December 1 TENNIS | Today brought the @NCCSEagles Middle School Tennis season to a close. Our awesome middle school girls team advanced to the finals of the Metro 10 playoffs for the first time in several years. They finished runner-up to a very good team. All of the girls improved so much and we are so grateful for our amazing Coach Julia Swank! This has been such a fun season! #GoEagles #WeAreNCCS #NCCSFamily š¾
December 8 ELIJAH | Happy 9th Birthday to the son God clearly chose for our family! Eli brings so much joy to our Strange crew. What a blast to celebrate our little guy! Eli loves sports, teasing his sister, dancing and singing through the house, playing outside with friends, and reading! Clint, Emma, and I are so blessed by him and we love celebrating Eli today!
Birthdays are always interesting because I canāt help but think of Eliāa first Mom and the incredible gift she offered him by placing him in a Christian childrenās home in Ethiopia when she knew she wasnāt at a place in her life to raise a child. I donāt have his baby pictures and she doesnāt have these pictures, but God knows. He sees and He covers all those things. #Adoption
Happy Birthday to our amazing son! We love you buddy and we know that God has incredible plans for your life! #7000days
December 16 WOOD-FIRED FELLOWSHIP | What a team! Iām so grateful for the incredible team God has blessed us with in the Upper School @NCCSEagles. We work hard and we play hard. This has been an awesome semester and today we celebrated with pizza! Our resident chefs @andreadignon, @bigbrave, @hannah.w.speck, and @kristinalynnbaker spoiled us all with made to order wood-fired pizza on the @oonihq pizza ovens.
We also celebrated Coach Speck earning his Masterās degree! š§š¼āš
Lots of laughter and great conversation just sitting around the table. Grateful for the time and space to enjoy each otherās company today as we celebrate Christmas. #GoEagles #WeAreNCCS #NCCSFamily
December 18 CHRISTMAS BREAK | What a gift! The more the hustle and bustle of life turns up, the more I value this time early on a Saturday morning just to sit and read. Looking forward to many slow mornings over the next few weeks. Grateful for these intentional breaks on the calendar to be reminded that we werenāt designed to be going and doing all the time. #Sabbath
December 20 WELL DONE | Tonight was a taste of heaven and a reminder why life on this earth can be so hard. We gathered to celebrate the life of @NCCSEagles alum Gabe Costa (ā20) who passed away in a car accident back in August.
When Gabe passed away, all of his friends had already headed off to college and we werenāt able to gather then. Tonight we gathered.
We worshipped. We shared stories. We looked to Godās word (Philemon 4-7). We laughed. We cried. We learned some fun confessions. We had a chance to share our gratitude to Gabeās family for loaning him to us from Brazil for four years. And we talked about how the gospel points us to a life that doesnāt have sorrow and sadness.
Ms. āCookingā, one of Gabeās favorites, said as we were cleaning up that tonight reminded her of the words from Blessed Assurance where it talks about a āforetaste of glory divine.ā That it was for sure!
Thank you @beth.clark20, @sarahkaycook, and the Club Costa families for putting together a night that was encouraging to all who knew our precious friend Gabe.
God is faithful. He is working. #57 #HelloPeople #PastelPants #ClubCosta #TheCowboyRidesAway
December 23 NASHVILLE | Really enjoyed the chance to get away with our crew for 48 hours to revisit the Opryland Hotel in Nashville. We had a blast at Soundwaves, read, ate, rested, wandered around, and just had fun together to kick off a glorious Christmas break together. Grateful for these days!
Swipe to the very end to see a pic of us in front of the same tree a mere 6 yearsā¦and a lot of lifeā¦ago. #7000days
December 24 MERRY CHRISTMAS | So grateful for the opportunity to worship with family and friends @cedarcrestchurch on Christmas Eve Eve. Weāve enjoyed some sweet time at home and canāt wait for more time together over the next several days! #7000days
December 31 BEST BOOKS | Here are my 10 favorite books from 2021. Deeper by Dane Ortlund was my absolute favoriteā¦his Gentle and Lowly was my favorite of 2020. Hereās to hoping he writes a new one in 2022! The other 9 are in no particular order, but all great ones that Iād recommend heartily. Iāll post the whole list of Books from 2021 later on meganstrange.com.
Iād love to hear what you are hoping to read in 2022ā¦here are a few that are already on my list.
God of the Garden @andrewpetersonmusic
The Deeply Formed Life @richvillodas
The Judgeās List @johngrisham
Donāt Give The Enemy a Seat At Your Table @louiegiglio
December 31 FELIZ NAVIDAD | Christmas in Cancun with my Strange people and my Mom was a blast! Grateful for the time away to rest, play, eat, and just enjoy each otherās company. Cheered on our favorite College Football team on the flight home. #RollTide
5 Negative COVID tests later, we are home in Atlanta. #Cancun š²š½
