What Just Happened??

Today I officially became a church planter’s wife. Wait, what?? What just happened? I’m inclined to ask for the thousandth time, how we got here. The answer is the Lord led and we followed. It’s crazy, right? To leave the comfort of a full-time job, move your family (again….after you JUST moved them two years ago!), and move to a community where you know no one and no one has invited you here. There was no welcoming committee here to greet us when we moved. No “meet the new pastor” fellowship will be happening.  This little community that we’ve come to minister to isn’t excited or rolling out any red carpets for the new pastor in town. We’ve moved out here to start a church that no one has even asked us to start. Seriously, it’s by far the craziest thing we’ve ever done and I’ve wondered more than once already what in the world we’re doing. But what we’re doing is following the Lord. We’re going when He’s said to go. We’re jumping off the cliff and trusting that He’s going to provide and use us to advance His kingdom. We’re going way out of our comfort zones and relying on Him to make it happen. To build a church from a handful of people who have also crazily decided to join us. We’re believing that He is going to provide and lead the way and make this plant succeed because we believe He desires this. There are and will be many who doubt that we have what it takes. Guess what? WE DOUBT IT TOO!! Ha! Some of you will think that Jay isn’t charismatic enough to get people to follow him. Guess what? He’s not! And we’re thankful for that because we really don’t want people to follow Jay, we want them to follow Jesus. What I know about my husband is that he loves the Lord and desires more than anything that the gospel message be spread and that lives be transformed. Jay can’t do that, but God can. Some of you will doubt my emotional stability to be the support I need to be for Jay and this kind of endeavor. Guess what? I do too!! But what I know is that the Lord has set His treasure in this jar of clay and He can use my weaknesses and work through me despite myself. HE can do this, we can’t. And what will be awesome is knowing that when He does draw people and transform lives and provide a building and funds to operate and chairs to sit in and everything that it takes to make church happen, we will know it was all Him. I won’t lie and say this isn’t scary. It may be the scariest thing this non-risk-taker has ever been a part of. But I won’t live in fear or let the worries and what-ifs consume me. What I’m going to try and do is live in thankfulness. I read a devotional not long ago that pointed out that Jesus knew what was coming when He was facing the cross and all that He was going to have to sacrifice for it. But He remained thankful…THANKFUL!! Isn’t that crazy? It is. But He’s not asking me to take on the cross again, or even asking me to sacrifice like Jesus did. He is asking for sacrifice though and I’m thankful He’s entrusted us with this task. I’m thankful for what He’s provided so far and the way He’s working. He’s called us to trust, not to fear. He’s called us to wholeheartedly abandon ourselves and just trust Him. So I am. “For Who Can Stop the Lord Almighty?” 

Christmas

Here are a few pictures from Christmas! Hope all of you had a wonderful holiday celebrating our Savior's birth!

Attention Grandma! I'm FINALLY posting pictures! :)

Ok, here are a few recent pictures. These kids keep me so busy that it's hard to keep up with everything. Ok, it's mainly Anna that keeps me so busy. :) You'll notice her face in the picture of her in the cowboy hat. She absolutely hated Halloween (except for they candy-she of course loved that) and refused to dress up. She wore this hat around the house but wouldn't wear anything when we went to the Fall Festival. Andrew's Batman costume terrified her as well. Andrew, however, loved everything except the candy! :)

Summer 11

Ok, it's been FOREVER, I know. So sorry. Here a few pictures from the summer. We spent some time in Dallas with Nana and Mindi for a few days and then went to the Great Wolf Lodge. All in all it was a great summer and we are now back in the swing of things in school. Andrew's doing great (in first grade again) and Anna is just growing and becoming more and more of a little girl all the time.

He is Risen!!

We serve a risen Savior, He's in the world today! Hallelujah! We had a wonderful time at church this morning celebrating His resurrection. The amazing pastor did such a wonderful job telling this story...I may be a little partial to him though. :) Here are a few pictures...Grandma, I got so many compliments on Anna's dress! I thought both of the kids looked super cute!

