I am really bad at this blogging thing! The blogs that I follow get a new post every week at a minimum and I'm doing about once a quarter! I think part of the reason I don't post more often is I haven't been seeing all the good things there are to share. The good things that God does every single day. I've been asking many of those "why God" questions lately instead of more of the "what next God" questions. You may not know this about me but I am a big whiner! Whine, whine, whine - I'm the biggest whiner on the planet! It is almost always the little things. I'm always asking "why God" about the little, annoying things not big stuff like "why does my friend from my old church have cancer" or "why can't my new friend at church have a baby". It is always the little stuff. Sometimes I think God uses all these little "whys" to strengthen my every day as much as He does the "whys" about the big things. Daily perseverance and faith in Him and finding joy in the every day (sometime annoying) things. "And the apostles said to the Lord, 'Increase our faith'." Luke 17:5. Nothing on this planet can do that - just Him. That is what I need, that is what I pray for.
It isn't about me anyway - none of it. Everything is for Him and His Glory...that is the answer to all my "whys". I can't see how things will glorify Him, but He does. God's gonna do what God's gonna do. My grandmother used to say this all the time. It was her answer to every "why" question. I say it to myself often. It isn't always a comfort, but it is a lot of the time...many times..... most of the time. God knows the answers to all the "whys", He cares about all my "whys" and He is gonna do what He is gonna do. "...I will not leave you nor forsake you." Joshua 1:5 With that promise and countless others from God, I don't even need to know why!
So what do I do? Pray... Persevere... Accept... Pray... Ask..... Have faith.... Pray... Press on.... Believe... Pray.... Cry.... Study His Word.... Pray.... Accept... Groan.... Be Thankful.... Pray.... Practice Gratitude.... Love..... Serve....Pray....
God is Sovereign. God is Almighty.
Have new things to share and lots of picture to upload of things we have done since we've been in Kentucky. Next blog....
Friday, March 16, 2012
Sunday, December 18, 2011
Much to report!
It has been months since I have posted to this blog! Getting adjusted to our new life has taken longer than I expected and adjusting to changes at our age has been challenging, yet exciting.
Gus finished his first semester of seminary the first week in December. It went by so fast and Gus is amazed that he has lived through Hebrew. There were many times during the semester when he thought it would drive him out of his mind. Over break he will continue to study it so he doesn't forget anything when Hebrew starts again next semester. His full time job as a paralegal is going well and he is enjoying the people he is working with at the firm. There are many Christians there, a few of them very passionate Catholics, so Gus is having some invigorating discussions with them. One of the name partners really likes Gus and has given us his great tickets to a few University of Louisville basketball games with VIP lounge access - very fun! Gus has also gotten on the nursing home preaching rotation with our church and is really enjoying preaching there on Sunday afternoons. One of the residents there is Catholic and she calls all the guys that come to preach "Father". Zachary got a big chuckle out of that! Zachary and I go with Gus when he preaches and we enjoy helping him with the residents and last week we sang Christmas carols with them. Zachary wouldn't sing, but he loved helping the ladies back to their rooms.
Our home in Newport News finally sold - PRAISE THE LORD! It took almost two weeks past the original date to close, but as of Friday it is done! I can't begin to describe the feeling of having that burden lifted. Paying that house payment every month for the past six months has wiped away everything we had left. We had to sell the house at such a reduced amount that we are making very little off the house. But it will help pay Gus' tuition and we are so grateful to the Lord for that. He is truly humbling us to rely on His provision as we have not done since Gus was in law school - we have been totally relying on ourselves for far too long. It has been challenging and at times difficult, so we covet your prayers that we will continue to rely totally and completely on Him.
I completed my first class at the Seminary Wives Institute on Spiritual Disciplines. It was an insightful, challenging, and motivating class. We used the book Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life by Don Whitney for the class and the author's wife, Caffe Whitney, was the teacher of the large group and my small group leader was Jodi Ware, Bruce Ware's wife. Dr. Ware is one of the foremost theologians in the country and his wife is a wonderful example.. I was wonderful to be in a group with these two women. I had an accountability partner that I met with every week and we encouraged each other in prayer, Scripture reading, meditation, Scripture memorization, fasting, worship, service and many other areas. Can't wait for my next class to start and I'll be taking Baptist Beliefs with Dr. Al Mohler, the president of the seminary, and Dr. Russell Moore, vice president of the seminary and Dean of the School of Theology. Gus is so jealous that I will take a class taught by these two men before he does!
