Phone=Lifeline

We have been in Rotan for just over a week right now and the biggest hurdle we are facing right now is .......
INTERNET
No dsl
No cable internet
Not going back to dial-up
This leaves sattelite internet.   It is set up at the church and the hope is that we could use that tirelessly, however our wireless router is not powerful enough to transmit next door to the house.  So my phone has literally become my lifeline!  Thank God for unlimited data plans! We are trying to figure out now if we should modify our existing router with stronger antennas,  purchase a new and much more powerful router, or have satellite internet hooked up at the house as well.   All of these options are much harder to research without a computer with internet access!  Anyways, hopefully we will be up and running within the next week and I can hit you all with a whole bunch of catchup posts.

Quite the appetite

Filled up the beast or as the girls call it "the monster truck" for the first time today...not only did it take much longer, but oh the sticker shock!   And other was only 3/4 empty, I dread the fill up when we are actually on e!

Parting is such sweet sorrow...

Yes...if you haven't heard, we are moving!!!  As of June we will call Rotan, TX our new home.  Rotan is a small town out about 30 miles north of Sweetwater, TX which is about 30 miles west of Abilene, TX which is about 120 miles west of Fort Worth, TX which is about 2000 miles southwest of Massachusetts where we were originally hoping to end up after seminary, but God has shown us clearly his plan for us and it leads to Rotan.  We are very excited as this will be Mike's first pastorate.   He was called unanimously to be the senior pastor of Cross Roads Baptist Church.  We absolutely adored the church when we went in view of a call.  It felt like home.  I have never felt so comfortable and at home in a church as I did there...and that is saying something considering the whole preaching in view of a call thing is pretty uncomfortable in and of itself!  As it is starting to sink in our excitement is growing as our sadness is also simultaneously growing.  Fort Worth has been our home for 5 years.  we have spent the majority of our married life here.  We have experienced some of the hardest times we have ever had here.  We have formed friendships and connections that are so sweet and special.  We have a great church and MK goes to an amazing school!  It is going to be hard to say goodbye!  For all of us!  Even Bria will be sad to leave...she doesn't understand why Cheyenne and Aodhan can't come with her!  Then again she doesn't understand why they aren't here 24/7 anyways, but that is besides the point.  Bittersweet is definitely the word that describes this process!  Please pray for us as we finish out our school years and work years and transition, the next 6 weeks will be a whirlwind I am sure!

Welcome to the family!

Last week Mike's car died.    To say we didn't see it coming would be a lie.  It is a 1992 Buick Regal with who knows how many miles on it...the odometer has never worked since we have owned it.   We have been praying it through since we got it.   So new car for us....well, new to us.   Mike found a 1998 Ford Expedition for a great price.  It is in amazing condition and actually has about 6000 miles less on it than a our 7 year newer Saturn Vue...only 108k miles!   We feel so blessed to have found this car and it is everything we wanted for a second car.   Mike will be taking the Vue to and from Dallas until we move and I will get this new beauty!   It is also an added perk that we now have a vehicle that seats 8! 

Lent

Do you participate in Lent?  A lot of people view it as a Catholic Custom or Tradition.  It actually is common in Catholicism, Methodists, Lutherans, Presbyterians, and even some denominations of Baptists.  Lent is traditionally a period of 40 days (give or take some depending on your denomination) from ash Wednesday until Easter Sunday where you commit to fasting and prayer and repentance in order to prepare your heart for Easter and celebrating the gift of salvation given by the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.  I started participating in Lent in college.  Then, I admit, it was something new and I didn't take it to heart like I should have.  Through the years I have enjoyed this time of fasting and it has started to become a meaningful time in the year for me. 

This year, the thing that kept going through my mind the most was that I wanted to focus on making my body a healthy temple for God.  I wanted to make healthier choices and focus on eating to fuel my body and my body as God's vessel for ministry.  So, how do I "fast" that?  Well, I decided to give up Sweets and sugar.  That was a no brainer.  Secondly, though, I decided to give up meat (except fish-a girls gotta have some protein).  Meat is much higher in fat and calories and has the potential to become unhealthy very quickly depending on preparation.  I decided that giving up meat would force me to be creative and think about what I am making and think outside the box to find healthier recipes with leaner proteins and fewer calories.  This has been a lot of fun and delicious!  I have found myself praying each morning that God would help me make healthier choices and through out the day when I am tempted as well. 

