Six Months and Courting!!!

Ok, so I apologize for the delay in updating you all! So here (to make up for the silence) is a rather juicy update...for me, that is. :o)

Our first picture together. He totally caught me off guard at the Undivided Christmas Party. I knew he liked me. But it would be another two months before he felt the Lord give him permission to pursue me.

I totally posted these pics on Facebook back in January so he could see them. :)

It's official - it's on Facebook! :)

A bunch of us girls went to Disney right after we started courting - they made Julie sit on the "Brown Derby" bench...

...annnnnd me in front of a fountain. :)

He's so brave! He met so many Red Hat Society Ladies (in our family) that night...and they were all in love with him.

Dinner with the fam for Granddaddy's birthday - Outback, baby!!!! He fits right in!

I love this pic - on our first ever roadtrip to Georgia to meet his family and go to the Cherry Blossom Festival. I wanna go back!!! Oh the memories...

Stephanie's 27th birthday par-tay/luau at Jeni's house - hangin' with Kendall and Albert.

The Central FL Fair - he's a pretty good photographer, huh? :) We met up with David, Kelly, Kristen and all six of their girlies for the afternoon. I hate fairs but this one...it was pretty fun. :)

The ferris wheel.

Easter - the first official holiday he spent with us. I think he was back in the house getting more sweet tea. ;) Otherwise, I would've made him be in this one.

He surprised me one night by taking me to see Jars and Seabird at the House of Blues! It was so fun! We met up with the Gillies! Yay for us!

And so afterwards we were hungry - Raglan's was open and we sat and talked till like 1am. It was a really good night - and my meal was way better.

His first Sovereign Grace Conference experience was at Next (formerly New Attitude). I'd been to these for years and years and loved them - highlights of my year. It was pretty amazing seeing it through somebody else's eyes...and having someone to share it with...yeah, that was awesome.

Daniel graduated high school and then we went to the dance afterwards...

For our four months, he had this whole entire Saturday planned in St. Augustine!! We made it through lunch and the museum and then we got rained out. :( But it was such an awesome day...substitutes worked just great. And THE WHOLE DAY TO TALK?! I was happy. :)

Oh yeah, the story...it stormed so much (but prolly only about an hour and a half) that steps and curbs disappeared under water! Water flowed past so fast he almost had to carry me across the street! ;)

I eat food. Lots of it. Often. All kinds. Unfortunately. But he's really nice and usually eats as much as me if not more. I told him he has to - j/k. Anyway, we're on our way to the Crash-o-Rama in Bithlow, baby!!! He said I needed to experience it once...I'm game for another time or two! :-D

I don't know, do we need an explanation here?

Thanks, Mark, for ruining a really great picture. (Randy, your thoughtful gaze into the heavens always cracks me up.)

Ok, this...I could blog about this for days. This was at the train station in Wheaton, Illinois cuz we were heading into Chitown for the evening! We were in Wheaton for the conference that David oversees for Exodus (international with people from 9 different countries!). The conference was five days long and we were there a total of 11 days! It was probably one of the most radical experiences of my life in so many ways! If you've ever been on a missions trip, you can liken it to that - you're exhausted the entire time, running on adrenaline, meeting new people every second of every day (lots of them recognized me from his profile picture, though, heehee :), attending sessions, running errands, carting dozens and dozens of cases of drinks from one location to another...and I was just the gopher. This deal was real, y'all! ...Back to us...aren't we cute?

This is Jeff and Angela Buchanan - longtime friends of David's and incredibly amazing people. AND THEY ARE MOVING HERE!!!! I'm pretty excited and hope to get to know them better. They are amazing...oh wait. I think I already said that.

So there ya have it, folks. There's a pictorial update. (Though I would like to draw your attention to the fact that multiple events included not a single picture of David. It is all my fault. And that is changing. :) It amazes me to look back even six months ago to see the person I was at the beginning of this. The Lord has stretched me and challenged me in ways I hadn't expected...but I've also never enjoyed six months more. David is amazing; I'm very grateful for his presence and friendship in my life!!!!

