a new day has begun

Today was a big day for all of us.

First, Jason started working his new job today. He had to be at the work place at 6:45 and then worked 10 hrs. It is hard, physical labor and we are praying that God will wrap His hands around Jason's back and keep it from becoming any worse. Jason is going to a chiropractor who has him coming in for adjustments and doing some exercises here at home. The chiro is pretty sure that Jason has a herniated disc, but he does not think it is bad enough to need surgery. We are praying that God will heal him completely.

Second, this is my first week of summer break and staying home every day with Jerek. I love being home with him, but I selfishly love going to school a couple days a week because of the break it gives, and I love to learn. So, today we went over to Ashley and Josh's with Manna (that is what Jerek calls his grandmas) to deliver their pack and play. Then, Mana took us to lunch and when we got home Jerek took a good long, 2 1/2 hr nap. I got a lot done: laundry, cleaned the bathroom, and finished knitting the bag for myself! Now all I have to do is felt the bag and find a suitable fabric to line it with.

Also, today started the exercise portion of my diet. I have decided that I want to try and lose 20 lbs by the end of the summer. That is only 5 lbs a month, which I think is totally possible for me. I have cut out pop, except for the occasional Diet Rite to curb my sweet tooth and I am starting with walking a half hour every other day, at least. My goal is to be walking an hour every other day by the end of the month and to walk an hour every day by the end of summer.

Here is Jerek in his morning routine: sippy of milk for breakfast (he refuses to eat anything), Baa, and his zoned look while watching Dora.

one week later. . .

and Jerek is doing great in his bed. He has not gotten out of it once and is so good about calling us when he wakes up. He is exteremly proud of the fact that he is in a big boy bed now and tells everyone he sees.

Also, our friends Josh and Ashley had their daughter Thursday evening. Ashley ended up having a C-section after 2 hard hours of pushing. Little Ava ended up being 9 lb.s and 10oz.s. No wonder she got stuck in the birth canal!!


Here are some pictures of the little chunker:

He really is a big boy now!

Jason and I were in our TV room, I knitting and Jason playing a video game, when we heard some loud banging. Instantly irritated, because Jerek was napping, I told Jason to go figure out who was banging around. Jason went downstairs only to find that no one else was home (or at least out). He stopped at Jerek's door and listened, but no noise. He came in and told me that he had no idea what had made the sound. I got up to check and heard Jerek talking, so as I walked down stairs, I yelled up to Jason that Jerek was up and to get him out of his crib. Then, we heard that loud banging again. Jason said, "Jerek! Go tell your Mommy what you did!" Jerek ran to the stairs and said, "Mommy I get up! I knock!" Jason proceded to tell me that when he opened the door, their stood Jerek, with the crib side up. So, obviously, he had figured out how to get out of his crib.

We took him back up, put him back in his crib, and told him that we wanted to see him get out. He put both hands on the crib side, heaved his belly as high as it could go, and tried to literally flip out of the crib. We decided that today was the day to graduate Jerek from a crib to a toddler bed.

Jerek inherited a Nemo toddler bed about a year ago from a friend. He had no idea who Nemo was at the time, but now he loves Nemo. The Nemo bed was a hit and had him really excited to get into a big boy bed.

My baby isn't a baby anymore!

Here he is saying his "amens"!

God's Grace

This has been a nice week home with the boys for me! Although it rained all Monday and Tuesday, this last half has been quite nice.

We spent some time with some good friends of ours last night. They are expecting their first child within the next two weeks. We are so excited and can't wait for baby Ava to finally show up! Jerek has also been inspired by the impending birth and will loudly and proudly proclaim that he too has a baby Ava in his belly. He'll pull up his shirt and say, "Feel it, feel my baby Ava!" and he will take your hand and rub it all over his belly. It makes me giggle every time. He is now telling me that I have a baby in my belly . . . to which I greatly protest! I keep telling him someday, but not today.

Last night, while Jerek slept and the boys played video games, Ash and I had a great conversation about who God is and how he extends his grace. Jason and I finished up "Before Abraham" by John MacArthur in our small group a month or so ago and it taught me so much! God really used this book to explain to me what grace really is and how much He loves us, His creation. The study looked at the first 11 chapters of Genesis; deeply studying the main events, the main people, and the main themes of those first chapters of the Bible. Throughout, MacArthur emphasizes God's grace and what that looks like in those events. What really took me aback was the study on the tower of Babel. The story of the tower of Babel can be found in Genesis, chapter 11.