Zachary's adjustment to all our changes has been an amazing gift from God. Outside of the difficulties of homeschooling a 13 year old, middle schooler, with the same controlling personality as his mother, he is doing great. He loved his travel soccer club this fall and is now playing on an indoor soccer league. We are so pleased with the leadership of his youth group at our new church and he is making lots of new friends there. His Sunday School class actually teaches their lessons right from the Bible - imagine that! No books, no pamphlets, just Scripture and its application to their lives. There are also several kids close to his age in our apartment complex and he loves being able to go to the gym and the recreation center and hang out. One of the kids from his Sunday School class spent the night last night and he was so happy!
Well this is long enough for now. I hope to post more frequently now that we have adjusted to things better and maybe even upload some pictures of activities since we have been in Kentucky. Here is how you can pray for us:
* pray that we continue to deal with the challenges of living in this very old campus apartment with grace and thankfulness;
* pray that I don't pull out all my hair homeschooling my very smart and sweet, yet challenging child;
* pray that Gus will continue to have the physical and mental strength to work a full-time job, be a student, husband to a challenging and difficult wife, and father to a teenager, a grown son, and a future daughter-in-law (phew! when I say all that I realize how easy my job is compared to his!).
"In every situation, in every problem, in every location, in every relationship, every moment in time, God is at work." Paul Tripp
Gus finished his first semester of seminary the first week in December. It went by so fast and Gus is amazed that he has lived through Hebrew. There were many times during the semester when he thought it would drive him out of his mind. Over break he will continue to study it so he doesn't forget anything when Hebrew starts again next semester. His full time job as a paralegal is going well and he is enjoying the people he is working with at the firm. There are many Christians there, a few of them very passionate Catholics, so Gus is having some invigorating discussions with them. One of the name partners really likes Gus and has given us his great tickets to a few University of Louisville basketball games with VIP lounge access - very fun! Gus has also gotten on the nursing home preaching rotation with our church and is really enjoying preaching there on Sunday afternoons. One of the residents there is Catholic and she calls all the guys that come to preach "Father". Zachary got a big chuckle out of that! Zachary and I go with Gus when he preaches and we enjoy helping him with the residents and last week we sang Christmas carols with them. Zachary wouldn't sing, but he loved helping the ladies back to their rooms.
Our home in Newport News finally sold - PRAISE THE LORD! It took almost two weeks past the original date to close, but as of Friday it is done! I can't begin to describe the feeling of having that burden lifted. Paying that house payment every month for the past six months has wiped away everything we had left. We had to sell the house at such a reduced amount that we are making very little off the house. But it will help pay Gus' tuition and we are so grateful to the Lord for that. He is truly humbling us to rely on His provision as we have not done since Gus was in law school - we have been totally relying on ourselves for far too long. It has been challenging and at times difficult, so we covet your prayers that we will continue to rely totally and completely on Him.
I completed my first class at the Seminary Wives Institute on Spiritual Disciplines. It was an insightful, challenging, and motivating class. We used the book Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life by Don Whitney for the class and the author's wife, Caffe Whitney, was the teacher of the large group and my small group leader was Jodi Ware, Bruce Ware's wife. Dr. Ware is one of the foremost theologians in the country and his wife is a wonderful example.. I was wonderful to be in a group with these two women. I had an accountability partner that I met with every week and we encouraged each other in prayer, Scripture reading, meditation, Scripture memorization, fasting, worship, service and many other areas. Can't wait for my next class to start and I'll be taking Baptist Beliefs with Dr. Al Mohler, the president of the seminary, and Dr. Russell Moore, vice president of the seminary and Dean of the School of Theology. Gus is so jealous that I will take a class taught by these two men before he does!
