BW's almost 13yo Saturn's (140,000+ miles) clutch had been giving him trouble and then finally lost a couple gears on Sunday.  We immediately talked to people in our church for recommendations of mechanics.  Monday, he was able to get it seen, but needed to wait for some parts.

So, he took my van with almost 200,000 miles on the two hour drive to seminary on Wednesday.  The plan was for him to stop at Costco on the way home, pick us all up, drop the kids off at Awana and then I would take him to pick up his car.  On his way home the transmission on the van went out!!!!  This left him stranded an hour and a half from home and leaving us without much food in the house as he was scheduled to make a Costco run on the way home. 

But...We are praising God for the following reasons:

1) For the entire time we were in seminary (almost 3 years) and had a low if any income, God saw to it that our old cars did not break down!  Someone I relayed this story to today likened it to the Israelites wandering in the desert without wearing out their sandals.  I guess now that we have had a full time position for a month, God must have decided it was all right for us to have this inconvenience:)

2) When the van broke down, BW was in a city where he could actually get to the national chain from which we had bought the warranty on the transmission - there is no such chain in the city we live.  Also, part of the 2 hour drive is through desert where he could have been stranded!  It also didn't happen when I was driving with 4 children in the car as is usually the case.  AND he had not stopped at Costco yet where lots of food would have been spoiled - I had quite a long list(I do miss Costco...).

3) Because he had taken the van, he decided to drop some wardrobe boxes to a friend that wouldn't have normally fit into his car.    This meant he had taken out all of our carseats before he left!  He didn't have to worry about how to get them home.

3) The national chain owner was a Christian who had sent his children to the seminary's sister college so he was willing to work hard for the warranty confusion to be sorted out(see below)  AND the warranty information happened to be IN THE VAN and not 2 hours away in our file drawer! 

4) Because he was closer to the seminary, he was able to find a family who extended hospitality for him to spend the night on almost no notice - Thanks to Jay & Julie, Aiden & Corbin (for giving up his bed)!  And Happy Birthday, Julie!

5) He was able to get a rental car to come home and stopped to get our much needed "provisions" from Costco on the way home.   God had also stretched what we did have in our pantry so no one went hungry:)

6) A family from our church has a Suburban that they will let us use until the van is fixed and we can get it back.

7) That the chain is going to honor the warranty.  Apparently the chain we bought the warranty from doesn't offer 5 year warranties.  The guy we bought it from was selling these 5 year warranties (without company approval) so he could get money up front and then sold the business.  This caused quite a bit of confusion as to who was going to pay for the new transmission the van now needs since the owners had changed.  So it has taken a couple days just to determine that the transmission was originally from a company in Oregon.  The company in Oregon will honor the warranty, but will only send the transmission to Sacramento which is where the warranty was purchased.  So we have to wait for it to be shipped to Sacramento and then driven down to Southern California and then for it to be installed.  So it may be a while before we see our van again. 

8) We are getting a pretty large tax refund that should just about cover the cost for both vehicles to be repaired. 

9) Just when I was really starting to have that "I've been cooped up with no car with 4 kids and I could really use a little break from them" feeling, a dear Christian sister from our church called (with no previous knowledge of how our week had gone) and offered to watch my kids for a couple hours if there was any errands I wanted to run!!!!  Ummm, I took her up on it:)

So... even though it's been a hard week , I want to offer praise to my God.  And that leads to another praise - God has really changed my perspective and I see all the reasons to praise Him when in the past I really would have seen it as a reason to complain and be pretty grumpy (to put it lightly) for several days.  So wonderful when God gives us glimpses of the progress we are making in becoming more like Him.  It really does make a difference when we make the CHOICE to be thankful even in the midst of trials. 

"Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus." 1 Thess 5:16-18

Blessings!

-J

It has been a whirlwind week and I thought I'd make my way past the piles of (mostly empty) boxes to share God's goodness.

On Friday, a good friend took my big kids in the morning on a 3 Mile Walk!  This gave time for BW to pick up the truck, for me to run some errands and then start the mad rush of just trying to get everything in a box.  It's cracking me up as I am unpacking about how specific I was with the initial boxes I started to pack almost 6 weeks ago.  They all had themes and were from the same space.  By the end, there were a handful of boxes that just said Miscellaneous.  My inlaws took my little ones and tired them out at the mall and by the time all the kids were reunited again, they were sufficiently tired out and either napped or sat quietly watching a movie.  A dear seminary couple expecting their first child came for our crib - 1st time our house has been without a crib in 8 years!  BW took apart the bunk beds and friends came throughout the day to help load the truck.