It starts by saying that the whole world had one language and common speech and that instead of "filling the earth" as God had commanded Noah and his sons (Genesis 9:1) they moved eastward and settled, everyone living together. The men decided to build themselves a huge tower "that reaches to the heavens" (11:4) AND "so that we may make a name for ourselves and not be scattered over the face of the whole earth" (11:4) Did you get that! They were building this tower so that they wouldn't have to obey God. They were outright disobeying! They had become an arrogant, self-sufficient people that thought their way was better then God's. They had found their self-worth and identity in the things that they could do and the things they had achieved, rather then in God. Verse 5 says that, "But the LORD came down to see the city and the tower that the men were building. . ." MacArthur explains that just as God came down to see Adam and Eve, Noah, Lot in Sodom and Gomorrah, and now Babel, He was coming to extend His grace, to see if there was anything worthy left. The Lord says of these people in verse 6 that nothing will be impossible for them if He lets them continue in what they are doing and so He confuses their languages and scatters them over the earth.

Now, after reading this section of the Bible, I thought about how angry and mad I would have been at God if I had lived in Babel. Think about it, I may have been left with no family or friends that spoke my language and I may have been scattered off to some place I had never known before. It would be terrifying, maddening, and disheartening. YET, look at it from the perspective of God. He wanted to preserve His people. He had promised Noah that He would never destroy the Earth again, and His people are again being evil, disobedient, and self-reliant. What tremendous pain the Father must have felt! But instead of wiping out His creation, He extends His grace and forces them to obey the command He gave, by confusing their languages and scattering them across the Earth. How great is our God!

I was in awe, thinking about events in my life that I have thought were unfair or bad, but instead, how it could have been God's hand, orchestrating my life in a way to keep me safe and on the path that He has planned for me. I now have a deeper understanding of how God's grace works, not just looking at Calvary and how God's grace was working through Jesus Christ to save my wretched soul, but also how God's grace extends throughout my life, keeping me safe, doing good in my life, whether I understand it or not. Praise be to God!

Romans 8:28
And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.

Easter

We hope you all had a wonderful Easter. We had a great time eating, finding eggs with Jerek, eating some more, playing cards, and even cleaning up over at my mom's house. It was a nice and relaxing time and I was glad to be able to spend it with family that loves and cares about us.

Yesterday morning we went to church early. Jason had to play drums for worship team and I was teaching the 3-kindergarten class. Jerek loves to listen and watch his Daddy play and so I let him run around the sanctuary in the morning. We have the same discussion every time, though, "Jerek there are only two rules, DO NOT GO ON THE STAGE! and you must listen to Mommy the very first time." He normally does really well, until the last five or ten minutes. Then, he runs as fast as his little legs will carry him, up the ramp, and tries to get on the stage. It is so frustrating for me, especially when he diverts himself early on and stops himself from going up. But it seems to never fail, towards the very end of practice he will try to get on stage. The same thing happened yesterday morning. So, I told him, "Jerek, honey, Mommy said not to go on the stage or we would have to stop listening to Daddy. Because you went up there we now have to leave and you will have to go in time out." He started crying and out we went, into a classroom. I made him stand in time out and he promptly said, "I sorwy Mommy." I told him thank you but he still had to finish time out. My new thing is that when we are done with time out and have talked about why he had to go in time out, we then pray and ask Jesus to forgive him for not listening to Mommy (or whatever the offense is) and then we tell Jesus that we love him and we know that he still loves us. As we prayed together, I was overcome with emotion. Here was my little 2 year old son, praying for forgiveness, to a Savior he doesn't fully understand yet, on the holiday that celebrates His death and resurrection and his conquer over sin. It is that trust and faith that Jesus calls us to have, like a little child:

Matthew 18:1-4 (NIV)

At that time the disciples came to Jesus and asked, "Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?"
He called a little child and had him stand among them. And he said: "I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.

We end every prayer with, "I love you Jesus!" and yesterday morning I said it with just as much earnestness and gusto as Jerek; seeing just a glimpse of what Jesus was trying to explain to us as he taught his disciples.

training

This has been an exciting week for us!

