All posts by Jeff

‘ve kind of held off from writing too much about our living situation with the Dombrows.  They are, as everyone knows, the kind of people that everyone loves, and the kind of people that everyone wants to be friends with.  Since the first day I met Joy I fell in love with her, and came home and told Jeff that I thought she was the kind of friend–with a tenaciously persevering love for Christ, a passion for truth, a joyful spirit, and a keen sharp mind–that I’d been longing for.  A kindred spirit who I knew would challenge me (in a good way!) on every level.

But I’ve wanted so much to respect their privacy, and wanted so much not to smother them, that I’ve purposed not to gush.  So up to this point I am proud of my non-gushing accomplishment.  However, as we moved out last Sunday, and since Joy took the freedom to admit to the world that our living situation was a blessing from God (read her thoughts here), I will now go ahead and give myself license to share…ok, gush.  Here’s my own list

What I loved about the Dombrow/Patterson Home:

1. Jeff & Joel’s Matt Foley impressions.

2. Crying in Joy’s arms when things were hard.

3. Praying together at the kitchen table.  Crying together at the kitchen table.

4. Joy’s willingness to overlook Dutch’s fingerprints, crumbs, cars strewn everywhere and muddy dumptrucks in the backyard.

5. Laughing ourselves to tears while playing Settlers of Catan or Dutch Blitz.

6. Joy and I sneaking off to our rooms to blog while Joel and Jeff watched 24.

7. That glorious silence when we got all 4 kids to bed. Congratulating each other that we’d made it through another day!

8. Sharing milk.  Nothing like coming home from a weeklong vacation and having a fresh gallon of milk waiting for you.

9. Cups of tea with Joy.

10. Meeting each other’s friends and family.

11. Walks through the neighborhood, all eight of us and Cooper!  Doing lunges on the sidewalk outside Barrington Heights. 🙂

12. Only cooking twice a week. Oh I miss that so much!!

13. Seeing the joy in Dutch’s face when he got up in the morning and ran downstairs to see everyone.

14. Dutch’s wanting to know the whereabouts of everyone all the time (and their vehicles): “where’d da woof woof go? Where’d Nae-Nae dada go? Where’d Nae Nae go? Where’d Nae-Nae Mama truck go?”

15. Learning SO much about godly parenting.  I think God knew I needed help so He sent me to Joy.

16. Talking honestly and openly about the Lord, church, theology, and current issues.

17. Seeing Joel & Joy’s genuine faith and love for us and the church.

18. Holding hands and praying together, praising God for his work Easter Weekend.

19. The encouragment of living with people who understand how gloriously exhausting the work of the ministry really is.

20. Crowding all of us around their little round kitchen table for dinner.

21. Having extra sets of arms to hold Heidi.  Watching Nathan and Elisabeth get her to smile.

22. Saturday mornings, unshowered, in sweats with no makeup and being totally at ease.

23. Hearing the front door open at 5:30pm and taking guesses of which husband it was.  🙂

24. Teaching them to recycle. 🙂

25. Learning about Joy’s redemptive decorating techniques and secret bargain decor stores.

26. Folding each other’s laundry.

27. Eating all the treats that people brought us!

28. Spur-of-the-moment front-yard parties with the Downs.

29. Watching Nathan read to Dutch on the stairs.

30. ALl of us crowding around the computer to watch the video Nathan made about Dutch.

31. Helping the kids with Joy’s mother’s day gifts. They love their mommy so much.

32. Watching Elisabeth rehearse her Skunk lines.  Cheering for her when she nailed them.

33. Finding that we all four are SO likeminded in ministry and the things of the Lord.  Praising God for how He allows us to serve Him together.

34.  The joy of knowing that, Lord-willing, we get to go back and be neighbors in just a few months!

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There’s so much more I could say, but I’ll leave it at this.  God had such a rich blessing in store for us, greater than any of us ever anticipated.  We can’t recreate it, but I praise Him for how He bonded our hearts during that short but sweet season of life. So thankful to be serving Christ together here a Wilamette.  We’re now more than co-workers, now friends. And more than friends…now family.

