It just so happens...

Let me start off by saying I like it when people have reoccurring themes in their blogs so I have decided to create some for my blog. The first one will be titled "It just so happens..." This title came from a Bible study on the book of Ruth I was involved in last fall. The play group I joined with our church here in Jacksonville did an alternating play group/Bible study every week. The play group was fun, but Clark wasn't really old enough to play yet and most of the kids were a good bit older than him. I really went because I needed friends. The Bible study was the highlight of the group for me because we talked about things that were going on in our lives and studied together. Our group leader decided to try out an online sermon series instead of reading a book. She said she often has so many books to read that it's hard to make time to read the Bible, so instead of having another book we listened to the sermon for the week, took notes, read the passage that went with the week and then brought questions/discussion we got from the text.

We studied the book of Ruth with Mark Driscoll. It was my first exposure to Mark Driscoll and it was a wonderful study. The first chapter was by far my favorite. He went through the themes of Ruth and one of the things he said was that the author often uses the language "It just so happens..." when he's talking about something God prearranged to work for the character's good. For instance Ruth "just so happens" to glean in the field of Boaz, or Boaz "just so happens" to be from Naomi's family line. The author doesn't really mean it happened by chance, but it's a way of making these arrangements from God stand out. Also, the reoccurring theme makes these seeming coincidences draw the attention of the reader.

As I started thinking there are so many "just so happens" events that God has orchestrated in my life to bring me to where I am today. Often I forget these things, view them as coincidences or just take them for granted. So, I've decided to start retelling these stories for my own benefit and for the benefit of anyone who happens upon my blog. To start out I may go back and record some of the "just so happens" stories from the last few years and then add the new ones as they happen. Here's a quick list of some of the things I may go back and ellaborate on in more detail in the future.

God's provision of scholarships, work study and random gifts to pay for my college education debt free.

God's provision of $28.000 needed to send me to Japan in only 5 weeks time.

Landing in Tokyo in a short two hour window between a typhoon ending and the 9/11 attack which would have grounded our plane for over a week.

Michael and I's "chance" meeting at a Boy Scout camp in New Mexico (how can you not say God had something to do with that?)

God's provision of a 5 bedroom house for us to live in rent free for 7 months when Michael first started seminary while we waited for our house to sell.

A buyer for our house without a realtor so that we didn't have to pay commission, made money off our house even in a down market, paid off Michael's car, paid for seminary and still have money is savings.

The thousands of dollars paid toward Michael's seminary, most of which didn't come from us.

Living within 30 minutes of my grandparents for the last 7 months of my grandma's life-- she got to see Clark often (which always brought a smile to her face) and I could spend time with her and my Grandpa could become one of my best friends in Jacksonville.

Ok, so you get the idea. Just writing this list makes me excited to see what God's going to do in the future, especially in bringing Michael into the ministry job he has been preparing for him (even though he hasn't revealed that to us yet).

It's the little things.

The weather has been so beautiful the last few days. Low 70's, clear and sunny is perfect! Because of daylight savings time it's light after we finish dinner, so the last few nights we've taken a family walk (well, Clark rides). Caroline is staying with us this week so she has joined us for our family walks. As I sat down to write I couldn't think of anything in particular. All I could think is that it's the little things that make life great. I don't want to take it for granted when we have beautiful weather or the ability to be together as a family and have the health and physical ability to exercise together.

Life has been a rollercoaster since last summer. The move to Jacksonville has been full of ups and downs. Michael was miserable in his job with the Boy Scouts, he was applying for church jobs and hearing no answer or "we've decided to go with other candidates", we've gotten our hopes up about several jobs and then smashed repeatedly. I've found myself getting discouraged and feeling sorry for myself.

I'm reminded of a sermon Chuck Berry preached a few years ago (you can tell it had an impact on me since I still remember it and reference it after several years). My paraphrase of his main point was that when we face hard times the difference between discouragement and faith is what set of circumstances we choose to focus on. One of his examples was the Israelites crossing the Red Sea. They could choose to look at the army of Egyptians chasing them or at the pillar of fire (God) leading them who had just parted the Red Sea. In our current situation I often find myself focusing on the negative circumstances, rather than on the way God had been providing.

In the past few months since Michael quit with the Boy Scouts we have had several unexpected sizable checks sent to us in the mail or left on our counter, a tax refund over twice what I thought was possible, a retirement payout because Michael wasn't vested in the 5 months he worked for the Boy Scouts and mandatory overtime in the first job he worked with Kelly Services, and we had an energy credit on our power bill so that it was only $35 in the coldest month of the year. Even though he's been out of work now for three months we still have money in our bank account, our bills are paid and we haven't taken any money out of savings. We have been forced to trust God even more than usual and he has proven faithful. We never know where the money is coming from or how it is going to arrive, but God has not left us alone.

I'm choosing to focus on God's provision. Just today I found a visa gift card I thought was empty. I called to check the balance to be sure before I threw it away and found it had $104 on it! God's provision once again!

