God's Will & Making Adjustments...How we got to Stillwater

Experiencing God is one of the most influential studies I have been through. In fact, after going through three of four workbooks I went out and bought a book I can just mark up and reuse it. Two of the principles in the study is that God reveals his way to us and we have to make adjustments (sometimes major adjustments) to join him in his work. I've been praying for a God size task for our family about six months ago.

About two months ago, we received a call from the man who officitated our wedding (we will call him Ta-Ta, his given name by Puddin'). Ta-ta has been a widow for almost a year, has had been through a heart transplant two years ago, and was trying to sell his house. When he called he asked us to pray about moving in with him with a lease to own option on his house that would allow us to purchase the house at a later date.

Now..a side trip from the story. Dad has been praying off and on for about five years that the family could move to Stillwater. Oklahoma State is located there and there is a huge international community, including one of the largest Muslim populations in the state. And he had a desire to minister to the international students on campus. But, God has been silent and the few times dad looked into it the doors were never open.

Now back to the story...When Ta-ta asked us to move in with him, we had to pray about it. Was this the way God was getting us to Stillwater? We would be combining four adults and three dogs into one household. We prayed, we discussed it, we prayed some more.

The orginal agreement Ta-ta gave us was that we should try it out for thirty days and continue to seek God. So, as we prayed some more we figured the best thing was to take a step of faith and move in with Ta-ta and see what God is doing.

So, last week we moved in with Ta-ta, of course, Puddin' instantly adjusted and loves exploring the new house, the dogs just ignore each other, and the three adults are prayerfully walking day by day and seeing what God does next. So, we will keep you posted, but it seems that God has put us on a great adventure and we look forward to seeing what he does trhough us as we make the adjustments (and it is an adjustment, but we have already seen God provide in many ways).

Also, dad is taken up the Hindi language since he has a growing number of Indian clients and hoping God will make this his mission field.

More to come...

Copy Cat

This picture proves that children learn from us even when we don't know it. Puddin' has begin to lean on the wall and fold her arms when she's outside. Dad asked mom one day, "why does she do that?" Mom replied, "Because you do." When we go outside in the front yard, dad will lean against the wall or the tree. Puddin' has even started walking like dad at times (with her arms behind her back). Our prayer is that she won't just pick up our "physical" habits, but she would see Christ in our lives and have a love for him.

Two Signs I'm Getting Old....

The first sign is that in watching the NBA draft I recognized more names of GMs, coaches, and front office people than people getting drafted.

The second sign is by what I did on my birthday, here was the exciting day--worked nine hours, got home ate left over pizza, walked the dogs, gave my daughter a bath, and reput together our bed frame to stop the squeeking.

39th Year of Life

Today, I start my 39th year on this life journey. I've been telling people I'm one year away from a mid-life crisis and somebody informed me that I shouldn't go through a mid-life crisis until I'm 50. I told them I'm impatient and want to get it over with. I always make goals I want to accomplish for the upcoming year on my birthday, and have started praying that no matter what that this year God would give me the grace to know him more deeply, serve him better, and be a better husband and father, but outside those things here are the top five things I want to accomplish before I turn 40.

1. I want to memorize Psalm 119
2. I want to earn my Certified Financial Planner designation.
3. I want to go on a mission trip this year
4. I want to finally write that book I've always said I'll write
5. I want to learn the Hindi language this year.

Stay tuned throughout the year to see how these turn out.

Moving

For the past four years we have been praying about moving to Stillwater, Ok. There are several reasons, but one of the state universities are there and dad has desired to work with the international student population. It has never been feasible, but about two months ago God provided us an opportunity, so this weekend we are moving to Stillwater. Dad will still work for the same company, and we are going to just see where God reveals what He is doing him and join Him in Stillwater. This is definitely an "experiening God" moment, he revealed himself and his purpose and we are making the necessary adjustments to join him and see what happens next. More to come later....

Jesus Love.....

Puddin' has acquired her mom's love for music, and as for as we can tell, also her mom's talents for music. We have been teaching her to sing "Jesus Loves Me" and she has picked up on "so" the two times that it appears in the song and she even extends the last "so" to "soooooo." The other morning mom was working with Jorja during breakfast on maybe learning "me" where it fits in the song. So, as they sang, mom would sing, "Jesus loves ____" and try to get Puddin' to fill in the blank. After a few repeats, Puddin' caught on and when mom sang, "Jesus loves ___, Puddin' sang "pancakes." Which I'm glad because if Jesus loves pancakes surely they will be served in heaven, maybe we will even have pancakes for supper like Hardy Hall used to do once or twice a semester in college.

I felt guilty...

because I haven't posted in about two weeks, but then I discovered this post will tie how many posts we put up in 2007, so we are slowly getting better. Things have been crazy around our house...there will be a longer post in the near future, but we are moving to Stillwater, Ok at the end of this month. God has provided us a house and a new adventure. Dad will stay with his same company, his clients are all over Oklahoma, Illinois, Texas, and one up in New York, and as long as he has his computer he can do his work. He even has some clients in the Stillwater area, but will hope to acquire a few more in the move.

I have a puddin' demanding some daddy time....so this will be updated (with some pictures) when she goes to sleep tonight.