Reflections on the week and my birthday

This past week has been trying one marked by awesome glimpses of God's goodness. Last Friday Steve and Jennifer Lloyd visiting along with their family and newborn daughter (you can see pics posted by Jill in the blog she posted earlier). Their visit was great and it served as a reminder of how blessed I am to have him in my life he is a truly tender-hearted man of God who challenges and loves me and I love him and pray that I challenge him as well. Their daughter Madeline is beautiful. This also served to remind of the amazing fact that all of the guys in my wedding 9 1/2 yrs ago are still in my life. All with the exception of my dad are serving the Lord in ministry and I truly love and cherish them all. Our hope is that while here in Wake Forest we can establish lasting relationships such as these. I did run the dishwasher for the first time this week and Jill was pumped! I will tell you that this whole staying at home thing is definitely rough especially since we've been so good at Gen.1:28 to this point (you know the whole being fruitful and multiplying thing not to mention that we've done this every other year - Jill said we'd better slow down and that 3 is awesome for now). I can't get anything done with school because every time I try to study some kid catastrophe happens, at least with any paid job I've had there has been some aspect of leaving a portion of the stress "at the office". That said though this is the first time in a while where I feel like my time with the kids is really producing fruit spiritually and I know that these seeds planted now will be of huge benefit later on in their lives, my prayer is that they will be on fire soul winners that love and live out His Word! God has definitely moved us here at the right time because my classes this semester are more time consuming than previous semesters (like His timing is ever off). As for turning 34 today I have found that getting older isn't necessarily what I thought it would be at 18, 21, or 25. I find myself more in awe of the cross and more dependent on the Lord for everything. This awe and desperate need have humbled me and keep me wanting more of Him each day. Thank you for the calls, texts, and messages today especially those from my family (they rock!) and from everybody at Juniper Bay - we love you all.