So you get to the airport (Saturday afternoon), drop your wife and daughter off at check-in, unload everything from the van (you think), except for your stuff which you'll bring with you, drive over to economy parking, grab the shuttle back to check in, check in, go thru security, get on the first leg of your trip (which left almost one hour later than scheduled), make your connection for the second leg of your trip (which was delayed so that you and a few others could board), arrive at your final destination, meet your hosts, get all your bags... except, wait, all hte bags aren't there b/c you left one of the bags in the van b/c you thought your wife was going to get it and she thought you were (do all you marrieds communicate so well?). Whose bag, you say? My wife's, of course. Who has to sing this morning and tonight (Sunday)? My wife, of course. What to do? Rely on gracious hosts to provide clothes for this morning and send her off shopping this afternoon to get an outfit.

Oh the joy... :)

A Convicting Comment & A Cool Story

This is a neat story by James MacDonald, pastor of Harvest Bible Chapel in Rolling Meadows, and founder of Walk in the Word. I was especially struck by a statement he made at about the 3:30 mark of the video... "I was struggling in my faith. I got to a very dangerous place of demanding that God do a certain thing and calling it faith." That's convicting...

It Happened to Me-6 from Harvest Bible Chapel on Vimeo.

"Get Me Out of My Seat!"

Summer and I just got back from a Starbucks run... she wanted a biscotti... it's quite hilarious to hear a 3-year-old ask for a biscotti!

On the back home, she spilled a bit of her ice water in her lap. She can't stand it when her pants are wet, so she was squawking about it and sort of pitching a fit, telling me in no uncertain terms that she wanted out of her car seat. I told her she had to stay buckled in because we were driving, that we would be home soon, and that she needed to just be patient. All that was of course to no avail. So then I told her she could ask Jesus to help her be patient, to which she replied, "No, I want God to get me out of my seat!"

She's a pistol alright.

Update & A Summer Funny

The house... no offer(s)... another showing last Thursday... the couple liked it but that's all we know... grrrrrrr... anyone else find that rejoicing and giving thanks in situations like this is not easy and that waiting is REALLY hard work? We have much to be thankful for nonetheless.

Summer... Nicol has been doing the Dr. Colbert detox diet for the past couple of weeks... and she feels great. She lost 6 pounds in the first 10 days or so. She has much greater discipline than me when it comes to stuff like that... she can't have sugar, dairy, red meat, caffeine, etc. and is limited to whole grains, nuts, fruits, vegetables, organic chicken... not bad actually, but I would struggle to give up coffee and heck, it's summer, so who wants to stay away from ice cream? (Actually, one of my favorite "can haves" on the diet is Ezekiel bread. Anyone had it? It's VERY good. As you can see, I sort of pick and choose on this stuff. I'll eat the Ezekiel bread AND have my chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream from Ben and Jerry's thank you very much. My philosophy is that it's all about balance.) Anyway, the other day Summer heard Nicol say that she had lost 6 pounds, and what was her response? "That's okay Mommy, I can help you find them."

House Update : Wednesday

No news is, in this case at least, NOT good news. Not sure what's going on with the potential buyer, but we don' have a contract. We do have another showing on Thursday... and we're thankful for that.

On another note...

I am usually challenged by Oswald Chambers and that is the case with part of his writing for today: "Quit praying about yourself and be spent for others as the bondslave of Jesus. That is the meaning of being made broken bread and poured out wine in reality."

Wow... I wonder about the percentage of my prayer life that is spent talking to God about me, me, me.

House Update : Sunday

Got a message from our realtor (Becca) this afternoon. She said the open house went well. A few new faces and some familiar ones too. The good news is that the couple who went to the bank last week to get the loan process rolling apparently got things sorted out. They told Becca that they want our house and that they will have a contract for us tomorrow (Monday). We will see. We remain cautiously optimistic and hope that this will get done in the next few days.

Thanks for keeping up with all this and especially for your prayers.

