The Quick Facts

Somewhat like a birth story, it is going to take me a few days to really get it all into writing about how yesterday went.  But in a word... it was an INCREDIBLE day!  To see people pouring into the place and the auditorium filled to capacity was certainly something to celebrate.  So I promise a longer post later, but  to tie you over, here are the quick facts:

• 285 people total... a stark contrast of our very first launch meeting which resulted in FOUR people showing up!
• 42 of those people were in our kids' services (5th grade and under)
• At least 9 people committed their lives to Christ
• Many many connection cards filled out with names of people who are excited and want to get involved!

Man it was a great day!  Although it's not up yet, Josh's sermon will be posted online soon, so when it goes live I will let you know.  I'd like to say the hard part is over, but now we have to make sure they want to come back!  It's really just the beginning...

The time has come...

It's a big day for our family, but even more so for the Kingdom tomorrow.  Tomorrow (Sunday) at 10am is the very first service of our church plant, TurningPoint Church.  From the bottom of our hearts, thank you to everyone who have been praying for us, helped us financially, gave us your time, resources, and support.  Our hearts are full and we're going into tomorrow more excited than ever.  We know that it's not about us though... and we are humbled and ecstatic to have been used in this way by God, but even more so, about what we will witness tomorrow.  When God moves, He moves big, and I cannot wait to see who he decides to send our way tomorrow.  I think there's going to be some partying going on in heaven tomorrow when people come face to face with the Creator of the universe for the first time.  

And check our our little shout out we got on the Association of Related Churches (ARC)'s blog today.  We are so blessed to be a part of that family.

February Photo Ops: Day 7 - 9

[February 7 - Button]

I didn't realize how many buttons there were to choose from until this topic came up.  There are phone buttons (many of which are now touch screen), remote control buttons, buttons in the car, all over the kitchen, etc.  And then there are buttons on clothing, furniture, etc.  For this challenge, however, I chose this button:

Ohhh Disney World... how I miss you so.  I spent many a-weekend there with my girlfriends before getting married and one of those weekends fell on my birthday.  In a word, it was perfection.  Mostly because if it's your birthday, you get a "free" button.  That only costs the price of your ticket.  Yes, I am a sucker.

[February 8 - Sun]

This side of Kentucky did not see the sun once yesterday, which is odd since it had been sunny all week.  I'm cool with the dreary weather as long as that means it will clear up in time for our church launch this Sunday.  So instead, I took a picture of the little plastic sun that I hung on Lilly's bouncy seat:

Well, now that I look at it, it looks more like a flower.  Po-tay-to Po-tah-to.  And yes, those chubby cheeks belong to my own little ray of sunshine.

[February 9 - Front Door]

Ummm... nothing special here.  Just a blue door that's not even decorated.  Me thinks I need to step it up.

Seeing this makes me miss this door [sigh]:

Which reminds me... have I mentioned that we sold the world's greatest house?  It was one of the saddest happiest moments of my life.  And it is proof that God's timing is perfect.  When setting out to plant a church we had budgeted up until this month to cover that mortgage.  I surprisingly did not stress like I thought I would and as He always does, God was faithful and stepped in when we needed to.  It reminds me to never be surprised, but to always be amazed by Him.  

"Now glory to God, who is able, through his mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think."

(Ephesians 3:20)

Busy

I've had this post floating around in my head for awhile now, and the ironic part is that I have literally just been too busy to sit down and write it all down.  And it all revolves around that word... "busy." 

Think back to the last phone conversation you've had with someone you haven't talked to in awhile.  It probably started out with a, "hey, how have you been?" and if the answer wasn't "fine" then it was probably the other four-letter standard answer of "busy."  Or when we don't get around to doing something that we were supposed to do or said we would, our answer is, "sorry, things have been so busy."  All that to say that it just makes me wonder, when did life get so "busy" for absolutely everyone?

