Together for Life

  I know pretty much everyone knows this already, but Joel and I are expecting a sweet little addition to our family this April.  If all the Facebook statuses hadn't given it away, my belly sure would have!  But between morning sickness and, well, morning sickness, I never did give anyone an update from the last blog post I wrote about going back to school (not that I really need to, I don't think, but it would at least keep my blog up-to-date!  And, I just enjoy blogging and needed something to write about, so here 'ya go).    School never happened.  Not that it wouldn't have been absolutely amazing, but we discovered Baby right before I signed up; and although it was hard to say "no", I ended up being glad I did (Pregnancy is not for the faint of heart, especially that first trimester!).  It is so funny how something can be such a perfect opportunity, seem SO God-directed, but in fact He has other plans, other things He wants us to accomplis...

    nce upon a time, long ago, in a land far away, lived a young girl; a college student.  She loved school, but decided to work instead of study for a living when she was about 22 years old. So she worked, and worked, and worked; life was full, she was busy, and she never dreamed of going back to school again.  The end.     .....Okay, the land wasn't THAT far away; and it certainly wasn't THAT long ago!  And just kidding, she DID dream of going back to school, but knew that it wasn't God's timing based on the fact that while she was trying to find a good college, her handsome prince waltzed into her life and stole her away.  Funny how that worked out, huh?  And you thought I was launching into a romantic fairy-tale story.     In a nutshell, Joel's and my pastor announced last month that in August, Grace College would be using our church as one of several campuses in the Detroit area.  Our church happens to be located acro...

    It's funny how attitude really is everything.  Much to my chagrin, I would have to admit that when Joel and I found out we had a couple's retreat to attend this last weekend in June, I was less than thrilled.  Of course, it was really a very silly thing to have my knickers in a knot about (who wouldn't want to go on a retreat with the most wonderful man in the world and meet other wonderful, encouraging people along the way?!). This is all just proof that I truly am a work-in-progress.     Come to find out, the place we were going to be staying at was going to be called "The Shack".  Okay, I'm sure several of you know exactly the spot I'm speaking of and may be able to guess where I'm going with this.  I had no clue whatsoever about the place.  All I could picture was a dinky little Super 8 motel.  This of course did not exactly help my attitude issue.     I truly have to laugh at myself; as we pulled up to The Shack, lo ...

One year ago today, my stomach was in crazy-tight knots because I knew that that evening, a very special gentleman was picking me up for our very first date. Nope, the knots did not go away once he came up to the door. Yup, there WAS some comic relief in the course of our evening (the waiter at the diner we went to asked us point blank if this was our first date!), and yes, there was some major confusion for us as, on the way back home again, he asked me without hesitation, "So, was this our first date?" (You see, in my mind, it wasn't supposed to work like that; he was supposed to take me home, where I was going to sit and wait the rest of the week to talk to him again, and hope and pray that he would ask me for another date.) I was more than a little taken aback, and my response was a little too nonchalant.... Oops... so my seeming lack of enthusiasm made him wonder if I really liked him.  Obviously, however, we got things straightened around, no small thanks t...