We have a walker!

Clark's first trip to Disney

Mom and Dad are in Hawaii for two weeks, so they asked me to come stay with Caroline for a few days so she won't be alone too much. She loves being home alone, but she turns into a hermit, so she needs a little help having contact with the outside world. One of the perks of coming is that their neighbor across the street agreed to get us into Disney one of the days. So, last Wednesday Joel, Caroline, Clark and I went to Hollywood Studies and Magic Kingdom....FOR FREE!!! This time of year is perfect for the parks because it's not hot yet, but it's not cold anymore. Thankfully we avoided the rain. I love free days at Disney because I don't feel any pressure to ride a bunch of rides or stand in crazy long lines. I can leisurely stroll through the park and go to the things with the shortest lines.

I was afraid I might be crazy taking a one year old to Disney, but we had a great day! Indiana Jones was our first stop. Clark didn't seem to mind the explosions, but he had a meltdown every time the audience clapped and cheered. He actually liked the little cars in the stunt show and of course he tried to make friends with the people who sat around us before the show started. Here are a few pictures of our adventure.

Clark sitting with Uncle Joel waiting for the stunt show

Classic picture in front of Cinderella's castle

We rode the Peoplemover twice because it had no line. Clark loved it, although he wasn't so sure about the dark part through Space Mountain.

Shooting the targets on Buzz Lightyear. He liked the numbers changing and didn't discover the gun until the end.

On the carousel he jumped back and forth between Caroline and I. Once it started moving he rode with me.

Trying out the 3-D glasses at Philharmagic. He actually wore them during the show. I took a picture of it's too dark to see clearly.

Tired boy on the tram at the end of a busy day.

I love this kid!

Clark's basic bedtime routine includes a bath with lots of rubber duckies, brushing his teeth, reading a book and then rocking with me while I sing him a few bedtime songs (also known as the songs I remember from my CEF days). He doesn't usually fall asleep before I put him in bed, but he lays down with his lullaby seahorse and goes to sleep without a fuss. Tonight when I was rocking him and singing he started singing with me and giving me kisses. His little voice is so sweet.

Where to begin...

Obviously it's been quite some time since I've blogged. We started this blog to share our adventure in London, but recently I've decided to pick it back up again. The last post is from Christmas '08 when I was pregnant with Clark and it's now March '10 and Clark has already celebrated his first birthday, Clearly I've missed a lot. I won't even try to catch up on everything. 2009 was a year we will never forget. By far, the best part was Clark. He is such a precious gift...I thank God for him everyday.

I've never been much of a writer since I usually can't decide where to begin or what to say, but I'm going to try this out and see how it goes.

Christmas has arrived!

Our apartment is all decorated for Christmas and we're done with our Christmas shopping. This year we had to be very economical in our purchases because of the added expenses of our arrival in February and the lack of pay during maternity leave. God as good and provided money through our rewards points on our visa which we have never cashed in. We feel so blessed!

This afternoon was a bit traumatic (especially for Michael). Ever since we moved in our apartment nearly two years ago it's been our intention to find a new home for Schroeder. The apartment is so small and the two dogs don't have space to get out all their energy. We didn't want to just get rid of him, we wanted to find him a home that would love him and take care of him. We've been dragging our feet because we knew it would be hard, but we finally realized we had to do it. A lady in Orlando posted on Craigslist that she was looking for a small dog. She has a big backyard, another dog to be Schroeder's friend and a nephew for Schroeder to play with. He sent to her immediately and licked her face. She thought he was so cute and sweet. Michael is sad and will miss him for a while, but it's much more peaceful in the apartment and Hank seems to love having the attention all for himself. It will be easier to keep him out more and walking one dog is much easier than walking two (especially with a newborn in the house soon).

This week I started my last trimester. 11 1/2 weeks to go!! (assuming Clark decides to show up on time). He is an active little guy who loves to kick and squirm and move around in my belly. We've had so much fun watching him move. One of our favorite things is Michael likes to put his ear to my stomach to see if her can hear anything. When he does, Clark will kick right where his face is pressing. He's a feisty little boy already kicking his daddy in the head :) We've got the nursery set up and if I can figure out how to post pictures on here I'll put up some shots we took as well as the sonogram picture.

Michael finishes finals on Tuesday and then he has two Winter term classes, a full load in the Spring and three more classes to take in the summer and online. He'd love to be done now, but he's close enough we can see the light at the end of the tunnel. We're trusting God to provide the finances we need to get through the last few classes and live during maternity leave. He has been so faithful to provide in the past, we know he will provide now, although it's a little scary when we see the numbers on paper.

We're going to Colorado for Christmas to spend time with Michael's family. We're excited to see everyone and spend time with Trey who found out this week he's going to have a little sister just a month and half younger than Clark. Everyone is super excited!

Since I'm not very regular about posting, I'll go ahead and wish everyone a Merry Christmas!