I’ve told this story to a number of people, but for some reason it didn’t get on the blog yet.

Our Happy Baby

A year ago we were driving back from Kaelin’s parent’s house on Thanksgiving.  We were tired and I was kind of absorbed in thoughts about the night.  Suddenly, I had a clear thought in my head that we’re going to get pregnant that night.  Often I know its God speaking to me when I have thoughts that clearly did not come from me and are not what I would have desired.  They are often vivid thoughts and irresistible, meaning I cannot ignore them.  My first reaction to that thought was “well, we’re doing LDI, we’ve only been married 5 months, and we have no health insurance… so I don’t think that’s a good idea”.  Then God asked me “Do you trust me?”  I wrestled with that question on the drive home.

Later that night God said again “You’re going to have a child.  Do you trust me?”.  I said yes and worshipped God through loving my wife.  The next day he told me we were having a boy.

Two days later I asked Kaelin: “Do you think we’re ready to be parents?”  She was like “What??”  Then she had a good laugh about it.  I said she was pregnant.  She said she didn’t think so and laughed about it.  God had told her to quit taking her birth control and she had stopped about a week before.  Many sources online said it is very difficult to get pregnant for the first few months after stopping birth control.

the Free PG clothes box (click to read note)

Well, this was an ongoing joke between us for about 3 weeks.  During that time, a random box showed up next to our office at church with a note that said “Free PG clothes”.  We eventually took a look in it and realized the PG stood for pregnant; the box was full of maturnity clothes.  Kaelin jokingly asked “are those for me?”  They were her size.  God has a great sense of humor.

Eventually Kaelin was late and it became more real to both of us.  We picked up a pregnancy test and brought it back to the Carey’s house (where we were living last year).  Kaelin went downstairs to the bathroom to take the test while I waited.  Then I went down to see what the result was, and she had still not looked at it because she wanted to do it together.  We looked at it together, and we were having a baby!

Us at Thanksgiving '08

We were both joyful and fearful.  There was a lot to figure out.  We didn’t think we were ready for kids.  But we knew we had to trust in God.  Sure enough it all worked out, we got insurance, our family and the community at Hope warmly provided for our new baby, and God brought Kaelin and Luke through birth without major complications.

The crazy part of all this is that Luke is a Thanksgiving baby.  Even thought we would not have originally chosen to have a baby right then, we realize that God’s timing is much better than ours!   We are incredibly thankful for our little guy.  Children are a blessing.  God is good.  Very good.

Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good, His love endures forever!

I finally got some time to update our picture galleries.  I noticed our “Pictures” page was one of our most visited pages but we didn’t have anything on it.  We’ll be adding more pictures as we get time!  Enjoy!

Everyone has their conception of what our biggest problem is and what we need to do to be saved.  The election really highlighted this, as that is when people start toting their “saviors”.

Some people think global climate change is the biggest threat.  Others think its oil dependency, our nation’s debt, the disparity of wealth, world hunger, the asian flu, lack of freedom, or war.  While these are bad things, they aren’t the main problem.

What has drawn me to do what I’m doing is how clearly I’ve seen that the biggest problem mankind faces is SIN.  Sin is anything contrary to God’s will that separates us from God and from each other.  Sin is not simply an action, but a state of our heart.  It is from the outflow of our sinful heart that brings selfishness, greed, laziness, depression, lust, anger, indifference, and many other sinful attitudes and actions.  All of us are sinful and struggle with sin.

All the “big problems” in our world are all linked to sin.  For example, global warming, world hunger, our national debt, and the current housing crisis all stem from our selfish greed and our lack of good stewardship of God’s creation.  60% of American couples get divorced.  1 in 3 US women have been either molested or raped.  The money spent on porn in the US could give food and water to the entire world.  The vast majority of dog owners don’t pick up their dog’s poop.  It’s all sin.

Sin is the biggest killer in America.  Sin is the #1 destroyer of lives, marriages, families.  Sin is the cause of suicides, rapes, murders, and child molestation.  Sin is why thousands die of hunger daily.  Sin is the source of all injustice on this earth.  Sin is why your neighbor doesn’t pick up her dog’s poop.  Sin, it’s a heart issue. 

You may be thinking that you don’t believe this.  Don’t worry, that’s because of sin too.  Here’s the main reasons why pretty much everyone rejects this (even many Christians!):

1) We are “rationalizing”.  Everyone thinks what they do is good, or at least ok.  Everyone has an excuse why they do something.  Everyone is self-righteous and judge themselves to be right.  Even murders have “rationalized” excuse why they did it.  Scripture says that “All a man’s ways seem innocent to him” (Proverbs 16:2a), irrespective if they actually are.  Think about the last time you hurt someone… and try to remember why you did it and what you thought at the time.  We simply cannot admit that sin is a problem because that would admit that sin is OUR problem.