Boy2 just loved going in and out of the truck:

We had sent word out at our church and through the seminary's e-mail that we were packing up the truck Friday night.  I ran out to pick up some pizzas and by the time I got back, our house was swarming with activity and almost all the major furniture was already out of the house.  In fact, they were being so efficient that things started getting put in the truck that weren't really supposed to such as our sleeping bags that we would sleep on that night and my clothes for the next morning!  What a blessing to receive such an outpouring of love and service.  Amazing to think that less than 3 years ago we had moved down for seminary really not knowing anyone and God has blessed us in a mighty way.  It almost brought me to tears.

I slept horribly that night.  Between thinking of how much I would miss everyone to what I hadn't done to the fact that I may have to meet my new church family in the same clothes I worked in all day I don't know that I really slept much at all. 

The next morning at 7am, there was a knock at the door.  It was my dad & brother.  My dad has moved me every move in my entire life and was a man on a mission as after he moved us, he would drive to Northern California to move my sister.  Two men from our new church made the drive down to help us and brought a pick up to be loaded.  I emptied the refrigerator(throwing a lot out) and then packed up the car to visit a friend so the kids wouldn't be underfoot.  She greeted me with a Coke - just what I needed and such a treat:) and gave me some down time to visit and relax.  The plan was for us to visit a bit and then BW would call me when they were getting on the road, giving me a head start on the 2 hour drive.  The kids and I hadn't yet seen the house so I had planned to get there early so I could try to figure out where I wanted things before people started coming over to help unload. 

Unfortunately, my cell phone wasn't getting a signal at the place I happened to be sitting and by the time BW got hold of me, he was halfway there.  I loaded up the kids, went through the McDonald's drive thru and we were on our way.  When I arrived, I could tell which house was ours because there lots of cars and so many people unloading in and around the truck that they looked like little busy ants.  My first order of business - to find the bin with our winter clothes in it because it was cold! 

Then I blinked and the truck was unloaded.  Our Senior Pastor said a prayer and a few people stayed behind to help assemble the bunk beds while BW took the truck back.  God held back the snow just until BW got back.  Then the kids were begging to go outside.  I pulled out their snow boots and big jackets and they were out eating snow: 

What an awesome present from God welcoming us.  The kids, who have never been in snow much, were so excited that we had moved here!  Within a couple hours, this was the view from our front window

and out our back door:

I just couldn't believe that we had only driven 2 hours from LA - we had been in shorts earlier in the week!  We were brought dinner that night - Snowy Day Soup of all things!  Brent's mom was great about lining my shelves and unpacking my kitchen(though I have moved a few things, Barb:).  I was able to find everything we would need for church the next morning.  I was exhausted and had a great night's sleep, except for the fact that our older kitty, Tyus, whined much of the night.

The next morning, BW had his first experience with shoveling snow.  He scraped off our windshield with a plastic spatula while I tried to find a jacket/gloves/scarf for my mother in law(they had been on a cruise in Mexico earlier in the week and hadn't planned for snow either).  The kids would have been content to skip church and go play in the snow, but came along dutifully. 

As we drove to church, I just kept thinking "I can't believe I get to live here!"  Once inside, I had this amazing sense of peace and feeling of being home.  Although I knew pretty much no one sitting around me, I knew that this was home and just where God had planned for us to serve all along.  And I thought of the prayers I had occasionally lifted up to God for the church we would one day serve in full time and realized that these were those people and I was home.  BW was given a few minutes to explain his philosophy of Children's Ministry.  I loved the sermon as our Senior Pastor quoted some of my favorite authors - MacArthur, Puritan John Owen, John Piper and felt convicted and encouraged.

There was to be a potluck for us, but we wanted to take BW's parents back to the house quickly to pack up their stuff so they could leave from the party.  The round trip was a perfect "power nap" for our little ones(and a time of stress for Boy7 as he noticed the snow had melted significantly since morning).  When we arrived back, we found that everyone was waiting for us and as we opened the door, it felt like I was walking into my Wedding Reception with all the faces smiling at our family and singing Happy Birthday to BW.  Before we arrived someone noticed that the tables were all full and there was no place for us to sit.  They set out another table, but the only place left was on the stage/platform.  So we took our places on the stage which was a little bit like feeling like we were behind glass at the zoo as the buffet line passed by our table.  Fortunately, with the power nap and a wide variety of food, I was pleasantly surprised at how well my children behaved. 