Jason started his training for his new job. He said that it is very boring, all safety issue things, but they provide pop and Starbucks coffee which has made it all worth it! We are not as concerned and worried as we have been anticipating the dangers of working with asbestos. 75% of the job will be building and tearing down "decontamination rooms". Each 3 man group will be assigned a section of ceiling. They then have to build a room to contain what they will be working on and then another adjacent room to become decontaminted before they leave. He is also getting all the safety gear: respirator, ty-vac suit, etc. So we are not as worried as before. There is also the possibility of an addition 6-8 months of work after this and a possible permenant hire. So, we are excited about what we may have in the future, before Jason gets his schooling done and recieves a pastoring job. Tomorrow is his last day at training and then we have to wait 6 weeks to get his certification card from the state. Once he recieves that he can start working.

My second spring break starts today! The school I am at is on break until next Friday, so I get a whole week and a half off. I am looking forward to spending some quality time with my boys, hopefully with weather that will cooperate. I would love to go to the zoo again with Jerek! Also, yesterday, my cooperating teacher let me have the reigns to the classroom and I taught all day long. It wasn't as intimidating as I thought it would be. I taught language arts: I read an easter story and they had to illustrate the pictures; I taught math: we learned about measuring in 1/4, 1/2, and converting from feet to inches; and then I administered the science test for the unit I taught. My teacher said I did really well and was impressed that I did such a good job with it seeing as how she told me at the end of class Monday I would be teaching! The affirmation of my cooperating teacher, my supervisor, and other teachers has really encouraged me to not slack off, but to keep pressing towards my passion. I am so sick of school, but I just keep holding onto the fact that I have one year left, that is it!

Below are some pictures from the last zoo visit. I ment to add them with Jerek's birthday pics because we took him the day after as an extra gift.

Looking at a sea lion

the polar bears were really playful

jerek's 2nd birthday

I finally met with Bethany today and got our pictures from Jerek's birthday party. She is such an incredible photographer and she is gracious enough to take pictures for us when we ask. You can see more of her work at http://www.wellspringphoto.com/

Here's Jerek trying to blow into the little "party tooter" (that's what Jason calls them). He couldn't get it because he kept biting on the part that goes in the mouth.

"What's in there?"


We got Jerek fish for his birthday, he loved them.

Mmmm, good cake!

Uncle Terry got Jerek a little bike for his birthday. We are working on getting him to understand that he has to push the pedals with his feet to get the bike to move.

It was a great party and Jerek had a blast, that is until he had a melt down over spilled bubbles. Overall though, it was a good time with family and friends.

beginning

With a little guy and big changes happening in our family, I thought maybe I would give in and create a blog so family and friends, across the country, can follow the path God is directing us down.

I am finishing up my second semester of methods for Early Childhood Education. This semester I was able to observe and teach in an inner-city, third grade classroom. What a turning point this has been for me. I love teaching kindergarten and third grade was a bit intimidating to say the least. I was especially nervous because it was my job to teach six to nine science lessons, a subject I am not fond of. I have to say though, with only three weeks left, I have probably learned more then my students. What an incredible way to break through some of my self-perceived barriers, stretch my capabilities, and be humbled and awed at the mind of an eight year old. I can say confidently that I will not only look back at this semester for years to come, but that I will truly miss my third graders. I am excited, though, to move on to the next phase of my education, two classes this summer, two and another field placement in the fall, and FINALLY student teaching in the spring of 2010, with a much anticipated graduation to follow.

Jason was called to the ministry last summer. After being layed off, again, he truly searched his heart and called upon the Lord to direct and guide his life in the way He would see fit. Without telling anyone, he asked God for confirmation, and with multiple ways of being told he should be a pastor, he finally relented. He is now finishing up his last class for his 101 section and hopes to be finished with all classes sometime early next year. We are praying for God to direct us where we need to be when Jason is finished with his classes. We would love to stay by our family and friends, but we are open and willing to go where ever we are called.

We are also excited and thankful for the new job Jason has gotten. Although only temporary work, we are anticipating being able to save enough money for a new car and a down payment for a house someday (which can't come soon enough!). We are praising God for this incredible blessing, as Jason got one of twenty spots and was chosen from over 450 people, our God is truly amazing!

Jerek is definitely a two year old now. Although extremely well behaved, I was not ready for the instant melt downs and the constant testing of wills. We are trying our best to be consistent disciplinarians, but some days it is down-right exhausting! I wouldn't change it for the world though, especially when he takes my hand, cradles his cheek in it, and says, "I dove you, Mommy! (I love you, Mommy!)". What a moment!

I hope that the journey we are on will encourage and uplift you.