We are still amazed...

We are still amazed every day at how God just leads and guides us, opens and closes doors, protects us (I am firmly convinced that our two boys have more guardian angels per boy than most families have and need combined!) and proves His love to us each and every day.

The first is how He takes care of our family. In watching Brian's career and the path (sometimes many paths) he has had to take and endure, it is amazing to be able to see God's leading through it all - even if it is after the fact. A couple of weeks ago Pastor Poorman (Pastor Mark to many of you) preached on how God takes care of us even when we get upset about it. He talked about how he and his wife and the music pastor and his wife went to the music conference at the first of the month, and because they couldn't get into the restaurant they wanted to they had to go somewhere else, but lost time. He mentioned how he was frustrated because they had lost time, and then as they got back on the road there were delays, but when he started doing the calculations, he realized that he could have potentially been in either of the accidents. Well, Brian has worked some long and crazy hours, moved from that job to his current position where he had to work those hours again, but then to find out that most of the staff from his last job has left. In his current position he is in a department that needs four people, but has really only had three since he started. In the past two weeks the director of his department retired and his manager is going to a new company, so now the department went from being one person short to just one person. Well, we weren't too excited about this, because it will probably mean even longer hours during his filing time (he averages about 80 hours a week during those weeks) but he talked to the individual that they all report to, and there potential for a promotion now. We will just have to pray and see.

The reason this is so interesting to us is because Brian also gets calls from recruiters on a daily basis, and sometimes he will just politely dismiss the individual and sometimes he will listen. Well, last November he got a call from a company that really wanted him, and it looked like a great opportunity. There was one catch to it - the company was not in Minnesota. It would have required a move on our part. At first we were discouraged because we knew the town that the company is in, and we knew that the local church and school there is not very good. Thank God for the internet! We started looking around the area thinking that, well, Brian already seems to end up driving long distances whereever he works, so maybe we can find something and split the difference. Here is where we got excited. You see, the company is in Elkhart, Indiana. We know the churches in South Bend, and they are good churches, but we both have reservations about them. So we managed to find this First Baptist Church in Mishawaka, Indiana, which was a little closer to Elkhart. We went to the website and it looked ok, but what was really interesting is when we clicked on the staff page - who should be staring us in the face but Paul Ice! And the picture next to him was Pete Jones. That was very interesting for both of us. Well, through all of it, God closed that door to open the potential door where we are now, but it is interesting to see how God works and moves. Yes Paul, that is why Brian sent you that semi-weird email a few months back. We almost became neighbors to you.

We are also very amazed at how God protects us. I am starting to believe that both of my boys' roles here on earth right now is to be doorstops. I cannot begin to tell you how many times Brian and I have accidentally had the door stop short on us, only to hear the "build up" before the scream - and any of you parents know exactly what I mean there. When you hear the thump, and then nothing for about 30 seconds or so, but you can tell that the air pressure is dropping int he room? Follow that by the really loud sound! Jefferson has also taken more dives and headers off our furniture right now than we care to count, but he is at that stage where he does not want to be helped. Still really doesn't want to walk by himself, but heaven forbid if you try to help him down when he has his mind set on it.

Anyway, sorry for the rant, but this is just something I wanted to share.