It would be really embarrassing to see a print out of all the random things I type into my little google search box.  I think I mentioned that one day my two searches were: “Ok to eat ground beef left out overnight?” and “How to clean Boudreaux’s Butt Paste off walls?” You can tell what kind of day it was.  This week my searches have included “black low-rise flare yoga pants” and “best steam iron” (I got birthday money and those are my two wish list items–sad but true).  In the past I’ve been known to search “how to get my 10-month-old to nap” and “how many calories in small Blizzard?” Just for the record, the answer to the last one is 550 (for a small — yikes!).  I even look up proper word pronunciations if I’m unsure. I know. GEEK.

All that to say that as a girl (I will call myself a girl until I’m 80) in this computer/internet world I go to google for just about everything.  It’s so nice to have a place you can go for advice about everything.  No matter what I’ve wondered about, it seems that someone out there has done the research for me.  I love it!

You know what’s scary though?  That this instant-answer sort of culture in which we live has, I believe, weakened my ability to wait on the Lord and His voice. I remember last summer, when we were waiting on the Lord about job situations and living situations, I remember actually thinking, as horrible as this sounds, “If only I could just google an answer and find out what we were supposed to do.”  Yes, I thought that.

Alas, we cannot Google God.  He cannot be googled because He is God, He is relational, He is our goal.  And if all we want are answers and quick fixes, as I often do, we have missed the point of the gospel entirely.  How sad that so often I just want my information life figured out…instead of really just wanting Him.

Tonight’s message at church was on God’s Word, and I must admit I have been struggling in this area.  For whatever reason since graduating from seminary I find myself so wanting to “take a break” from the extrememly scheduled and disicplined regimen that I kept before that I find myself just, well, slacking I guess. I’m still reading, but I find my mind wandering.  Because I don’t “have” to do things, I find myself doing a lot more Scrabble playing and a lot less Word searching.  (I was going to write “a lot more word searches and a whole lot less searching the Word” but then realized that was the most ridiculously cheesy thing on the planet.  I have a cheese-streak, sadly enough.)  Anyway, here’s the sad truth:  It’s mid-June which means I should be in Psalms according to my reading plan.  This morning I read 2 Kinds 23. OUCH.  WAY behind.

But it’s not just that I’m “behind”, it’s that I realize my hunger and thirst for God have just been lacking of late.  So while my flesh would like to just Google, “be near me Lord Jesus”, it doesn’t work like that.  How sad that I think like that. How sad that I want instant spirituality without investing in the Love relationship of my life, with my Savior.

So tonight I’m asking God to renew my heart of love, and primarily by renewing in me a fervent passion to study His Word, to draw nearer to Him, to get back on track with the discipline of reading His life-giving scriptures.  Because life is so much more than figuring out which steam iron to buy.  Help us, Father, to love you more and search Your Words to know Your heart.

I sat down to write this post, Making Do, celebrating the fun way that we’ve been living this past week, so proud of my ingenuity.  Sunday, after returning from our trip to Utah, we moved into our little two-bedroom apartment (yes, we do have two bedrooms! Long story, but God graciously closed the door on the one-bedroom and gave us a two-bedroom instead).  It was a bit of a whirlwind, since we found out about our move just days before leaving for Utah, and also had to finalize all the paperwork on the house that, Lord-willing, we are building (I say Lord-willing because obviously it is only if He does indeed allow us to move into it.  Just keeping an open hand!).  Anyway, it was a crazy week, and has therefore also been a crazy week this week, getting unpacked and settled and acclimated to our new–shall we say, minimalistic way of living. 

I certainly don’t always handle crises/trials/challenges very well.  Hardly ever. But the one thing I’ve always done that seems to help me is to refer to chaotic situations as adventures.  When a friend of ours heard that we were going on “vacation” to Utah, driving 800 miles with two little kids, she replied, “No, a trip with two little ones is not a vacation, it’s an adventure.”  So true. And as long as I keep that perspective, I can roll with the craziness.  Case in point? Boudreaux’s Butt Paste. It was an adventure, and we’re still laughing about it.

So because we’d planned to just live with Dombrow’s for 2 months and then move into a house, all of our stuff is in storage. We have clothes, yes, and our bed and couches, but nothing else. No kitchen stuff whatsoever since I just used Joy’s things.  And because we’re stubborn, we refuse to spend much money getting new stuff (what a waste!).  SO, we went to the dollar tree and for $11 got four plates, four glasses, two mugs, and measuring cups.  We have a bag of plastic forks and spoons, and my mom graciously let be borrow an old saucepan, can-opener, and baking sheet. An old folding table in my dad’s shop with four folding chairs made a lovely dining room.  Set! 

