.... 3 years, since the last time I blogged
It's funny, I used this blog to be a source of inspiration if you will and a peek into our souls if you lived far away, family in the south from both sides of our families, friends from California to the New York Islands... We can't forget the Nickell's deep in the heart of Texas... This was our place to rent space in your head and keep you updated and while it served its purpose, life got busy. We went through a lot since our engagement two full years ago.
And there I find You in the mystery
In oceans deep
My faith will stand
And I will call upon Your name
And keep my eyes above the waves
When oceans rise
My soul will rest in Your embrace
For I am Yours and You are mine
Your grace abounds in deepest waters
Your sovereign hand
Will be my guide
Where feet may fail and fear surrounds me
You know what I've heard the bible stands dor? Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth.
Our relationship looked a lot like the stories told repeatedly in the bible. Two people living life until at some point they realize their judgment is better than the plan God has for them so they try to make their own path and do their own things they feel called to do...
God makes it painfully obvious they still need him.
They repent for turning away from God when they needed him most
He welcomes them with open arms.
The prodigal son - example.
Not all remained the same, a lot of family friends changed their hearts towards our relationship, we accept that. The original wedding party forecast of 16, ended up being a party of 10.
We had a second engagement in July of 2014... And the plans to be wed occurred in September.
We sought counseling from two couples before marriage, both in churches... One from our old church,
One who'd been married for 33 years.
One who had been married for 5.
Counseling was the best part of the pre-marital experience, our new relationship transformed prior to becoming a Saturday night church attending, Tuesday night bible study at a friend's house. Praying consistently over the phone every night, praying over and with one another during the day... And pre-marital encouraged all of those behaviors.
In this time, drew and I still continued to not have sex, and abstain until marriage... nor did we live together until after we traded vows. For us, it was the right choice.
Weeks before our marriage we were advised one of our counselors who had once had faith he could perform our marriage ceremony was then told due to timing and a life event happening in his own life, he could not perform it, especially because we chose a Sunday.
God gave me a preview of the leader I chose to marry during that time. Drew contacted every friend in Christ and at our church at the time to find a pastor available on a Sunday who wasn't someone off the street. Someone who knew our story and would be proud to join us in marriage at the end of our journey.
Road blocks, Sunday morning wedding road blocks arose everywhere he turned. And in an instant, he remembered going in multiple men's retreats with Canyon Ridge Christian Church, a large body church in between our houses. Before joining our old home church, we attended Canyon Ridge and Drew formed a close relationship with one of the pastors who actually led the men's retreats. I couldn't have been more proud of him or thankful.
This pastor had a senior service Sunday morning and an afternoon service after our wedding though made sacrifices on September 21 that pointed our wedding day to Jesus as the center of our marriage.
Remember how I spoke of the hope message the baby's parents encouraged us to find during the memorial? Continue reading to discover what gives us hope...
Our ceremony was beautiful. Our reception was perfect. Our mini-moon was something we will never forget. & months later, our Disneymoon was unforgettable in every way.
Where are we now... 7 months later.
We left our church, Grace Point Church and all of our church family, for no reason in particular other than our spiritual growth hit a ceiling because of the heart strings tied to our trial separation.
A lot of those who prayed for us still had reservations about us, doesn't make them wrong, just made us stagnant.
We prayed heavily before making this decision and anyone who was willing to speak to us gave us their blessing and consent when we left. We still love the body, we still love the people who live inside it.
Our church is a part of the central family. We attend Central Summerlin and will invite anyone and everyone to join us. My favorite part of their message is quoting Romans 8 at the end with pastor Tim Perkins proclaims. "If God is for us, who can be against us?" What a beautiful reminder of how okay it is, to not be okay.
We now live in Drew's moms townhouse. She got married to my father in law shortly after we did. Allowed her home to become our first home by fate...
I work at Zappos, a popular online commerce company. Drew works for the company his dad used to work for called Sunstate, a construction rental equipment company...
Why would I catch you up on a 2 year post to start blogging again?
To tell you Drew just got a new car, a Dodge Journey. (the white car pictured above)
One with 3 rows... And over head air conditioning and more bells and whistles than most single men would need...
Just to prepare for the future...
And then, the following month...
God let us know how close the future was.
Baby Thomas expected to arrive December 2015.
Definition of a lot... being transparent; we had a phase in our lives where we weren't exactly sure if God had plans for us to be together forever for a length of time during a phase in our relationship?
Peacocks are pure of heart. They pair with a mate and are loyal and
faithful to their partners until they die, if their mate dies, they stop eating and sleeping. To many, they also symbolize eternal love.
It was an intense time for our faith, our friendships, our families, our church family... Some relationships weather the test of time and in those moments we realized who our prayer partners were from the beginning... We both changed careers, sought counseling separately and together, and less than 4 months later, God brought us back together to walk towards marriage.
Still finding strength in hope, our relationship changed in a way it had never before... Our prayers weren't that of a 22 year old couple who loved Jesus but of two sinners both in need of grace and mercy, one for harboring anger, one for causing it, and equally the same amount of sin and hurt remained.
Well, how did we get to where we are today?
God wins.