Another House Update

No word from the couple who went to the bank for loan approval. :(

Another showing today. Another one scheduled for tomorrow. And an open house on Sunday.

We're going to be away this weekend and I'm not sure if I'll be able to get another update out until we return on Sunday. (Maybe this is a good reason to starting tweeting.) Will let you know as soon as possible.

McNair/Kazemi Tragedy

Assuming that many readers here are women, I thought perhaps that your husbands or significant others may be interested in this post at Christian Dads.

Would love to hear their thoughts on this... maybe you could share this with them.

House Update

We've had 3 showings since Friday, which is great considering it's the first activity we've had in about 6 weeks. The couple who saw it on Friday liked it but probably aren't interested enough to make an offer. Then, two couples saw it on Sunday... the first was scheduled, the second "just happened" to be in the neighborhood. Long story short, the couple who were not scheduled to see it liked it enough to go to the bank yesterday to get the loan approval process rolling. As of early this afternoon they had not heard back from the bank... I'm told these things take longer now than they did even 6 months ago.

We are expecting to know something tomorrow. An open house is scheduled for this Sunday, but we are so hoping there won't be a need to have it.

We are cautiously optimistic tonight.

Keep praying if you think of it!

Please pray for these folks...

A Revelation

It struck me this morning that it's been awhile since I last posted. So when I checked the date of my last post, it wasn't really all that surprising to see that my most recent log-in was almost one month ago. Sorry to be so out of the loop and out of touch, but it's actually been a much-needed respite... not that writing is really all that taxing... the past year, however, has obviously been an indescribable emotional drain... and one more thing on the to-do list has been more than I have cared to think about lately.

All that said, here's a little update for you and a revelation I had the other day...

--We are doing okay, whatever that means. It's still up and down. It sometimes feels like we should be further down this road than we are. And then we remember the words of several individuals/couples who are further along in this journey than we are, folks who have told us that it took them 3 or 4 years just to sort of turn a corner, for life to begin to feel a little bit normal again. We also remember that we are and from here on out always will walk with a limp, so today may be pretty good, tomorrow may be pretty good too, the next day may be yuck-ville, the next day may be even worse, the day after that may be fantastic... and I am once again reminded that our journey is all too difficult to describe to those who have not experienced the same pain and virtually impossible to predict.

--Our house... it STILL hasn't sold. :-( We did have a showing today though (which went well, but the couple wants to think about it... famous last words!), and another couple will see it on Sunday (pray about that for us!). Don't know what else to say. We are waiting, hoping, praying, trusting... and trying not to be anxious and fretful (is that a word?). Any creative selling ideas???

--The revelation... the other day I was talking to Summer about sharing her toys with some her friends (she had had a hard time with that concept the day before!) and she quite emphatically said, "But I don't want to!" I went on to say all the predictable things... about how it's the right thing to do, that it's important to treat other people like we want to be treated, etc., etc. And then Jesus' words in John 15 streamed into my mind: "...apart from me you can do nothing." Yes, as a father I need to teach Summer the what's, when's, where's, why's and how's of life. But as important as those things are, it is equally (more?) important to remind her that Jesus will help us do the things He asks us to do if we will just ask Him for that help. I can give the rules and expectations, but if I don't point her to the only One who can help her, if I don't stop right then and there and say hey, let's ask Jesus to help with this, I will fail her as a dad. I know this isn't a new revelation to you all, and I know that most of you probably figured this out a long time ago, but it clicked for me the other day for the first time in relation to my role as a father... and it also reminded me of the desperate need I have to do the same thing in my own life with regard to the things that I respond to with an emphatic "But I don't want to!"

--One more thing... if you have the time, check out this Eugene Peterson article: "The Cure of Souls"... it's more than 25 years old and it's about pastoral ministry, but it's well worth the time for anyone to read... pastor or not. And it's themes are strongly related to what I've just written here re: my revelation.