A few of the obstacles–no wait–adventures that we encountered this first week:  The folding chairs were a bit rickety so Dutch fell straight over onto his head the first time he sat in one.  We’ve made adjustments. 🙂 We had an old shower curtain from our rental house, but alas, no shower curtain rings. So the first few days we showered by aiming the showerhead against the wall and trying to angle ourselves over into the water without it spraying everywhere.  Needless to say, it sprayed everywhere.  Finally Jeff decided this was ridiculous so he found three long twisty ties and held the curtain up with those, or at least three spots, the rest hung down like big sagging drapes.  But then guess what?  Joy came by for tea and announced that she had extra shower rings I could use! Yes! Bath mat?  A towel on the floor does fine. 

I figured a cheese sandwich would work for an easy lunch on Tuesday. I pulled out the new block of cheese, opened the drawer, stopped: no knife.  A plastic spoon would not work.  Knaw on the block like a wild animal and spit pieces of cheese onto my bread?  No thank you.  I put it away and decided I wasn’t hungry.  Finally I got desperate and cut slices of cheese with an old pair of scissors. I know. Barbaric.  But it worked.  My mom graciously brought me an extra steak knife she had on hand.  I knew I needed some kind of frying pan, so I did break down and picked up a $10 special at Walmart. 

So tonight I was feeling ridiculously ambitious and decided to make our favorite dinner, my first time cooking in our new place.  Everything was perfect–a pot for rice and Jeff could grill the chicken on the BBQ.  We even invited another couple over for dinner, I was ready for hospitality! Woohoo!  So as the rice is cooking and the chicken marinating, I sit down to write my blog…

And then the smell.  Burning, scorching, stinking.  I get up and somehow, I know not how, the rice has burned.  Burned? How do you BURN rice?  I’ve cooked rice about a thousand times and never burned it.  But apparently this electric coil stove is quite the contraption because entire bottom layer of rice is scorched and burned onto the pan and the entire pot tastes like burnt popcorn. Inedible. Sweet.  Only slight annoyance. Fine fine. At least we still have chicken.  Then Jeff needs to work late so I decide to just fry the chicken in my new frying pan.

Hm.  Apparently super cheap thin frying pan, mixed with electric coil stove top do not mix.  Despite being on medium heat the whole time, the bottoms burn.  Burnt rice and burnt chicken. Hm.

So now I am sitting here laughing at myself.  I was so proud of my “making do” but apparently I still need some work!  The other couple couldn’t come over, Jeff ended up having to go back to the office to work tonight, and so I am here, laughing at how easily I am deflated.  Truly though I must say, I love this little apartment we now call home. It is perfect. Heidi’s “room” (our closet) is way bigger than before, we have two bathrooms, and even laundry right here in our apartment.  The little enclosed deck looks out on the busiest street around, which means that Dutch can joyfully sit and watch trucks go by for hours, pointing out “tow-hooks” and “Papa trucks”.  And, when I look out the window I look right into the parking lot of our church.  It’s like a parsonage! 🙂  Jeff walks to work, and we’re literally so close to Starbucks I can sometimes catch people’s conversations!  It’s fun. And for now, we’re rolling with this little kitchen adventure. From now on I will cook everything on simmer.  Everyone raise your paper cups–Here’s to making do. 

As many of you know, this past week we traveled to Utah to visit my brother and his family and welcome the birth of my new nephew, Korban Kristopher Zyp.  It was a wonderful visit–Dutch and his cousin Jennika were able to play for hours, running around the lawn as my brother sprayed them with the hose, digging in the sandbox (Dutch digging while Jennika rocked her babydoll in Heidi’s infant seat–you cannot tell me boys and girls are wired the same at birth!), and sharing a peanut butter sandwich in the warm Utah sunshine.

