Resignation

Monday I made my official resignation from work. Easiest resignation I had ever done. My supervisor and I had already talked about it. I went in and told my principal at the school. That went fine. I am very excited to be telling people about my new adventures. It's amazing how God works! He was telling me to trust Him in this journey, even though it didn't make sense.

I only have 20 hours of supervision left for me to be able to take the licensure exam in social work. It would make complete and total sense to stay at Centerstone and finish out my hours there and finish out the school year and then go on this journey. There were many things that led me to believe that even though it made sense, it wasn't necessarily what I was supposed to do. One was God's word. Of course, that is all it should take, but after God's word came one of my most stressful school years ever. Second came the hives, from the stress of the school year and everything else.

The day I had the hives, I crawled up in bed and got in the word. I knew that was what I was supposed to do. I go to Luke 5. This passage is talking about when Jesus showed the then fisherman that they were called to not catch fish anymore, but men and women! They were to be His disciples. They had been trying to catch fish all night. Nothing. Jesus tells them to move out in the deep and cast their nets to the otherside. Can you imagine? Someone you have never met and who has jumped on your boat to get away from the crowds telling you how you should fish? But listen to what Simon Peter says, this is what caught my eye, he responds, "Master, we have toiled all night and caught nothing; NEVERTHELESS, AT YOUR WORD, I will let down the net.

We all know the end of the story. See, even then, Peter knew to trust the Lord, even when it didn't make sense and he followed through on what he was asked to do. Some notes in my Bible confirmed what the word was saying to me. Things like, "Just do it! Past your point of logic and prior experience (vs5). Here are some specific notes from the Experiencing Bible I use:
Belief knows where profitable work can be done (vs 4)
Belief forsakes human endeavors to achieve God's mission (vs 10-11)
Belief knows God's abilities (vs 12)

God was in essence, asking me would I follow Him, beyond my point of reason, believing Him in what He is calling me to do.

So, I made my deicision. A couple of weeks later, I faltered, trying to reason leaving Centerstone before my supervision hours were up. I went back and forth and I felt no peace. It finally occured to me, when I re-read Luke 5, that God's answer had not changed, but I was trying to make my answer fit instead of His. BEYOND MY POINT OF LOGIC AND PRIOR EXPERIENCE. Once I understood it was me who was considering disobedience I chose to fall back in line to God's timeline and not mine, the peace came, once again.

God has an awesome way of following through. That statment in itself really doesn't make sense because God always follows through with His plan, whether we decide to obey or not. But it is cool to see faith in action. Especially when we are so not faithful back.

I feel led to start a parenting ministry. I was hoping to start some things in my church but had only talked to the director of counseling about volunteering. This past week I get a call from the Women's Ministry director at my church. Amazingly, she offered some opportunities for me to start ministering to parents!!!! I was amazed.

But I really shouldn't have been.

God had already told me to be looking past my logic and more toward His supernatural logic.

I am so glad that I did.

Lord thank you for this journey. May I be faithful and surrendered to You always.

CRUISE!!

Greg and I got back from our cruise Friday. It was wonderful, if you have never gone cruising, I highly recommend it!!!! We traveled to the Bahamas out of Port Canaveral on Royal Caribbean. It was COLD when we left Port Canaveral. Really! Record 25 year lows. Miami had temps in the high 40's on Tuesday. Uh, huh. So I put a note to self never to go to the Bahamas in November. We don't really have good fortune when we travel in November. I seem to recall a business trip for Greg to St. Thomas, Virgin Islands in November Of course I travelled with him, hello? St. Thomas, do you think I would pass that up? Well let me sum it up this way: rain, food posioning, humidity, being stuck in the hotel all the time while Greg worked while it rained, and did I mention rain????????????? Our May, June trips are much better. Think we will stick to that time of year.

Anyway, I digress. We landed in Nassau, Bahamas on Wed. and the weather was finally great, windy, but great. Nassau reminded me a lot of St. Thomas, except no rain of course! Ha! The shopping was fun and we took a water taxi over to Paradise Island. In the 60's my dad helped build a hotel on Paradise Island, it is long gone, and now there is The Atlantis...oh, my.....what a hotel. If I were to go back to the Bahamas, that is where we would stay. It was fabulous walking around in there, it is MASSIVE and EXPENSIVE! Oh, well. Very blue waters in Bahamas. Thursday we made our way to Royal Caribbean's private island, Coco Cay. An even more gorgeous day than Wed. It was warm and sunny! The Island is great, lots of things to do. Greg and I ate lunch, walked on the beach and then layed in a hammock until time to go. The agenda for this vacation was to relax and that is what we did-relax. And there is nothing like relaxing in a hammock. And I didn't even fall out!