Anna Grace is 2!!!

Who can believe it? Well, with the tantrums she's capable of throwing these day, I can. :) She is such a spirited little girl. She can be so sweet, when she wants to be. She is totally independent (or really, really wants to be) and loves coloring and playing pretend more and more everyday. Going outside is one of her very favorite things and she's really happy when her brother (her hero) goes with her. She speaks in 4 or 5 word sentences and just amazes us with her vocabulary. At her check up this past Monday she weighed in at 34.3 lbs!!! She LOVES to eat, obviously. She is just a joy and Jay and I are are so blessed by her.
Her cowgirl birthday party was a success! It was supposed to be outside (and was set up there) but after the wind knocked down our decorations 5 TIMES, I, quite reluctantly, decided to move it indoors. It was a great day!

I thought my first attempt at cake decorating went pretty well! And it was edible and everything! :)

We started the party off by decorating ranch scenes!


She was NOT a fan of having the birthday song sung to her! But thoroughly enjoyed the cake once we stopped singing. :)




The bubble blower that we got her was a huge hit!
It really was a great day. I feel myself trying to cherish every moment with our precious kiddos....time just seems to be flying by. For instance, Andrew's 7TH BIRTHDAY is coming up!! Is there a way to put time in a bottle?? I feel like someone else has asked that before. :)

We love Texas!

Today we went down to the square to celebrate Texas's Independence, Haskell County Style. So much fun! I'm pretty sure it's probably the only place in the world you can play Cow Patty Bingo. What's the you ask? Well, just remember, you asked. You buy a cow patty for $10 and it will be placed in a pin where a cow will then (hopefully) poop on your patty thus making you the winner! Ha! We'll get back to you and let you know if our patty was the lucky one! :)







They actually shoot this cannon (sans the ball) every hour. It was extremely loud, but so neat. We had a great time. This is one of the things we love about small town life.

Life these days.

Life is just go, go, go all the time, isn't it? It seems there is always something on the calendar to do, so at least we aren't bored! Jay is staying quite busy trying to settle in to the pastorate. He did another funeral last week and had several meetings and now he is currently in bed sick. He NEVER gets sick so I think his body is pretty tired. He loves it though. He's doing amazing and I can tell that this is what God made him to do. Andrew is doing much better in school. He recently was tested in reading and they want the 1st graders to score a 17 on this test by the end of 1st grade and he scored a 28! So apparently reading is his thing!
Anna just goes all the time. And I mean ALL THE TIME! She loves to play pretend with her dolls or in her kitchen, color and make messes. She is speaking in complete sentences, which blows my mind since Andrew was starting speech therapy around her age. She eats constantly and is really a sweet little girl....most of the time. She can throw a doozy of a tantrum when she doesn't get her way. I just can't hardly believe she'll be turning TWO in a few weeks!!! Here are some recent pictures.

Pictured with Andrew is one of his best friends, Carter, from our last church. His parents are great friends of ours and we miss them terribly. Moving is hard but I think we're settling in here in West Texas-the sunsets make it worth living where there are no trees. I'll have to try and capture one and post it on here....they're quite incredible.
Hopefully it won't be 3 months again before I blog! :)

Andrew's Christmas Program (video)

Notice how Andrew is singing to us....he never really looks at anybody else. :)

Christmas Stuff

I'm finally blogging, Grandma!! :) Sorry it's been awhile. We moved and life has been crazy since then but we're getting settled now so hopefully I'll find time to blog more often. I just thought I'd post some pictures of some of the Christmas festivities we've been doing. These first two pictures are at Andrew's class Christmas party. They decorated gingerbread houses and had so much fun doing it!


These next two are from Andrew's Christmas program and open house last Thursday. Andrew's class sang two songs...I'll try and post some video if I can figure out how. It was a fun night.


This next one is from the town Christmas parade. Jay and I were float judges and it was hard! There were so many good ones. We also have been to the community Christmas cantata, which was great.