The first couple days were rough, though. After a crazy busy week, we left at 6pm, arrived in Ontario at 1:30am, and “napped” for a few hours–Heidi slept in a drawer (!) and we put two chairs together to form an enclosed bed for Dutch. The bathroom was so small you had to stand in the shower to close the door, and we were tired and dirty.  We got up at 7am, scarfed the Super 8 continental breakfast, and were back on the road by 8:30am.  When we arrived at Kris’s at 3pm we were overjoyed to see them…but a little tired and creaky after all six of us (my parents too) were crammed in our Honda for 800 miles.

And when we arrived up at the Snowbird resort, and were surrounded by, well, snow, I was a little surprised. Somehow I’d envisioned a vacation of laying out in the sun by the pool all day.  It was in the 50s and there was snow everywhere. No sunbathing. Plus the altitude was so high and it was so dry, that the whole first day there I was feeling horrible.  THe four of us were in one room and neither of the kids could sleep well (we read that elevation sickness hits kids harder), which meant no sleep for mommy either.  Late Saturday night I told Jeff I wanted to fly home the next morning. And I wasn’t kidding.

Obviously I was being a wimp. The next day we went to church, and taking time to worship our Lord, and be with my brother’s family, made it all better. Plus, we ended up just going down to their house every day (which was 30 degrees warmer!) and I got my fill of glorious sunshine.  Then Korban was born on Wednesday, and by the time we left, I chalked it up as one of the best vacations we’ve ever taken.

But strange as this might sound, one of the hightlights of the whole vacation was the drive home.  We decided to go for it and do it all in one day–we left at 9am and got home at 11:30pm.  We gained an hour but stopped off at my brother’s for 1/2 hour, so about 15 hours or so in all.  About halfway through, Jeff handed me his ipod and headphones and suggested I just tune out the kids and listen to some music.  Ahh…glorious offer!  That is speaking my love language. So he read books to Dutch, juggled sippy cups and alphabet cookies, and made goo goo noises with Heidi will I propped my feet up on the suitcase next to me, leaned over to the window, and turned the volume up until I heard nothing but sweet, glorious worship music.

Wow.  There is nothing like music.  For abour five hours I sat and watched the beautiful landscape.  The dark brown hills like sand, the winding river, the glorious green pastures rising and falling as we drove. The beautifully dilapitated barns and farmhouses, the thousands of cattle. And as we neared Portland, we saw the most glorious sunset I have ever witnessed. In fact because of traveling and because of the angle of the cliffs to the West, it made it appear as if the sun set and rose several times as we drove. It was an amazing phenomenon.  As I sat there, engrossed in the beauty, overwhelmed by the words of old hymns remixed by Page CXVI, tears streamed down my face.  What a beautiful God we serve!  I felt like I could almost feel that inexpressible joy that we will someday experience, when at last we see our glorious Creator face to face. When we join with all creation to sing Worthy is the Lamb.  I felt like in those five hours, tucked into the third row of our Honda Pilot, I had a life-changing retreat with my Jesus.

Then Sunday.  Joel’s message was on…music.  He’s doing a series called Elements, basically going through the things we do on Sunday mornings and why we do them. Why we sing, teach, remember (communion), and give.  Why do we do what we do.  And this week’s message, on music, reminded me afresh how powerful it is when we make music and sing to our God. It isn’t for us. It’s for HIM. For His pleasure, His glory.  We sing, we bow, we lift our hands, as an offering to our God.  And what power there is in music!  I can’t even imagine how glorious it will be to worship our King for all eternity.

Then came my birthday…and what did my husband get me? Speakers!  See, the speakers on my laptop don’t work, and we don’t have a stereo, so I never had any way to play music or sermons at home.  Well he got me speakers that I can plug into my laptop or his ipod (which I suspect may be handed down to me if he gets his birthday wish).  So tonight, after tucking the kids in bed, I lit a candle, drew a hot bath, and played my new favorite CXVI hymns again. How great is our God!

And lastly, which may seem unrelated but isn’t, I read the remarkable blog, www.deathisnotdying.com.  As I read the amazing words of Rachel, who is dying of terminal cancer, I wept and wept, unable to even fathom the pain of leaving one’s husband and children behind.  What all this reminded me of is that we are wise to remember how unthinkably short this life truly is.  Our life is a breath.  It is two seconds long, as John Piper says.  And while unbearable sorrow will be ours as long as we walk this earth, heaven awaits us. Glorious heavenly bliss awaits us all who know and love our Lord Jesus.  And it seems that music takes us there in a way few other things can. Worship takes us there.  Worship gives us the tiniest little foretaste of heaven. Whets our appetite for the glorious worship service at the marriage supper of the Lamb.  I pray that we would discover again the beauty of music, of singing worship music to our savior, of letting His praises transport our souls to the heavenly realm, giving us perspective we so desperately need. There’s nothing like music to take us there.