After the food and yummy dessert(including a triple layer birthday cake for BW), we got to meet many wonderful people and said goodbye to my inlaws who I think may have had even more fun than we did meeting everyone.

Now, don't laugh, but I'm in love.  I'm actually giddy.  I have that same feeling I had when I first met BW.  I'm in love with this town and this church and I love the house BW picked for us and I love the great God who has orchestrated this whole plan out for us.  I guess this is the "honeymoon" phase that I have heard about during seminary wives-- I just didn't know that it would really feel like a honeymoon.  Oh, I know that it won't always feel like this and some days may feel like the opposite - which is why we can't trust our feelings and need to trust in the One Person that will never change.  But I almost feel embarrassed by how wonderful it all is and how much I've been blessed.  It certainly isn't because I have done anything to deserve it.  I am humbled and am in awe of God who was gracious to not give me what my sin deserves and instead given me the exact opposite, an abundant life.  "He does great things that we cannot comprehend." Job 37:5b I also thank God for all of our wonderful friends and family who have been praying for us.

All right, back to my boxes.  I promised the kids that I would open some toys today.

Blessings!

-J

I haven't posted in a while because details about the following statement have made for quite the roller coaster ride over the last several months, but it is official:  WE ARE MOVING...AGAIN!  God has once again done something "far above all we could ask or think." 

BW was scheduled to finish seminary this May IF he took a monster load of classes so intense that when he met with the dean of the seminary he questioned who had approved it.  Last semester was very hard on our family and with added duties of ministering at church, leading a Bible study, etc it was a semester where we survived by God's grace, but we really weren't looking forward to doing it again.   Furthermore, the money in our savings has continued to dwindle and we were pretty sure that our funds were not even going to make it until May. 

Other men who were planning to finish seminary in May had begun posting resumes and putting "feelers" out and so BW did the same.  God was so good to close many doors and leave just one open.  Our heart's desire has been to live in a more rural area, a city with a slower pace that had more of a community feel than the greater Los Angeles area.  Even before we had decided to come to seminary we had been looking at properties with acreage, but it never materialized.  Over the course of seminary we had talked about what our wish list might be, while still being open to the fact that God could send us anywhere we wanted.

Well, next month we will be moving to just such a city about 2 hours north of Los Angeles.  BW will be the Pastor of Children's Ministries at a church of about 600 people.  The city is as close as we could ever hope to get in between the two sets of grandparents.  It is a smaller town, but has the basic things we would need to live - a couple stores, a McDonald's and a public library:) 

But BW isn't finished with seminary.  Well, since it's only 2 hours away he has dropped his class load the church has agreed that he will commute in 1-2  days per week until he is done!  And we will not have to go in debt to do it.  Additionally, after 3 moves in 3 years, we will be in a community where we feel very comfortable raising our kids. 

We are planning to rent for the first year to try to determine what neighborhood we'd like to live in as we get to know the community and see what housing prices do.  What's amazing is that if housing prices continue to drop, we may end up owning a house of similar size as we did when we left seminary!  Only God could have come up with a way to make that happen!  Here are some pictures of the house we will be renting:

Back Yard - Yes that is snow!  This So. Cal girl is going to have to learn how to drive in the snow and we are hitting clearance sales now looking for snow items for next winter!  We went up a couple weeks ago for a "snow day" with the kids and they are so excited!

What's not pictured is that we won't have 4 kids sharing one bedroom anymore - we will have a "girls" room and a "boys" room.  The community also has a 9 hole golf course(and boy7 just got a small set of golf clubs for his b-day - he's so excited to learn to play with his Dad!), a swimming pool, equestrian center and parks to play in and make friends!

Like I said, it's so much more than we had asked for and I feel so undeserving of it all.  I pray now that God is preparing our hearts to minister and serve the people, and children, He has entrusted to our family and that He will be glorified. 