As I reflect back on my life and compare it to the season that we're living in now, I almost feel silly that I ever really used that word to describe my current situation.  High school?  Well, yeah, I went from school to dance team practice to soccer practice and twice a week had additional dance lessons.  Plus I of course wanted to hang out with my friends on the weekends.  So I guess you could say it was busy.  Then college?  Well, there was class, which I was actually good about going to, with the exception of freshman biology, but really, who could blame me for that?  For a few years I worked as a resident assistant, which really just meant a weekly meeting and being friends with all of the girls on my floor (tough job, right?) and in the latter years I was a lifeguard at the YMCA, which honestly, was just hours spent in a chair watching a few very capable people swim laps.  I juggled that with weekly sorority meetings, which eventually led me to being a part of the board (which meant another weekly meeting) and then there were various social activities and probably too many parties.  And at that point, yes, I thought I was busy.  After college I moved to Florida and worked at a country club for awhile, which meant giving up a lot of weekends when I'd rather be doing something else.  When that job came to an end, I worked for the FedEx Orange Bowl, which meant working ALL. THE. TIME. (not even kidding there), and while I would say I was "busy," my time at work was really just filling a chair half the time.  The company culture lent itself to having us work all hours around the clock, when our jobs were really done for the day at regular business ending hours.  But becuase I worked so much I was, yep, you guessed it... "busy."  Then from there I started my career with Marriott, and while my hours got more regular, my social calendar filled back up with weekends at Disney with the girls, which I generally planned, bridal showers, weddings, and all the fun stuff that goes along with being in your twenties.  And then of course there was the planning of my own wedding, which filled up many weekends and was probably the most fun I've ever had being "busy" in my life.  As soon as we were married we packed up (immediately) and moved to Illinois to plant a church campus and while Josh worked some crazy hours, I worked from home and basically sulked that my husband wasn't always there to keep me company.  And instead of jumping on board and really lightening his load, I thought that I was "too busy" with my own full-time job and housekeeping to really be of any significance.  Plus, I was pregnant, so I liked to point out that I was constantly busy "building a human."  Yeah, try to top that!

So what's my point you might wonder?  Well, it's just that the word is... well... overused I think.  It's like the word "love."  I can love my husband and my children, but I can also love my new purse?  That makes no sense at all, but it's the only word we have for it.  And right here right now, in this season of my life, I am beginning to understand the absurdity of "busy" as well.  When Josh and I moved here this summer to plant a church, I knew things would be a bit crazy at times.  I was six months pregnant with our second child and we were starting at square one, with just a calling that we were supposed to be in this are, but no real direction beyond that.  The first couple of months of figuring it all out weren't truly all that busy, but Josh was on the go a lot as he built contacts and tried to flesh out this dream he had in his heart.  And then Lilly came along and I had three months of maternity leave, and while there was down time here and there, learning to adjust to two children can have a person "busy" around the clock.  Things started to ramp up for our church during these months as we partnered with the Kinchen family and their existing church, and suddenly the calendar started filling up.  Josh was meeting with anyone and everyone who would listen to him, casting vision and letting them know that they could help change the world.  I took over the childrens' ministry and began spending any free time I had searching for curriculum, pestering the childrens' pastor from our previous church, and putting together policies and procedures.  Our facility went under major renovations and we were often there painting, dry-walling, or whatever else we could find to do, all the while trying to keep an eye on a toddler who has more energy than anyone we know.  And then... I went back to work two months before our church was scheduled to launch.  Basically the two busiest months that a church plant will have.  At the beginning of January I remember literally thinking to myself, "I am going to hate January."  I knew at the start of it that Josh would be gone a lot and I would be juggling my job, the house, the bills, and two kids, both of which are at needy ages, and I just wasn't sure that I could do it.  And then I blinked and it was February.

We are now T-minus five days to the launch of TurningPoint Church.  To say that I am proud of my husband and what he has put in place would be the understatement of the year.  Over the past few months he has worked non-stop to pour into people, build them up, encourage them, and truly help them know and believe that they were created by God on purpose and for a purpose.  He helped individuals become leaders that they didn't realize they could be, and he helped those leaders build teams that will serve this community every Sunday starting next week.  He got up early to read not just the Bible, but manuals about speaker systems, accounting programs, and membership tracking applications.  And the whole time, I know that he beat himself up about not being home.  And then I look at my past few months and, well, I'm a bit proud of myself, too.  While I would not say that I want this pace to be the norm for our family, I have managed to keep our home pretty clean (if not always tidy), kept our kids happy, well-fed, well-groomed, and entertained, built the framework for what I hope will be a successful kids' ministry, and have even made it back to the gym about three times every week, which was more than I was going before all of this was going on.  Sure, my kids are with me 24 hours a day and come with me everywhere I go, which can be a major hassle at times (and a deterrent from leaving the house to be quite honest) but even when I didn't want to, I sucked it up and made it happen.  And I realized that for the first time in quite possibly my entire life, the difference has been discipline.  Because I so deeply believe to the very core of who I am in what we are doing, and  because I so very much believe that this church we are planting is something that we were created to do, I made the time work, even when there never seemed to be enough.  Sometimes with my kids I get frustrated that "my time is not my own," meaning I can't necessarily do things or get things done on my schedule, but then I remind myself that with or without kids, the time never was mine to begin with.  God gives us all 24 hours in a day, and I think it's important to Him how we use it.  We learn about tithing and giving our first 10% of our earnings to God, because it belongs to Him anyway, and I don't think we ever stop and think that it's the same with our time.  He has promised us eternal life in Heaven with Him if we accept Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, but I think with that acceptance comes a responsibility to take care of this gift of time he's given us.  And the more responsible we are with it, the more responsibility He will give us... just like the tithe.  In these past few months I have learned so much about what it means to work hard.  I have learned how to utilize my time so that no single part of my day goes to waste.  When I walk up the stairs I have a basket of laundry in my hand and when I come back down I'm carrying cups that have accumulated.  I tirelessly pick up toys, load and unload the dishwasher, and change more diapers than I can count.  I write business proposals and contracts, return phone calls and send emails.  I try to pour into my kids' ministry team, send schedules and outlines of how Sunday should look.  I now know what the word "busy" really looks like.  It is my life in this time right now.

