Happy 2 years to us!

We were married 2 years ago today in Endicott, New York, surrounded by our closest friends and family that we love. Our wedding was designed to be a worship service where the focus would be placed onto the ONE who had brought us together just a year earlier.

I would love to say that every day since that day has been blissful. It has, in fact, been very hard on some days. There have been days that both of us have wanted to forever walk away from each other. Neither of us realized how selfish we were until we were living so closely with another person. All my life I dreamed of being a good wife and mom, and I didn't understand why it was so hard to do just that. I didn't understand why it was so hard to care for and love David the way he needed and deserved. And the problem was, there wasn't a lot of places we could go to talk about how hard things were. We wanted to talk to someone, we just didn't know where to go for help. We felt like there was something wrong with us, but then God brought people into our lives who had been where we were. Our community group at Redeemer Church (the Lind's, the Leadbetter's, and the Blackston's) walked with us every week as did David's cousin and her husband. They helped us to understand that what we were experiencing was something they had experienced and God had brought their marriage beyond that to a place that reflected more what God designed marriage to be. I need people to be real with me, and when things were really rough, those couples were honest with us and gave us glimpses of hope. We couldn't have done it without their support.

Thankfully, when we made our vows to each other, we also made them to God. And on days (cause we still have them) when things are tough and it's hard to keep the commitment to each other, we remember that we have made a promise to our God. And when we take our eyes off of ourselves and focus our gaze onto Him, He gives us the strength to love as He has loved us. We have more good days now than bad days. I can say that I love David more today than I did last year. I am thankful to be married to him and feel blessed to have him as my life partner. Please pray that God will help us to love each other and to use our marriage to bring Him glory.

Moving across the country recently has added some stress to our lives. But we both agree that the change was something we both needed. We are now looking for a church where we can worship and be involved in a small group where we can grow like we did in Knoxville. If you think of it, please pray that God will show us where He wants us to go. We have been visiting churches every Sunday and have found a couple that we like a lot.

We hope this will be our new home!

We are so excited to have put an offer on a house in Goodyear, Arizona, and we now have a contract on that house. It is a 4 bedroom, 2 bath single story home with an open floor plan that we love! It has just under 2,000 square feet which is bigger than what we were looking for. The neighborhood has a pool and spa - there is also a local, brand new YMCA 2 miles down the road that we plan on joining. We are getting a great deal on the home because it is a short sale (preforeclosure). They are selling it for literally half of what they paid for the house just 2 years ago. It is about 25 minutes from my work, and there are several schools nearby where David will be able to choose from to attend.

Please pray for us in this process. This is first time for both of us, so there is lots that we don't know. We aren't sure when we will close yet but it will likely be sometime in November. We are also thankful that we are getting an incredibly low interest rate for our mortgage. We are going to put 5% cash down on a conventional 15 year loan - we hope to pay extra on our mortgage and get the house paid for as soon as we can. How cool would it be to own our own home 10 years from now (this is our goal). We will keep you posted on any news that we get.

B154 and B155

B154 and B155 - we were just numbers at the Arizona Motor Vehicle Division as we sat for about 2 hours. We made the best of it though - Trey was a champ. He loves to watch and flirt with people, so he entertained many of the customers around us. Our mistake was going on a Friday afternoon which is one of their busiest times. What I didn't realize was that my passport still had my maiden name on it, and I forgot about that and didn't bring my marriage license with my name change on it. So after waiting all that time, we had to go back home to get the marriage license. Thankfully, this nice guy Krag that waited on us didn't have us wait in line again - he just told us to come back to his booth and he would take care of us.

Times like this are always interesting learning points in our marriage because they show us how differently we respond to situations. David has no patience for standing in lines and people being seemingly incompetent. I definitely struggle with patience in other areas, but in situations like this, I don't tend to be impatient. I know that waiting in lines is something that can't be avoided sometimes (unless you are smart and don't go on a Friday afternoon when EVERYONE else is getting their driver's license too). Thankfully, we balance each other out for the most part in times like this.

In the end, we both got our driver's licenses. We also got our Arizona license plate. While standing in line for the picture, I had given Trey his container of Gerber VeggiePuffs to entertain himself with. He somehow got the lid off and proceeded to dump the entire 3/4 container all over himself. He was so happy to have all the snacks he wanted!

We are officially residents of Arizona and registered to vote for the election in November!

Home Sweet Home (at UIM International)

Our front door - welcome to our home.

Family room (looking in from kitchen)

Family room and kitchen (looking toward kitchen)

Kitchen and the baby boy I adore

We are using the table and chairs that were here - we sold ours before we moved and are saving up for a nice set for when we buy a home

View from the kitchen window - I love that I get to see trees and grass in the middle of the desert
More view from the kitchen window

I wanted to post some pictures of where we are living here at UIM. We have unpacked some things and placed some favorite things on the walls, but we have also left other nonessentials packed in boxes in the 3rd bedroom. We have been able to use a lot of things that they already had here - table and chairs, washer and dryer, and pots and pans. We still aren't sure how long God wants us to stay here and we're not in a hurry to leave. We are continuing to look at houses but are also content to stay here as long as God has us here. The housing market here is a great opportunity to find a great deal on a house. We have a great opportunity to serve - today I went over to the office and helped stuff envelopes and add up receipts for about an hour. Trey was over there with me in his doorway Jonny Jumper. David spent time in the shop / garage with Rod the mechanic and then mowed some lawns. We like the people here a lot - Rod is a really neat guy - we met his wife Ann at church on Sunday. He fixed the brakes on our car for us today which we really appreciate.

The hallway looking down toward the bedrooms and the bathroom - Trey's room is the first door on the left and our room is the second door on the left

Our room

Trey's room - the red shelves were already on the wall
I painted the sign and the animals for Trey

The 3rd bedroom full of boxes

Covered parking is a BIG deal in Arizona - this is something I didn't have when I lived here before