Zachary's adjustment to all our changes has been an amazing gift from God. Outside of the difficulties of homeschooling a 13 year old, middle schooler, with the same controlling personality as his mother, he is doing great. He loved his travel soccer club this fall and is now playing on an indoor soccer league. We are so pleased with the leadership of his youth group at our new church and he is making lots of new friends there. His Sunday School class actually teaches their lessons right from the Bible - imagine that! No books, no pamphlets, just Scripture and its application to their lives. There are also several kids close to his age in our apartment complex and he loves being able to go to the gym and the recreation center and hang out. One of the kids from his Sunday School class spent the night last night and he was so happy!
Well this is long enough for now. I hope to post more frequently now that we have adjusted to things better and maybe even upload some pictures of activities since we have been in Kentucky. Here is how you can pray for us:
* pray that we continue to deal with the challenges of living in this very old campus apartment with grace and thankfulness;
* pray that I don't pull out all my hair homeschooling my very smart and sweet, yet challenging child;
* pray that Gus will continue to have the physical and mental strength to work a full-time job, be a student, husband to a challenging and difficult wife, and father to a teenager, a grown son, and a future daughter-in-law (phew! when I say all that I realize how easy my job is compared to his!).
"In every situation, in every problem, in every location, in every relationship, every moment in time, God is at work." Paul Tripp
Wednesday, September 28, 2011
Blogging
I am not doing very well on this whole blogging thing! There are so many amazing things that God is doing that I want to share, but just really short on time right now as we adjust to everything. Gus - full time job, classes, homework, being a dad and husband. Carol - homeschooling, everything at home since Gus is so busy, my wives seminary class, weekly Bible study, running Zachary to soccer practice, meetings with my accountability partner every week, going back and forth up six sets of stairs to do 5 - 6 loads of laundry a week with only five washers and six dryers available for use. Zachary - his tough schooling with his tough teacher, soccer, weekly Bible study, guitar lessons starting, he helps with my accountability partner's children so she can actually talk with me. So getting this all in line has been a slow process for all of us. Fall break is next week, so planning to have a little more time to blog about some of the things that are happening. God is so good and thanks to all of you who are emailing/facebooking me about how we are doing. Some updates are on the way!
Thursday, August 18, 2011
Change
Living in the same city and the same house for the last 23 years, I forgot how difficult change can be. Especially to someone like me who loves routine, structure, lists, and schedules. We were so happy when the POD arrived last Thursday and we picked up our uhaul to move all our items from the POD. We had rented a storage unit because we knew 23 years of stuff from our house would not fit into a tiny two bedroom, one bath apartment. Although we donated or got rid of a lot of accumulated stuff, there was still too much. We went from a 1364 sq.ft. to 880 sq.ft. Saturday morning Zachary and I went to the apartment to clean and Gus started working on moving things from the POD to the uhaul. He was moving along so nicely, he didn't pay attention to his body and about 1:00 he arrived at the apartment and immediately went to the toilet and threw up for about 10 minutes. He had gotten heat stroke. The poor guy laid down on the hard floor and fell asleep. By the time he woke up it was 3:00 and the uhaul was due back at 4:00. Obviously, we weren't going to make that deadline. We started unloading and 15 minutes later a huge storm came with strong, gusty winds, lightening, and pounding rain. We waited out the storm and began unloading again which was about 9:00 and dark outside and no power inside. Four seminary students in the apartment complex saw us and starting helping us. In about 20 minutes there were ten students and wives helping us. It was wonderful! They were all so much younger than us and were calling us Sir and Ma'am!
The unpacking is going very slowly because every room is filled with stuff and it is difficult to move around and it is a much smaller space than we are use to living in. Everything is covered with something! Needless to say this week I have been very homesick and wishing I was back in Newport News in my house (which hasn't sold yet so please continue to pray for us about that).
Gus started his job and classes on Monday so he has been very busy and very excited this week. He has two night classes and one class, Hebrew, that is 7:00 a.m. Tuesday-Friday. So he goes to class those mornings and then rushes to work his job all day. I think he is amazing! Beyond the unpacking and cleaning, Zachary and I started his 7th grade school year this week with only three subjects and we'll kick in with all subjects next week. Zachary has been wonderful. We got him up and running online as soon as we could so he can play games online with all his old friends. He helped a mom that lives under us Wednesday by playing ball with her 4 year old daughter so she could have a break - she has an 8 month also. Yesterday he went to the gym on campus and played basketball with a girl his age that lives in our building. We had already made contact with a soccer club before we moved so he practiced with them this week and made the team. So for Zachary, life is good!