This post is in no way to try and say that we are truly busier than anyone else right now.  I think in many ways, those times in my past when I thought I was busy, I actually was for the capacity of what I could handle right then.  I think God saw how I handled my time, probably tried to hand me more responsibility at times, and I wasn't at a place where I was willing to take it on right then.  And now, well, we've been more than willing and He sure has handed us quite a bit.  And even though it's been tough and exhausting, and believe me, I have a mini-nervous breakdown about once a week (which my husband can confirm), and as much as I would love an entire day just to myself, I really can't complain.  This journey has stretched me in more ways than I have ever been stretched.  I have been challenged beyond any measure that I have ever had in the past.  And at the end of each day, I go to bed so satisfied with what we're doing with the time we've been given.  And I am proud.  And I hope God is proud of us.

So in finally putting all of this out there my challenge to you is this:

If you feel like there is something that you really want to go after, or you're hearing a small voice in your head pushing you in a certain direction, maybe it's time that you go for it!  Has your excuse been that you're already too busy or just don't have time?  We're all given the same amount of it... maybe it's "time" to start rearranging some things and make more time out of your 24 hours.  It won't be easy, and at times you'll be so tired that you think you might fall asleep standing up, but if you accomplish what you set out to do, it will be worth it.

I know that this Sunday is the first of many for TurningPoint Church and I know that our pace will still be a little crazy for awhile, even after we're up and running.  But this weekend, on February 12th, when they play that last song and our first service ends I know it will be worth it.  And whether fifty people or five hundred show up, I think that God will be smiling down on us, proud that we stopped being "too busy" to find the time to make this happen.  And deep within me, I will be filled with peace because I know that this "busy" season won't last forever and the pace will slow down eventually, and sometime in the near future my "busy" will look a lot less busy than it is right now. 

"Show me, O LORD, my life's end and the number of my days; let me know how fleeting is my life. You have made my days a mere handbreadth; the span of my years is as nothing before you. Each man's life is but a breath" 

(Psalm 39:4-5)

February Photo Ops: Day 4-6

[February 4 - A Stranger] 

Okay, I'm not going to lie, taking a picture of a stranger nearly brought on a panic attack.  I know that may sound a bit extreme, but I felt like a major creep-o trying to take a picture without the stranger realizing it.  Soooo... my picture came out blurry, and that's totally okay with me.  The challenge was just to photograph a stranger, not necessarily a clear image of one!  But what you can't see is that the stranger I was targeting looked like my cousin, Tommy, which is why I picked him.  I don't think I've ever written Tommy's story on my blog, but I probably should someday, since thoughts of him make me smile.  We lost Tommy in a motorcycle accident a few years ago and to say that he is missed is an understatement.  And he sure was handsome, which you would be able to tell from my stranger picture if it was clear, but it's not.  See?

So yes, that's my stranger, who looks like Tommy.  And, well, now I'm just going to go ahead and post a picture of Tommy so you can see what my stranger looks like.  I know it's not part of the challenge, but hey, it's my blog so I can post it if I want to... and someday I will have to tell you all about him:

So that's him... with my Aunt B, who is also one of my happy thoughts.  She passed away two years ago, and is another one that we miss dearly.  Oh but I digress... let's get back to the photo project before I get all misty eyed on you.