The things of earth will grow strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace.

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Check out www.pageCXVI.com here and www.deathisnotdying.com here

So much to say, so little time!  Just had to check in–we are home from Utah and now we move again tomorrow, to our little apartment. I’m excited for this next chapter, especially since it includes having a pool :).  Our trip to Utah was fabulous, and will write more on that later.  It was great to be away but also great to be home.  Missed so many of you!

Right now I’m sitting in room 103 of the Snowbird Resort Lodge in Utah.  Our balcony looks out at the breathtaking Wasatch mountains covered in snow.  It is pitch-dark and I’m listening to my son talk to himself as he falls asleep on the hide-a-bed. He is singing a song about every person he knows (Nae-Nae, Nae-Nae Daddy, Nae-Nae Mama, Nae-Nae Huh Huh, some of you know that translates to each of the members of the Dombrow family).  Now he’s talking about the owie on his knee, and now he’s talking about church and bulldozers.  Anyway, we are here in Utah, taking our first ever week of vacation in over three years (!).  We’re visiting my brother and his wife and daughter and soon-to-be-born son, along with my parents.

So we embarked on our 800 mile journey on Thursday evening around 6:30pm, with all six of us piled into our Honda Pilot along with all of our luggage, food for a week, water, snacks, a cooler, two bikes, double jogger, assorted dulldozers, a stack of library books, and two jumbo packages of diapers.  Jeff sat between the two kids in the middle seat and I squeezed into the solo third row seat, nestled between the grocery bags and the diapers.  We arrived in Ontario around 1:30am and crashed at a Super 8, all six of us in one room. Heidi slept in a drawer of the dresser (no joke, I have pictures!), and we put two chairs together to make a bed for Dutch. We slept in our clothes, took turns in the bathroom the size of a gym locker (you had to stand in the shower to close the door), and were on our merry way by 8am the next morning.

By the time we reached my brother’s house we were a stinky, sweaty, tired mess.  But you know what? It was actually so fun.  Dutch talked the entire way. He didn’t sleep a wink.  He talked. And talked. And talked.  And he repeats everything he says at least three times.  And because he’s obsessed with trucks, his repeated talking was a running commentary on every single truck we saw.  “Oh what’s that dozer?  What’s that dozer? What’s that dozer?  Blue Mack truck! Blue Mack truck! Blue Mack truck!  Where’d the PapaTruck go? Where’d the PapaTruck go? Where’d the PaperTruck go?”  Yes, 800 miles of that.

But what struck me as we drove was that we all jumped on board with making the trip fun for Dutch.  Dad, spotting a tractor way ahead, would say, “Hey Dutch, wanna see a tractor?” and of course Dutch would reply in the affirmative and moments later he’d squeal in delight as we passed a tractor.  And as our trip came to a close I realized that Dutch really probably thought that we took that trip as a special “Truck Tour” just for him.  We saw paving equipment and farm equipment, Hummers and Jeeps and Motorhomes. Of course we were on a journey of our own, but it was well-disquised as a special treat for our boy.

I’ve thought of that so often with this housing answer-to-prayer.  There’s so much more to it than just a place for us to live.  The trip is more than a Truck Tour.  We might think, “Oh fun! We get to live in our favorite neighborhood with fun neighbors and a safe place to play and new carpet and rooms to decorate!” But God is up to so much more.  And unlike Dutch, who is oblivious to the greater journey around him, I pray that we are aware that even in the our delight and joy in God’s gifts, we watch and pray and sense the activity of God around us.  Even as Jeff and I went into our “design appointment” where we got to pick our our carpet and cabinets and so forth, we prayed on the drive there, “God this is YOUR house, it’s YOUR money.  Lead us and make this home a haven for hurting people, a beautiful blessing that brings peace to lost souls. Use this physical dwelling for Your glory somehow.” And I pray that He does.  Even though I’m doing plenty of silly squealing along the way as I see trucks and dozers, so to speak, I pray that I can tune into God’s greater purposes.  Of course it’s ok to “just” bask in His blessings, the same way I love it when Dutch simply delights in our gifts to Him, but I also pray for a heart to be attuned what He’s doing behind the scenes, for His Kingdom, for His glory.

