A big week for us

Thank you all for the birthday wishes.  It sure made my day special to hear from each of you.  I started the day with hand delivered flowers and a decaf vanilla latte skinny from the little girl I watch and her mom.  I got to end it with some of my favorite people at the same place I've been eating my birthday dinner every year since my grandmother Halstead used to take me when I was a kid as a treat from my dad and a mint chocolate chip ice cream cake with white cake and icing (does my husband know me or what?!)

Even with all the fun, my birthday was not the highlight.  The big news of the week is that Brandon has landed his first job since he finished school!  It's actually with the same company, now Duke Energy.   He'll be transferring  to the Analytics Unit, working with the energy trading models and fuel optimization strategies.  Which basically means that he'll be spending his working hours creating spreadsheets, studying data, and telling people the best way they should go about spending their money.  If anyone knows Brandon very well, you know that he would probably love to do this even if they weren't paying him.  I am so thrilled for him!  The only downfall to this job is that it will require us to move to Charlotte. We honestly don't know much about the town, but what we do know about it we are very excited to have in our backyard.  Charlotte is also closer to my sister and brother, no farther from Brandon's family or my mom, and my dad is coming with us so the family is completely covered.  It's closer to the mountains, it's closer to the beaches we like, it's even closer to Disney World (Caroline made sure she pointed that out to me).  The only thing it's not closer to is our friends in the triangle.  We have met so many wonderful people during our time in the Raleigh area, especially just in the last couple years.  It will truly break my heart to wave goodbye to each of you and I pray that our paths will cross again.

Before I start getting tear drops on my keyboard I have some more great news from the week.  Brandon received a personal letter from the Dean of the Fuqua school of Business at Duke letting him know that he was one of the few in his class that was awarded the honor of Fuqua Scholar.  This is only awarded to the top 10% of his class based on academic performance.  They will be presenting him with a special award with special recognition at his graduation in May.

I have to admit for months years I have been worried about what the future held.  Many sleepless nights and nail biting days have almost consumed me.  It seemed like the difficulties were never going to end, and maybe they won't.  But this week I feel as though the Lord is looking me straight in the face and saying, "You see Stacey, I GOT THIS."  I'm so glad He does, because we would not have made it this far without Him.  For the first time, Brandon has finally admitted to me, yes, it was all worth it!