we drove it, that it isn’t just what we needed, it’s everything we needed and everything we WANTED! Because He is like that friends! He really does want what is BEST for you! Be patient for it, but do what He says and it will be given to you!

**Update from 2023: We still LOVE this van! It is now named “Odysseus” because it has taken us on many an Odyssey! We’ve been across the Carolinas, up and down mountains and to the Grand Canyon and back in this thing and it has given us no complaints! **

Our Christmas/New Year’s Miracle, a gift from the grandparents

On By David CarterIn Family LifeLeave a comment

Things have been moving quickly at the Carter household as we received some amazing news just a few weeks before Christmas. It all started with the Christmas tree. We hadn’t bought one yet and my grandparents called to say that they were coming over to our house with one as a gift (one of those cute plastic ones). So they come over, we set it up, they brought lights and the angel topper that they used at their house for years, and we had a great time catching up for a few hours. Then, Pops pulls out a stack of papers and says “ok, so the real reason we came over tonight was because we want you and David to think about something. We would like to offer you (if you want it) to rent the Parkway house. It’s just sitting there, not being used, and we want you to consider renting from us. Think about it.”

We slept on it, (although God was saying “take it. it’s a great opportunity. take it!” while Pops was talking). So we did! We are only paying the taxes on the house, so we will be able to pay off some more debt and be able to save some money too! What an amazing Christmas gift that we were given!! January has been so fast, trying to pack and getting the house ready to be lived in again/cleaned, ect.

(Miracles upon miracles): The weekend before we moved, we so needed a family vacation to get away from all of the stress and the chaos. For years, we had always wanted two things to happen: 1. to go on a vacation in the mountains WHILE it’s snowing and stay in a cabin, and 2. to go on vacation with the Tetrevs. There was some definite resistance to getting both of our families ready to go on this trip (from finances, to work, to cars breaking down, to the park rangers calling us and asking if we were still crazy enough to come because of the ice and snow predictions…general life craziness) but “come hell or high water, we are going!” (as they say). We finally made it to Lake Joccassee, in Salem, SC.  We stayed 4 days/3 nights in a beautiful cabin (that we were able to book half-off with a winter promotion) and split between our 2 families. AND we got snowed in! We were the only people there and had the whole campground to ourselves…in the snow! It was so restful and peaceful just to get away and literally do nothing (if you count hiking in the snow, having snowball fights, building snowmen, and watching the snow fall while sitting on a plush couch in front of a roaring fire; “nothing”.)

at 26 weeks! (not to be fair, I am wearing about 4 layers of clothes here)
hiking on the trails
Miri’s word of the weekend: “COLD”

We came back from that trip so excited and re-energized to move! We moved into the house behind Grammy and Pops (the same house they built in 1960 where my dad and his brothers grew up) on January 29th. We seriously could not have done it without the help of my dad, uncle, brothers, Pops, and our dear friends, the Tetrevs. THANK YOU! Immediately, upon moving in, we felt such sweet peace and rest.

Did I mention that it is in “the trending” neighborhood on the island at the moment, too? Did I also mention that there are lots of families around and it’s on a quiet street where Miriam can safely play in the yard without cars going by at 50 mph? There is even a sweet playground down the street! We are a block away from the water. Also, this house is a surviving time-capsule straight out of the 1960s/1970s–plenty of character and charm all over the place (definitely not a “burger house”). Here’s the thing: by ourselves, we never could have NEVER afforded a place in this neighborhood. (oh trust me, we looked, before we moved here…and it wasn’t in the budget to rent, and buying–shoot, you must be crazy!)  But not crazy enough for God. Not crazy enough for Him to align all of this in a matter of 2 months. 2 MONTHS, people! We may never know how many circumstances that God set up to move us when and where we did on Johns Island, or how He has now moved us to James Island, but all we can say is that HE IS REALLY, REALLY GOOD!