[February 5 - 10 am]

I must admit, I was so happy that this topic landed on a Sunday.  Why?  Because it means that I can post this:

10am from here on out means that you can find me at TurningPoint Church, the church that Josh and I are planting.  Pretty amazing and I will fill you in on all of the details after our launch service on Sunday.  This photo was taken at our "preview" service, which was a full service that allowed us to basically work out the kinks.  I get goosebumps thinking about 10am this coming Sunday... it really will be a dream coming to life.  Again, I'm about to get misty eyed.  Moving on...

[February 6 - Dinner]

There was a part of me that wanted to actually cook dinner so that I could take a picture of it.  Ha!  If you know me well, you know that cooking is not something that I really enjoy that much, so a hot meal on the table is few and far between.  I wish it weren't so, and it's something I need to improve on before the kids get much older, but if it were up to me, we'd have a bowl of cereal every night.  Tonight, however, Josh came home from work and had skipped lunch, so he frantically searched the kitchen for something to eat. He cooked up some chicken and instead of taking a picture of it, I took a picture of him eating dinner, mostly because of the company he keeps at mealtime:

An unimpressive dinner is always tastier when you have that sweet face staring back at you.  Thankfully God blessed me with a husband who doesn't mind cooking, and who also doesn't mind that I don't cook much!

So that wraps it up.  I'm not sure if the intent of this project was to have such lengthy explanations of my photos, but I am kind of enjoying adding the backstory... for now.  We'll see if I can keep it up!

February Photo Ops

I saw that a friend of mine is doing this and think I'll join in the fun.  I'm a failure at Project365, but surely I can take one picture a day for a whole month, right?  Especially since I've been given a topic and have my iPhone on me at all times now!  So here's the challenge, originally brought to you by Chantelle:

I'm not going to post them daily, but in spurts since that's kind of how I roll on this blog anyway!  So here are days 1-3:

[February 1 - My view today]

For a lot of my day, I sit in front of my laptop as I sell golf trips to a resort in Miami.  Pretty random for a gal who lives in Kentucky, right?  But it makes sense if you know the whole story!  Notice the jump-a-roo in the background... baby gear has pretty much taken over every room of the house!

[February 2 - Words]

For the first time this week, I started my day off with THE Word... which is always the favorite way to start my day.  Even though I hate getting out of bed early, I love being up early.  And when I do this and spend the first part of my day with Him, I feel like He rewards me with more time that day.  Weird I know, since every day has 24 hours in it, but somehow He makes it work.  [As a side note: I have no idea why this uploaded upside-down much less how to fix it!]

[February 3 - Hands]

I love photos of hands.  I have no idea why, but I feel like they can tell so much.  We have three separate pictures of just hands hanging on our dining room wall.  I didn't even realize it until I put the third one up, but they really do tell a story.  The first is a picture of mine and Josh's hands on our wedding day, the second is our hands on my Jake-belly bump, and the third is a picture of Lilly's tiny fingers clutching her daddy's hands just moments after she was born... quite possibly my favorite.  So as I said, they tell the story of our family.  But in this project I am committing to taking all new pictures, so here are my favorite pudgy fingers in my life these days:

I know we're three days in, but it's not too late to join up!  I think it's a fun idea and you can link your blog to her blog if you participate.  Tomorrow's does make me a little bit nervous as I feel a bit awkward taking a photograph of a stranger, but I'm sure I'll figure something out!  Happy Friday everyone and here's to more more blogging (I hope!) this month!

Already?

Our sweet Lil has been with us now for four months, which is hard to believe.  I felt like my pregnancy took forever this time around, and yet the past four months have flown by in the blink of an eye.  When she was born I promised myself that I would cherish every second, cuddle her more, and somehow manage to make time pass more slowly, but with all the craziness of life, I lost the battle.  We have no control over the passing of time, and I am baffled at its speed now that I have two kids.  Granted, I'm still baffled at the idea that I have two kids at all!

