Update on our Building Process

Many of you have asked where we stand in our building process. We've been waiting for approval from the state fire marshall's office for the last few weeks. Until we receive our approved set of final plans, we cannot stub the plumbing or pour the concrete slab. Our volunteer teams were set to arrive next weekend. They have been patiently waiting to hear a for sure answer that we were ready for them, but had to have a definite answer Tuesday. We had to tell them no. We will not have the slab ready for them to begin construction. Our loan was contingent upon the volunteer labor as well. So, this means we are seemingly starting over. It's shocking, it hurts, and I've cried a lot of tears over this. However, God was not surprised by this at all! He has known from the beginning the path He would lead us on in order to see His will accomplished. We don't doubt for a minute that He is in total control, but it is still difficult when you've imagined something one way and the plan changes.

I've reflected on the situation the past few days before writing about it. I wanted my mind to have time to process things. As I've looked back, I honestly believe that Corey, the leadership of our church, and our church as a whole has followed God to the point we are at now. I don't think we strayed off the path or tried to rush ahead. The story in the Bible that resonates in my mind is when the Israelites left Egypt. God sent Moses to lead them out, He performed many miracles in their presence, and then He sent them out with wealth and possessions. And then, the part that has always puzzled me is when the Israelites come to the Red Sea. Immediately they begin to complain and ask why they had ever left, they'd have been better off in Egypt they moaned. What? How could they say that? How could they lack faith that the same God who had miraculously delivered them from Egypt could have the power to remove the obstacle before them? And how, after seeing all those miracles could they doubt that He was the one making the way for them? And then, in His timing, when the Egyptian army was pressing down on them, He parted the Red Sea in a awesome display of His power and glory. Amazing! I see so many parallels with our current situation. We have marveled at the miracles that God has used to bring us to this point. Do we now dare doubt His power to handle this obstacle? I can't...I won't! God who has promised is faithful! Why has He chosen to lead us to the Red Sea? I don't know. How will He part the waters? I'm honestly not sure. But I do not doubt that it is God who has brought us to this point and it is God who will be given glory for His awesome power and wisdom when we come across on the other side.

I will do my best to update as we gain understanding as to how He is working things out. Please be in prayer for Corey, our leadership and our church as a whole as we seek to continue following God in this process.

Final Day

We packed up most everything Monday night so that we could hit the beach bright and early Tuesday morning. We were able to enjoy the beach one last time before heading home. I think the boys enjoyed the ocean most this day! They had so much fun! Then we grabbed lunch in the room while loading the car and giving the boys baths. And then we said goodbye to the beach, the condo and family and began the long drive home. We were so blessed to enjoy this wonderful vacation. God was soverein in His timing, too. On the way home we received some difficult news about the building process with our church (I'll update on that the next post). He knew we need this time of refreshment before the long road ahead of us. It was a blessing to enjoy this fun week and all the new exciting experiences with our precious sons that God has given us. They truly are a joy to us. It is so much fun to give them opportunities to experience different things and places. They were such troopers on the way home, too! I am grateful for the wonderful memories we were able to make this week!

Day 6

Well, after two days away from the beach we HAD to get back! I absolutely LOVE the ocean. I love the sound of the waves, the feeling of the sand between my toes, jumping the waves and a million other things I can't even think of right now. It reminds me of how small I really am. It's humbling and it's wonderful! Monday was our last full day in Florida, so we definitely got every bit of fun we could out of it! We woke up and headed straight for the beach, then to the pool, a quick break for lunch and back to the pool before naps. While the boys were down for their naps, Mom and I did a little shopping. Corey and Zachary were busy defeating the bad guys on Z's new Chronicles of Narnia video game (part of the draw was the 42 inch flat screen TV, I believe). When the boys woke up we took the to a store to pick out souvenirs. Their first choices were $1 plastic knives to fight with, go figure! We let them pick one other thing each, with a little guidance (we had to veto the cool-looking beer funnels...I think the boys thought they were really special ocean/sand toys). Caleb picked a cool water gun and Bennett picked a harmonica. Then we headed down to the beach for family pictures. You know the good ones that you aren't afraid to show people because you aren't in a bathing suit, but in your real clothes :) This lasted a while, but would've taken much longer if the memory on my camera didn't fill up and the battery hadn't died. But we were able to get some great ones! Then we headed to Joe's Crab Shack for our last dinner in Destin. The boys enjoyed the atmosphere and even joined in on the dancing. After that we went back to the Track for one last go-kart race on the big wooden track. And to finish the night off....drum roll, please....Hot Krispy Kreme Doughnuts!