I have to admit that it's also bittersweet as we will be (kind of) saying goodbye to many of our seminary friends and the church we've been serving for the past year a little earlier than planned (and won't be able to carry out the plans I had been making for his graduation party just yet!).  But even in that God is gracious as I have been able to attend most of my seminary wives' groups this semester; we will be able to attend the Seminary Banquet and camping trip that we had planned.  There have been moments in the past few weeks when I am just so in awe of His goodness!  Especially because I can be so ungrateful and so bitter and throw temper tantrums when things aren't going just the way I planned and, yet, He remains good all the time and in every way.

"O taste and see that the Lord is good; How blessed is the man who takes refuge in Him!  O fear the Lord, you His saints; For to those who fear Him there is no want.  The young lions do lack and suffer hunger; But they who seek the Lord shall not be in want of any good thing." Ps 35:8-10

All right, off to packing!

-J

So much going on right now that I'm not sure where to start.  I definitely need to be blogging more because I feel like things are backing up. 

We started school back up two weeks ago.  We really enjoyed rowing Owl Moon and Katy & the Big Snow.  AK was disgusted to hear that owls eat mice.  He really likes mice for some reason.  When I was at the library, I happened upon Beverly Cleary's book The Mouse and the Motorcycle.  Although we've been reading chapter books to the kids for a while now, I really think this was the breakthrough book for my 5yo AK.  He cheered at the end when the little boy allows Ralph the mouse to keep the motorcycle.  He asked his Sunday School teacher to call him Ralph the mouse.  He can be heard making the Pbbbb noise.  BW was pretty upset that I didn't make a raspberry like motorcycle noise when I read the book, but actually read it Pb-buh-buh-buh-buh.  I explained to my husband that I am a girl and don't know how to make those noises.  When my dear husband attempted to correct AK in the way a motorcycle is supposed to sound, he would hear nothing of it.  He has been riding his bicycle saying Puh-buh-buh-buh-buh.  We went through the Mouse and the Motorcycle within a week and he asked for me to begin reading it again.  So last weekend I borrowed the sequel, Ralph S. Mouse.  BW much of it to him last night.  Later, AK came to me and tearfully informed me that a mean boy broke Ralph's motorcycle.  He was almost inconsolable in his grief that Ralph had lost his motorcycle.  It is so amazing to see the amazing emotional power of books!

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I joined a Bible Study Fellowship(BSF)!  I am just loving this group.  If you have never been in one or heard of it before, it is an international non-demonimational group devoted to teaching the Bible expositionally(verse by verse).  My current group has over 400 members with women from 125 churches in probably any demonimation you can think of.  They are currently going through Romans and study a different book every year.  Every BSF is the same so you can go to one when you are travelling or if you move and not miss anything.  I am so excited because my best friend just moved to Texas and we are able to "study" together as we are learning the same things.  I am also excited to meet other women and make friends in our new area.  Check out their website here and see if there is one going on near you.  They also have a children's program for preschoolers that is just amazing.  It almost brought a tear to my eye this morning as we arrived a little early to see the teachers kneeling together in prayer for the children that they were going to be teaching.  In the one I'm in, there is a separate co-op for nursery and homeschool care.  So there is a place for all 4 of my kids - what an incredible blessing, something only God could do!  This is just the kind of in depth Bible teaching I've really been needing/wanting.  God's Word is just so rich and so life changing.  It truly is water to my soul. 

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BW has been hard at work during this Christmas break from seminary in helping to develop some programs as he has begun to pastor at our new church.  Tonight launches Acts 2:42sdays (They were continually devoting themselves to the apostles' teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer Acts 2:42).  It is going to be a night (twice a month) of family centered Bible teaching, fellowship, food and prayer.  BW will be leading the school age children(2 of which will be his own).  I will be facilitating a women's study of Elizabeth George's book, Loving God with All Your Mind.  Please pray for me as I begin to serve in this way.  The men will be led by a retired pastor through the book, Disciplines of a Godly Man.  We are praying that this will be an edifying program for the church.

He is also leading another twice a month study for Young Adults & Families as well as the bible study that he had been leading prior to coming to this church.  Add in my seminary wives discipleship and the kids Awana on Wednesday nights and our calendar is getting pretty full.  And did I mention, he still has classes at seminary to take???  Please pray for him that he is able to balance everything he has taken on as well as continuing to be the amazing husband and father that he is.

