Happy Birthday Matt!

Our little Matt turned 9 last Friday. It turned out to be a birthday weekend celebration rather than just one day.

It started out with a party at Chuck E. Cheese with some buds. I am so thankful that God has blessed him with some new friends from church right away.

It ended today with what we call special daddy time. He got his free birthday cone - Chocolate Fudge - and is wearing his new Golden State Warriors hat. He's been praying for that for months, along with his Captain America Shield which he got too.  We went out and got a model airplane and built it together this afternoon. Matt really enjoys airplanes and is thinking about being a pilot someday - USAF Academy here we come!

Matt also wanted a new red tie to go with his suit! Thanks Grandma and Grandpa!

Andrew 2013 Part 2

In reviewing Andrew's last year, I forgot to add a couple of other notable firsts.

His first IV was very notable. In fact, it was more dramatic than his first surgery. It was also coupled with his first ambulance ride which was quite pleasant for him...and expensive for me.

We also had our first father son overnight. We did Family Life's Passport to Purity "weekend" and I thought it was a great time together and very appropriate purity discussion. Andrew mostly liked it for the food - Long John Silver's. But I think he benefited from the experience too. Hopefully, it will be the first of many annual father son overnights.

As the boys and girl can attest, I'm usually a pretty serious dad. But Andrew can occasionally bring out my goofy side.

Andrew in 2013

This was quite the year for Andrew. If it could be official, he changed from a boy into a young man this year.

He got some new glasses and a new haircut this year. He looks like a teenager even though he's still 11! I've been giving him the same haircut for 11 years, but now, he wants to grow it out and style it.

He's always been tall for his age, but he shot up and is truly the BIG brother. He grew about 5-6 inches this year. He's right around 5' 2" and is just a little shorter than Sandy. His shoe size is 9 and his feet are almost as big as mine.

He had a great year athletically and showed some skill in basketball. Whether or not he has a future of any kind in basketball, he can always look back on this year as one where he really excelled, especially defensively. The coach of one club team said that his defensive skills were superb. He can't beat me yet, but that time is coming. I told him that his goal should be to beat by the time he's 15, hopefully sooner.

I've always wondered what Andrew's future occupation(s) will be. If he ends up in programming, we can look at this year as a turning point. He tried it out for the first time at Robot Camp and liked it. He programmed a robot to do all sorts of fun things.

Academically, he's made some real strides this year too. The decision to home school him has been so beneficial to him both spiritually and academically. His previous school environment was less than ideal so it was good for him to develop academically in a more rigorous environment in preparation for middle school. High school is only a few grades away! He's also taken his voracious reading to a new level. Not only is he reading 400-500 page (easier fun reads like Harry Potter) books at the pace of about one every day or two, but he's also reading adult biographies and histories at about one a week. We have to go to the library every week sometimes twice a week and get him 5-6 books every time!

Andrew's also become a ton more helpful around the house. He does a lot. He takes out the trash, washes the dishes, helps set the table, vacuums, unloads the dishwasher, folds his clothes and cleans the bathroom too. And he's now big enough to help me move heavy things around the house too!

There were a lot of firsts for Andrew - his voice changed for the first time; he had surgery for the first time; he learned programming for the first time; he stayed up til midnight for New Year's for the first time. But I am most proud of Andrew for reading through the entire Bible for the first time last year. More important than physical or developmental milestones is this spiritual milestone. I bought him his first MacArthur Study Bible in honor of the achievement. Great year Andrew!

Benicia

You know, we never planned to live in a sea side community in CA. We never even hoped for it. We never even contemplated it. But somehow, Benicia is what God has for us.

The weather is fabulous. We actually get all four seasons as there is a lot of foliage here in northern CA. But at the same time, the temperatures are so mild. We've had more days in the 60's here in December than not yet it still feels like Christmas and winter. How can that be? I don't understand it, but I'm enjoying it.

This is our street. I love trees.

The Lee family is back in CA. I'm curious to see what God has in store for us in 2014. 2013 was the craziest year ever.

I'm so thankful the sun is setting for 2013. And by His grace, I'm starting to look forward to reaping the fruit of what He grew in our character through the trials of 2013 and starting to anticipate how His all wise sovereignty will work itself out in 2014 by bringing us here. I think the healing has truly begun.