So what's she like at four months?  Oh sweet Lil... you are wonderful.  While a bit of a chunky monkey, her smile can light up a room.  She is weighing in these days at 16 lbs, 5 oz. (95th percentile and almost double her birth weight already!) and is 25 inches tall (75th percentile).  But oh how I am in love with those rolls!  We often say that she has rolls on top of her rolls, and I could just squeeze them all day long!  Her wardrobe consists of mostly six month items, but she can actually wear quite a few nine month outfits as well, particularly in the waste, but not so much in length.  And we're already up to size 3 diapers, mostly because the size 2's were no longer containing that oh-so-fun poo up the back situation!  That's always our tell-tale sign that it's time to go bigger.  At her appointment our doctor told me that we can start her on cereal, but that it was up to us as she's doing so well on just breastmilk.  We often joke that I must make cream as our kids have never had any problems putting on weight.  If there were a way for me to pump and ship it to the hungry kids in third world countries, I would gladly do so.  We'll probably start giving her cereal once a day in the evenings at least in the hopes that she will sleep through the night.  Bigger babies (and particularly nursing babies) have a more difficult time making it all night and she's usually up around 2am and 5am to eat, even if it's just a little.  One thing I have been successful at is the goal of cuddling her more as she pretty much winds up in our bed in the middle of the night every night... and I love those cuddles from my sweet girl, even if it means that we'll have a tougher time getting her to sleep in her own bed later.  Granted, I try and at least start her out in her pack-n-play every night so that she gets used to going to bed on her own, and most of the time she'll settle eventually.  If she had her way though, she'd stay up until midnight and sleep until ten.  She is her mama's child.  Twice now we successfully put her in the crib to go to bed, which is in Jake's room, and we've had a 50% success rate.  The first night Jake didn't even hear her fuss, I was able to go in, feed her, and put her back to bed, and then brought her into our room for her second feeding.  The second night I heard her stirring around 3 and when I went in there I was surprised to see Jake's bed empty.  I scanned the floor for him, since he sometimes falls asleep while playing, and then I heard "Baby!"  When I looked over at the crib, Jake was sitting next to her in the crib, patting her on the belly.  I'm not sure who woke up who, but I'm pretty sure big brother woke up, heard her in there, and decided that he needed to check her out.  We're going to put the crib rail back up pronto before trying for a third attempt!  While it was sweet, there is no part of me that needs the extra worry of her getting hurt, albeit unintentionally from a loving big brother.  While he's still not always a big fan, she has grown on him quite a bit and I think that will only continue as she gets more interactive.

It's amazing to me how two kids from the same parents can be so very different.  And what amazes me even more is how early on you can tell!  At four months Jake was already strong-willed and determined to accomplish the next milestone.  At four months he was rolling both ways, jumping like a maniac in his jump-a-roo, and getting up onto all fours and rocking back and forth.  As for Lilly, she is so calm and mellow in comparison.  While I have seen her roll from her stomach to her back (and she often does it when I put her to bed), she really has no desire to do it when she's playing.  If you put her down on her belly, she'll stay just like that until we come and get her... and she let's us know when she's over it!  She would much rather sit in the swing and take a nap than do just about anything, and only tolerates the jump-a-roo so far.  Jake never liked the swing, but Lilly would spend the day there if we let her!  Last night was the first time we saw even a glimmer of that determined attitude as she tried so hard to roll from her back to her belly over and over and over again.  She gets about 90% the way there, and then just giggles and let's herself roll right back over to where she started.  It's not that she doesn't have the ability to do these things, it's just that she doesn't really care enough to try!  She is perfectly happy just laying around, being looked at and talked to, and smiling back.  While Jake is my spirited, strong-willed, stubborn, and active child, she is my carefree, laid back, go with the flow baby.  In many ways, we have created little clones of ourselves, so I think they'll get along just fine in life.  I think God knew what He was doing when He created her for us... she definitely balances the scale around here.

Other than that, she's pretty much a happy baby all the time.  She's been chewing on her hands a lot lately, but we still haven't seen many signs of teething.  She has just recently become pretty good at reaching out and grabbing objects and is mesmerized by the lights on the iPhone, just like her brother (and mama for that matter!).  We've even seen her put her pacifier back in her mouth a couple of times, or at least get it to a place where she can chew on it.  That is a skill that makes a mom's job so much easier!  And the one thing she's doing way ahead of her brother is attempting to hold her own bottle when she gets one, which he never had much interest in doing.  I think she just wants to ensure that I don't take it away from her though!

Life with two is definitely a change.  I feel like I need to pack a suitcase in order to go anywhere and could win an arm wrestling match with anyone after carrying the two of them around all the time!  Honestly though, I wouldn't have it any other way.  It's overwhelming sometimes, and some days are difficult depending on their moods and willingness to nap, but it's twice the smiles, twice the cuddles, and more than twice the love.  My heart is so full because of these two and I can hardly remember life without them!

Thanks for an incredible four months, sweet Lilly.  You truly are a precious angel.  I would pray that you would stay this age forever, but I already know that it won't work.  I will, however, spend everyday loving you right where you're at.  To me, you are perfect.