Day 5

Last time we were in Destin we visited a wonderful church...Village Baptist Church. The people were so friendly and welcoming and the children's area is so well organized and safe (beepers, name badges, etc. It makes protective parents like us feel much better ;) So this year we were able to worship there again! God knew how much we needed that time of refreshing! It is so good to travel to a different part of the country and worship with brothers and sisters in Christ! It never ceases to amaze me how comfortable you can feel with complete strangers. We really missed our Maplewood crew, but enjoyed being there. The choir sang an awesome song..."Our God is a Mountain Mover." Ooh boy did we need to hear that! Afterward we let the boys enjoy a little playtime on the cool playground at their church. Then headed back to our room. Sunday evening my parents watched the boys for Corey and me to go on a much-needed date while they took the boys down to the pool. Thank you!!! We went to the Crab Trap...it was soooo good! Totally worth the hour and a half wait! And like an old married couple, after dinner our date consisted of driving around, hehe. So, we headed back to the condo for a fun game of Phase 10 with mom and Zachary. Another great day!

Day 4

After a full day in the sun on Friday, we decided to do a little outlet shopping Saturday morning. We followed that with lunch at our favorite place in Destin, Pompano Joe's! Yummy! After that we took the boys "home" for a nap to prepare for a busy evening! We grabbed dinner at Merlin's Pizza...very good! And then we went to the Track again to play miniature golf. The boys loved it! And they actually are pretty good at it...especially Bennett (he would hit the ball once and then pick it up and lay it right beside the hole and then still hit it 3-4 times!). We finished off the evening with our favorite place of all, Marble Slab ice cream!!! What a wonderful way to end a great day!

Day 3

Today was lots of fun! We were expecting rain but woke up to sunshine! God is good! We spent the whole morning at the beach, grabbed a quick lunch up in our room and then headed back down to the pool! Bennett had lots of fun in the sand, and Caleb ran all over the shore in the waves. We even got out in the ocean for a while and fought the waves, but they were rough! We were so tired! It has been another wonderful day!

Day 2

Thursday was a fun-filled day! We woke up early and hit the beach around 8:30. The boys LOVED it! We flew a kite, "built sand castles" (dumped buckets of sand upside down), and played in the ocean. Afterward we headed to the pool. After a long afternoon nap, we headed to The Track for a family go-cart race and finished off the evening with our yearly trip to Captain Kidd's Seafood Buffet!!! I love crab legs, so you can imagine my delight that Caleb shares my enjoyment of this wonderful food! I think he especially enjoyed cracking them! After dinner we headed out to the dock to check out the cool boats. The captain of one of the boats walked up to us and offered to let us on his! We were super excited and got on board. Shortly after we began the tour of his boat, the galley, main deck and wheel house, we realized he was a little inebriated (evidenced by the string of profanities coming from his mouth). He was very kind though and even allowed Caleb to turn his boat on, drive it forward a few feet and back it up into the dock! Caleb was thrilled! Below are pics of the day. Corey was taking the go-cart action shots as he was driving...fun, fun, fun!

We made it!

Well, we made it to the beach! We're having a wonderful time. Yesterday we left at around 7:30 am and arrived at our condo around 6:30pm. The boys actually did really well traveling...thank you Nanny for the DVD player you got us last Christmas! We did have to stop a few times to prevent melt-downs, but even Corey and I were tired after 11 hours traveling. As soon as we got to our room, the boys were ready to check out the beach. So, we decided to run down there for a few minutes before catching dinner. We ended up catching Bennett! The boys loved it and were enjoying letting the water roll over their feet. I backed up about 5 feet from them for Corey to take a picture and a rogue wave ;) knocked B over! I quickly grabbed him and we were both soaked (see pictures below). So we grabbed fast food, took it back to our condo and ate on the balcony with a beautiful view of one of my favorite parts of God's creation!Notice Bennett's pants falling down...that probably contributed to the following sequence.