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Speaking of the seminary, BW called with an amazing story this morning.  An anonymous friend of the seminary has had a burden on his heart to help meet the needs of the seminary men.  He wrote a check for $500,000 and told John MacArthur, the president fo the seminary, to distribute it immediately.  So each seminary man received a check today for $1,000!!!!!!!!!!  International students received double as they can't work while they are here.  For us, and helps to pay for some car repairs BW recently had done on his car.  But for many men, I know that they came to school today with nothing in their checking account, praying that God would provide this semester in a way only He can.  What an awesome God we serve!  "Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God!  How unsearchable are His judgments and unfathomable His ways!"  Romans 11:33

May you be able to see God's mercies that He is richly bestowing on you today!

-J

"Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us, to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen." Eph 3:20

This is the song of my heart right now because God has just done something far more abundantly than I could ask or think in our lives.  As most of you know, we sold our home in June 2005 to move here to attend seminary.  For the past year and a half we have lived on the God's provision of equity from the sale of our house.  When we left Northern California, we really thought that we would have enough to get us through the three years of this seminary program.  It didn't take long for reality to set in.  We added a new baby, pay an enormous amount of rent for the pleasure of living in the Los Angeles area(though we are so incredibly grateful that God granted us a house to rent in a desireble and safe area with wonderful landlords), are paying for health insurance with a high deductible and in general nothing ended up costing what we had budgeted.  Additionally, because of the addition of a baby and the fact that we have four small children, BW has not been able to take as many classes as he would need to finish in 3 years.  It has been a joy to see how God has provided for our "wants" as well as our needs in the past year and a half:  Hand me downs given in both clothing and homeschool curriculum just when we needed it, money sent either anonymously or without request, gifts of things that family or friends knew we needed or wanted, discounts for extracurricular activities, etc., but as we looked to the future we just couldn't see how the ends would meet.

All that to say that this was going to be the last year BW was going to be able to attend seminary full time.  He was a public school math teacher by trade and though he wouldn't have a problem getting a job, no school district in the area wanted to hire him part time so he could attend seminary.  After looking at different ways to cut expenses, we were pretty resigned to the fact that BW was going to have to work full time during the school year and load up on summer school classes meaning we would graduate around the time that our oldest started college(ok-a bit of an exaggeration there but you get the idea).  So we had been praying that God would make another way..

BW will be taking an Associate Pastor position at a 100 person church about 20 minutes from the seminary(around 35 minutes from where we currently live).  He will be in charge of their children and family ministries and working about 10 hours per week.  He will receive a salary PLUS the use of the church's parsonage!!!!  This means that we will have NO HOUSING COSTS!!!!! A savings of about $20,000 per year.  In addition, part of his salary will be eligible for a tuition matching fund from the seminary saving us $1800 per year in tuition.  Plus we will be able to minister again in a smaller church which we have missed a great deal since coming here and BW will be gaining minstry experience that will serve him well once he gets out of seminary.  Now THIS plan is nothing that we ever could have come up with ourselves!!!!

Now, I have to admit that even in this amazing turn of events that I fluctuate between complete and utter awe of God's goodness and WHINING!!!!  Buuuut God, now I have to move again, just when we finally got settled and the kids will miss their neighborhood friends and my homeschool group is here and all my friends live nearby and the kids will have to start at a new church and it's not as nice a neigborhood and I don't know where to grocery shop there and the house has no pantry or linen closet and the closets are small and the carpet is going to be hard to keep clean and I don't feel like I know enough to be a pastor's wife yet and I'm not going to have time to put up my christmas decorations .... 

So what does God do?  He continues to shower us with blessings - we found 2 matching sets of bunkbeds on craigslist with 3 mattresses for $300 (a huge blessing as the kids will all continue to share a bedroom and we need all the space we can get) and we found a baker's rack on ebay that will perfectly match my dining room set that has an extra cupboard and the seminary couple who are leaving (to take a sr. pastor position in Massachusetts - please be in prayer for them too) sold us their awesome cubbies from ikea (perfect for our new homeschool/playroom - did I mention I've never had a homeschool room???) and a dresser for me (I've been using the dresser BW had when he was a little kid) and their refrigerator to go in the garage (so I can be prepared as we will probably be hosting more events).  It's so amazing how sinful I really am!  I am just like the Israelites who were just freed from captivity in Egypt and saw the Red Sea parted and within a couple weeks are complaining that they don't have food or water - and then God gives them manna and they whine that they want some meat!  I used to wonder how they could be like that and then I look at myself and I know that if I were there I would have fit right in!  I am so humbled that God chose to save ME, that His Son died on the cross so that a big whiner like me can have a relationship with Him and spend eternity with Him.  I praise Him that he is changing me enough to see my complaining heart and desire to take my complaining thoughts captive and give Him the glory He so richly deserves.  I also understand that those to whom He has given, much will be required.  I hope and pray that our family will use this opportunity to further His kingdom and that He will be glorified through it. 

