LOST

Jonas has preached several times this year about characters in the bible whose identities are truly found in God. And I must admit that I didn't really understand what that meant so when we were challenged to look at our own lives and check where our identities lie, I didn't really know how I apply the challenge to my life. How do you check where your identity truly lies? I am sure Jonas explained it to us and gave us some homework that would help us figure this out but I obviously didn't do my homework and here's how I know...

Let me step back for just a second and let you know (if you haven't been around me to hear me whine about this already) that I have felt lost for the last few months. This lost feeling was awful, overwhelming at times, affecting my family and I couldn't define anything about how or why or even what exactly it was that I was feeling.

Then this week I sat down for personal devotional time for the first time since we have been in our new place and probably even longer than that! (Yes, I know that a really long time and yes, I know I am a very bad girl and all that terrible stuff but that's not the point of the story, thank God!)

Very soon into this devotional time God smacked me over the head with his Captain Obvious hat and said, "You are lost because you have lost me!" Pretty dramatic right, well I had been quite the drama queen and I will humbly admit I had not given God any room in my life.

So, not that I recommend this, but if you want to find out if your identity is in Christ you could try taking Him out of your life and see if you still know who you are.

IRONICALLY, I HOPE YOU FIND YOURSELF LOST IN YOUR OWN SKIN!

CELEBRATE

"I am overwhelmed!"

This statement has come out of my mouth too much lately! Why? Because I am married!
What is overwhelming me? Everything about my husband that is so unlike me. Everything about him that I don't understand. Everything going on within him that comes out at an inconvenient time (for me). Everything about him that I don't know how to deal with it!

I know this is NOT a struggle foreign to other couples; whether married, dating, or just a couple of close friends.
But somehow knowing that others struggle with it doesn't make me feel any better, it just makes me think that there is no solution!

Well, I would like to share what Brandon and I have been trying to help us deal with each other and see what you think.
Hopefully you can share any tips you have, even if they didn't work; it would be funny to hear what other people do to deal with each others oddities.

In a time of deep thinking, searching for the right attitude when the worst attitude kept creeping up, I thought to myself,
"I hate the way I react to his strange habits even more than I hate the habits; I don't feel like I have the right attitude about this struggle." (In case you missed it; those thoughts came from God trying to show me my errors, of course!)
So then I thought,
"Maybe I should try celebrating those things instead." (Again, I can't take the credit for the idea.)

Honestly, I didn't like the idea so much at first. But after I calmed down I decided to give it a try. So the next time I was with Brandon we were driving in a car and of course I started to get annoyed and then I shared the Celebrate Tactic with Brandon and right away decided to declare my celebration of all the things that had annoyed me in just the last several minutes.
But I didn't tell him how much they bugged me. Instead I said, "I celebrate how free you are to .... and all the things that your personality teaches me about loosening up!"
Of course, the statement sounded really funny and we both cracked up at how ridiculous it was that I couldn't just let those little things slide by. But we were laughing! NOT ARGUING!!!

So let us know what tips you might have. We haven't even been married 2 years yet so we are going to need all the tips we can get!
Thanks!

New Car

We are looking for a new to us car, and want to know if anyone knows of anyone with a good deal. Sorry to use our blog for this, but thought it might be fun to find if someone from our blog circle knew of something good.

Needs & Wants

We are a needy and wanting people!

It never fails that wherever you go and no matter who you talk to; you can't go one day without hearing about someone who is in "need" of something. In fact we probably can't go one day without voicing our own needs and wants. Sometimes there's big needs and sometimes it's just a small want.
I'm sure this sounds like I am going to complain about how we should be satisfied with what we have but that's not where I am going with this.

There is certainly nothing wrong with needing things, that's how life goes; we all have a long list of needs that we require to stay alive and even more needs if we aspire to grow in fulfillment and happiness in life. But for every true need and for most of our wants there is always another story we should follow up with: telling of how God provided. I love hearing stories of how God provides for His people! I have a ton of my own stories about how God has provided and I haven't told many of them (and those I have told deserve being proclaimed over and over)!

So here is my first story:
This has been a year of new beginnings and transitions for Brandon and I, with the major item on the list being the new member of our family, little Riley Joel. This child has brought many new things for Brandon and I. New roles as a mother and father. New areas of our relationship as we venture to learn how to parent together.
And of course we have a new set of needs! more time, more money, baby supplies, a bigger living space, another car, more flexibility in our relationships...

Riley is only 6 weeks old and already I can testify that God has begun to provide for each of these needs and exceed our expectations (as usual). In fact most of these needs were taken care of before Riley was born!

1. I (Sarah Ann) got a raise right before I left work for Maternity Leave.
2. My boss insisted I take the entire 12 weeks of Maternity Leave with no pressure to return early, and even offered the possibility for extra time off work beyond the 12 weeks.
3. My boss offered (I didn't even have to ask) for me to work part time from home after I return from Maternity Leave.
4. Brandon got a new job with a higher salary. (There are other blessings with his new position but I will let him tell that story if he would like.)
5. We had four baby showers that blessed with everything we needed for Riley Joel and more! We barely had to purchase any baby items from our own pockets. In fact we still have several gift cards we are using up on baby items. And don't expect to have to make any significant purchases for Riley Joel until his toddler years, including clothes (we probably have enough clothes to last until Riley is almost 2 years old)!
6. We found a great place to live with enough space for our family in a great neighborhood, rent we can afford, all the amenities we need and pool to top it all off!
7. And the most recent blessing came this weekend when the our Jehovah Jireh led someone to write us a check for $2,500.00 to put towards the purchase of a car! I don't even remember asking for any help with the car, I simply hadn't got to that in my prayers yet!

Well, I could go on and on, and already have quite a bit. Now I want to hear some of your stories!

Riley Joel

This is a video I shot of Riley when he was just chilling on our bed at only 3 days old. Super Cute

Nursing Discussions

So Sarah and I have been given the time to talk during nursing. Although this is a wonderful time for Riley and her to bond, it is also a good time for her and I to ponder things in life. Tonight it was the dartboard. I was staring at the dartboard, and began to try and figure out if there was any rhyme or reason behind the layout of the scoring sections. Sarah suggested that I wikipedia it, but I wanted to still try and figure it out, not to mention that would mean I would have to get up from my couch. I couldn't stand it any longer after my eyes started playing tricks on me. Try staring at a dart board for 20 minutes and you'll see what I mean. The answer to tonight's query is that the dartboard is laid out with the 20 at top as standard, a bulls eye in the middle, and that's all that really matters. However, the rest of the numbers were laid out so that the layout would penalize inaccuracy. For example: At the widest part of the 20 section, if you were to miss either left or right of that you would end up with a 5 or a 1. Interesting.

NODNARB

Hey everybody! I have my own blog for my own thoughts now too. Check out www.brandonbackwards.blogspot.com!

Crown College

With the beginning of our new roles as parents, there are also a lot of other changes that are are happening to us. The next one is that Brandon is switching jobs. He was offered a position at Crown College, another private christian college, to be the Director of Bookstore Services there. He is very excited about this opportunity, and cannot wait to start there. His first day will be Thursday June 14, 2007.

Additionally, at the end of July, we will be moving to a new home somewhere in the western metro.

A blessing from Heaven

On Thursday May 31, 2007 at 12:21 PM Riley Joel was entrusted to us by God. We are so happy that our new son has arrived and are enjoying every minute with the little guy. He may decide to start his own blog too.