We have met all the families that live right around us and what an interesting group. We have a very young couple, an Asian couple with two children, and a family from Nigeria with 4 daughters. In talking with the Nigerian family, we learned that they just moved here too. We assumed that they came to seminary to learn and take back what they learned to their country to share the gospel with people there. But they came here to share the gospel in America. They told us that people in their country see American lifestyle and that people here love money and possessions more than they love Jesus and they do not value families and children like they should. What a sad commentary on our nation and how wonderful that they would care about us enough to leave everything to come here.
We covet your prayers and would ask that you pray for Gus to have the stamina (we aren't spring chickens you know!) to work, go to class, and do all his homework - he has had two Hebrew quizzes already the first week of classes. Pray that my homesickness with pass so I can embrace the mission and work God has for us here. Pray that Zachary will make friends and embrace the new school year. Pray for us as we begin trying local churches this Sunday that God will lead us to the place He would have us serve and worship. Pray for our house to sell.
May we be obedient to God's will and His leading.
The unpacking is going very slowly because every room is filled with stuff and it is difficult to move around and it is a much smaller space than we are use to living in. Everything is covered with something! Needless to say this week I have been very homesick and wishing I was back in Newport News in my house (which hasn't sold yet so please continue to pray for us about that).
Gus started his job and classes on Monday so he has been very busy and very excited this week. He has two night classes and one class, Hebrew, that is 7:00 a.m. Tuesday-Friday. So he goes to class those mornings and then rushes to work his job all day. I think he is amazing! Beyond the unpacking and cleaning, Zachary and I started his 7th grade school year this week with only three subjects and we'll kick in with all subjects next week. Zachary has been wonderful. We got him up and running online as soon as we could so he can play games online with all his old friends. He helped a mom that lives under us Wednesday by playing ball with her 4 year old daughter so she could have a break - she has an 8 month also. Yesterday he went to the gym on campus and played basketball with a girl his age that lives in our building. We had already made contact with a soccer club before we moved so he practiced with them this week and made the team. So for Zachary, life is good!
We have met all the families that live right around us and what an interesting group. We have a very young couple, an Asian couple with two children, and a family from Nigeria with 4 daughters. In talking with the Nigerian family, we learned that they just moved here too. We assumed that they came to seminary to learn and take back what they learned to their country to share the gospel with people there. But they came here to share the gospel in America. They told us that people in their country see American lifestyle and that people here love money and possessions more than they love Jesus and they do not value families and children like they should. What a sad commentary on our nation and how wonderful that they would care about us enough to leave everything to come here.
We covet your prayers and would ask that you pray for Gus to have the stamina (we aren't spring chickens you know!) to work, go to class, and do all his homework - he has had two Hebrew quizzes already the first week of classes. Pray that my homesickness with pass so I can embrace the mission and work God has for us here. Pray that Zachary will make friends and embrace the new school year. Pray for us as we begin trying local churches this Sunday that God will lead us to the place He would have us serve and worship. Pray for our house to sell.
May we be obedient to God's will and His leading.
Sunday, August 7, 2011
Living Quarters
Sitting in this extended stay hotel puts a new perspective on being a "close" family and living in a 2 bedroom, 1 bath apartment will certainly be a huge change for us. When we were looking for a place to live in Louisville, we didn't really consider the on-campus, married housing because we were being far to picky. We were use to our 3 bedroom, 2 bath house with my big kitchen and our large great room and we didn't want to settle for anything less than that. We did really want to live near campus to be close for Gus to get to class, we could all take advantage of the gym, and I would be close for my wives seminary classes. So we began looking at homes for rent and for sale near the campus - nothing worked out. We gradually started looking at places a little further from campus - nothing worked out. We did find a cute little house for rent, but it was 35 minutes away from campus and we really didn't want to go that far. As our week of looking was coming to an end, we were getting very discouraged and being only two weeks away from moving, we were feeling a little desperate! So we began looking at townhouses and apartments. The rent was very expensive and we weren't finding anything available until months after we needed to be here. Ugh!