And, because of the Sacredness of the Mundane, we know that if anything matters, everything matters. So I’ll pray, raise my kids, and pick out carpet-color for the glory of God. I pray for the grace to both keep my eyes on the finish line of glory and also enjoy the trucks and dozers along the way.

I got some fun news today: There’s something new on amazon.com!  Go there and search “Karina Patterson” and see what you might find… 🙂 $5 to anyone who’ll leave a good review! Ok just kidding.

Update: here’s the direct link

Jeff and I just got back home from two of the most exciting and awe-inspiring events: Jeff’s first time preaching at Willamette and our viewing of a one-bedroom apartment we’ll be moving into June 7th.  Yes, I know that sounds strange. Of course hearing Jeff preach was a huge blessing to me, and I was in tears during worship just reflecting on the faithfulness of God.  There’s so much to share I hardly know where to start.

But the second part of that sentence probably seems odd: Excited and awe-inspired by a one-bedroom apartment? I cannot tell you how beside myself with joy I am to be moving into this one-bedroom apartment!!!!!!!!  And no, I haven’t completely lost my mind.  And no, the apartment is not filled with gold. It’s just an apartment. But oh so much more to the story.

You see also tonight I looked out our window and watched Jeff and Dutch playing in the dirt in the lot just up from us, where they poured a new foundation the day before yesterday.  Last week Dutch and I watched out our window as excavators came, moving massive amounts of earth, loading countless dump trucks, smoothing out an even pad for the pouring of a concrete foundation which will soon support a house.  At that time Dutch and I knew it was such a blessing that they were working right outside our window–because that meant hours of fascinating and educational entertainment for Dutch as he stood on our couch and watched them work. What we didn’t know was that the house being built was ours.

As most of you know we left our own home two years ago to move in with my parents in order to live on our savings and finish seminary.  It was the biggest leap of faith I’ve ever taken, and exactly a year ago we had no job, no place to live, Jeff had no car (his died), and we were about to find out that –surprise!– we were expecting our second child.  Everytime I go back and read my blog from a year ago I am reminded afresh of the tears and crying out to God, please, provide a job, please provide a home, please provide a car.  And just weeks later I’d be praying, please provide health insurance for the delivery of this baby. Though temporal things to be sure, I was longing and pleading with God to come through.

But I never dreamed…

In my Old Testament reading I happen to be in 1Kings where Solomon builds a house for the Lord and for Himself. The account details the precious metals used, the types of wood, the dimensions–painstaking detail that’s always sort of caused my eyes to glaze over.  Apparently all the details of the building process, both of the temple and of Solomon’s house, were worth preserving in the sacred scriptures. Every detail.

And I believe that every detail of this story matters. It matters because God has painstakingly orchestrated every single detail for His glory. He has magnified Himself, done what only He could do. Because of this I’m giong to write out the “long version” and post it in chunks, but for those of you who just want to know what’s going on (!), here it is…

After living with my parents, we moved into a house my brother and his wife owned that they were trying to sell.  Well, in what seemed like the worst timing it sold just days after Heidi was born.  With noplace else to go, Dombrows graciously let us move in with them for two months until we could figure something else out.  During that time, the house we really wanted was sold to someone else.  We prayed and set the date that if nothing else opened up by May 15th (we were supposed to move out at the end of May), then we’d have to just find a place to rent.  May 15th came and went. Still nothing.

Now you have to understand something about living at Dombrows. Their new house is in the most beautiful, wonderful, perfect neighborhood. Walking distance to the church, trails, a farm, a creek, the park, the grocery store, starbucks; and there’s even the beautiful country sound of crickets at night.  However, the houses in this neighborhood are all brand new and WAY out of our price range.  So with every day that passed of course I fell in love with this location, but knew there’s no way we could ever live there.