This last one I took after church this morning.

We're leaving Wednesday to have Christmas with Jay's family so I'm sure I'll have more pictures to post later. Hope you all have a great time celebrating with your families. Among the crazy schedules may we not forget the greatest gift any of us could ever receive: Jesus Christ. This is a quote from a conversation between Lucy and Aslan (the character that represents Christ) in C.S. Lewis' "Narnia" that Jay shared in his sermon this morning that I really loved:

"Welcome, child," he said.
"Aslan," Lucy said. "You're bigger."
"That is because you are older, little one," answered he.
"Not because you are?"
"I am not. But every year you grow, you will find me bigger."

I pray that we are constantly growing to know this huge, huge Savior of ours.

The Kids in a Nutshell

I checked my blog today and found several new ones that my friends had written. I'm bewildered at why I seem to be the only person who can't seem to find the time to blog. We have several family members who live far away and check this blog regularly for updates about the kiddos and I'm doing a horrible job of keeping them informed. I think I'll blame said kiddos....well, not Andrew so much as the run-around-the-house-destroying-stuff toddler named Anna. Seriously, that girl can get into more things than I thought possible. We had it so easy during Andrew's toddler days. In a one hour span one night, she put her hand in the way while Andrew was pottying (I about had a heart-attack), which led to me bathing the kids and while Andrew was in the bathtub, Anna threw his PJs in with him. She then dumped the contents of my purse and her diaper bag (her favorite pastime) and then proceeded to put some of those contents in the trash. She makes me tired but I sure do love her.

She's about to be 18 months on the 14th....time is going by too quickly. Her vocabulary amazes me, but I know that's probably because Andrew was only saying 3 words at this stage. She does babble some still which is so cute but she has tons of words she says clearly. (Mama, Dada, Elmo, yamy (which is lamby, her lovey), night night, apple, open (which sounds somewhat like apple), eat, bye, side (which means outside), wee (swing), Andrew, Bubba (I'm trying to steer her away from this), go, corn, eat, juice, milk, cookie and the list really goes on and on but those are some of her favorites). Most recently she said "I love you"....she sort of breezes past the love part but that's definitely what she's saying. She likes to say it over and over to Andrew until he finally responds likewise. :) She is such a spirited little girl and I love that I get to be her mommy.

Andrew is growing up into a little man before my eyes. He started first grade this year and is doing pretty well. It's been an adjustment from kindergarten-toys and playtime replaced with desk time and homework. He's adjusting well and really seems to be learning tons. He does have a bad little habit that we're trying to kick. He's a doodler. All over his work pages, his homework and he even told me wrote in his book at school (he was quite remorseful for that one). His teacher assures me that she's testing him regularly and he's retaining all of the info he's supposed to be and that the doodling doesn't seem to be a problem yet. But I fear it could become one quickly. I asked him one day why he drew pictures all over his work and he said, "Drawing is so much more fun than working." :) I fear he may be a little bored, but I don't really know what to do about that. Right now math and reading seem to be what his teacher is focusing on and Andrew is anxious to learn science stuff. He tells us all the time that he's a science kid and it's so, so true. The kid knows more about dinosaurs and planets than I do. He told me one day that one of Saturn's moons was called Titan and I thought he heard that on a cartoon so I told him that I didn't think that was real. I was made to look a fool when he assured me it was and then proceeded to show me in this book we have on the planets. I won't question him again. :) He is such a sweet kid most of the time....I've never met a kid that loves people more than he does. He was right in this little neighborhood kids' face at church one day and when I asked him why, he said he was giving him a kiss. I told him that was nice but that we shouldn't touch people....especially on the face (I was immediately thinking of what illnesses he might have contracted). He responded, "But I love people, Mama." :) I just love that kid.


So there's a little look into the lives of Anna and Andrew these days. There are definitely trying times but more often than not I find myself thinking how truly blessed we are that God has entrusted us with them.