Carlsbad Caverns

The other part of our trip with White Sands was Carlsbad Caverns. If you haven't been, you really should. I highly recommend it.

Granted, I LOVE going into caves. And this one was HUGE! It really is a lost city in there. Pictures cannot begin to show what it looks like and feels like in person. Amazing place.

Monster huge stalagmites and stalactites were everywhere in ginormous caverns.

Even though it was hot and sunny outside, it was a cool 50 some degrees way down deep. We were thousands of feet underground.

Matt even got to be part of the tour with Ranger Foz.

The Lee family had a blast.

 We also stopped in Roswell on our way home. Aliens truly are welcome here.

We felt right at home...

It's beginning to look a lot like...

the desert?

But doesn't it look like snow? Life has been so crazy I never posted our pictures from our trip to White Sands National Park. It was very, very hot.

Miles and miles of pure white crystal sand. We brought some sleds and treated it like snow.

It was fun to go down the hills in shorts.

But sand has a bit more friction than snow so the sledding wasn't quite as good.

It was amazing to see and the boys and girl had fun as usual. We went camping nearby in the mountains too but I forgot to take pictures of our campsite.

This is the best we got. Emery was a great helper.

The Albuquerque Redemption

One of my favorite movies of all time is The Shawshank Redemption. I know just about everyone has seen it, but for my parents benefit, it is the story about a man named Andy Dufresne who was unjustly incarcerated for the murder of his wife. As you can imagine, he struggled to survive the miseries of prison life until a combination of providence, moxie and smart thinking, his life in the Shawshank Federal Penitentiary turned around. He was able to use his life in prison for much good to the benefit of many until he offended the powers that be and their grip on power and control. The prison commissioner tried to snuff out any possible independent thinking in Dufresne with tortuous power plays, but in a startling turn of events, Dufresne turned the tables completely, exposing the commissioner as the true criminal of the prison and at the same time, achieving freedom and deliverance for himself. I still remember watching this movie in the theater almost 20 years ago and being stunned by the turn of events. What a great movie!

My life is hardly at all like this movie. But any Shawshank reference is worth using! 2 years ago, I came to Albuquerque with great hopes of what God would do through the exaltation of His glorious greatness, the faithful preaching of His Word and the shepherding of His flock in love. It required some sacrifice just to get there, but in my mind, it was worth it. Unfortunately, things didn't work out so well. In the blink of an eye, I was unemployed with 3 little mouths to feed. Here I was, my hopes dashed; my dreams in dust and ashes; no job, no income and no future. What could I do? How were we going to survive?

I applied for every job I could imagine. Pastoral jobs, ministry related jobs and jobs related to my old secular career.  Whatever I could find, I applied for. I considered youth ministry, even though I am the furthest thing from a youth pastor. I considered church planting, even though I am the second furthest thing from a church planter. I considered everything because the pressure of providing was HUGE. My children were shaken by it all. My wife was broken. And I was a wreck. Nothing was working out, and we were preparing to all move into 1 BR and live with family and starting over - going back to school for me, taking out loans and trying to rebuild our lives.

But one of the paradox's of the Christian life is that in the darkest of nights, the light shines the brightest. Christ proved Himself sovereignly good and gracious and kind over and over again. First, God brought so many people to encourage us. So many old friends encouraged us specifically to stand firm in the faith and affirmed us in the love of Christ. But God also physically brought alongside of us people who truly became our family in Christ here in ABQ. They encouraged us, guided us, served us and provided for us in the kindest of ways for months and months in our greatest moment of need that we will forever remember and rejoice in.

Secondly, God delivered me from this precarious situation with a job (not in pastoral ministry). But God didn't just give me a job, He gave me a great job that has a great career path. Somehow I received the favor of men out of the blue from people I never met. And in a whirlwind of events, I got a job, got an offer on our house and moved to CA, all in about a month. It's been a crazy time - packing, starting a new job, finding a place to live, finding a new church, unpacking - so much hasn't settled in for me yet. I can't really fathom the gracious, yet startling turn of events. And while I am still haunted by cruel memories, I am hopeful that one day, I will be like Joseph and able to say that "God has caused me to forget my troubles" in this new start on life.