The wave coming toward them is the wave that knocked Bennett over.

This made for a memorable first time at the beach!

Blessed

God has truly blessed us with many amazing friends. Mark and Dottie McSwain are some of those dear friends from our time at First Baptist, Bemis. Mark was our pastor and taught Corey so much about leading a church and seeking God's vision for that church not your own. Dottie taught me so much about being a wife, mother, pastors wife and how to really load a dishwasher to its full potential! We are grateful that God has placed them in our lives! Mark grew up at Maplewood and helped us find this amazing church where God has us serving now. Dottie's family, the Allens, had the 3rd Annual Pig and Chicken Barbeque here in Paris today and her mom, Mrs. Virginia invited us. We were so honored to be invited to join this wonderful family for a delicious meal and lots of fun! The boys loved riding Mrs. Virginia's Rhino and also the water guns and water balloon toss. The Shackelfords were also invited to join the party, and Jennifer and I had a pretty good showing when the adults had our turn at the balloon toss. Maybe we'll win next year! Thanks to the Allen family for letting us be part of the fun!

Fun with Dad!

Fridays are one of our favorite days of the week because that's Corey's day off. The boys love the time they get to spend with their Dad each Friday. Things have been busier than normal lately, and they haven't been able to have as much playtime together as they'd like. But yesterday was a fun-filled day! I'm so grateful and blessed that Corey is a wonderful daddy to our energetic little guys.

I'm OLD?

As you know, I just celebrated my 30th birthday! I've been feeling pretty good about turning 30...it honestly hasn't bothered me a bit. However, some people must think 30 is old. My sweet friend Jennifer, as if hosting my surprise party wasn't enough, offered to keep the boys for Corey to take me out to lunch Monday. The good-natured hostess that seated us ask if we were celebrating anything, and I cheerfully said, "Yes! Today is my 30th birthday!" She replied, "You don't look 30. (What is 30 supposed to look like?) And you're happy about it?! I would be (followed by a groan as if she couldn't think of a word awful enough to describe her feelings). " Then, we had the sweetest waitress, a junior at Murray State University. And being the picture obsessed person I am, I asked if she would take a picture of Corey and me. She said, "Ohhh, you two are so cute!" As I thought about that later, I realized that that is exactly what I say when I see an older couple together holding hands, hugging or walking together. Now WE'RE the old couple!!! All this to say, I'm happy to be celebrating 30 great years, but apparently I'm also now officially old! :)

Mother's Day

Mother's Day has always been a very special day to me! First, I'm so grateful for my mom and my grandmothers! God has placed amazing women in my life to teach me about Him and about being a wife and mother. So, Happy Mother's Day to all the amazing women in my life...thank you for all you mean to me and everything you've taught me!Now that I'm a mom, Mother's Day has totally wonderful, new meaning to it. God is teaching me so much through being a mom. One of the things He is definitely trying to teach me is patience...I'm not sure how good of a student I am, but I'm trying :) Secondly, he is teaching me about His love. The love I have for my boys is very different than my love for anyone else...and yet it pales in comparison to His love for us. And there are many other things that I learn each day, but the last thing that has really touched me over the past several years is His protection. Growing up I was blessed with parents who loved me and desired to protect me (over-protect me I thought at the time). Now that I'm a mom, I totally understand where my parents were coming from! But it has also helped me to understand God's "rules." It seemed to me that God had a lot of rules in place to keep us from having fun. Now I realize that His rules are not to prevent us from enjoying life, but to protect us and give us abundant life! I began to see this more as Corey and I have laid out rules for our boys. Some rules are to keep them from hurting each other and other rules are for their own protection. Caleb especially doesn't seem to understand sometimes why we have certain rules and often questions them. Why can't he walk out to the road and get the mail by himself? He doesn't understand that a car driving quickly down our street could actully kill him. And all of us, like Caleb, are kind of that way with our Heavenly Father. He sees the pain lying, cheating, alcohol abuse and adultery cause. He created these rules out of love! It is amazing the joy we have in life when we follow His plan and not our own. I'm so grateful for God's protection and love! And I pray that my boys will see those same characteristics in me as they grow.