Please pray continually for provision for the other students at the Master's Seminary.  Many have come with no savings like we had.  Many have left their dream homes and stable jobs to live in cramped apartments.  Men are trying to study to learn to preach the Word of God, work full time, and be the spiritual leader of their home while their wives are trying to stretch the dollars they have as far as they can and care for their children(and/or get ready for more children - the phrase around here is "seminary surprise" and there are cute little bellies everywhere!) and learn to be content.  It is a joy to hear the graduates give their testimonies and hear how God uniquely provided for each individual family and each situation and, though it was hard, how God gives each strength to persevere. 

"For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things.  To Him be the glory forever. Amen" Rom 11:36.

-J 

Yesterday was our 10th anniversary!!!!  I pulled out our wedding album to show the kids and as I looked at the pictures of "that couple" I could hardly recognize who those people were.  If someone had told us 10 years ago that today I would be a stay at home, homeschooling mom of 4 children with a husband in seminary I would probably have laughed like crazy and then had them put in some kind of mental institution.  Definitely not what "that couple" had planned for their lives.  We give God all the glory for drawing us to Him and opening our eyes to the lives that only He knew we would need and enjoy.  

Here's a little look at the "stats" of our 10 years of marriage:

• Married for 3,652 days
• 12 different employers between us
• 5 different residences
• 4 children
• 3 cars(That Saturn has held up so well!  BW would say it's because I can't drive it!)
• 4 children
• We've been members of 4 churches
• 1 bed(maybe God will reward us with a new one when seminary's over)
• 3 "roommates"
• 4 pets(We miss you, Hootie!)
• Approx 3,637 diapers changed and counting
• Did I mention 4 children?
• 963 bills paid and counting
• Approx 14,000 miles driven up and down I-5
• 2 years of homeschooling
• Raked up too much debt to admit and then back out of it (Praise God!)

I am so thankful for my husband.  Other friends have come and gone over the past 10 years and will in the future, but it is such a comfort to me to know that I have him in my life.  He is a wonderful hands on father to our children and they love him so much.  It is a joy to watch them interact.  He is becoming a man of God(1 Tim 6:11-12) who is pursuing righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance and gentleness.  So although we did not spend our anniversary the way I assumed we would 10 years ago(I had planned an exotic vacation; he ended up needeing to spend the day studying for his Greek exam and finishing his 20 page biblical counseling paper), I see that God is molding me to be a wife worthy of the man I am married to.  And I am confident that He who began a good work in us will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.(Phil 1:6)

Happy Anniversary, BW!

-J

I'm kinda worried that you all are going to think that my kids and I just sit around having these cool spiritual discussions all the time - we definitely don't!  We are a "normal" (whatever that means) family whose kids misbehave, yell, make bad choices(like yesterday when they were helping me bring the groceries in and were throwing them into the kitchen - the baby food and the eggs didn't fare so well).  I feel constantly inadequate in raising these children that the Lord has blessed me with and mess up more often than I succeed.  I pray often that the children would be drawn to God, seek after a relationship with Him that is all their own resulting in their eternal salvation.   It warms my heart in those moments when God blesses me by letting me see into what they really are learning about Him.  One of the reasons I started this blog was to document those precious times.  We had a couple more this past weekend. 

I picked up AK from Sunday school.  He pulled a balloon (not inflated) out of his pocket and explained that he had found it while his class was walking to the bathroom.  He told me he was going to keep it until he went to heaven. hee hee - at least he realizes he can't take it with him!

Once we arrived home, I took the baby into the house then came back to get the rest of the kids out of the car.  I found CJ & AK in a heated discussion about whether there was such a place as hell, where it was located and what it was like.  Nothing like watching a 6 & 5yo debate like a couple of seminary students!  I almost expected them to start debating calvinism!  Finally, AK ended the discussion by saying "I know I don't want to go there and I don't want you (CJ) to go there either!"  He got out of the car & went into the house.

