New Year’s Thanks & Blessings

Can you believe that 2012 has already come and gone? As this holiday season winds down, we hope that you have had a wonderful time celebrating with your friends and family. I find the holidays remind me of all that I have to be thankful for, and I thought it would be nice for this week’s blog to feature a brief overview of some of those blessings.

This year, Karen and I celebrated two important events in our lives – 16 years of owning Outdoor Lighting Perspectives of Augusta and Lake Oconee and, more importantly, 28 years of marriage! We are very thankful for both of these opportunities and for the blessings that flow from them. These pictures shows some of these blessings, namely our family.

A little about our family – Marc is our oldest son and his family recently moved to Augusta to save money as they prepare for Marc to pursue PhD work this fall. His wife, Megan, is an amazing art teacher at Brookwood Elementary and Marc is working as Director of Marketing for our business. Our son Justin is traveling the country as a Cathodic Protection Technician for JW’s Pipeline Integrity Services. This past fall, our daughter Kristin moved to Columbia to work on her PhD in School Psychology at USC. Our youngest son, Jonathan, is working as a server at Takosushi while he finishes up his degree at Georgia Military College. Hannah Caroline is our first grandchild and she lights up our home. We think she is a triple threat – smart, funny, and beautiful (she may have a future as an outdoor lighting model).

While the holidays remind me of all that I have to be thankful for, they also remind me that not everyone enjoys the same kind of blessings that I have. Sadly, many people spent the holidays without a family to celebrate with. I think it is tragic that some loving couples are unable to experience the blessing of children while some children do not have the blessing of being part of a loving family. I also believe that adoption offers a beautiful solution to this heartbreaking problem.

However, the process and cost of adoption can be intimidating to many families who are interested in adopting a child. This is why we support a local adoption ministry called “Reaching Hands”. Reaching Hands is a local grassroots ministry that seeks to be a full service adoption resource for the CSRA community. They help answer questions about adoption, connect families with quality adoption resources, and even provide financial assistance to qualified families. Over the past four years, Reaching Hands has been able to provide needed assistance through ‘adoption grants’ for 21 families and 31 children from 7 countries!

This important ministry is growing rapidly and we present them to you as a model organization that is making a major impact on our CSRA community. If you are looking for a place to send a charitable donation, or simply have questions about the adoption process/ministry, please contact David Bullington at (706) 399-1330.

I am also thankful for our business and for the wonderful customers that we serve. I look forward to continuing to work hard to satisfy all of your outdoor lighting needs. If you have any questions or if you would like learn more about what our lights can do for your home this new year, give us a call at (706) 690-4326 in Augusta or (706) 484-9711 in Lake Oconee.

I look forward to serving you well in 2013,

Pat Otis, President

Outdoor Lighting Perspectives of Augusta

Outdoor Lighting Perspectives of Lake Oconee