Journey

Just wanted to let you all know that I won't be writing in my blog for a little while. I'm going to Wisconsin for a wedding. :) I hope you all have a great weekend.

Peace <><

Thanks Teresa

Not a lot going on today. I was really excited when I checked the mail today. :) My friend Teresa sent me a book in the mail. Not just any book, but Karen Kingsbury's Ever After. I can't wait to start reading it. Later this afternoon I met my mother and sister-n-law at a cute little restaurant. We had a good time chatting and catching up.

Right now I'm just waiting for Eric to get home from work. He called and said that because of the rain people feel the need to drive 20 mph. HAHA! Well I'm going to finish getting ready for dinner. Everyone have a wonderful evening!

It's been almost two weeks already...

Sorry I didn't realize that it has been almost two weeks since my last post!

Just to bring you all up to date. I had a great time in Indiana. It was really nice to be there for longer then a weekend. I got to spend lots of time with everyone including my two adorable nieces! :) I also managed to do some garage sale(ing) on my way out of town. :) It was a good week!

Regarding missions. I know I haven't updated in a while. We heard back from Headquarters and they said that everything looked great on our application except for the fact that we had never been on any long term missions trips (the longest we had both been was 2 weeks). So, our next step is to volunteer for 3months-1year overseas. They mentioned that they already have some places that could use some help in Europe and Asia Pacific. Some of the places in Europe include: Poland, Slovenia, and Macedonia. I'm not sure yet where the places are in the Asia Pacific. They noted that we should be ready to go by January, 2008.

As soon as we figure out a destination then we get to start the lovely fundraising part of it. This is my least favorite part. :( I just hate asking people for money. The thing that I keep reminding myself is this is God's will for us and whether it be $5000 or $25,000 we will get the money!! God will provide! He always has before!!!

On a completely different note the past couple of weeks I have been reading about how God created each of us unique. This just amazes me. I can't even fathom that EVERY person on this planet is unique! WOW! That just shows how big a God we serve! Another thing I've been thinking about is how we/I complain about my appearance. There is always something that I'm discontent with. I don't know if you have ever made anything. I know that when Eric and I started dating I made him a scrapbook. I poured hours and hours of my time into that silly thing. It was so important to me that I cared about every single little detail. If someone even dared to say something negative about it I would have been crushed!! All that work!! In the same way I made that book God also made each of us and how much more important are we then that silly book. He put so much time into creating us so that we would be completely different then everyone else around us. I never really thought about the fact that when we pick apart and criticize ourselves we are directly criticizing God's work! He made us just the way we are.

Also, in the same aspect we should take care of what God made. This is really hard for me to take hold of. Working out and eating healthy hasn't really ever been one of my strong points! I really believe that we need to think more about how we are treating our bodies and what we are putting in our bodies on a daily basis. I'm not saying you have to be a fitness freak, but get a little exercise every once in a while. It doesn't take much effort to go for a walk. It can actually be quite enjoyable, especially if you remind yourself why you're doing it. :)Well I need to get off here and get ready. Eric and I are going to the Latino Festival tonight. I am excited. Hopefully we'll get to try some new food and maybe even see some cool dancing! Hopefully they won't make us participate! HA HA :)

Be careful what you pray for.

Well it's about 6am here and I can't sleep. You might be thinking, oh 6am, that's not bad, I get up at 5am.... well 6am is just when I decided to actually get out of bed because I got sick of staring at the ceiling for 3 hours!! That's right, I've been up since 3am. Oh, and you may think, well that's not that bad. At least you got a few hours of sleep!! WRONG!! I went to bed around 2isham!! I was trying to prolong the night as much as I could since Eric is leaving for a business trip today! He will be gone for a WHOLE week! I know some of you at this point are rolling your eyes and thinking how pathetic I am! HAHA :) I just really love my husband!

I am heading off to my parents for the week! I am looking forward to my time there! Actually I got a really good idea from my pastor's wife. Once every year her and her husband go their separate ways for a week or maybe just a few days and spend their time of "solitude". Basically they go to a location where it is harder to reach them and where they are less tempted to check email or whatever they do on a daily basis. While they are their they spend time praying, fasting, reading, writing in their journals, basically whatever they can do to get closer to God. So, this next week that's I what I'm going to be doing. Eric and I have had a lot of decisions to make these past few weeks, well really this past year, and I think this is the perfect time to go and pray more about everything!! Before I head off I want to share a really cool story.

So on Friday I got up and did my devotions. God has really been speaking to me lately about the importance of spending time with him first thing in the morning. So I usually get up, let Lucas out then sit at the table and eat my Cheerios and drink my hot green tea and spend my time with God there! Awhile ago I told you about the devotion book I've been reading. It's been awesome! It's called Women of the Bible. Well on Friday my study was about the importance of having other women to guide you and be there for you. As you know, we moved to Ohio about two years ago and it's been challenging to meet new friends. Honestly, it took me about a year to even want to. I made amazing friends in college and I didn't feel that I needed anyone else. I'm glad that I got a new outlook. I have met some pretty amazing people here. My friend Alicia is one. She has been a great friend and really stuck with me through the tough times! :)

So Friday I read this lesson and it read at the bottom to ask God to send you a friend that can keep you accountable and that you can get to know more, so I did. Well I finished up reading and praying and grabbed my backpack and headed for the pool. Little did I know that a storm was following me to the pool. No joke, once I got down working out and I had just laid my towel down beside the pool the rain started coming down. I wondered why everyone was leaving when I was walking in. Everyone left which meant that I was sitting there alone in the pouring rain! HAHA At first this really ticked me off, but then I started enjoying it. I mean how often are you already dressed to get wet when it's pouring! I felt like a little kid jumping in a rain puddle! :) Well pretty soon this lady comes through the gate. She must have felt like a little kid too because she came right in and jumped in the FREEZING cold pool! We both started laughing!

Finally the rain went away and the sun slowly started to peek through the clouds, so I decided to be brave and go put my feet in the water. Well when I did the lady turned around and we started talking. We talked about family, jobs, the pool, vacation.. basically EVERYTHING! Finally I decided to be brave and ask her if she attends church. She said she did! So we started talking about that. This is when I noticed that she seemed to be more serious about church then most people are when you ask this question. Most of the time people say, "oh yes, we are very religious, we attend on Easter, Christmas, Mother's Day"... you get the point. She wasn't like this, she was talking about God and Bible Studies and women and her passions. I started to get a little excited. :) Finally she asked me if I was involved in any women Bible studies. I told her no. So she asked me if I would be interested in joining her Bible study at her apartment on Thursdays!! :) How awesome! After we talked for a while, I asked her if I could tell her something and have her not think I'm crazy. I told her about my devotion book and that I specifically asked God for a friend today and He answered my prayer. It was so amazing! We ended up spending about 4 hours talking IN THE POOL! HAHA I looked like a prune when I got out, not to mention my legs felt like jell-o. But that crazy lady that walked through the gate and jumped in the pool in the pouring down rain just happened to be my new God-sent friend! :)

I'll keep you all updated on how the Bible Studies goes! I am really looking forward to them!!:)

I think I hear Eric stirring around in the other room. I better go check to make sure he's awake and not having another one of those silly dreams of his! HAHA That's a whole other post!!
Happy Sunday everyone!