Update

Wow!!! Let me reflect, if you will allow, on mine and David's last five years of marriage. We got married in Cookeville, Tn. Lived there for a little over a year. Moved to a little tiny place called Oliver Springs with David's parents. Lived there for a year. Lived back in our house in Cookeville for the summer. Got pregnant. Moved back with David's parents for half of the year. Moved to little ole Athens, Tn. Lived there for a year and a half. Got pregnant twice. Lost our job. And now, we are living in Nashville. This has been a whirlwind, and not a lot of this journey has been exactly where we want to be.

When we found our church home at Cornerstone Church of Knoxville over two years ago, we knew that is where God wanted us, but as for our living quarters, with David's ever so loving parents and then in Athens, Tn. we were not quite satisfied. I don't think we ever thought about moving to Nashville, mainly because we didn't see our hearts away from CCK. But, after being uprooted from Athens when David lost his job, applying aggressively everywhere we could think of, and after receiving a job in Nashville, we see that God is giving us grace for Nashville.

We have visited Immanuel Church in Franklin, and I must say that I never thought it could be our church home. I liked it, but it was not CCK! But, last Sunday, the Lord opened my heart, and I was so blessed by Immanuel. God has given us friendships here already that I can see are going to be deeply rooted in the gospel, and we meet new friends every day! No joke!!

We have already been able to minister a little to people in the community, and this was so hard to do in Athens. You would invite someone to church, but after they drove an hour with you to church, they never really wanted to come back. We also (possibly sinfully) did not have a heart for Athens. But, last night, David got to talk a little with a guy, Trevor, about church and spiritual things. He seemed excited about coming with us to Immanuel. David also had my cousin with him who has really started growing with Christ. They got to talk a little with Trevor together. It sounded so encouraging!!!

Let me say that we LOVE the Nashville life. There are so many things to do here!! God has really knit our hearts for this area! This may be just a feeling and may be fleeting at that, but we are so encouraged!! God has proved faithful by providing a job for us! I must admit that David and I lacked faith, but God still chose to remain faithful!!

I am not sure how long we will stay here, or if we will continue to like it, but I know this... That God is working all things for our good! He has not and will not abandon us, though we feel ourselves to be adrift the sea when the tides come. HE WILL NOT ABANDON US, THOUGH WE FEEL OURSELVES ADRIFT THE SEA WHEN THE TIDES COME!

Please pray for:
1. Spero (our baby boy to be born Sept 29th)
2. Insurance. We will be between insurances and are trying to apply for medicaid.
3. Trevor
4. David's new job. This is his first job after college that is not teaching.
5. Our transition to Immanuel/ friends and community

Thank you! We love you all and will be back at CCK soon to visit I am sure!

Counsel

Being swept from our home, jobless with no prospects and baby due in almost 7 weeks or so, David and I have had a really hard time! But, this hard time, like the others in our life has been so rich, too. Even the dry in this season is rich!!

One grace in our life is that we have sought counsel after counsel and each time we talk to someone, our hearts are so encouraged!!!

I find it interesting that three people have produced the same thought for me:

Jeff, our counseling pastor encouraged us with "The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law." He said to really revel in what God has revealed to us. This meant that all my worry and anxious fear about where we would work or what we were going to do fell in to the unrevealed which was not mine to lay hold of.

Then, a plant pastor at Immanuel shared on Sunday the question "am I just seeking God's plan for my future or what he has already revealed in his word?" This too caused me to focus on what God has for me today and not the future.

And lastly, as David and I met with our friend, Chris Moore, he encourage me to look back at what God has done in our lives already, how he has been faithful to us in the past. And boy does that give us faith for the future!!

How encouraging to my soul that God would confirm this to me over an over again!

Yesterday we met with Dr. Dave Smith, a counselor in Knoxville! God used this in our lives as well! We felt heard, understood and loved just by a mere 80 minutes we had with him!!

Through all of our encounters with these men, we can see God shaping and molding his plan for us! The blank we see becomes a little more clear! And when it does not, we still see God's hand!!

Although we struggle with faith through this time, God continually gives us a drink from his well! We are thirsty and yet so saturated!!




















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