Earlier this week we found out how to hook up the old speakers that Pops had put in the living room and wired them from the front dining room to blast some worship music to celebrate.  This house was made for worship! It is amazing to me, not only that we get to steward this opportunity for our family well, but also that before the idea of this old house came to be (back when it was an old lot of nothing in the back of Grandana Jantzen’s backyard), God had imagined it as a place of worship, a house for community. Once the moving craziness has subsided, we would love to host and have people over! We can’t wait to see how God breathes life into this old house again! It’s going to be beautiful! We are so thankful to be a part of that, for as long as God has us living here!

So that being said, when can you come over?

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In the kitchen of The Parkway House

Miriam at 18 months

On By David CarterIn Family Life, KidsLeave a comment

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This fall we had Miriam’s first camping trip at Keowee-Toxaway State Park in Pickens. She loved the woods and hiking. Overall she did great (she got a little cold at night but slept the rest in Jen’s hammock with her).  We were able to spend some time with our dear friends, the Haldemans. We would definitely go camping again with small children! A few things we learned: 1. it is probably better to sleep together in a tent for warmth (she didn’t like being confined in a sleeping bag). Next time, we will do an air-mattress in the tent together. 2. We are very glad we came over-prepared. Meals were already prepared and frozen so all we had to do was heat them (which equals more hands to wrangle Miriam). 3. Fires scare me with a toddler who is prone to trip over her own two feet. (they should invent a child-proof ring around the fire ring), but the pack-n-play did help… All in all, go camping as a group (more hands to help with kids) and bring tons of baby-wipes and they will be fine. We loved it!

We went to my parents church for their annual Trunk-or-Treat and we took home second place as the cast from “Bob’s Burgers”.

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Miriam loves the pumpkin patch and trick-or-treating. She was a little confused we didn’t stay and go inside people’s houses but she got a good haul of candy. Her overall opinion of chocolate is “just ok. a bit overrated”, but she can down a lollipop no problem.

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She has 10 teeth and at her last check up she weighed 21.5 lbs. When we went back later this month for her check-up she immediately started crying (she knew the shots were coming…poor kid). She now weighs 23.3 lbs and is average for all of her head circumference, weight and height. She is more and more independent everyday. She can run. She says “yes, bite, beads,hungry,dirty,baby,go-go (car), yogi (yogurt), eggies (eggs), Gogee (Goldfish), wa-wa (water) along with the others she knows. Altogether she probably knows about 50 words, and can say about 35-40. This week she likes to say “cars” and “stars.” We’ve been giving her more choices (ex. for her to pick out her own clothes or between snacks) She is definitely a girly girl with clothes and usually will pick out pink socks or a shirt with her beads and pink shoes. She really likes her yellow boots (which she affectionately calls, “butts”).

She weaned this month (which Jen says she has officially graduated from baby to toddler). We have no idea if she actually understands that there is “a baby in Mommy’s belly”, but we try. She will then point to her belly, or she will go grab one of her baby dolls. She is incredibly smart and very affectionate. She will hug friends goodbye and blow kisses to most people when we leave and if we arrive she will wave and say “hey!”. We have put up pictures of family and friends on the refrigerator and she can easily recognize people.

We absolutely love our growing girl! She really is growing up way too fast!

Our Johns Island Adventure (Round 3)

On By David CarterIn Family LifeLeave a comment

  
  
Team Carter is having a great summer so far. We moved back to Johns Island (our third time being here…but you know what they say…”third time is the charm”) and we feel settled into the house we are renting. We are enjoying getting to spend lots of time with Jen’s family and they love getting to see Miriam. The new grandparents are getting really good at spoiling their granddaughter with a wagon, a swing and a kiddie pool. What more could a 14 month old want? 

Miriam has been recently walking more. Some of her favorite words are “no”,”uh-oh”, “Oh-Ah” (Miri for “Cousin Noah”) , “yeah”, “what”, “look” ,”that” , “mama”, “dada”, “oh”, and  “wow”. She babbles a lot. If we say “Miriam, where’s your belly?” She can find it. And she will proceed to pull up your shirt to point out that you too have a belly button. She calls dogs “woo woo”. If we say “night night Miriam” she says “no night night”. She now has 7 teeth. She still loves reading books and musical toys (including an interactive purse she slings over one shoulder when we go out). She likes to make loud shouts with sounds and bend over to be upside-down. Nothing in the pantry doors is safe any longer. She’s the absolute best! 

