It has been months since our last update. So where have we been and what has been going on? The easier answer is life, the honest answer is a tremendous amount of love and grace from God.
During this time I have not been able to stay healthy; everything from panic attacks in the middle of the night, to a prostate infection, to being diagnosed with anxiety disorder to awesome strep throat right now. I have seen my family and my church pull close around me and take care of things I thought I had to be the one to do. My love and desire for my wife grows more every day as I see her sacrifice, work and pray daily. She is amazing! My mother and father take care of my daughters and my house without a single tough or judgmental word, just a continued focus on love and serving -2 of the most important things Christ has called us to do.
Our church plant truly feels like it is surrounded by the hands of God and I find myself looking for ways to be more Christlike, but still stay within myself...if that make sense.
The house is messy, Ginger all of a sudden pees every time we leave the house and the cat peed on top of Ginger's pee to prove he is in charge. I have stopped working out and am crazy tired!
With each day and each person I meet it seems that God is reminding me that I cannot do it without Him and that I need to let go of my expectations of being a Christian, a father, a son, a husband and a teacher and just focus on serving Him. We all need Him, no exceptions. No matter how blessed our lives are there is more with a life filled with Christ's love, grace a forgiveness.
For the first time I think about this season I hear the word Emmanuel, which means "God with us." It is this time of the year we celebrate that He chose to be with us.
I did not intend for this to be a spot for testimony, but it just happened. I had intended to post a few pictures and statements to get caught up....here you go.
Ella met Ms. Claus, her favorite, at the Bel Air Christmas parade.
Sammy wasn't worried about Ms. Clause, not when cookies are around!
Baba and the Funival crew blessed our house over Thanksgiving, we even changed the gym into a sort of guest room with shiny insulation walls and a real bed.
Mommy, Grams, Auni Nenni and Ella out for a Christmas show. Grams loves the theater, especially this time of year!
Afterwords they went to dinner where Ella got pink steak, her favorite, and was allowed to use a real knife for the first time.
Smarter and cuter everyday - in that order, if you can believe it.
Ella needed a bumpy pumpkin for Halloween this year, it was REALLY tough to cut!
Samantha is as cute as she looks, but as tough as one of the boys. She loves dinosaurs and chasing us with them, "rooooar."
The Grouchy Lady Bug and her escort. She picked up the idea pretty quickly of walking up to someone and holding out her bucket. Papa is easily one of her favorite people!
Alright Sammy, I mean "Havoc." This morning as I was chasing Samantha through the house to put her in a Figure 4 Leg Lock and pulling her off the kitchen table (what?!) an old X-Factor character came to mind..."Havoc."
Havoc would shoot plasma blasts that he had a hard time controlling. If I remember right (and it has been a while) he is the brother of Cyclops, leader of the X-Men, and the 2 teams were often at ends with each other even though they were often working for the same side. Ummm...Samantha!
Somehow she has learned to climb on the kitchen table where she really dug into some bananas.