Later I had a discussion with CJ that went something like this:

Me:  What did you learn in Sunday School today?

CJ:  We talked about Judas.  He was a bad disciple and he went to a king and told the king he would show him where Jesus was for some money, but I don't remember how much.  Back then, men used to greet each other with a kiss on each cheek, but now men just shake hands.

Me:  Your coloring page says the amount of money was 30 pieces of silver.

CJ:  That's right.  Mom, if Jesus knew that Judas was a bad disciple why didn't he just kick him out of the group?

Me:  (Silence for a moment. Thinking, God how do I explain this to her? ) Well, Jesus' whole reason for coming to the earth was to die on the cross for our sins.  So while he could have stopped Judas or even come down from the cross, he CHOSE not to because then WE would never be able to go to heaven.  He loved us so much that he chose to allow those things to happen.

CJ:  (Quiet for a few minutes). Hmm.  I bet that was a hard decision to make.

Then, as I was putting EF in bed (which was a struggle because of the time change), I laid down with her for a few minutes. 

Me:  Did you know that you are my favorite EF in the whole world?

EF:  Yes

Me:  I love you so much!

EF:  and daddy loves me and CJ loves me and AK loves me and AF loves me and God loves me and Jesus loves me.

ME:  Yes, God loves you very much.  He made you and he has an amazing plan for your life.

EF:  And God made you and daddy and CJ and AK and AF and our kitties and the WHOLE WORLD! and the stars (breaks into singing Pwinkle pwinkle witto star, God has made you what you are - thanks to sunday school teachers for that one)

Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord. Ps 127:3

-J

Thank you to all who prayed for BW's job situation.  Since he's in seminary and he has such a varied background(education, phlebotomy, office, etc), it was hard to narrow down what would maximize his time at home & school, but still bring in the money that we need to live in this wonderfully expensive place called Southern California to slow down the use of savings from our home sale last year. 

God is so faithful!!!  He interviewed and now has signed on with 3 different tutoring companies in our city.  2 are in home tutoring and one has their own facility.  It is really working out well because he can schedule hours around school and our dinner hour.  Of course the one offering him the most hours pays the least, but he is such a great math teacher that I know it will just be a matter of time before his name spreads around the community.  He has been up front with all of them and explained that if he has to choose b/w 2 jobs, he will go with the one who pays more.  God even gave him the opportunity to share the gospel with one of the owners so if you feel led, pray for that man as BW gave him a lot to think about:)

"Let God have your life.  He can do more with it than you can." DL Moody

-J

I had one of those days where not much went right and the day definitely didn't go as I planned.  Prayer time with the kids has really been frustrating me in the past week as I try to balance the abilities to pay attention with wanting to instill a love for God, prayer and his Word.  This morning I tried to keep it short and sweet.  We sang our memory verse from the Memory Bible and then I went right into prayer time.  We put all of our family's names (us, grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, etc) into a basket and we pray that God would sovereignly choose for us who needs prayer for the day.  Each child gets to pick a name(had to start this because everyone was fighting over praying for daddy & Aunt Kelly!) and pray for the person they picked.

So this morning, EF picked AF.  Since she's only 2.5 usually, I pray and she repeats after me but today she was determined to do it HERSELF!  And she did.  She prayed that he would have a good day, that he wouldn't cry too much and that he would be safe.  I was so proud of her!!

Fast forward a few hours later and the morning had been chaotic, the plans I had made for the evening (B has a pastor's conference this week so he's been getting in late) with some friends seemed to be falling apart - you know, one of those days where it's like why don't I ship you all off to school???  I let CJ push AK in the stroller in the backyard and the stroller tipped over and AK's head hit the concrete HARD a couple times!!!  So we had  the initial panic, the calling of Brent to see if I should take him to the dr, the calming down of CJ because she felt so bad, then realizing that EF had wet the bed during her nap, trying to get everyone together so we could meet some friends for dinner.  I was relaying the story to a friend and telling her how amazed I am that he only has a little scratch & bump.  And as I talked I remembered that EF had prayed for him this morning to be safe!!!!!!!!!  Never underestimate the power of prayer -- even the prayer of a 2.5yo.  And always try to think of at least a few positive things that happen each day because there always are some, even if it doesn't seem like it.