The fears, the pain, the remorse, the shame, the thought of carrying on with our past on our backs seemed foolish when we realized again, Christ paid a debt for all sin... Not just yours or mine but every human's sin was finished... And yet we were still trying to prove man could still be right and Jesus might not be able to cover any pain as deep as ours.
In popular Christian music, this song debuted around the time we first made the choice to separate....wait... And see... The lyrics read
"You call me out upon the waters
The great unknown where feet may fail"You call me out upon the waters
And there I find You in the mystery
In oceans deep
My faith will stand
And I will call upon Your name
And keep my eyes above the waves
When oceans rise
My soul will rest in Your embrace
For I am Yours and You are mine
Your grace abounds in deepest waters
Your sovereign hand
Will be my guide
Where feet may fail and fear surrounds me
You've never failed and You won't start now"
Weeks into a non-relational haze I attended a funeral for a family member of a close friend. When I say close-friend I mean one of our original groomsmen, and by family members I mean his niece.
She was beautiful, tiny, and as the book of James would quote "good and perfect." She passed at 40 hours old with what I believe was called Trisomy 18 and in complete humility and great adoration her parents sat before a congregation of at least 300 of their closest family members and friends and shared with us this song acoustically and then proceeded to explain Gods love for their daughter and themselves through such a painful but beautiful journey.
Why am I sharing this?
His sister and brother in law at the end of her memorial reminded us if we have any grievance towards God for calling their sweet girl home in any way, to remember that she was a gift to all of us, and her life was supposed to be filled with Hope. Hope that she would be born healthy, live a healthy life, and be called in whenever God designed but time not determined... Instead we as humans have an expectation for how life is supposed to work. We expect bright eyed healthy children, we expect our children to out live us, we expect God to allow our journey to be "good and perfect." But it was never intended to be.
You know what I've heard the bible stands dor? Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth.
Our relationship looked a lot like the stories told repeatedly in the bible. Two people living life until at some point they realize their judgment is better than the plan God has for them so they try to make their own path and do their own things they feel called to do...
God makes it painfully obvious they still need him.
They repent for turning away from God when they needed him most
He welcomes them with open arms.
The prodigal son - example.
Not all remained the same, a lot of family friends changed their hearts towards our relationship, we accept that. The original wedding party forecast of 16, ended up being a party of 10.
We had a second engagement in July of 2014... And the plans to be wed occurred in September.
We sought counseling from two couples before marriage, both in churches... One from our old church,
One who'd been married for 33 years.
One who had been married for 5.
Counseling was the best part of the pre-marital experience, our new relationship transformed prior to becoming a Saturday night church attending, Tuesday night bible study at a friend's house. Praying consistently over the phone every night, praying over and with one another during the day... And pre-marital encouraged all of those behaviors.
In this time, drew and I still continued to not have sex, and abstain until marriage... nor did we live together until after we traded vows. For us, it was the right choice.
Weeks before our marriage we were advised one of our counselors who had once had faith he could perform our marriage ceremony was then told due to timing and a life event happening in his own life, he could not perform it, especially because we chose a Sunday.
God gave me a preview of the leader I chose to marry during that time. Drew contacted every friend in Christ and at our church at the time to find a pastor available on a Sunday who wasn't someone off the street. Someone who knew our story and would be proud to join us in marriage at the end of our journey.
Road blocks, Sunday morning wedding road blocks arose everywhere he turned. And in an instant, he remembered going in multiple men's retreats with Canyon Ridge Christian Church, a large body church in between our houses. Before joining our old home church, we attended Canyon Ridge and Drew formed a close relationship with one of the pastors who actually led the men's retreats. I couldn't have been more proud of him or thankful.
This pastor had a senior service Sunday morning and an afternoon service after our wedding though made sacrifices on September 21 that pointed our wedding day to Jesus as the center of our marriage.
Remember how I spoke of the hope message the baby's parents encouraged us to find during the memorial? Continue reading to discover what gives us hope...
Our ceremony was beautiful. Our reception was perfect. Our mini-moon was something we will never forget. & months later, our Disneymoon was unforgettable in every way.
Where are we now... 7 months later.
We left our church, Grace Point Church and all of our church family, for no reason in particular other than our spiritual growth hit a ceiling because of the heart strings tied to our trial separation.
A lot of those who prayed for us still had reservations about us, doesn't make them wrong, just made us stagnant.
We prayed heavily before making this decision and anyone who was willing to speak to us gave us their blessing and consent when we left. We still love the body, we still love the people who live inside it.
Our church is a part of the central family. We attend Central Summerlin and will invite anyone and everyone to join us. My favorite part of their message is quoting Romans 8 at the end with pastor Tim Perkins proclaims. "If God is for us, who can be against us?" What a beautiful reminder of how okay it is, to not be okay.
We now live in Drew's moms townhouse. She got married to my father in law shortly after we did. Allowed her home to become our first home by fate...
I work at Zappos, a popular online commerce company. Drew works for the company his dad used to work for called Sunstate, a construction rental equipment company...
Why would I catch you up on a 2 year post to start blogging again?
To tell you Drew just got a new car, a Dodge Journey. (the white car pictured above)
One with 3 rows... And over head air conditioning and more bells and whistles than most single men would need...
Just to prepare for the future...
And then, the following month...
God let us know how close the future was.
Baby Thomas expected to arrive December 2015.
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