June

This has been a crazy month. Our second anniversary. Roy's parents came for a visit. Now our apartment looks something like a fort made of boxes instead of a home! We're moving next weekend into a new apartment. I debated whether or not we should move. It's only for one year. It's a lot of work to pack everything up and move it. Is it worth it? When the email came telling us we were accepted in to the apartment, all doubts faded and I haven't looked back! I'm pretty stoked. Now we're just praying for all things to go smoothly as we finish packing and get moved in a week from today.

In the meantime, I'm learning.

I'm learning that sometimes things in life can be going really well and that by anyone's normal standard, I should be happy. And sometimes I'm not. Sometimes my heart feels disconnected. Sometimes I really struggle to be content. To be grateful. To even care.

And I'm learning better how to go to Jesus in those times. To tell Him how I feel. How I want to feel. And how I know I can't do life on my own. Nothing new. No groundbreaking information. Just the same declaration that I'm a broken sinner in need of a Savior... every single day.

A couple weeks ago, a song called Blessings was sung for offertory at our church. I had never heard it before, and the words spoke to my heart.

We pray for blessings
We pray for peace
Comfort for family, protection while we sleep
We pray for healing, for prosperity
We pray for Your mighty hand to ease our suffering
All the while, You hear each spoken need
Yet love us way too much to give us lesser things

Cause what if Your blessings come through raindrops
What if Your healing comes through tears
What if a thousand sleepless nights
Are what it takes to know You’re near
What if trials of this life are Your mercies in disguise

We pray for wisdom
Your voice to hear
And we cry in anger when we cannot feel You near
We doubt Your goodness, we doubt Your love
As if every promise from Your Word is not enough
All the while, You hear each desperate plea
And long that we'd have faith to believe

When friends betray us
When darkness seems to win
We know the pain reminds this heart
That this is not, this is not our home
It's not our home

Cause what if Your blessings come through raindrops
What if Your healing comes through tears
And what if a thousand sleepless nights
Are what it takes to know You’re near
What if my greatest disappointments
Or the aching of this life
Is the revealing of a greater thirst this world can’t satisfy
And what if trials of this life
The rain, the storms, the hardest nights
Are Your mercies in disguise

by Laura Story - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4mmgV6mPvb0

I looked this song up online and listened to it a few times. Ever since then, the lyrics have been grafted upon my mind. They are often playing through my head in the morning when I wake up. At first I tried to push them away, thinking that grasping onto this song too tightly may cause me to feel depressed or sad. But as the words continued to penetrate my heart and mind, they did the opposite.

I have been longing for my true home with an ache I cannot describe or explain. I am an alien in this land. This is not my ultimate destination. This world can't satisfy my deepest thirsts.

And it's not supposed to.

So now I'm pressing on. Each day I'm laying myself down at His feet, telling Him that I desperately need Him, asking for His strength, begging for the Spirit to do something in me, for me, and through me that I cannot do myself.

And He's getting me through. Not only getting me through, but reminding me of His goodness and faithfulness. Sending little rays of sunshine throughout my days to remind me of His continual presence. And I know that this time is making me more like Jesus. Even if I can't see it all right now, it's true. He promises to make it true. And I will cling to that truth as I grow in His grace.

Two whole years!

This past Monday, Roy and I celebrated our second wedding anniversary. Both of the cards we wrote to each other mentioned how quickly the time has gone, and how we are both amazed that it has already been two whole years since we said "I do"!

I had to work Monday and the weather is deathly hot right now, so we decided that instead of going anywhere for our anniversary, we'd take a trip to San Antonio in the fall when it cools down a bit! So anticipate some awesome blogging on that trip in a few months.

We had heard about a bed and breakfast in Greenville, TX that provides their place free for seminary students, missionaries, pastors, and others in ministry. We decided that it would be nice to check it out for the weekend and save up our money for San Antonio! So Friday after I finished up work, we grabbed a quick bite to eat and headed out to Greenville.

And we arrived at The Hiding Place.