It’s been really cool to see in this new season how things really do just line up so well and fall into your hands when you (as Danny Silk puts it) “follow your favor.” We were able to acquire a rental on this beautiful island for what was in our budget (at a time when rentals are very hard to come by/so expensive). We are surrounded by a unique “neighborhood” of very diverse people, but we all get along. We had a potluck/welcome home party the first weekend we moved and even though our neighbors and friends were meeting for the first time, it was really nice! We actually had to kick guests out after a few hours so Miriam could sleep. Excited to see relationships form with our neighbors. Also we are blessed with really nice landlords (which is a tremendous help when you are renting) and they live behind us. Small world, our landlord’s wife and I (Jen) realized that we have met before during a brief overlap of work at a fast-food restaurant, so we had that humorous commonality of “this person looks so familiar….how do I know them?”

It’s also been a amazing to see the Lord furnish (yet again) another house for us. Before we moved, family was so generous to give us the essentials we needed to get started. Then my parents (unbeknownst to us) had kept all our wedding stuff (that was 5 years ago) and brought over 3 truckloads of stuff that we had forgotten about during our past five years of moving around/abroad! Then we needed a new jogging stroller for Miriam to get around our dirt road and grassy yard/neighborhood and the Lord highlited one for us at Once Upon a Child (it wasn’t there when we came in and at some point in the 30 min. we were shopping, when we left it was on sale outside the door. And it’s orange. And better than the old one we had that broke). We also needed a sleeper sofa for guests to stay over and we found one (almost new) for next to nothing at a second-hand store! 

David has been receiving much favor at work, especially being a transfer. He has a normal schedule with more hours than he needs. Now he has off weekends which is what we prayed for! We are continuing to pay off our debt (which after “being a family” is why we are here). Sunday’s have really been a blessing for us too. We have been eating breakfast and doing life with our long-time friends, the Tetrevs. I suppose you could call it “house church” but we really just love encouraging one another and hanging out. Sometimes this looks like playing worship music or listening to a Bethel podcast and other times it looks like eating a meal and swimming in the creek. It’s a really sweet and simple time.

We are now “open” for guests at our house so please feel free to come and stay and rest on the beach when you visit us. We are 15 minutes from Kiawah beach and 30 min.from Folly. We have already hosted David’s parents and David’s sister and her family. You are next. Let’s make it happen! 

Team Carter is Moving Again!

On By David CarterIn Family LifeLeave a comment

Can you guess where? The view from St. Michael's

Charleston, SC!

We have been so grateful to have been able to “rebuild” in this past year in Rock Hill. We have been able to grow in number and to live with David’s family. The past year has been a beautiful season for us! Long story, short: we were all set to “put down roots” here in Rock Hill. We had been house shopping and even put an offer in for the cutest 1940s bungalow. Two weeks before closing, the offer fell through and God said “not now”. (We are SO grateful for the best realtor on the block, Connie Brooks, with Century21. That woman knows her stuff. We highly recommend her!) We “mourned” that house-loss for two weeks.

Then, several confirmations through people, situations, prophetic words and dreams happened that God was planning to move us to Charleston. This will be our third time moving there! Crazy!! We feel like God given purpose for moving is to do family well and seek wisdom because there’s something there we haven’t seen yet. So we will! David is getting transferred with his job at SPATCO (a huge blessing!!) and we will be moving at the end of May. This weekend, through the connections of amazing friends in Charleston, we secured a cute house on Johns Island to rent (within our budget) for the next year! Now we are excited to watch how God furnishes it and to meet our new landlord 🙂 In the words of friends already down there, “this just feels right. There is so much peace.”

It is bittersweet to leave this Rock Hill though. This city (and including the surrounding areas of Charlotte) is (as one of our dear friends put it) “a city of refuge–a city you can run to, and be sheltered away for awhile.” That’s exactly what we’ve been doing. We are seeing the Holy Spirit send us out yet again (and not just our family, but other families as well) to be equipped for the more that is out there. It’s so encouraging!