One Sunday, a friend mentioned to Gus that we should look at on-campus housing. This same friend sent me a note on facebook about it. Even though we knew the on-campus housing fills up very quickly and the chances were slim there would be anything available, Gus gave them a call. Yippee! They had one 2 bedroom, 1 bath in married with no children available. Since Zachary is 12 they didn't really consider him a child that needed to be in married with children housing. What a blessing! Everything immediately fell into place and it was clear it is what God intended for us all along. If only we hadn't been so intent on what WE wanted, we could have saved ourselves a lot of time and stress.
So for this week we are in an extended stay place until our apartment is ready at the end of the week. We are excited about being right around the corner from campus. There are sooooo many great things about it that I will have to save it for another post.
God is good all the time!
One Sunday, a friend mentioned to Gus that we should look at on-campus housing. This same friend sent me a note on facebook about it. Even though we knew the on-campus housing fills up very quickly and the chances were slim there would be anything available, Gus gave them a call. Yippee! They had one 2 bedroom, 1 bath in married with no children available. Since Zachary is 12 they didn't really consider him a child that needed to be in married with children housing. What a blessing! Everything immediately fell into place and it was clear it is what God intended for us all along. If only we hadn't been so intent on what WE wanted, we could have saved ourselves a lot of time and stress.
So for this week we are in an extended stay place until our apartment is ready at the end of the week. We are excited about being right around the corner from campus. There are sooooo many great things about it that I will have to save it for another post.
God is good all the time!
Monday, August 1, 2011
Finding a Job
So much has happened since the last blog. We were in Kentucky a week ago for two job interviews and to look for places to live. Zachary spent the week with cousins which made him extremely happy and I am so thankful to them for keeping him at the last minute. Z would have found it extremely boring to look at houses every day for a week.
I don't remember if I mentioned before that Gus decided not to pursue a job as a lawyer for several reasons. It would be very mentally demanding and time consuming as he well knows to continue being a lawyer (after hours depositions, meetings, etc.) and try to attend classes, do all the reading/homework, spend time with family, etc. In addition, his Virginia Bar license would not transfer so he would have to spend time studying and spend $1,000 to take the Kentucky bar exam. So we decided it would not be worth it to do that especially when he strongly feels God will not lead him to be a lawyer again.
So he subscribed to the major Louisville newspaper so we could get the classifieds. He began to apply for every job he felt he could do. As he applied for the jobs, it was hilarious to see that he wasn't qualified to do anything but be a lawyer. Even a janitor job he saw that he would have been willing to do (whatever pays the bills!), he wasn't qualified to do because he had no training in OSHA safety requirements. But his legal knowledge paid off and he got interviews at two law firms as a paralegal. He got offers from both interviews 15 minutes after he left their offices! He took the second offer because the work would be more varied and interesting. Both offered him a salary we felt we could live with and benefits, so we are thankful to God for that! His timing once again was so amazing. The salary is so much less than he has made the last 15 years and we will truly need to rely on God's daily provision and His guidance on living a much more frugal life. We are excited about it! We have also paid off every dime of debt we owe (except for our house which is still not sold) and I can't tell you how FREE we feel!
More on housing later. Glory to God for it all!
I don't remember if I mentioned before that Gus decided not to pursue a job as a lawyer for several reasons. It would be very mentally demanding and time consuming as he well knows to continue being a lawyer (after hours depositions, meetings, etc.) and try to attend classes, do all the reading/homework, spend time with family, etc. In addition, his Virginia Bar license would not transfer so he would have to spend time studying and spend $1,000 to take the Kentucky bar exam. So we decided it would not be worth it to do that especially when he strongly feels God will not lead him to be a lawyer again.
