My man

My man and I have been married for 25 years. He is my life partner, my soul mate. We have a love that has overcome many obstacles. Someday I will tell you about those obstacles, but now is not the right time. He is my love. <3

Bowling with our new friends~

This year God brought a new young man into our lives via our daughter Lauren Elizabeth. She met Kevin Duque online. They are both League of Legends Video gamers. Kevin lived in Miami, a far away from our little town of New Wilmington. Lauren and Kevin fell in love online and in July of 2014, Lauren and Kevin fell in love in person when Kevin came to visit for a week. In September, Kevin moved here to get to know our daughter and our family. We welcomed him with open hearts and opened arms. It did not take long for us to also fall in love with Kevin and it already feels like his a part of our family Only God knows what the future holds but we are praying that Kevin will remain a part of our family forever. This Christmas, Kevin's mother, Ysbelia, sister Valerie and niece Victoria decided to come stay and spend the New Year with us. Kevin's Uncle Miguel and Aunt Scarlette, nieces Anabel and Margaret also came. Our two families melded together so beautifully. I can say this has been one of our best Christmas and New Years. We made new friends who will hopefully become family members.

New Years Eve 2014 in Venezuela

New Years Eve is a night of hard work for Joe and I. When you own a restaurant, certain days are busier than others, and New Years Eve Day is one of them. We work from morning until almost midnight, cooking, setting up, checking on reservations, changing reservations, mapping them out, serving, and then cleaning up. Aaaah, I got tired just typing that out. So when midnight rolls around, we are exhausted and much too tired to celebrate. Our New Year Celebration usually comes a week later, when we are rested! This year was a bit different though. This year we were introduced to Kevin Duque. Kevin entered our lives through our daughter Lauren. Kevin has moved to New Wilmington, from Miami Florida, to be closer to Lauren. We have grown to love Kevin as if he were our own son. This Christmas, we were so delighted to host Kevin's family from Miami and Virginia at our home. I feel as though we have a new family now and It has been so much fun getting to know them. Although Kevin was born in Miami, his parents are originally from Venezuela. This New Years, since Joe and I had to work, they decided to create a Venezuelan New Years celebration for us. Kevin's mom Ysbelia and sister Valerie cooked and cooked for us, causing my kitchen to smell AMAZING with the Venezuelan spices. I couldn't wait to come home and indulge in the feast and to celebrate the New Year with our new friends. We had Arapas made by Ysbelia, and elcocotes made by Kevin's aunt Escarlette. We had a delicious pork roast. We even wore Yellow Underwear which is a tradition to have good luck all year! We ate 12 grapes before the clock struck midnight and then there were lots of toasts and hugs and kisses! It was a noisy and fun celebration, unlike our usual, let's watch the ball drop and then fall into bed, New Years tradition. It is so much fun learning about new things, ideas, cultures and people. It is wonderful to watch your family grow and to add more people to your "tribe" Joe and I are both introverts, so it is not easy for us to "change" but it's good for us to "change". This is going to be a year of many changes for us but it's going to be a year of building on our solid foundation. Last year we worked on solidifying our family and our business and this is the year to build upon both. Welcome 2015! May God bring us even closer together. May we Glorify HIS name in all we do this year. May we bring Him honor and Glory and in the process may we continue to be filled with love and joy! With the love of the most amazing Savior, Susan