Change of Plans

so about that last post....Zachary quit his job 3 days later after 3 days of pleading from me. it was HORRID! i won't go into details, but if you care to know just call and ask zachary how many lawns he mowed in just 2 days, i would guess to say that it is more than 10 people combined have mowed in a year.

things since then have taken an up turn. still no job, but God i believe is changing both of our hearts through this process. i'm learning not to worry, and zachary is learning to search for God's plan. we have gotten more involved in our church also and we are loving it! you can check out their website and get more of a glimpse into our lives. www.thecommunityatlakeridge.com. we love our church family and have really found a home there. one of the plusses about zachary not having a job is that he also gets to serve out at the church property on wednesday's just fixing thing and being their handyman.

my main reason for posting today though is for a prayer request. i have been literally aching lately because i know that something big is in store for us and that God is asking us to take a risk. i've been searching and checking out a ton of books from the library and just praying to figure out what it is. and i believe that while laying awake last night, after making the mistake of drinking coffee 30 minutes before i went to bed, God revealed some of that vision to me, and i know this because zachary was actually excited about one of my off the wall dreams this time! i'm not going to say just what quite yet, i dont' want to sound crazy to anyone other than my husband, but just pray that zachary and i keep searching for the Lord, and that he keeps revealing his plan for our lives.

zachary got a job...we hope!

this is somewhat a trial run to see if it is going to work out, but we are praying that this will be an opportunity for growth not just a job. it is a small company that seems really excited to have zachary and are offering him the chance to work his way up and to eventually maybe open a branch in arlington. they work for mortgage companies and maintain the upkeep of foreclosed houses and fix them up for potential buyers. zachary will be leading a crew to make sure everything is getting done. he's a hard at work today, laboring on labor day and i am so proud of him.

in these last few months of moving to a new town, and starting over God has really blessed us with quality time and has strengthened our relationship so much.

i have learned that i love my husband. unconditionally. neither of us are perfect, but together i see God painting a picture of his grace. i know that we would never make it on our own. and it always work out to where God will show up in perfect time to remind us of that.

a couple of weeks ago, in our new home church, our pastor and his wife did a service on how marriage needs a bailout. the wife spoke of how it took 18 years for her to let her husband go to God, and it took her 18 years to stop relying, and counting on her husband to meet her needs instead of turning to God the provider of everything we need. God spoke so clearly to me through that message and showed so much grace for me to hear it only six months into my marriage.

i'm so lucky to have met a man that longs to meet my needs, but even more wonderful, i'm even luckier to have a God that can!

i find it hard in a relationship to continue to have a strong personal, intimate, relationship with the Lord, yet i find it to be an ever dire need and even more important for my marriage.

"cling to the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding. in all your ways acknowledge Him, He will make your pathways straight." Proverbs 3:5

who doesn't like a bobble head?

my new goal in life is to be more balanced. not a little bit more balanced, but BALANCED. i am so terribly bad at it. i am starting to see signs of being older and i have realized that i have never been good at taking care of myself. i am way too serious about everything and i tend to forget about my own needs. i realize that i unfortunately don't laugh enough. even though i am happy, love my life, and have a pretty funny husband, i am still always pushing to be better and tend to not take time to just relax and laugh. i know that in the end this kind of behavior will break me, and so i have made it an intention to laugh more everyday.

this week i laughed harder than i have in a long time. zachary and I were visiting with our best buds the pickrel's and my new God son david allen on tuesday. catherine was holding David on her chest and we were all laughing at something and david's head would not stop bouncing around. he looked just like a bobble head, which in turn made us laugh even more. it made me feel like we were a bunch of kids just playing with a baby. laughing made me feel so young.

it was a great first memory to have with david on his first day in this world, and i hope that it is a precursor of a life filled with laughter. i love you little david, and i will pray this for you always.

laughing is not just for kids though. i see that it is what is lacking most in adults.

He will fill your mouth with laughter and your lips with shouts of joy. Job 8:21

YAY we got a job!!

so although we have finally started the blog, it doesn't mean that i'm very good at updating it. sometimes i just feel like at the moment life is a little boring so there is not much to say. i do enjoy boring for once though, it is nice being able to just relax.

we do have some good news and long awaited news. Zachary and i will be moving to Arlington, TX and I have accepted a position at the University of Texas at Arlington as a Residence Director. it was our first choice in job options so we are both really excited. Zachary is starting to look at jobs now too since he knows where to look now. it looks like he is going to try to be a teacher and coach. we'll see if we can fight our way through the red tape so he can get a teaching certificate in time. you could pray that it works out.

as for now, Zachary is counting down the rounds he has left until he is finished driving the bus, and I have already started my color coding system for packing. we are moving out the week of May 18th and until i start at UTA in July we are nomads. we have 3 weddings and tons of friends to visit so i'm sure we will have plenty to do. i'm also trying to talk my sweet husband in to not watching TV for a month so maybe we will throw that into the mix too. we'll see, it's all up in the air.

well here we go...

so Zachary and I, mainly me (kristen) have decided to start this blog so that our friends and family can keep up with us better. we both find ourselves having people we love spread out all over the country and sometimes it is hard to keep in touch as much as we would like, especially since we both dread long conversations on telephones, no matter who they are with with.
so here it is....our shot at keeping people informed.....

we got hitched exactly 2 months ago today and we are loving married life. we both agree that so far there is really not much difference than before, but we think things will change a little bit when we grow up and move away from Stillwater. i am more excited about this move than Zachary, he is still very sad and not looking forward to the day we leave. he loves OSU sports WAY too much to leave this town happily. hopefully we will end up in a town where OSU comes to play.

we are currently job searching and just praying for the Lord's guidance. we are praying that we do the right thing; however, sometimes we find it hard to know what the "right" thing is. i have always believed that if you truly want to serve the Lord and you are looking for his presence in your life, ultimately you will end up in the right place...so here's to hoping my philosophy is right. we both sometimes feel that God is going to ask us to do something BIG someday, and we both hope that we will have the courage and the skills to answer the call, or even hear it for that matter.

for all of our friends and family in tough spots right now we pray that you too can find the peace to hear the Lord, and the courage to do what the Lord asks.

"I want to keep my soul fertile for the changes, so things keep getting born in me, so things keep dying when it is time for things to die. I want to keep walking away from the person I was a moment ago, because a mind was made to figure things out, not to read the same page recurrently." Donald Miller-Through Painted Deserts