May 16th. We stay up playing Dutch Blitz after Saturday night church, and as we crawl into bed, I decided to check online real quick to see if there are any houses just added on the market. One pops up.  I look at the price–perfect.  I look at the bedrooms, size–perfect.  There’s no picture.  Scroll down–new construction.  Address?  My jaw drops.  It’s THE LOT we’d just watched be excavated the day before.  Right outside our window. The house is two doors down from Dombrows, with only one lot in between.  You’ve got to be kidding me.  Jeff and I look at each other and it’s like in an instant we know with every ounce of our being–this is it.

So apparently the builders decided to build some lower-end homes in this high-end neighborhood.  Now understand, what they consider “lower end” is still a stinkin’ mansion in my opinion!  And we even get to pick out our colors, flooring, cabinets, etc.  We still get to stay in this neighborhood! I still get to visit with Joy and our kids still get to play with the Downs who live across the street and have kids our same age.  In fact, there are so many amazing things I can’t even begin to list them all.

So then we still needed a place to live for four months until the house is completed. And we couldn’t find anywhere that would rent for such short term. Plus we really wanted to be near the church since we practically live there. There are great apartments right next door to the church, but in order to do less-than-a-year lease it was outlandishly expensive.  So tonight…I’m praying for Jeff;s message  and I prayed that God would just be gracious and allow us to find a place to live before we leave on Thursday to go visit my brother, that way we don’t have it hanging over our heads all while we’re gone. I get on Craigslist and once again my jaw drops–a large one-bedroom apartment at the complex right next door to the church.  Someone needed to find someone to take over their lease for them for … you guessed it–four months.  The rent is super cheap, no deposit required, and they’ll be out May 31st; exactly to the day the perfect timing for us.  You’ve got to be kidding me.  We went and saw the apartment tonight and it’s perfect–a bedroomfor Dutch, a walk-in closet where Heidi can sleep :), and a great big living room with room for a couch and our bed (we’re sleeping in the living room!).  It even has a little yard for Dutch and a community swimming pool! Hello!

Oh man this post has gotten way too long but there’s just so much! Tonight during worship a slideshow just played in my mind of the past two years and how faithful God has been.  He provided an amazing job, a church we LOVE, friends, amazing co-laborers, a pastor and family we love. He provided a car for us, even one big enough to tote around my double stroller, he provided health insurance, even double covering us for one month, THE month of Heidi’s birth so we hardly paid anything.  And now this.  I cannot even believe the generosity and graciousness of our good God.

And please hear me, He’s been good all along! He’s been good every step of the way. He’s been faithful!  I pray that my praise isn’t conditioned on His “neat stuff” for us and yet there is every reason to praise Him and enjoy this amazing moment of provision.  His care is so personal. And that is why I’m beside myself with joy about a one-bedroom apartment… 🙂

Today while I was out running errands I text messaged Jeff:  “sushi + movie = date night”.  Dombrows are out of town for the weekend and my parents decided to take Dutch to their house for a sleepover, and since Heidi is the easiest baby on earth and goes to sleep in her little closet at 7pm, that meant Jeff and me, alone in this great big house living it up like rock stars :-).  I brought home $3 sushi from Winco (I know, extravagent), and splurged on a movie from blockbuster (usually we rent form the library) and even got wild and crazy with Moose Tracks ice cream from safeway.  I told you, liviin’ it up like rock stars.  Jeff ran upstairs and found the only blanket he could find which happened to be Dutch’s blue fleece with a life-sized Bob the Builder logo on it, and we curled up on the couch under Bob and Wendy and watched Seven Pounds.  Wow.

I won’t give away all the details but the movie could basically be summed up in one phrase: A Life Given.  What fasincates me is how our culture, or really all of humanity is fascinated by the idea of one giving his own life for the redemption, the life, the salvation of others.  We are obsessed with it, with the profundity of such an idea.  We are moved to tears by the utter selflessness of it all.  We’re inspired.  There is something in us that says, This is love.

And that is what Seven Pounds is about.  I want to write so much more about it but don’t want to give it all away. It’s so fascinating that our culture and world will reject the idea of Christ’s substitutionary work of atonement on the cross, will reject the idea of redemption, and yet our hearts ache to watch movies like Seven Pounds, one given for the life of many.