What's New With You?

well...i know i promised a looooooooong time ago that i'd update this thing. but life just doesn't slow down!! plus facebook takes up a lot of time! ;) but, for all you who still don't have facebook...in case you didn't know...

I'M COURTING! :-D

david fountain and i have been courting for...um...six weeks! we have spent that time trying to get to know each other and determine God's will for our lives and whether that includes marriage (did i just type that?! :). during this time we've gotten lots of coffee, met tons of each other's relatives (poor guy! ;), walked around half of orlando (haha!), and gone on a road trip to georgia (shout out to all my people there ;). it's soooo hard to believe it's been six weeks already!

lots of you don't know who he is yet so i'll give you a quick run down (which i know he's going to love). david is 35 and the second youngest of five kiddos (his twin brother daren is 7 minutes younger than him...apparently this is of GREAT importance to know! ;). he grew up just outside of atlanta and most of his family still live in the same area where they grew up - so cool! david went to lee university and then lived and worked in nashville for about ten years. he moved to orlando four years ago and attended a church in the area until he happened upon metro life church. he ended up in the same singles care group i was in and i apparently was pretty rude to him when he first tried to talk to me... ::sigh:: i thiiiiiiiiiiiiink he's forgiven me. :-D we worked together some on the Yes2Marriage campaign (actually he totally rescued me in helpin' out last minute). and then we started hangin out more and...well...fast forward to february 10 which was our first official date. :)

that's super short and quick - so sorry!! and, for those of you who don't know ME....read my blog. ;)

in these six weeks i have learned soooooooo much about relationships and i think i've put david through quite a bit already. :-D it's been a lot of fun and i told him this past weekend that my weekends just keep getting funner (don't be hatin' the word, i just made it one!). i am so grateful for this opportunity to seek God's will and to be in prayer over something like this with someone like he is. we would appreciate your prayers and are very grateful for your encouragement.

this concludes our update for the moment...

Tag - you're it!!

I've been tagged by Vanessa Fernandez! Here are the rules: go to your pictures file go to the 5th folder open up the 5th picture and post it; then tag 5 people when you are done.

Shout out (and tag) to: the newest blog i read - Melissa Goins (hey Melissa!! ;); Jaime Herron; Crystal Law; and some boys (will they do it? nah! =) ...Michael Henderson and Jonathan Detwiler.

First Day of Thanksgiving Vacay

So here are a few pics from Thanksgiving. (For those of you not on Facebook, get one. =) I have tons of other pics up there - it's just too much trying to keep up both.)

Steph and I drove up on Sunday (we skipped church ::gasp::).

Laffy Kathy gave us a card and a CD for us to listen to which made the last few hours go by really fast...until we had to turn the music off driving up the super-scary mountains. :-D

We girls all went out to lunch yesterday and then to a movie. Sooooooo fun!

Have a very happy Thanksgiving, my friends!!! Love you all!!!!

Marriage: ONE man, ONE woman

Well, for those of you I haven't forced to listen to a rundown of my day last Friday, read on! =) I was able to help out with a breakfast John Stemberger hosted for Central Florida pastors regarding the upcoming marriage amendment. It was soooooo amazing and I learned SO much! I took lots of notes but there's no way to communicate everything that was shared in the four plus hours of presentations! (I hope to soon post some of the things I've learned, though.)

As Danny reminded us Sunday, there is very little time left before the state will vote on Amendment 2...25 days to be exact! This is not a cultural "issue" but a challenge to God's direct mandate for marriage to be between a man and a woman. Yes2Marriage needs your help to communicate this - to get the word out and inform the voters of the opportunity we have on November 4th to fight something God hates (not the people - the sin!) and protect what He loves (the sinner - not the sin!).