We were met by a friendly face that welcomed us to her home (and ours for the weekend!). Our room was about as Texas as Texas can be! We enjoyed all the fun decor. Even our bathroom was decked out in Texas towels. We had the front of the house all to ourselves, which included the bedroom, a living room, and a dining area. There were also movies in the hallway that we were welcome to watch. We were given a key to the front door and told the front porch was ours for the weekend as well. To top it all off, a plate of delicious cookies were on our dresser!

After getting settled in, we headed in to town to grab a treat at Braum's. Sometimes I consider trying something new, but we almost always end up sharing a large vanilla mix with Reese's Peanut Butter Cup. It's just too good for words. With happy faces and happy stomachs, we headed back to The Hiding Place for the night.

Saturday morning we headed out to the dining room for breakfast. We were served a delicious meal of Dutch babies, bacon, a side of fresh fruit, and orange juice. Scrumptious!

We knew the day was supposed to be in the mid to high 90s, but we just can't resist a chance to go birding. We drove out of town to a prairie on a gravel road. The prairie was quite overgrown, but we kept driving, keeping our eyes peeled for birds on the wires and fences. We saw many birds, some old favorites and even a new one or two. For pictures and info on the birds, you can see the posting on my birding site.

Other than the birds, we enjoyed the wildflowers and fields. I especially liked the thistle and the fields of wheat.



We headed back to town and stopped at TaMolly's for lunch. They had warm and thin tortilla chips, just like we like them. We spent the afternoon back at The Hiding Place watching movies and relaxing. When dinnertime came around, we thought we'd try a pizza place we saw in town boasting of being "Voted the #1 Place for Pizza" in the county. However, when we walked in and saw that the lowest priced pizza on the menu was $15.50, we decided against it, for our budget's sake! We ended up with Little Caesar's (you know Roy was disappointed... NOT!) and took it back to the house to watch a movie, Clear and Present Danger. You can't go wrong with Harrison Ford! After the movie, we had to hit up the local Dairy Queen for their 1/2 off treats day! They even had my absolute favorite - Brownie Batter Blizzard. We split one and decided that was all the food our stomachs could manage for the day!

The next morning we slept in, watched Federer lose to Nadal in the French Open (again), and had brunch at Cracker Barrel before heading back to the city.

After work on Monday, we celebrated the actual day by going out to dinner at the Cheesecake Factory! We were armed with gift cards and a coupon for a free slice of cheesecake that made our evening out free! I also found a bouquet of roses surrounding by baby's breath waiting for me when I got home from work! Definitely a great way to end the day!


Two years have gone by so quickly, and I'm loving it. Married life isn't everything I thought it would be... it's much more. There are definitely difficult times, but it's wonderful to have someone to go through them with. Life is good when you get to live each day with your best friend in the world.

God has taught me a lot this last year, especially about being thankful and trusting Him. I'm learning in my marriage and life how to rejoice in all things, being grateful for all that God has done and is doing and will do. Ultimately, He's using my marriage to Roy to make me more like Jesus. Roy says he sees it. And some days I get a little glimpse of it too. I just pray He gives us many more years together that our love will grow between us and with Jesus.

Roy, I love you and am blessed to be your bride. You are more than I could have ever asked for or dreamed of, and I'm proud to call you mine.

A Little Longer

This song brought me to tears as it was sung this past Sunday, reminding us all how God loves us and so desperately just wants us to be with Him.

What can I do for you
What can I bring to you
What kind of song would you like me to sing
'Cause I'll dance a dance for you
Pour out my love to you
What can I do for you beautiful king
'Cause I can't thank you enough

All of the words that I find
and I can't thank you enough
No matter how I try
and I can't thank you enough

Then hear you sing to me

You don't have to do a thing
Just simply be with me
and let those things go
'Cause they can wait another minute
Wait, this moment is too sweet
Would you please stay here here with me
And love on me a little longer

I hear you saying
You don't have to do a thing
Just simply be with me
and let those things go
'Cause they can wait another minute
Wait, this moment is too sweet
Would you please stay here here with me
And love on me a little longer

'cause I like to be with you a little longer

I love to be with you a little longer

'Cause I'm in love with you

I'm in love with you

May already?

Where has this year gone? It seems that I blinked and a third of the year has passed me by. I've been told by those older and wiser than me that it just gets worse. The older you get, the faster time flies. That's hard for me to imagine. In some ways, it saddens me. It makes me want to grab on to each moment, each memory as it is being made, and hold it close before it becomes another part of my past.

