Karen and Mark's baby daughter, Hannah Marie Shelton, was born on Dec. 27, 2007 at St. Mary's Hospital in Richmond Va.
The proud new dadand momshortly after birth are extremely happy. Newborn pictures of those firstfew hours and days show a beautiful sweetlittle thing.What a great new dad (all smiles). Grandmom enjoys her time holding herand Granddad does too.So does Auntie Beth . Aunt Ngoy gets into the act.Grandmom Nancy was so kind and helpful to he daughter, Karen, that she spent all the time she could with her and the baby. Hannah, her mom Karen and Karen's mom Nancy are shown here. Mark's long time friend and ex-roommate, Chris visits but will let his wife Caroline hold the new born.
Beth's best friend, Ana Marasol Rodriguez (escorted down the aisle by her father Jose) and Joseph Cole weremarried in Monterrey, Mexico on October 11, 2007.
Beth was Ana's maid of honor and we were there to experience the whole wonderful wedding.It was a Completed Jewish/Christian/Mexican wedding with Joseph's Compledted Jewish Rabii and Ana's Christian Mexicanpastor officiating.Blanquita was a bridesmaid and Junior was the ring bearer. The ceremony was held at a local hotel where the pool area was decorated for the wedding and it was quite beautiful. The reception was at a local restaurant with a dance area and we were treated to traditional Mexican dancers as well.The groom'sparents with the couple and ourfamily with the couple. Ana's grandmother wasthe sweetest Christian lady and without a common spoken language, we communicated justfine.The wedding ladies were enjoying themselves and Nikki clearly captured the thrown floral bouquet and ran away from all competion.
Then the Mexican dancers came with all that color and action. We all enjoyed it! Even Mama Gail got into the act.There were some Mexican traditions that were new to us and the groom as well, like being hoisted up in chairs and paraded all around the room. His shoes were taken and passed around to collect money for their honneymoon. Ana's sweet thoughtful sister Blanca and her high quality husband Herraldo werecertainly enjoying the festivities. Mama Blanca was carefully watching the cake cutting ceremony and it was delicious. One last picture of the entire wedding party and its time to call it a day at 1:30 AM. Oh, well no one ever said that Mexican weddings were short. One night after the wedding, we visited the hill in the midst of the city with agreat view.Beth was enjoying the breeze but not the crutches. I took a picture of a local Mexican business the next day. Junior and Blanquita doing their homework. Apparently the ladies enjoy wearing hats. Someone had a birthday so we went to a restaurant to celebrate with a LittleMermaid cake.Momma and daughterand Daddy too.
The view of Monterrey from the surrounding mountains is great. The kids enjoyed the metal slide.
Jim Shelton was born in Memphis Tn while Gail (Conner) Shelton was born in Newport News Va and both were basicly raised in Tidewater Va. Jim graduated from Churchland High School when Gail graduated from Cradock High. They met in a carpool while attending Old Dominion College. He left college to enlist in the US Air Force in 1965 and served as an auto-pilot technician through 4 years of the Vietnam War, being honorably discharged. They married while he was still in the USAF but she still attended ODU while he was stationed in NC. After the service, he attended Old Dominion and graduated from Va Wesleyan College with a BA in Mathematics. Gail majored in Elementary Ed and taught school while he finished college. He taught high school mathematics at Peabody High School in Petersburg Virginia for 7 years and Gail taught in the Petersburg elementary schools as well. Their son, Mark, was born in Petersburg is married with two children. Daughter, Beth, was born 10 years later is married and was a YWAM missionary in Mx. Daughter, Ngoy from Cambodia, was adopted when she was about 12 and has 2 sons.
Gail and myself have taught English classes and The Purpose Driven Life since Fall 2004. In the spring of 2004 we only taught English. Pictured below are students from those classes.