So he subscribed to the major Louisville newspaper so we could get the classifieds. He began to apply for every job he felt he could do. As he applied for the jobs, it was hilarious to see that he wasn't qualified to do anything but be a lawyer. Even a janitor job he saw that he would have been willing to do (whatever pays the bills!), he wasn't qualified to do because he had no training in OSHA safety requirements. But his legal knowledge paid off and he got interviews at two law firms as a paralegal. He got offers from both interviews 15 minutes after he left their offices! He took the second offer because the work would be more varied and interesting. Both offered him a salary we felt we could live with and benefits, so we are thankful to God for that! His timing once again was so amazing. The salary is so much less than he has made the last 15 years and we will truly need to rely on God's daily provision and His guidance on living a much more frugal life. We are excited about it! We have also paid off every dime of debt we owe (except for our house which is still not sold) and I can't tell you how FREE we feel!
More on housing later. Glory to God for it all!
Sunday, June 19, 2011
Depending on God
I wanted to talk about money. I don't like talking about money and my husband doesn't allow us to tell people about our finances - not even Ryan or Zachary has ever known how much money their Dad makes or how much our house cost or any debts we've had. But since we truly want God to get all the glory for this new adventure we are on and I've had some comments that make me feel like I should clear up a few things. A few well meaning friends have indicated how blessed we are for Gus to be able to quit work and go to seminary for three years without worrying about money. I guess they assume that because Gus was a lawyer, all lawyers are rich, so thus we have loads of money piled away to just take it easy while he goes to school. We didn't always make the right choices with our money at the beginning of our marriage (Ryan and Diana - please don't make that mistake! Love you!) and so we spent the first five years of our marriage getting into debt while Gus finished his last year at Virginia Tech and went to UVA Law School for three years. We spent the next five years getting out of debt and getting ourselves straight on what we should be doing with God's money. We had a nice chunk in our savings account and started building up some money in 401K and retirement accounts. As many of you know, we felt God leading us to not go into debt for Ryan's college and not let him start off in debt either. So after $63,000 went to four years of tuition and room/board for college and $15,000 repairing and fixing the house up to get it sold, well let's just say we will be depending on God to provide everything we need. We certainly have the option to move money from retirement and other investments for us to live on for the next three to four years but we have decided not to go that route. We truly feel God calling us to depend totally on Him. We are putting our retirement and other funds in accounts that will not make it easy for us to get to them and we will live on whatever Gus makes at whatever job God leads us to.
"Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing." Matthew 6:25.
So this just isn't a career adventure for us, it is a total and complete dependence on God for everything - EVERYTHING! And that is something we have not done in a long time - it feels amazing. We have no job and no place to live in Kentucky right now and are unsure who will give us a place to live if we have no job.
"Now it happened as they journeyed on the road, that someone said to Him, "Lord, I will follow You wherever You go. And Jesus said to him, "Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head." Luke 9:57-58
Jesus had no home and did not earn an income to provide food, but trusted His Father in Heaven to provide all He needed. So everything in our new direction of life, will absolutely be done by God and provided by Him - no one else. We begin this journey with less than we have had since we first got married. In fact, we were the happiest in our married life when we lived in Blacksburg, Virginia in a dumpy trailer, living on a secretary's salary, and didn't know how our bills were going to be paid (except for having two great kids since then that made life quite happy!) We have come back to where we started except this time we will be putting our trust in our Father in Heaven and not ourselves. Am I still scared, oh yeah!
"Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing." Matthew 6:25.
So this just isn't a career adventure for us, it is a total and complete dependence on God for everything - EVERYTHING! And that is something we have not done in a long time - it feels amazing. We have no job and no place to live in Kentucky right now and are unsure who will give us a place to live if we have no job.
"Now it happened as they journeyed on the road, that someone said to Him, "Lord, I will follow You wherever You go. And Jesus said to him, "Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head." Luke 9:57-58
Jesus had no home and did not earn an income to provide food, but trusted His Father in Heaven to provide all He needed. So everything in our new direction of life, will absolutely be done by God and provided by Him - no one else. We begin this journey with less than we have had since we first got married. In fact, we were the happiest in our married life when we lived in Blacksburg, Virginia in a dumpy trailer, living on a secretary's salary, and didn't know how our bills were going to be paid (except for having two great kids since then that made life quite happy!) We have come back to where we started except this time we will be putting our trust in our Father in Heaven and not ourselves. Am I still scared, oh yeah!
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