Part - 29.c. - Children

RAISIN'

29.c. Children

While they were living in Jackson, our first grandyounguns were born. Yes....two of them, five minutes apart! Carrie Michelle and Cassie Marie Wood were born July 11, 1984 in Mobile. They are sisters that happened to be born five minutes apart. Carrie has brown hair and eyes. Cassie has blonde hair and blue eyes.

Before the twins were born, I designed and built a Double Wide cradle and a change table like a picture I saw in a Sears Roebuck Catalog. The change table was used by all five grands and is now in use by Button.

Both the twins have been “A” students all the way through school. Cassie made the accelerated program while at Fayette. Carrie just missed it by a slim margin. When they moved to Lubbock, they began a “Home School” program for a short period of time then graduated from Monterey High School.

Carrie is a “live wire” type that’s into everything and a typically Wood “Bean Pole!” She played flute in her Junior High Band. She loves cows and fishing, and planned to be a teacher or a lawyer. But she has wound up being a Missionary.

Carrie graduated from Texas Tech University. During the time she was in college, she served as Childhood Director at Turning Points Community Church. She married Kyle Wiley in 2007. They both work with NEXT World Ministries in Frisco, TX.

They have our first Great Grandchild, Laura Kate (Button) Wiley who turned one-year-old on May 12, 2009. They live in McKinney, TX.

Cassie is more “laid back,” and is an avid reader. She’s a little less tall than Carrie. She loves horses and planed to be an elementary teacher or journalist. But she is nearing completion of her Masters Degree in Counseling at Southwestern Seminary in Ft. Worth.

She graduated from Lubbock Christian University. In 2008, she married an old schoolmate from LCU, Curtis Thomas. Curtis is Youth Pastor at a large Methodist Church in the East Dallas area. They recently made a trip to the farm and painted the old smokehouse/shop. What a help that was to me!

We were informed a couple of weeks ago that our family is growing again. Their first child that I’ve already named “Punkin” is due to arrive on March 11, 2010.

After they had moved to Abbeville, Joel Andrew Wood was born on March 25, 1986, in Mobile. He got in a hurry to get here, so he arrived about a month early. There was a problem with his lung development, so he had to stay in the University of South Alabama Medical Center for a couple of weeks before he got to go home.

There have been no problem with his lungs now, as could be very evident when he and Cassie get into a spat. Joel went to high school at Trinity Church School in Lubbock. He said that he wanted to become an Architect, an Engineer or and “Imagineer” for Disney, when he grew up.

But, he was called into the ministry and graduated from Hardin Simmons University in Abilene. He recently served about a year as Youth Pastor at a large Methodist Church in Tyler, TX.

While at Hardin Simmons, he met a young lady named Ashley Hawthorne. They were married in March 2008. He and Ashley have moved back to Abilene where he will be attending Hardin Simmons Seminary. Ashley has applied for Medical School at Texas Tech.