Israel

I am so thankful that we were able to go on this trip to Israel. For the sake of time, I won’t write everywhere we went, because we saw a TON of sites!! We left on May 12^th, and had a really long flight from Atlanta to Tel Aviv. That night we drove north along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea to Netanya…at sunset!! It was absolutely beautiful! The next morning, Tim and I woke up early so that we could walk along the beach and collect shells. We then spent the next few days visiting areas around the Sea of Galilee. From there, we went to the Dead Sea, ending with four days in Jerusalem.

One place that was really exciting to see was Hazor. In the Bible it talks about how the city of Hazor was burned. We were able to see the rocks that cracked from the heat.

I also just couldn’t believe how important water is to Israel. Being out in the sun all day is absolutely exhausting!! We constantly had water bottles in our hand. We saw so many riverbeds that were all dried up. As we were driving around one day, I thought of the verse in Psalm 63:1 that says “O God, you are my God, earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you, my body longs for you, in a dry and weary land where there is no water.” I knew that I have seen this “dry and weary land”!

Our time in Jerusalem was probably my favorite time. I’ll just mention a couple of things that really stuck with me. The first day we toured in Jerusalem, we visited the Wailing Wall. Not knowing what to expect, I was a little surprised to see the men and women were separated. I learned that they pray at this place because it’s one of the closest places along the wall to where the Holy of Holies was up on the Temple Mount (before the Muslims took over). The women fervently prayed, rocking back and forth, faces pressed into their prayer books, some women even there with their young daughters. Their religious zeal puts us to shame, but the sad thing is that they have totally missed their Messiah, Jesus Christ! I really felt a burden and a sadness for them, that their prayers are basically meaningless!

Also, one afternoon while we were settling back in our room, just wanting to relax, we hear this loud music playing on the street outside our hotel window. A few minutes later we look out the window again, and the streets are absolutely filled with people. Some of them are wrapped in flags, people are dancing in the streets. We found out earlier in the day that the Jews in Jerusalem were celebrating Jerusalem Day. Their patriotism was amazing to see, and we wished that our country was filled with that same kind of patriotism among the Americans.

Looking back on the trip, there were definitely days where it was just so hot and we were just so tired, that it was kind of difficult to really get excited about the fact that these were places where Jesus walked! Now when we read the Bible and we are reading about the sites that we have visited, we definitely get excited and now have a mental picture! We are so thankful for the time we could spend visiting the Holy Land. It has forever changed how we read the Bible!

A Much Needed Update

What a busy month this has been! Tim and I had the awesome opportunity to go to Israel for about 2 weeks. We’re very thankful for our parents, who took care of Micah so that we could take this trip. Tim’s parents watched Micah for the first part, and my parents for the second part. Meanwhile, we toured all over Israel! It was an amazing trip, and we’ll blog more about our trip later.

Micah is now almost 7 months old. We’re thankful for a healthy 6 month check-up last week. He weighed 21lbs., 2 oz. (still 95 percentile) and was 27 ¾ inches long. He’s at such a fun age right now, and he definitely keeps us laughing.

In a few weeks, we’ll be heading up to Michigan to visit our family. We’ll fly (thankfully we're not driving this long trip with a baby!) into Traverse City, where we’ll spend a few days with my family. It’ll be like a family reunion, as my brother and our nephew will be there, as well as my aunt, cousins, grandpa and his wife, and my uncle will all be staying at my parents’ house! We’ll then head up to the Upper Peninsula to visit Tim’s family, where we’ll see his sisters and our new nephew. Tim will also have an opportunity to preach at his home church. It’ll be a busy time in Michigan, but we’re really looking forward to being able to spend some time with family. Also, please pray for us, as we definitely need wisdom for the future. There are a couple potential ministry opportunities we’re currently checking out and praying about. So there’s a brief update on our lives! We’ll post more about our Israel trip soon!

Graduation Weekend

This was a busy graduation weekend! Wednesday night, Tim's parents made it here after their long drive from the Upper Peninsula in Michigan. On Thursday, we started our day by taking Micah to get his 6 month pictures taken. We then celebrated my birthday, by eating BIG cheeseburgers at Red Robin.



Tim and his dad went to the fund raising golf tournament early Friday morning, and then ending our day with the baccalaureate. Saturday morning, Tim had graduation practice. That night, Tim's parents babysat Micah, while Tim and I had date night. YAY!! For my birthday, he took me out for dessert at Cold Stone (one of my favorites) and then to Regent University's production of "Singin' In the Rain."



