Tuesday, October 22, 2013

In Our Corner of the World




When I began this blog, we were preparing to move to India. Our intention was to be missionaries there for at least five years and to help the church grow in that area. We had every belief that God was pleased with our desire to work overseas and would bless our efforts. We poured our hearts into making plans; it was one of the deepest desires of our hearts. Through various circumstances and some sad events, we were forced to accept that even the most well-intentioned ideas are not always God’s plan. Sometimes He does not allow us to serve Him in quite the way we think we should. But, that is a subject for another article. For now I thought it would be nice to do an update on our lives for all of you who are interested….

We made the difficult decision to put our plans for foreign mission work on hold about a year ago. It was one of the hardest decisions we have had to make so far as a married couple, but we believe it was for the best. At that time our second child was on the way and preparations for his birth became a major focus of my life.

On April 4, 2013, Joel David changed our world at 5:32am. He was thirteen days overdue and weighed in at a whopping 10 ½ lbs. He was 21 ½ inches long and was covered in the most vernix our midwife had ever seen on a full-term baby. Our Chunky Monkey was and is a happy, easy baby.

It was just the birth I had hoped for; quiet, peaceful, full of love, and free of complications. It was so different from Amos’ birth eleven months prior and for that I am overwhelmingly grateful. Since that day we have been adjusting to life as parents of two babies under two. I think we’ve managed pretty well and have finally gotten into something of a rhythm. It keeps us busy but blessed.

After deciding that mission work was not in our foreseeable future, we began looking for a stateside preaching position. My husband has had several interviews, but we are still praying for the right job to come along. We want to go where we feel we are needed and can do the most work for the Kingdom.

The last few months have been full of travel. In July we celebrated our second anniversary with a five day getaway to a cabin in northern Alabama. Then we were in Alabama again for Labor Day weekend to visit Josh’s family. A few weeks later we went to North Carolina for Round House (a family retreat for Christian homeschoolers). The weekend after we got back from there we had a preaching tryout in Texas, and this coming weekend we are flying out to Michigan for another tryout. I love to fly, and this will be my first time flying since before we got married, so I am really looking forward to it, although I know it will be difficult with babies. Hopefully they’ll be as good and sweet as they usually are.

The boys are getting so huge so fast. Joel began sitting up and crawling at four months, and now at six months he is starting to stand on his own and even try to push himself to start walking. Amos is barely staying ahead of his little brother in clothing size, but is progressing rapidly in learning to talk. His growing vocabulary keeps me in awe of how fast he is growing up. He is absolutely a toddler now; hardly any baby left in him. He is such a sweet little man, and is so good at helping take care of his little brother.

It’s been a hard year in a lot of ways. Lots of adjustments, lots of disappointments, lots of dreams revised. But it’s been a year of growth for us as a family. We’ve been challenged, stretched, and sometimes bent nearly to the point of breaking, but God has brought us through it all and continues to show His mercy every day. We are but instruments for His purpose, and we are eager to see what He has in store for us in the coming year.


Friday, October 18, 2013

"Not Good Enough" Is Good Enough!



It’s time to just admit it. I will never write a blog post that I think is good enough to post. I continue to write article after article, only to save them to a file buried deep within my computer where they are destined to gather dust and mildew (or, at least, that’s what would happen if they were, you know, in a real, tangible file…). I tell myself, “Someday I’ll go back and finish writing this. Get it all edited and spiffied up so that it’s good enough for someone else to read.” And then it sits in that file for months (or in some cases, years) doing absolutely no one a lick of good. If I ever DO open the document back up with the intention of finishing, I have completely lost the fire and zeal that motivated me to begin writing in the first place, and I quickly shove it back into the “waiting to be re-written” file.

            But, no more! It is time to accept the fact that “not good enough” is good enough! It is time to realize that few people read this little blog and no one who matters is going to bash me for not being a professional-quality writer. I have things I think need to be said, and they don’t have to be said perfectly before I post it here on my personal blog.

            So, I intend to post one article a week, starting now. Encouraging comments are welcome, and thought-provoking comments are encouraged! What I write is not earth-shattering or mind-blowing, but it’s what I think and care about. And, I’ll never get better at blogging if I never actually post anything.

            My babies just woke up from a nap, which means I am out of time to finish writing everything I wanted to say here. But that’s okay. I’m posting anyway!

            This blog is to be continued…