Thankful List ~ October 2014

October 2014 Thankful List

Well friends, this month we have a TON to be thankful for and although I plan to just hit on the highlights, I want to fully honor and praise the Lord for the many, many ways he has blessed us recently!

Back in August I mentioned in a post that we were moving forward with pursuing full-time ministry positions and were in the search process with a few different churches.  We narrowed down our options to one church (fully prepared to start the whole process all over again from scratch if things didn't work out).  This particular church has been an absolute joy to visit.  The preaching pastor is extremely gifted at expositing the Word (both in his Sunday School class and from the pulpit).  When we have visited, the congregation has been very friendly and welcoming (although no one but the hiring board knew that Josh was the candidate for the pastor position). Our kids have left the nursery excited about their bible lesson and they get along great with the other children.  We started to really like this church and were becoming quite fond of the people we were meeting.  To our excitement, Josh was invited to preach at a special service on Friday, October 10th.  Two days later, the hiring board met.  That evening Josh was called and offered the position at that church!!!!   This past weekend we were invited to a church-wide reception.  Josh taught the Youth group for the first time during the Sunday school hour and then he was asked to preach to the entire congregation during the Sunday morning service.  During the service the members had an opportunity to vote.  We were thrilled that they affirmed us and joyfully welcomed us to be become part of their church family!  We have been praying for the past 10 months that the Lord would make things VERY clear for us. We have prayed that if God did not want us to be in a position somewhere that we would clearly see any red flags that were warning us to turn down an opportunity.  At the same time, we've been praying for God to make it very clear of exactly where HE wants us to serve by giving us a peace, encouragement, and excitement about a body of believers.  We feel like God has been completely faithful to do these things and we want to make sure He gets all the credit for this new opportunity!  Continue to pray for us as Josh will officially begin in his new position on December 1^st!

Also mentioned in a previous post, I’ve been experiencing a lot of back pain.  I was finally able to see a doctor and my hip is actually displaced which is causing my muscles to overcompensate and has tilted my tailbone in the wrong direction.  I'm having trouble standing, sitting, walking, and even lying down however, my husband has been encouraging me to endure and I’m thankful to know what’s actually going on so I can do the right type of exercises to eventually correct the problem.  In the past 3 days it has been feeling tremendously better.  Praise to the Lord, who is the great physician and has the power to heal! 

Several family members and friends have been going through some very difficult medical situations.  This month the Lord sustained the life of two very close relatives who both experienced very risky surgeries.  In addition, a dear friend who was not sure if she could ever have children announced her pregnancy only to start spotting a week later.  So far, the Lord has continued to sustain the life of their little baby and I am so absolutely grateful!

The kids have been doing great.  Homeschool has been a lot of fun.  Addi is learning so much and I can’t even believe how much Josiah is inadvertently absorbing.  We had a family presentation during our school’s assembly and the kids were naturals.  They had everyone laughing.  We also wrapped up Addilyn’s soccer season and she is thrilled about her very first medal!  Addilyn and Josiah both have been saying the funniest things lately and I’ve tried to write down a lot of the silly phrases.  We also discovered a book warehouse sale (that takes place the first weekend of every month) and I got a ton of children’s books for next to nothing.

We had a yard sale to get rid of a lot of stuff and to make a little spending money for the NC State Fair that rolls through Raleigh every October.  We had a fabulous time eating lots of yummy food, checking out the animals and homegrown vegetables, watching the BMX stunt show, and of course riding lost of rides.  We learned that Addilyn is fearless and her brother is just as opposite as can be.  The day we went the weather was perfect and we had such a great time as a family.

Last but not least, we dressed up and went out trick or treating for Halloween.  Each year I hand-make our costumes and this year I think they turned out pretty cute.  The kids did not wear them the whole time, but thankfully I had thrown an Iron Man and a princess costume in my purse as back ups.  Either way, we had a great evening with friends.