There are some that disagree with Lent for various reasons, one being that it is not commanded that we do it in the Bible.  Where this is true, it is also not commanded that we celebrate Christmas or Easter and yet, people don't argue with those.  I think the idea behind Lent is honorable and I don't think that there is a problem with truly committing to focus on God and grow closer to Him through fasting and prayer (which are BOTH mentioned in the Bible). 

Heartbroken....

My heart is breaking right now for a sweet family we know from the seminary.  They had the joy of welcoming their sweet son Graham into the world today. They also experienced the sorrow and grief of saying goodbye to Graham today.  I cannot even imagine how difficult it must be.  Please join me in prayer for this family as they seek comfort from THE Comforter, God our Heavenly Father. 
"And yea though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I will fear no evil for your rod and your staff they comfort me." Psalm 23:4
If you would like to read more about Graham's story you can read it here:

http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/grahamdugan

Holding Pattern

When I was in 9th grade, my dad was stationed in Korea for a year.  He was an Army Chaplain for 22 years and as with all career Army positions, you have to do a hardship tour.  I hated that year.  Not only was my dad thousands of miles away from us, but my parents moved us to a sleepy little town in Mississippi where my grandparents lived so that my mom would have a support system with us girls.  We had lived in El Paso for 3 years and it felt like home.  I had friends and life was good.  So anyways, uproot, move, such is the Army way...and say goodbye to dad.  Oh yeah, like I said, I was in 9th grade...needless to say all the anger I had about my dad being gone I directed at my mom like a good little sinner.  Anyways, we found out that he was going to a conference in Kansas and was given permission to take a weeks leave and come home for one week.  One blessed, long awaited week.  We drove the 2 hours (in the rain of course) to the airport.  About 10 minutes from the airport we stopped at McDonalds for a potty break, I think we were running early.  Well, in all the fluster, my mom got out of the car and locked it with her keys in the car and the car running.  There was no locksmith fast enough!  So now we were running late to the airport, only to find that because of the rain, my dad's plane was now circling the airport in a holding pattern.  We were frustrated.  This went on for what seemed like hours and probably was at least an hour and a half.  From my dad's perspective, he was ready to ask for a parachute and jump just to get to us (that's what training him for the airborn division will do I guess).  Finally, they had to make a decision...fly to another airport or let them land.  It was in that perfect moment that resolution came.  They decided they would let them land withing the next half hour, and they did. Our much anticipated and much delayed reunion happened.

Now....why am I telling you this story.  I mean, it holds great nostalgia for me, no doubt.  But what purpose can it possibly hold right now? 

I am in a holding pattern.  Or I feel like it.  We have been here at seminary for 4 1/2 years.  Almost 5.  And By the time we are done with seminary it will have been 5 1/2 years as Mike is on track for a December graduation.  I am feeling a lot like that night.  Frustrated.  Anxious.  Excited.  Scared.  And In a lot of ways I can identify more with my dad...I just want to put on my parachute and jump and get away from this frustrating, anxious round and round day in day out try to get by and get through it dance we do.  I am so done.  I am done with the crazy work schedule, I am done feeling like a single parent, I am done working two billion jobs to help us make ends meet.  I AM DONE!  Ok...now that I have that out of my system.  I am at that point where I have to decide, do I stay and remain faithful to what God has called or do I turn and run and try to do it on my own?  Obviously I am going to stay.  And don't get me wrong, I love my kids and I truly enjoy all of my jobs.   But man...sometimes I get so overwhelmed with this "holding pattern" that God has us in that it is hard to make it through the day!  I know eventually we will get to "Land" so to say in the next place/job that God has for us, but its the waiting that's hard.  The not knowing when or if you are going to make it.  I have been praying for Peace a lot lately.  It seems to be the biggest need this year.  To be quite honest with you (maybe too honest), sometimes its the only thing that gets me through the day.  But maybe that's not so bad.  Maybe the gift of God's Peace, his perfect Peace is for just that. 

John 14:27
Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.

AMEN!