On the other hand, it excites me! I'm eager to see what the future holds for my life. I'm anxious to see what's around the next bend. And I know that each day that passes by is one day closer 'til I see Him face to face. And that makes me want to run through this life too quickly sometimes, missing out on what He has for me here. Still working on that balance.

This year has already brought some exciting experiences and great memories. We joined a new small group at the end of December. This group is made up of quite a unique variety of people! Married, single, dating. American, Korean, Croatian. Seminarians, doctor, nurse, coach, lawyer to be, and more. I love it.

Roy has just recently taken over the role of facilitating our group discussion time, which is another exciting opportunity for him to continue to hone his God-given skills. He does a great job. I may be slightly biased... but he still does a great job.

I also joined a seminary wives group this semester, and we went through the book Creative Counterpart by Linda Dillow. I was challenged over and over again by the Bible-based truths of the book combined with the hearts of the young women in my group. I finally feel like I'm starting to find the community and companionship I've been so desperately longing for on a horizontal scale. God has been faithful to teach me and walk with me, providing for all I need in our vertically oriented relationship. But I also know He didn't make me to live without other women in my life.

In March, we had the privilege of hosting my parents for a visit! They came for five days, and we enjoyed showing them around our favorite places in the DFW area. The weather was perfect, so in addition to taking them to our favorite restaurants, we spent a lot of time outside! We are blessed that Roy and I have the same interest in wildlife that my parents do, which makes it easy to find things to do that we all can enjoy!

My mom oooed and ahhed over the Dallas Arboretum, which was then displaying its most brilliant blooms of the year. My dad enjoyed the flowers... and watching my mom ooo and ahh over them!





We also visited The Heard Wildlife Sanctuary in McKinney, TX. Roy and I had yet to visit there as well. We took a long hike, enjoying the beautiful weather and birds. We saw lots of yellow-rumped warblers, aka butterbutts!



We took them to the Village Creek Drying Beds, a hotspot for seeing water fowl. Although there was not an abundance of unique birds, we did see a few, including this cute pied-billed grebe!



We also took them to the Fort Worth Botanical Garden. The Japanese Garden was our favorite area. The landscaping and design were serene and beautiful.

The Dry Landscape Garden

One Saturday morning in April, I mentioned to Roy that we needed to make some time to take a trip to Ennis, TX, the bluebonnet city of Texas. The retirement community where I work had taken a few trips there that week, all with positive reviews. So we decided to go right then! It was wonderful to get out of the city, as always. We drove the suggested trail, enjoying the fields of blue!








Now Roy is finished with his third year of seminary, and summer is looming in the near future, today's high of 95 degrees being a good indication! We are excited for all that our summer has in store. My plan is to be better about blogging regularly... we'll see how that goes!

Roy's Birding Safari!

After a spontaneous trip to Half Price Books because of their 20% off everything sale, we found ourselves a bird book (what else?!) with awesome pictures, great info, and it only cost us like $4.50! After we looked through the whole book last night, I was neeeeding to go birding, even though it's freezing cold. So today, we bundled up and headed out to Arlington for our first visit to the Village Creek Drying Beds. That sounds pretty nice, but it's just a nicer (and shorter!) name for Village Creek Waste Water Treatment Plant Drying Beds. Thankfully, it didn't smell at all. We aren't sure if that's normal or if it was due to the fact that it was cold and windy. Regardless, we were grateful. However, due to that cold and wind, we ended up staying in the car most of the trip and taking pictures with the windows down. Hence, Roy dubbed it "Roy's Birding Safari!"

Here are some favorites from the day.


Female Shoveler


Male Shoveler


Nutria - kind of like a beaver, but different.


Wilson's Snipe - one of my favorites of the day! Roy and I mimicked UP! by calling out "Here Snipe! *clap, clap, clap* Here, Snipey, Snipe!"


Snipe searching for lunch


Northern Pintail






Female Kestrel enjoying her bird lunch


Finishing off her snack


My favorite for the day - Greater Yellowlegs





We'd heard of these drying beds, but it was fun to finally experience them for ourselves. Can't wait to head back and see what else we can find!