My New Home

Before I got caught up in the Myspace/Facebook phe-nom, I used to send out occasional emails to my family and friends back home in order to stay connected. I had just been to Maryland a month when I reflected on the following:

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For those of you who don't know, I accepted a position to work for a family in Southern Maryland; namely, Great Mills, a tiny town jutting down near the boarder of Virginia. The family also has a home in a suburb of Charlotte, NC, and they travel down for a few days each month. The Cecil's have an 8.5 month-old daughter named Samantha, and they are very nice people.

Southern Maryland depicts a culture that is much different than I have been used to over the past year living in Edina, MN, but so far I am enjoying it. It has been a LOT slower-paced as well, since I only have one child to care for instead of 3 active boys. My pastor's wife said I will probably find time to do some reading and learning, and she was right about that. I also look forward to finally taking my corespondent copywriting class in the near future. A main goal for this year is to pay off my college debt, and from there I have no set plans. For now I am enjoying traveling and gaining new experiences while I still have the prime opportunity to do so.
Here's my update...

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We are in Charlotte still. Just got access to email or would have replied sooner. It's VERY nice down here, a great suburban area on 25-mile long Lake Norman. The water is beautiful, and Samantha likes getting her feet wet.

Went exploring around town today. Drove Mike's BIG red truck. Kinda scary at first, then you get used to it. Turning around and backing up is a little tricky, though, even more-so than the Walker's van. Makes you feel kind of intimidating driving that huge thing. Well, and I probably look a little out of place, being a young girl! LOL

Found the church I'm going to attend tomorrow morning. It's called Liberty Baptist, located in Mooresville, just up Hwy 77 from Cornelius about 8-10 miles. There are Baptist churches figuratively on every corner, which makes it difficult to choose where to go. (Although many are Southern Baptist.) Liberty is KJV-only, but they are independent, and are into the hymns, which I like. Thought it looked like a good one, and I can overlook the KJV quirk. I won't be down here more than one weekend a month anyhow. (Although I think I could live down here forever!)

The job is going well. I'm having a great time getting to know the Cecil family and little Samantha. While I enjoy St. Mary's County and am finding my way around up there, it's been a fun weekend "down south"!

I did meet a handful of 20-something college students who attend St. Mary's College (public, contrary to what I thought), who are a part of the Inter-Varsity Christian Fellowship there on campus. They were VERY friendly to me at church, and were sincerely enthusiastic about inviting me to brunch and then a bonfire that night with the Inter-Varsity group. The bonfire was set down the hill from the college campus, actually on the beach and literally right on the water. There was a beautiful sunset. I might have to visit that place again just to find some solitude! There we mingled, and at first it felt a little weird being an "outsider", as in not a student. Yet they were very nice and it great to spend some time with Christians about my age. Refreshing, actually. After dusk one of the students took out his guitar and lead us in worship. We sang some generic praise songs and choruses, a few hymns, and then we about exhausted Chris Tomlin's repetiore of music! That was a BLAST. Kind of reminiscent of my former college days.

Above and beyond the actual bonfire activity, it was really a blessing to have met some friends at church earlier in the morning. I didn't expect to meet friends so quickly, but God provides in His time, not ours. Usually it seems we have to wait for God's time, but this time He meet a need before I even thought to ask! How cool!

Last weekend I got the opportunity to drive around Great Mills and the surrounding towns a little bit. It's gorgeous down there! I got the feeling that it's sort of a mixture between having a northern and southern MN feel to it at the same time! It's very woodsy, yet there is plenty of farmland. Yet the subs aren't too, too far away, which will be nice as well.

Then you have the Potomac River a couple miles to the West, the Putuxent River to the East, and the Chesapeake Bay to meet them even further SE. I tried crab for the first time last week, and it's pretty good! I still have a lot of seafood types to get used to, but I'm sure we'll be having our share of fresh Chesapeake crab!

I just discovered that Cecil's Old Mill is on the map of Maryland! The mill is a historical landmark of the family I will be working for, and is right across the street from the farmhouse where I will be living. I thought that was pretty cool! The farmhouse, in itself, is a museum! The house here in Charlotte is pretty modern, but the place in Great Mills is pretty old with minimal decoration besides what has been there for literally generations. The house was built sometime in the 1870's, and is full of antique photograhphs, portraites, plaques, furniture, books, and other oddities. The attic is FULL of OLD magazines and more antiques, which I am finding fascinating. The most meaningful aspect is that everything has been preserved by the Cecil family.

There is a pretty good sized field in back of the house, where the munchkin (Sammie) and I like to take walks with the baby backpack. There is a pathway through the woods that actually used to be the main road leading to the historic neighboring town a few miles out. After hiking around in the woods the other day I discovered the hard way that there are patches of poison ivy that should have been avoided! I am still itching from that, and am surprised I have any skin left! Oh well, that's part of country life, and I guess I better get used to it!