A huge thank you to our family that has let us “do life” with them in the same house/nearby. We thank you for accepting and loving us despite our flaws in a crazy time of transition that led to a beautiful transformation of our little family. We will miss cooking with you, sharing everyday musings and people “just popping over.” But we promise to visit often and the invitation is also extended to Johns Island. (you guys just need a farm/compound to hold us all…) 😉 We really can’t express in words how much we love you and will miss y’all.

Another huge thank you to the sweet friends we have made. God put you in our lives because he knew we needed people to love on us and speak wisdom and truth into us. Thank you for your friendship and encouragement to us, although brief. The same offer above stands for you too!

We can’t believe that in a month or so that we will be “turning another page” in our wonderful life adventure that we’re on! We are ready. We will keep you posted. We will be obedient.

Y’all Come Back Now! (International Move Returning to the USA from Peru)

On By David CarterIn Family LifeLeave a comment

Hey family and friends!

Just wanted to give you an update as to what we have been up to over the past month of returning to the States, coming home to South Carolina, taking some “us” time, preparing for Miriam’s birthday and seeing family and friends. Our traveling schedule has been quite different this time coming home (as we can’t be as mobile as we would like to be), but we see confirmations everyday that it was the best decision for our family to come back to South Carolina.

For starters, the three plane rides home were an adventure all in itself. Our flight that left from Cusco was delayed for a few hours, so they waived our extra luggage fees. We were blessed to get an amazing deal with Delta airlines with first-class tickets from Lima to Atlanta and while we can’t say that we got the full “first-class experience” (who wants dinner at 1:45am?), sleeping for 5-6 hours straight was a blessing in itself. We didn’t care that the flight from Atlanta to Charlotte was delayed and freezing cold, we were just happy to get home with all of our luggage. We were surprised at the airport by David’s dad and some sweet friends who had a gift bag for Miriam. Our first meal on American soil was Bojangles.

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An update on all things Miriam: we got to the house and David’s parents and aunts had our room set up with nursery things. It really put our mind at ease to see all the furniture and the thought they put into “our family space.” We were also blessed by our family at Faith Baptist Church (in Swansea, SC) who gave us a baby shower one weekend. Miriam got so many beautiful clothes, afghans and diapers! The state of SC is paying for Miriam’s prenatal care and giving us a free birth with a great hospital (less than 5 minutes away from the house). Our team of OBs (the ones we have met so far) are all very nice and helpful and they have all said that Miriam is doing great–totally normal and healthy. Her due date was actually a bit off than what we previously had thought, so her new date is supposed to be April 22nd. (If she doesn’t come on that date, please refrain from asking me when she’s coming…I don’t know any more than you do 🙂 God said it will be “a surprise.”) Also, thanks to living at high altitude in Cusco for awhile, the docs say my hemoglobin levels are “off the charts, amazing.” Little elevation here makes me a bit of a super-human.

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Jen at 36 weeks

David and I have felt very encouraged to see family, to spend time with them and to catch up with friends this month. We can’t express how loved we felt (and still feel) from people and their generosity. We are thankful for your phone/Skype conversations, treating us to dinner or coffee, asking us what we need for Miriam, opening your homes to let us spend quality time with you, to let us talk for hours on end in English, ect. We really appreciate everything!

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seeing old friends and old waterfalls

As far as what God has been teaching us over the past month: we need to continue to trust him. He has proven over and over again how much he loves our family and how he wants to take care of us (see examples above). He provides even though the cost of living here is more expensive than what it was in Peru. He provides the desires of our hearts. So we can trust him for our future plans. We both feel like we are on the edge of discovering something BIG with our next steps, but we are still discerning exactly what that is and what that looks like. (Becoming parents is definitely a new, very BIG, adventure in itself and we feel that God will reveal more to our family after Miriam gets here). Until he gives us a clear picture of where our family is headed next, I (Jen) am going to be a stay-at-home mommy.

How can you be praying for us over the next few weeks, you ask?

1. For a smooth and easy delivery for Jen and Miriam (and David–as he is the pillar of emotional support). Team Carter is ready to go at 38 weeks…now we wait and see.

2. A job for David: he had an interview for a job in Charlotte last week and will hear in back in the coming week.