The movie made me want to fall on my knees and worship our God, because even though the movie brought me to tears with the beauty of Tim Thomas’s sacrificial gift of life, but how much greater the gift of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  For in the movie, Tim, acting as Ben, researches, calls, stalks those in need of organs, to be sure that they are “good people”.  But what about Christ?  Is His gift of life conditional?  Scripture says,

“⁶You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. ⁷Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. ⁸But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5:6-8)

Christ’s substitution death on the cross wasn’t for seven. It wasn’t for those with kind dispositions.  Christ died for all. He died for us while we were wicked. While we were helpless. While we were unloving.

And, just as the movie portrayed with Connie, the abused woman who refused help, Christ knocks on the door of our heart, seeks us out, reveals Himself to us…but doesn’t force us to receive His grace.  Connie refused, because of fear. How could she trust this man she didn’t even know?  But Tim’s card was left, and when she came to the end of herself, she called–and a new life was given.

Christ died for us!  A healthy heart for ours that fails, new eyes that we can see, a mansion in glory for us to enjoy for all eternity.  The beautiful part, however, is that Tim had to die forever that the others could live. But Jesus lives!  He is the only one who could die a substitionary death and still rise, and still live, and still conquer sin and death once and for all.

Our right response?  Fall on our knees and worship. Thank Him with every breath and every ounce of our being.  He died that we might live.  His life was given for ours.  Thank You, Jesus.

Did you think perhaps I graduated from seminary and then walked off the edge of the earth?  I’ve felt haunted by this blog all week because I haven’t know what to say.  I’m trying to figure out a new normal now. What is life like without school? And more than that, what on earth is my routine going to be like?  Without the rigor of schoolwork, I’m finding myself sort of floating listlessly through my day.  You see, I’m a hopeless routine girl. I love routine, and apparently so do my children, whose sleep patterns are like clockwork.  I think one of the biggest challenges for me with moving as much as we have, is that I’ve yet to find a rhythm or routine to my life.  I jump from one adrenalin boost to the next.  Just when I get adjusted, we move again or something changes like a new job or baby or something and I’m starting all over again.  No complaints here–everything in our life is fabulous, just trying to learn the dance of the moment and I seem to have two left feet at it right now.

We’re also moving again :)…and don’t know where. But we’re confident. God has just the perfect situation. We actually have a housing opportunity on the horizon, which I’ll share more about as I’m able, but we need a place to stay for four months, preferably near the church. Any ideas?

Anyway, all that to say I’m just trying to get in the swing of ordinary things and catch up on what I’ve slacked on for about, say, four years.  We haven’t gone to the dentist in over 2 years.  Dutch has never gone to the dentist. I have no summer clothes except cut-off jean shorts, which I can’t quite carry off wearing to church with heels (wouldn’t that cause a stir!).  We all need doctor’s appointments.  Oh, and we need a place to live. 🙂

So to help create a sense of normalcy and routine, and to give me some direction, I’m making some daily routine goals.

1. Thirty minutes in the Word and Prayer before kids are up, or at least before Dutch is up.  It’s pretty easy to have a quiet time with Heidi. 🙂

2. Baby Workout (I made this up today! Check it out below) during Dutch’s nap.  Heidi’s laughter was the best part.

3. Walk to park after Heidi’s first nap.

4. Journal and/or Blog before bed

I’m not much into rules, but at least this will help me have some structure.  Wish I had some deep thoughts to share with ya, but this is all I got. Have a great day.

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Baby Work Out: (Requires 7-20 pound baby. Or I suppose a bag of flour would work too.  But then you wouldn’t get the laughs.)

1. Airplane Ride (On your back, baby on shins, knees pulled to chest, extend legs straight out while holding baby’s hands, pull back to chest and watch baby giggle.  Repeat.  3 sets of 15 reps)

2. 50 Kisses (Push-ups, I do them on my knees, baby on her back on a blanket, must kiss cheeks with each pushup, alternate cheeks.  Enjoy smiles.  50 reps)

3. Baby Elevator (basic squats holding baby close to chest. 25 reps)

4. Baby Bench (lie on back, hold baby’s belly/chest with hands above.  Lower to chest and push back up.  3 sets of 12 reps. WARNING: do not do this exercise on a full tummy–baby’s that is.  )

5. Clown Act (prop baby on the couch and get dumbells.  Do bicep curls while making ridiculous faces at baby.  3 sets of 12 reps.  Extra challenge: Sing Jesus Loves Me at the same time.)