If Silence Is Golden, Our Blog Should Be Rich
Posted By Andrew on October 5, 2009
I sincerely thought after writing that last post in July that either Elizabeth or I would share a little update on our lives every few weeks. As you can see, it hasn’t happened, so once again we have a great deal of catching up to do. Here’s the summary:
In the past few months, my sister Joy came to live with us and rescued me from drowning in work. Jenny celebrated her eighth birthday, Elizabeth celebrated her thirtieth, Gabriel exuberantly celebrated his third, and I reluctantly tolerated my thirty-fourth. We celebrated our ninth wedding anniversary and rejoiced at God’s goodness. We enjoyed hosting many weekend guests, and hope there will be more to follow. We saw our new business grow so rapidly that we had to play musical jobs for a little while; when the dust settled, I was finally managing just my own company, while each of my two brothers was managing one of the rental companies I had previously been involved with. This new arrangement freed Joy to pursue a long held dream—discipleship training with YWAM in Milan, Italy. We bade her farewell, happy to see her dreams coming true, and sorry to see her leave us. When she sent back pictures, we tried not to envy all the wonderful cultural experiences she’s getting. We reveled in the reduced work load that allowed us time for the relationships we’re learning to value above all else. Predictably, I promptly filled up some of that spare time with a commitment to serve as the editor for Harvey Yoder’s books. We enjoyed having my brother Motz and his new bride as our neighbors. We had a lovely camping trip with our church—so much fun that we’ve planned another church campout in two weeks. We met people and heard sermons and read books that inspired us to a relentless pursuit of God’s fullness, and we’ve experienced more of His blessings than we thought we would in a lifetime. We’ve had to repent as His working revealed the filthy rags we thought He would be pleased to receive. We’ve been amazed at what He could do through us when we quit trying to provide the power to do it. We’ve experienced some of the most meaningful church life we could ever hope for with a group of very imperfect people who nevertheless love one another deeply. We’ve rejoiced to see God at work in that church, setting people free to be His hands and feet and mouth to bless us. We finished our year-long building project and made notable progress on the remodeling that will eventually turn the former kitchen into a library. We said that we would sell this place and move rather than ever build another addition onto it. Immediately thereafter, we sheepishly began discussing the best options for eventually adding another bedroom. Hey, the baby we’re expecting in May will have to sleep somewhere, right?? And finally, before Joy left for her six months abroad, we had her take some family photos. Enjoy.
Gabriel is full of mischief but eager to please.
Melody wants to hug away the cares of the world.
She’s a dreamer.
Jenny is passionate and loyal.
And beautiful.
It’s fine with me if you want to say it out loud: “How did he end up with such gorgeous children?” Search me. It must be their mother.
Our youngsters keep us young.
Two of Gabe’s great loves—Mommy and bear.
Secrets.
Celebrating the first nine years of ‘till death do us part.’
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8 Responses to “If Silence Is Golden, Our Blog Should Be Rich”
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I hope you have another boy.
Awwwww……. We love these people!
To some of the sweetest people, What a joy to see your beautiful faces again! We really miss you all! We love your example of Jesus and marvel that He is allowing us to live in the happiness we’ve seen in your lives in the past… is this really us?
We are seriously discussing (often) our desire and need to come and see you, especially when Hannah sees frost on the ground already. :-/
Hugs to everyone, the happiest people in Canada (at least we think so
What a nice family you have!!
Mimi and Grandma think that a “Baker’s Dozen” (thirteen for those of you who don’t indulge in donuts!!!!) grandchild on the way for BOTH sides of the family is absolutely LOVERLY! Joy is an excellent photographer, but hey, let’s be honest….when you have material like those munchkins to “shoot” it would be difficult to take a bad shot!!!!
Aunt Esther is raising QUITE a stir with her status picture of she and her blond, blue-eyed boyfriend from S.C.!!!! (Chappy of course!!!)
I don’t know… You don’t actually look half bad. I’d say both of you made your contributions to the “gene-pool” - but no arguments with the claim that your daughters are beautiful (and your son is no slouch either). Hey! I know what you’re trying to say by “imperfect people”, but I feel God has laid it on my heart to stir up the body of Christ to true, Biblical perfection. Take it from me! I am humbled beyond description to be writing this right now; because my room is a mess. I guess I had better practice what I preach and “be perfect” (i.e. be consistent) by doing something about that messy room (there are some dishes to help with as well). I am glad to hear that ye are continuing to be fruitful and multiply. I just need prayer that God would help me grow up (another way of saying “be perfect”) so I can follow suit. I am blessed to still be free, but - brother - I have said it before and I say it again: it is not good for this man to be alone.
Daniel
Remember when I said I wanted to do some recording? Well, I finally got a video posted to Youtube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cyfI86MAX_E&feature=youtube_gdata
Hope you like it!
Daniel
I didn’t know Bibbie was expecting a muffin, congrats!!! I hope Gabe gets a brother. The girls are beautiful and you BOTH contribute to the cute kids. Have a very Merry Christmas from all of us here in Barnwell.