milestones

michael turned 50, our friends from ca and tx came to visit and we are now all officially in ministry, another baby (danny & jessica's) has been added to the pile o'kids, our first public service has come and gone, life moves on......

celebrating

all the above. i put together the 50 things that are awesome about michael for his birthday (50 adjectives takes some work!). just in case you didn't know or forgot these things about him here is a sample:

• handsome
• intellectual
• focused
• athletic
• lover of god
• adores his kids
• protective
• dry witted etc....

missio dei

our first service as a great experience. an opportunity to be humbled before god and man. we learned a lot and look forward to the next opportunity to share more and reach out. we had a great group of people come out that we knew. many were there to support michael and i. they were kind and gracious and gave great feedback for next time. kurt and michael continue to solidify their communication of the gospel and the best ways to share that message of love, hope and service. our friends were able to go with us to our core group meeting and it was great to hear in love their thoughts, criticism and encouragement!

community

i hesitate to separate that from the section above since this is foundational to what missio dei is but after this long weekend with our friends i am reminded how desperate most of us are for true love and authentic relationships. therefore it warranted it's own category. i am weary with superficiality; both within the church and elsewhere. i would rather have a meaningful relationship with my kind of cooky, worshipping all things neighbor than some of the superficial "sunday" relationships i have had with so called christians.

i love that our friends love us enough to discipline our children, that we trust enough to really share our struggles, laugh our heads off and even cry in front of each other. i am so sad to see them leave but encouraged to know that when we moved to dallas we never expected that wacky group of people with such different backgrounds and journeys who were thrown together to amount to much of anything; certainly not deep and meaningful friendships! we missed adam and cara and look forward to our time all together in may to celebrate friendship and danny's graduation!

asheville

michael is growing deeper in love with the place as he mountain bikes and discovers new opportunities to join god at work in the community. that is an answer to prayer. he and kurt are busy with ideas for the church and he will begin to mentor someone at the north carolina rescue ministry. he is eating with the men in the program and the director weekly. he may begin to teach/preach there as well in chapel.

the weather has been just beautiful and that has been nice to get outside more and more. my daffodils are even blooming. a good sign of new life in spring approaching.

the kids seem to be doing well. we had our parent/teacher conferences and harrison and tatiana are in the best place for each of their unique needs. the schools still seem surprised that we care way more about their character development than their academic smarts. luckily they act much kinder away then they do at home.

a huge answer to prayer came when the montessori school directors offered to support of our urban ministry efforts by offering us a sizable discount on tuition for next year. they were in full-time ministry at one time and understand that there is a need for missionaries in the cities of the us just as much as overseas. our mission field is much the same. they want to reach young families by loving their children. their generous commitment will allow us to have tatiana continue kindergarten there and add sasha and brennan 3 days per week at a different campus to begin their preparation for school. we are hugely grateful!

i continue to feel a little displaced. you know the non-granola girl i am in the land of comfy shoes and all natural everything. is mac make-up organic?

shannon (kurt's wife) and i have committed to getting together regularly and i am looking forward to that. i am reminded of similar times of past loneliness where later i was able to look back on these as good times to draw near to god and those special friends he has provided and rest in those. in that way i have been truly blessed!

laugh or cry

brennan came into my bed at 6:40 am the first day of daylight savings (5:40 a, for my body) the other morning and i begged him to be quiet and go right back to sleep. a few seconds later his stomach growled and he said there was a monster in their and proceeded to roar at the top of his lungs and flail his hands around my head. meanwhile matt and rebecca and jessica and danny have been sleeping until 9:30 or 10 am! harrison asked " how can they sleep so loooonnnnnggg?" i wonder the same....