Sometimes I take things for granted. Like the fact that I never had to really study that hard in school, or that I make friends really easily. Today I took a really sweet little girl to the movies. She had been to the movie before, but she has hearing aids. So hearing the movie probably want very easy for her. Today we used all of the cool technology available. A cool captioning device and headphone that make the movie louder. And I was so grateful to get to take her to a movie she could hear and enjoy. This is the best part of my job. Getting to use my knowledge to help people.
It also made me really grateful that I have good ears. I promise to take Care of them- no loud iPod music here!! I'm also very grateful for a momma who treated us to all the popcorn we wanted!

The End of the Road

Today was a wonderful time of listening to my momma telling stories about where she grew up. I think her life would make a great book. I'd call it "Us Boys". That's what she used to call her and her three brothers- us boys.

Today she told me how they lived at the end of the road when she was just a baby. The house had long narrow windows and my momma, the youngest of seven children was probably in a hurry to grow up and be apart of the bustling world that was her house. One day, just after they moved in my mom toddled up to the window and said "someone's 'tomin". You see their house was at the end of the road and if anyone came all the way down that road, they were coming to my grandparents house.
That house is long gone now, but the memories of my momma and and her three sisters and three brothers playing games like, Annie Over and Stink Bait will forever be stories I love to hear. And now, they will be things that I chronicle here, so I never forget the house at the end of the road.

Grace. 2011

"Let love and faithfulness never leave you;

   bind them around your neck,

   write them on the tablet of your heart.

 Then you will win favor and a good name

   in the sight of God and man."   Proverbs 3:3-4

Write them on the tablet of your heart. Put them down on paper. Blog about them. So you will never forget. Where I have brought you. Never forget what I have done for you. Never forget how you felt, or the way that I stood with you. Never forget what I have taught you.

                         This past year has been quite an interesting one for me. New revelations, new friends, new job, new relationship status, new church...the list goes on and on. But to understand where I am. I have to look back to where I came from.

2011 was a year full of both good and bad. Those always seem to go hand in hand. It's almost like God sees something bad has happened (not because He did it or let it, that's another post) and then He says, "Hey, look at this "Good and Perfect Gift" I'll give you.

At the very beginning of 2011 Jeffrey had just come back from Bethel. He was so excited to be home, excited to share what he had learned with everyone he knew. He got the opportunity to speak at the church we'd both attended for almost our whole life. The opportunity to tell people about the great God we serve and let God show off.  Words will never, ever describe the feeling you get seeing your future husband let God show off through him. The feeling of a healing that you've seen with your own eye is indescribable. Mostly I remember just sitting on the front row and laughing.  Then it happened.  Fast forward to the next Sunday morning. The day is etched in my mind, written on the tablet of my heart. Grace. Rebuke. Betrayal.

Those seem like harsh words, but that is exactly what my heart felt as I heard the whispers that surrounded us for the next months. Then like a sweet fragrance~ an engagement. A new job, new town, new life.

A good and perfect gift. Grace.

You see, while this year has been full of people spreading unfair and untrue lies about Jeffrey and I; the Bible tells me that where "sin abounds, Grace much more abounds"... That means that in the midst of people lying and judging us (which is a sin...sorry) that the Grace of God much more abounds.  Much more~an over abundance of Grace. Summer of 2011 brought Jeffrey home, it felt as though we were Much More covered in Grace. As though God let us say, "I told you so". God allowed us to look back and laugh at the lies people told about us. He allowed us to always see the truth. We spend all summer spreading that same Much More Grace to our friends.

Fall of 2011 took Jeffrey back to Bethel, and me back to Paducah. Where I found a wonderful accepting, Grace filled church.  Learning to trust people was so hard. Learning to forgive those who speak badly about us is even harder. But as 2011 comes to an end, I can honestly say- I have.

In that forgiveness, God has shown me that He Much, More Abounds.

I can't wait to see what 2012 will bring. One thing I know for sure is that His Grace has made me perfect enough to accept whatever Gifts He chooses to give me.

Grace. Pure and Simple.

Letters

I keep old emails. And old letters too. But mostly emails, because, well...that's what most people send now a days. (Something I want to personally reverse, so look for a letter in the mail soon)

One reason I keep them, is because I love to look back and see just how God uses people in my life to encourage me and sometimes to knock a little sense into me. In life, there will always be ups and downs, rights and wrongs, easy times and hard ones. In those interruptions is where God speaks the most. He is often and always found in the interruptions of life, something my cousin Micah is always quick to remind me.

Tonight I re~read some sweet encouraging emails from an adopted momma in my life. And I was reminded of just how far God has brought me. She compared my story to that of Ezra, a Biblical character that I know very little about, but I am determined to see how the end of Ezra's story compares to the next chapter in mine.

About an hour ago, we decided on a date for our wedding day. A decision that makes me both extremely happy and nervous at the same time. The cloak of responsibility will now rest on Jeffrey's shoulders, we will be responsible for each other. And much like Ezra, we are setting out on our own journey. Refusing the King's soldiers, in trust that our God will see us through.

But I know that no matter where this journey will take us, there will always be my nation of supporters ready to lend an encouraging word. They will be just a letter away. And in the dark nights of despair and panic, your emails will sit waiting in my inbox, ready for me to review and renew my hope in all things. So thank you.

Thank you for typing, or writing, for reading and commenting on this journey I call life.

-H