2) We can’t solve it.  Since Adam and Eve, mankind has wanted to be in control.  We desire to control our surroundings and our lives.  Our society things that government reform, new technology, or better education will somehow change everything.  ”We can do it!” is the proclamation of this helpless nation (evidenced by the self-help phenomena).  Hidden behind that is the declaration: “Since we can do it, we don’t need God!”.  Since Adam and Eve, we’ve tried to replace God with ourselves, because we want to be God.  Admitting sin is a problem means we need to admit that we need the help of Jesus Christ!

We reject sin as a problem out of pride.  We reject sin as the problem because we are sinful.

This realization has really convinced me of the truthfulness of the Bible.  The Bible presents a cohesive story about sin.  In Genesis God flooded the earth because of sin, and then declared “Never again will I curse the ground because of man, even though every inclination of his heart is evil from childhood” (Gen 8:21).  But God is a loving and merciful God.  Even though our sin earns us judgment and death, “But God showed his love for us in this:  While we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8).  God, through His son Jesus, bridged the gap and overcame sin.  Its already done.  God gives it as a free gift!  All we have to do is accept that and live up to that fact!  

Bringing people to know Jesus and live in reflection of this is the best use of my time.  Because SIN is our problem and JESUS is our answer.

     

 

 

 

 

 

Me and Hannah

I realized last night at Small Group that this story is just too good not to tell.  This is Hannah.  We met in our Life Group (same thing as small group) my last year of college.  At the time, I was dating a guy I really should not have been.  Hannah and I became fast friends and began meeting for coffee.  She (amongst many others!) strongly encouraged me to break up with dude.  

I believe that demons tell us lies to cheat us out of God’s good plans for us.  They of course speak crap into our lives for all other sorts of reasons, too.  I kept having this thought that God did not have any other man for me so I should probably just stay with that one.  Hannah was pivotal in my renunciation of that lie.

Even still, these foreboding thoughts overwhelmed me and I was afraid I wouldn’t fall in love with a good man. So I decided to do what any clear headed (wow, for once ) Christian does, I made a date with Hannah to pray about this.

On our very important date we went to a little sanctuary on UW-Madison’s campus and prayed in the balcony pews.  We asked God to give me a man after His own heart.  We prayed for my children and even that my desires to have a husband and a family were pure and would be ultimately used for God’s glory.  It was a divine day!  We literally felt the Holy Spirit (which doesn’t happen all that often although I wish it did!) and both of us felt like there was a third hand in between ours but like it kind of encircled our hands, too.  Bleh, words don’t really describe what it’s like to actually FEEL God!

Turns out, I had already met Paul a month or so prior to our pray date.  A little over a year later we were married.  Both followers of our Awesome Lord.

My pray date helping me be a bride

A year after that, Luke comes! God is real and hears our prayers.  And, considering the circumstances, I don’t even think it is really our prayers that make Him somehow move to obey us.  It’s how He communicates with us.  We get to go to Him!!  Hannah and I got to pray over my family and then watch it come to be.  AWESOME.  He is good, true, real and powerful.  I know that all too well.  And may I never forget.

God's miracle to me

Some of my favorite people after we had Luke were the ones who brought us meals, so I decided to become one.  I never realized how awesome it would be to have some food right after having a baby!  And there have been so many lately at our church.  We’re off to bring one today.  Hope they are blessed by my cooking

Here is our update and support letter for November.

(click to view)

If you feel moved to support us, go to this page for more info.

We watched a great sermon last night about selfishness.  I know I struggle with this a lot.  Sometimes I get so exasperated by my self-focus that I fall into self-pity, just another form of self-centered behavior.  Getting married really helped me see where I was selfish, and it challenged me on it.  Now having a baby challenges me even more, making me realize how much I try to guard my time, fulfill my desires, and get others to serve me instead of serving them.

Mark did a great job addressing it and demonstrating how detrimental selfishness is for our relationships.  He said something like “Selfish people make bad friends, bad spouses, bad parents, and they leave a bad legacy”.  Here is the selfishness sermon (or watch it below): http://www.marshillchurch.org/media/the-peasant-princess/my-beloved-my-friend

The sermon is part of the Peasant Princess series that Mars Hill Church in Seattle is doing.  We also HIGHLY HIGHLY HIGHLY recommend this sermon:  http://www.marshillchurch.org/media/the-peasant-princess/his-garden