Exciting News!

We have officially and finally paid off all of my student loans!!!!!!!! This is very exciting news because now the only debt we have is our house mortgage! It is such an amazing feeling to be done with the loans. We decided to do this because well, in reality, we had enough money saved up that we could and so we did (and we still have a good balance of money for our needs). We are grateful for this and the many blessings the Lord has given us!

We also had some other fun adventures downtown. We visited the Old Exchange and Provost Dungeon, Old Slave Mart Museum, Gibbes Art Museum, and Powder Magazine. It was very interesting learning more about Charleston's past and experiencing the feeling of walking where the people of early history walked (especially at the Old Slave Mart). Here are some pictures:

(This is the Old Exchange - on the bottom is the Provost Dungeon - and this is where an event was hosted for George Washington and it has a collection of old furniture, post office, old clothing, and the room where George Washington danced the night away when he was in Charleston, SC)

(The Provost Dungeon. It held many different jobs throughout the years. It held Pirates - Black Beard the Pirate was real and did do a lot of damage to supply ships coming into port in Charleston, Political Prisoners - those going against the government, army recruits for the war of independence, and a whole bunch of black powder was hidden down here when the British were ruling Charleston. The brick is the original brick from 250 years ago.)

(Behind the barred window is where the black powder was hidden)

(They have animatronics down there to tell you about the dungeon's history)

(This is where Slaves were traded and bought in the old south)

(The Gibbes Art Museum)

(The Powder Magazine - where the city's black powder barrels were held. This building still has the original brick when it was first created 300 years ago with 3 ft. thick walls. On the inside there's a lot of what they call "Groin Arches" so that if the black powder did explode it would explode upward and not out the sides)

(This was just a cool building we saw coming out of the Gibbes Museum, it's called Circle Church)

And finally, more reports on our wonderful Lily. She's been trying to talk lately and has managed to say a few words: "ducky (du - ee)", "thank you (ank -ew)", "Uh-oh", "daddy (da-dee)", "Bankey (ba-kee)", and her favorite thing "bath (ba!)" - she says this while running and banging on the bathroom door. She also knows some sign language like: please, more, food, milk, and apple. She can also point out your nose and mouth. Also, she knows where her head and hair are, as well as her ear. Recently she's developed an addiction to blankets, she likes us to wrap her blanket around her as seen in the photo below and then she wanders around like that for a while. Oh and she has 4 teeth with a few more on the way. She is such a blessing and enjoy her comedic timing and joy for life.