Sunday was the big day when Tim graduated from seminary!! After 5 long years of hard work, he completed his Masters of Divinity! I just want to say that I am so proud of him! I am so thankful that I was able to share in the seminary experience with him as his wife. Here are a few pictures from graduation. Matt DeJesus, who does an amazing job, was the photographer for graduation, and who took the first picture below.

The End

I am so proud of Tim! He has completed all of his papers and all of his reading assignments. It has been such a full semester for him, as he has been learning how to balance schoolwork, family and working full time. But he has now completed his semester and MDIV!! Next will be graduation, which will be on Sunday, May 3^rd. So while it may be the end of one chapter in our lives, we look forward to where the Lord will lead us. Congratulations, Tim!! Stay tuned for graduation pictures!

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter! Hope you had a great time of worship this morning, reflecting and rejoicing in the resurrection of Jesus Christ!


(Here's Micah in his Easter outfit. We ended up taking his vest off since it was too big. But he sure looked handsome, so we thought we would include the pictures anyways.)

Stressful Experience

So Friday I had quite the experience, when all I wanted to do was to get some gas for the car! After meeting Tim for his dinner break yesterday, I headed over to the gas station, since I was almost on empty. When I swiped my credit card, it said transaction canceled. So I tried it again….and again....and again. Finally, I decided to go to another pump. Same thing!!! It kept telling me to see sales associate, which I was not about to do since I had a screaming baby in the car (Hungry+teething+overtired=screaming baby). I’m getting a little frustrated that I can’t get it to work and I have this screaming baby in the car, so I go to the next gas station. After trying my credit card twice and having the same thing happen, I decided to run inside the store. I guess another customer thought I looked pretty frazzled because he let me go in front of him. But the card still wouldn’t work. At this point I have no idea what to do. Micah is still screaming. I don’t have any other credit card with me, no debit card, the bank is closed and I don’t have the ATM card or pin number anyways, no cash and Tim is back to the phones at work! So now what? I started driving, still not knowing what to do. I called the credit card company and pulled over into a parking lot. I tried to hear the lady on the other end, because, yes, Micah is still crying! I quickly climb into the back seat to offer him my finger, which thankfully calms him down. Now the lady is asking for the password for our credit card account!!! Password?!! I have NO clue! She gave me the hint…I still had no idea! I’m wracking my brain, explaining to the lady that I don’t know his password and never even thought to ask for it (Tim opened the account before we were even married, and I just joined on after marriage). They transferred me to the fraud department, where I talked to a very nice lady! I explained to her that I was just trying to get gas in my car so I could get home, I have no money on me, my husband is at work, and I can’t call him because he’s on the phones calling other people, I’ve got a crying baby who needs to get home, and I don’t know Tim’s password! I think I was so frazzled and frustrated by this point that she felt sorry for me! (This is about 20 minutes after the ordeal started!) She had me verify some merchants that we used our credit card for purchases, and she opened my account so I could get gas. She left me with “Ma’am, maybe you should find out your husband’s password.” So needless to say, I was able to get gas for my car about 30 minutes later. I was going to stop by Target, too. But after that ordeal? Yeah right! So what was wrong with the account? Well, we ended up buying a video camera online earlier that day. The fraud department called Tim while he was at work and didn’t have a chance to call them back yet. Apparently, they froze the account until Tim called them to verify that he made the purchase and that the card wasn’t stolen. And the best part of the story is that after telling Tim about my experience, he bought me flowers on the way home from work to brighten my day. What a sweet husband!

Spring Cleaning

Kristen came out yesterday and told me something that I never thought I’d hear in a million years. She said that the beautiful weather we’ve been having lately inspired her to do some spring cleaning and get rid of some old stuff. No that’s not the part that shocked me. What shocked me was that of all things she had in mind to get rid of…she said she was going to get rid of shoes! Yeah, my jaw dropped. I thought maybe the pollen had gone to her head. My shoe-loving Kristen actually getting rid of shoes? While my head still tried to grasp what I heard, she went on to say that her goal was to get rid of two pairs. Well, would you believe that she found 5 pairs of old shoes to toss? Kristen had so much fun throwing out old shoes that she hit the bookshelf next to look for books we can get rid of. And she found some. So now we have a small pile of books on our floor that have to go. (If anyone wants a cookbook called The Man without a Mate, we’ve got one we’re giving away. Yeah, guess I don’t need that one anymore.) But with our love for books and Kristen’s love for shoes, my guess is that the newly created space won’t be vacant for long—especially the spot vacated by her old friends.