Some Things

so i've been listening more attentively what people are saying lately. I think being married to mr. sensitive is opening me up to being more sensitive towards what others are saying non-verbally. so this morning i wanted to list a few of my prayers.

c - for the hurt she holds inside from the loss of a spouse.
p - for her son who has back pains and went to the hospital.
j - for the need of forgiveness and grace she so desperately is calling out for.
l - for having to lead her family thru a very difficult situation.
d - for adjusting to life with boys who need love.
s - for being a father-figure to boys who need a loving father.
s - for mercy and grace during a mission trip.
c - for safe travels back from vacation.
m & d - for grace during this transisition in their lives.
t - for financial wisdom and blessings.

not sure what troy and my plans are for the weekend. surely he'll come up with something entertaining to do.

Braves

took an adventure to the braves game last night with the messiah house. we had a lot of fun; too bad the brewers kicked butt.

took the day off from work today and sat with troy in court. because of a change in his pay, he had to modify his financial obligations for his child support. i hadn't ever been to trial court like that before. there was a couple just ahead of the brown's case - the couple was getting divorced. the divorce was uncontested, took about 10 minutes to complete, and broke my heart every one of the seconds they were standing up there. no wonder God hates divorce.

btw, troy's case went quite good - he'll be paying significantly less for child support now. that's good for us. we are still praying for his house on the south side of atlanta to sell, but this decrease in child support will certainly help us. perhaps my readers could join us in praying for the house to sell.

while i'm on a role with prayer requests... the catch to paying less in child support is that now the ex-wife will need to come up with other ways to find money to pay for the bills. and there is one bill (the house payment specifically) which will need to be paid because it is already late.

Twittering

so i've fallen into it. not sure if i'll ever use it, but i have it loaded. guess now you can follow my rants, joys and cares. thanks denise.

twitter

Interesting Reads

so the last couple of days have been wild. stuff with troy's ex-wife and the boys... i'm not going into any details, but it's been an interesting ride - frustrating, stressful, and at times - unbelieveable. so it comes with great joy that the ladies in my office have brought in some great reading material.

some of our local papers publish the greatest articles. you'll have to click and read if you need a good laugh - i know this week i really needed the laugh and it came at exactly the right time. I love how God gives us that little boost of sunshine in the midst of the drudgery.

article one (once you click the link, you'll need to go to page six and read the article about roping a deer.

article two

now if you don't see these articles as funny, you better check to see if your heart is still pumping.

for some wedding blissfulness, check out this link.

Random Update

so a few things have happened since my last update. i've ridden in Troy's truck down to orlando for a day. during that trip we had the 'free disney tour by trozay'. Troy gave me a great tour of disney, including ice cream from some wonderful chocolate place. (i'm really bad with names, sorry.)

we've had the kids for 8 weekends staight. well, we've had some help with the boys a couple weekends - and that i am so grateful for. this last weekend we didn't have to drive very much and it was great. saturday we went fishing, then to dixie motor speedway for Troy's father's day event. we all had a great time. yesterday we spent some time at the pool. it was fun just hanging out and not having to drive hours and hours like most weekends. the relaxing weekend helped both Troy and me too. i think next weekend we are off duty as parents, so i'm really looking forward to some free time. i wanna give a special shout-out to Troy's parents for helping us out with the kids.

let's see, what else is going on in my world. i've been missing africa a lot the last couple days. i keep thinking of swahili words, and translating english into swahili. ninaweza kusema kiswahili. i spoke with my friend, japheth, this morning. he and i were remembered the days when we'd sneak off to Boma so we could get some cokes. those were the days.

Troy and I combined our t-mobile plans. i thought for sure that I'd have to cancel my plan, then add my line onto his phone, but that's wasn' the case. t-mobile actually allowed us to combine plans withouth any extra fees. and now Troy and I save about 40 bucks a month because we are on one plan. i'm pretty excited about that.

been reading in Romans latey. reading about how our sufferings will be honored... that message speaks volumes into my life right now.

Peace

so i've been praying for peace in our family. and with the prayers comes some mediation on this verse:

[Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid. John 14.27]

so as i ponder peace, and this Jesus who gives it, i begin to think about my responsibility to peace. am i the one representing peace to my family? does troy recognize peace in me? do the kids see that i'm offering them peace? or am i acting in the opposite way - uptight, filled with anxiety, etc? unfortunately i've not been so great at displaying peace around them.

so yesterday i was listening to pandora and sara groves's song 'loving a person' came on. here are the lyrics:

Loving a person just the way they are, it's no small thing
It takes some time to see things through
Sometimes things change, sometimes we're waiting
We need grace either way
Hold on to me
I'll hold on to you
Let's find out the beauty of seeing things through
There's a lot of pain in reaching out and trying
It's a vulnerable place to be
Love and pride can't occupy the same spaces baby
Only one makes you free
Hold on to me
I'll hold on to you
Let's find out the beauty of seeing things through
If we go looking for offense
We're going to find it
If we go looking for real love
We're going to find it

God has an amazing way of using the lyrics to songs by sara groves to pull me closer to His heart. i remember when i was in tanzania, and was lovely and missing everything 'normal', and He brought one of sara groves songs into my life. the song is called 'He's always been faithful'. here are the lyrics:

Morning by morning I wake up to find the power and comfort of God's hand in mine. Season by season I watch him amazed, in awe of the mystery of his perfect ways. . Chorus: All I have need of his hand will provide. He's always been faithful to me. I can't remember a trial or a pain he did not recycle to bring me gain. I can't remember one single regret in serving God only and trusting his hand. This is my anthem, this is my song, the theme of the stories I've heard for so long. God has been faithful, he will be again. His loving compassion, it knows no end.

From A to B

when my mom came to visit during the georgian wedding reception, i gave her some advice: 'step out of your type A personality, and climb into type B... pleaseeee.'

unforunately that advice is coming back to haunt me. i've never thought of myself as much of a type A person, but the more i'm around troy and the kids, i'm definitely type A. so it's a little frustrating for me right now... normally i'm the laid back person who allows things to roll with the punches, but lately i feel as though i'm forcing the punches. before i was married, i made all my life's decision; now it feels like i barely get to make a decision other than 'do i get out of bed on time, or wait until i need to rush?'.

when troy and i were dating, we had the kids every other weekend, with the exception of one time, we had the kids 2 weekends in a row. since we've been married, we've had the kids every weekend - that's 4 weekends, and we'll have them again next weekend due to father's day. this has been quite challenging for me - i won't lie. it's not that i don't love the time with the kids, cuz i do... it's just that i only get to see my husband on the weekends, and when we have the kids, our focus is on them, and not each other. the quality time i desire from troy has been limited to phone calls and an occasional minute or two on the couch watching spongebob. joy.

this parenting thing is challenging. man, it's challenging. i'm not gonna say much more than that, but it's hard work. much harder than coming into my safe, green office everyday. i keep trying to remind myself of two things: 1) God is the only One who can change hearts, and 2) respect is better earned than demanded.

troy just called me and asked if i wanted to go to orlando tomorrow?!?!? huh? are you serious? so he's been asked to work on friday, which he thought he'd be off. he's trying to work it out that his dad will take the kids for the weekend, so he and i can drive to orlando all night on friday night/saturday morning and be back on sunday morning. this is the way my life rolls these day. right about the time i try to make some plans... the plans change.

my life is out of control. have i always been a control freak and didn't know it? it's a little scary to me.