Metro Life Church will be hosting a phone bank every weeknight from 6-9pm and on Saturdays from 10am-1pm. A phone bank is where you call people from a list and leave a short message on their voicemail or have a simple and short conversation with the person who answers. It's not difficult, everything is spelled out for you and basic training will be given when you arrive. And you can come as often as you can or just once if that's all you're able to do. I hope to be there often and would love to make history happen with all of you (think about it - what would the future of Florida look like with gay marriages? How will this affect your family? Do you know? I didn't. More on that to come =).

If you're closer to First Baptist of Orlando, they have a super-cool system set up so you'll have to tell me what it's like. =) If you're in our area and you'd like to help, leave a comment here or email me at jenniferlightfoot@gmail.com. If you are outside of our area, click here to find out how you can get involved in your community or county - I don't think we realize how desperately these individuals who are leading this cause appreciate our time.

Believe it or not, there are people who don't know about this amendment! Florida is the only state that requires 60% to pass and polls are showing we're about 50-something%...Your call could make or break it!

Below are some pictures from Friday...

John Stemberger: "Watch me now!" Really, he was amazing - never heard him speak before. God has really gifted him in this...

Jannique Stewart works with First Care Family Resources gave an amazing presentation on HIV/AIDS in Florida. You would be shocked with some of the stats. For example, FL is 3rd in the nation with the number of people living with AIDS; 1 in every 188 people in CENTRAL FL! are living with AIDS/HIV; since 2004 - FL had the 2nd highest HIV/AIDS incidence among kids 13-19, and Seminole County is 5th out of 67 FL counties of HIV/Aids. Wow.

It's true...

At the end of the morning, the group gathered around John & Olivia and prayed for them (see Danny on the far left? =).
And then...the press conference. =) Oh yes. I was so excited. It was a real live press conference with the mics on the podium and everything. TWO stations, four media people (all with their little notebooks taking notes =) and a whole lotta me taking pictures.

Go, John, go! The footage aired on the 5pm news Friday night!

Congratultions!

Well, today Joey and Lauren get married! I did my first engagement shoot of them. Unfortunately, it didn't turn out so well with bad lighting, rain, dumb photographer, etc. But it was fun. My cute assistant, Kathy, was super helpful. ;)

Here are a few of the pics...

Congratulations, you two! It's been fun documenting some of these last few weeks for you! :)

More places I've been...

I've also been checking these other blogs out; I've linked them on my "Faves" list, too, in case you want to keep up-to-date as well. And, lest you think this is all I do...it is not. :o) I check only when there are new posts. Whew! I could see the comments and accountability a-comin'! Haha!

Cute new baby updates

A friend with a new blog

An amazing family whose posts crack me up

A great mommy

My fave SGM photographer

A good friend -love ya, chick! ;o)

Another good friend - I miss you!!

I love finding friend's blogs!

HG Girls Accountability

So, recently we started accountability meetings in our HG. I am LOVING it! It's been such a means of growth and sanctification already - creating opportunities for fellowship, relationships and growth/change! I'm so excited to see what God does in each of us and through us as a result of these meetings!

At one of our recent meetings (we were at the Williams' house - where Kathy and I housesit...fairly often :o), we discussed the Ladies' Retreat (listen to the messages here)as well as our plans for smaller-group accountability. Then we hung out and ate lots of mice. ;o) I love you, girls!!

What does YOUR accountability group look like? We eat chocolate. :o)

And mice...
Aren't they adorable?? SJ definitely gets the "most-creative" award! ;o)
Julie lookin' all hott tryin to play pool...
Kathy...you just can't escape it. We WILL get pics of you! ;o)
Awww, so cute! I love it!
Ariel, I love you! Your faces make me laugh!!!
SJ thinkin up her strategy
Wow. I think the pic speaks for itself!
I love you, girls!!! So cute!
Yeah, this is what happens when I leave my camera with them! ;o)
Whoa, Linds! Ladies, great follow-up opportunity: Lindsay's modesty issues! LOL

Awwww! Cute!!

So there you have it! We really DO get stuff done...this just happens to be the fun that got documented! I love you, ladies!!!!