The best part of our vacation was coming home to see Carter. Greg's parents watched Carter for us while we were gone. Do you know how expensive it is to call from ship to shore?? Let me tell you, A LOT!!!!! We called every day anyway. But he did fine. He was great. He was sooooo happy to see us and we were ecstatic to see him.

We have had a good weekend. Carter is sick so we stayed home from church today. He will go to the doctor tomorrow. :-(

Anyway, that is our vacation in a nutshell. I will try and post some pictures when I get them uploaded.

Have a great week!!

Surprise!

My wonderful husband took me out for my birthday last night. My birthday is on Sunday. I thought we were just going out to dinner and then he gave me my birthday card and in it were tickets to the Lion King!!!!!!!!!!! The Lion King is in town through December and I have been hinting that I wanted to go....and I guess my hints were heard!!

The show was marvelous!!!!!!!!!! Absolutely marvelous!!!!! My sweet in-laws kept Carter and we got way past all of our bedtimes, but it was a great date! Thank you, honey!!!

My in-laws are keeping Carter while we are on our cruise. On one side I am so excited have time alone with Greg, on the other hand, I think what am I doing leaving my baby for 5 days!!!!!!!!! I know it will all work out and I am praying diligently about Carter's health and safety. Sigh. I guess this is what it means about wearing your heart on your sleeve!! Motherhood does that to you!!!

3 days until cruise. I will post when we get back!

Its not about me

So when I started this blog something that occurred to me is that people may wonder, why create a blog? I thought the same thing myself. I haven't moved away, I don't really have issues going on in my family for people to keep track of, and I am not the kind of person to just ramble on about every day things. That is what I associate most blogs with. So here is what I came up with.

There are two reasons I created this blog. The first reason is, I wanted to practice my writing skills (you know, for that dissertation I am going to write some day-- wink, wink!). The second reason is because I really want to share what the Lord is doing in my life. I want Him to be glorified by what I do and where He is bringing me. So, in essence, this blog isn't about me, or at least I hope not! I really just want to practice writing and share what God is doing in my life. Period.

More on this process in the days to come.

Pray for Carter. He has his first ear infection!! :( He is already feeling better though.

6 days until our cruise!!

There is more to come

I want to sit down and write a post about this whole process of quitting my job in December and focusing more on ministry stuff...but, I need time to do that and that I don't have right now. Carter is still sick and we have had a pretty busy weekend. So, it will be coming soon, just not tonight. Just keep this in mind, it really isn't about me!

Countdown...8 days until we leave for our cruise!!!! Woo hoo!!!!!!!

Oh, how I love you!!

First of all, thank you for all your nice responses from my first post last night. They were very reassuring and confirming!

My sweet pea, Carter, is sick. He has a cold and he feels bad. It makes me very sad when he feels bad. But no matter if he is sick or well, I have to say bedtime is my favorite time of day with him. He gets all sweet and cuddly. He clings to me and we rock back and forth in his nursery. It is sooooo sweet and it reminds me that he used to be a baby. Used to be is the operative word here! Where did my baby go??? So I treasure the night time, after his bath, and with his bottle in hand looking up at me with those sleepy, blue eyes. Ahh, there is nothing like it!!! I love you, sweet pea!

I finally sat down and did it!

I created a blog! Woo hoo!! I have been meaning to do this for sometime, but you know how it is! Welcome! I am not sure what to tell you to expect here but you will probably notice I open up a lot more on here than I do in person. Well, that depends on who you are! :) If you saw my profile and you read, "I feel called to full time ministry", you might be wondering exactly what that means. I wish I could tell you. Ha! That is part of the journey. I know I will be quitting my job as a therapist at the middle school in Dec. I know I feel led to lead parenting seminars, whether in church or out in the community. I may or may not pursue furthering my education, possibly at a seminary. At this point I just don't know. All I know is I need to be willing to do whatever. I do have a hunger and a passion for helping parents (and myself) in raising Godly children and setting boundaries and limits with love. I have worked with at-risk kids and their parents for the last 10 years. I would love to bring some of the knowledge and experience I have gained to parents everywhere who want to listen. I have a lot of research to do. Greg, my husband, says I need to write a book. We'll see. God is in charge here, I am just along for the ride! And have I mentioned my gorgeous boy, Carter!!!! Almost 10 months old and into everything. He is already challenging my parenting skills --or what I thought were skills! We'll see about that. More on Carter later! I am tired and need sleep. Again, Welcome and enjoy!!!!