Homeowners!

Well, as of about 1:30 today, we are officially homeowners!  We are so excited!  Here are some pics of the house when it still had the seller's stuff in it...so that might be weird!  I'll post some new pics after we move in and do some painting!  God has blessed us beyond measure and we are so thankful!  There are 3 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms...I won't put pics of everything...but these will give you an idea!  :)  

I also had my doctor's appointment this morning.  She wants me to do an ovulation predictor kit for the next 2 months and start taking prenatal vitamins.  If I am not pregnant in 2 months, I am going to have an HSG done which is a test where they have to run a line into my uterus.  They put dye in me and watch on xray what's going on inside.  Apparently the test is not pleasant!  We are praying and knowing that our God is so faithful and Sovereign!  So, here begins our journey to parenthood!  We approach it prayerfully and absolutely at peace, which I know is His grace poured out on us!  We covet your prayers!

Here's the house!  The picture of the front of the house also has our realtor in it...who did so much to help us!  The picture of the back yard with the deck has my amazing hubby in it!  :)  He is so excited to learn how to do things at the house!  :)

Beautiful Inheritance Part I

Here are some notes from the Beth Moore conference that I went to a few weeks ago.  I'm leaving out a lot of amazing detail...but I wanted to share this!  I'll do the rest in part II soon!  

Psalm 16:5-6

The Lord is my chosen portion and my cup, you hold my lot.  The lines have fallen for me in pleasant places, indeed, I have a beautiful inheritance."  

He redeems, not just to get us out of trouble, but to give us something incredible...an inheritance!

His inheritance always involves 3 things:

1.  Presence- promise to His people of Himself (Genesis 26:23 and Joshua 1:9)

2. People- God's whole idea is relationship (Psalm 16:3, Revelation 7:9, Genesis 12:3, Genesis         22:17-18, Deuteronomy 4:20)

3. Property-  Psalm 16:5 "you have made my lot secure"

So, we have a promise as heirs of God...His presence, His people, and property in Heaven!

1.  I am an heir of God.  My life is not left to chance!

     God works as powerfully through the natural events that He does the miraculous ones!

     Fate has NO power over me!

2.  I am an heir of God.  I am inheriting a kingdom.

     Matthew 25:34

     What do we have now?  Right now we are tenants of the talents.

     Spiritually, we have been brought into the kingdom (Colossians 1:12)

     Heaven is a real-life kingdom!  (not just a bunch of ghost people floating around!)

3.  I am an heir of God.  He is my portion...and I am His.

     Psalm 16, Deuteronomy 10:8-9

     Tribe of Levi was set apart.  they did not have a lot- the Lord told them that He was their         portion

     The Lord tells them that He is the only inheritance that they need.

     1 Peter 2:4-5 We are the New Testament priesthood

     The Lord is our choice portion!

     The Levitical priests were spread out over the earth to be light.  As light in darkness, He is          my portion!  

    Deuteronomy 4:20, 32:9- He considers His own people His inheritance

    Ephesians 1:18 His glorious inheritance IN us, not for us!

    The Lord's treasured possession is His people!

There are 8 statements total...I'll blog a part II later this week!  

P.S.  My doctor's appt. is tomorrow and we're closing on our house tomorrow!  I'll update and post pics soon!  :)

Greet each day knowing that you are an heir of God!  You are His portion, His chosen portion!

"Don't Be Alarmed....

if Mason comes up to you with his ear in his hand."  

This is a statement that I heard at meet the teacher!  I bet this is a quote you have never heard before so I thought I'd share it!  A little boy in my room has a prosthetic ear.  When he gets hot and sweats sometimes the glue comes "unstuck" so his ear comes off.  I failed to inform the rest of my 1st grade team about this and the other day it happened at recess...when I was off recess duty!  I was doing some work in my classroom to look up and see little Mason putting something in his backpack.  I said, "hey bud, what are you doing?"  This is when he says, in a very matter of fact tone, "I'm only putting $9,000 in my backpack, my ear!"  Ok, so it's been a crazy week!  Starting school is hard work!  I was so used to the kids that left me at the end of last year who were almost 2nd graders...and now we have kids right out of kinder again!  It's an adjustment for sure!  I will say that yesterday I thought, "maybe teaching is not for me!"  Today was a much better day and I know that I am doing what I'm supposed to be doing.  There are a lot of things I have to just let go of...I can tend to get overwhelmed and I'm convinced that even if I stayed at school until midnight there would still be stuff to do.  Any teachers hearing me on that one?  

It's going to be a good year and I love getting to know the little (sometimes big) personalities of my 1st graders!  I love watching their growth as readers...it's amazing!  Hopefully I'll have more stories to blog about throughout the year!  

This is going to be a busy, but exciting month!  We are closing on a house on September 18th.  After having to walk away from the house we just loved....I didn't think we could ever find one we liked as much!  God totally blessed us with a house that we absolutely love and it's in a better location than the one before!  It's so humbling to me to know that He takes care of so many details....He is so faithful.  

The same day we close on the house, I will be going to my doctor's appointment.  I don't know if she will want to do tests yet.  I'm not sure what this appointment will involve.  I do know that I will talk to her about our desires to have a baby and explain the struggles we've had so far.  My current struggle is wondering if there's a "right" or "wrong" way to go about all of this as a believer.  I KNOW without a doubt that our Sovereign God has a plan and purpose for my life that He will bring to fruition...He has a plan and purpose for my child's life that is in His perfect timing.  So...how far do you go with doctors and science?  When do you take steps toward getting help or looking in to adoption.  These may seem like no brainers, but to me they are just things I've been thinking about lately.  I have felt alot of peace this month which I know is straight from Him!  I am thankful for it and I'm trying to give this up every day.  I would love words of wisdom from anyone who has experienced this or knows of someone who has.  In the meantime I am praying constantly that God gets the glory no matter what.  Michael and I pray for wisdom and leading and ask that you do the same for us!    I will definitely update after my doctors appointment.  

Ok, this post is super long!  I'm soooo glad this is a long weekend!!!!  Last weekend I heard Beth Moore at the Alamodome and it was incredible.  She taught about our inheritance!!!  I'll share more of that in another post!

3 Years Ago Today...

...I married the love of my life!  I cherish the memories from our wedding day!  The past 3 years have been an amazing time of growth!  I am so thankful to be on this life journey with Michael!  He is my best friend and I love him with all of my heart!

Plans...

change!  Michael and I are continuing to learn that the Lord has a plan for us and that He will bring that plan into fruition.  We have to live in faith, take some scary steps sometimes, and trust Him with our lives!  Sometimes this is easier said than done....right?

Last week we were supposed to close on our very first home!  We were so excited and I had already started to decorate the house in my mind!  :)  I'll spare you all of the crazy details, but we had to back out of this today.  The closing was moved to this week because they builders had not fixed anything from our inspection report.  It was like pulling teeth to try to get some of the things our inspector found fixed.  They would not provide a list of what they fixed.  They lied and told us the house was ready....without a functioning toilet downstairs, with no seals on the windows and doors, with no ladder to get into the attic, with a dishwasher that was loose in its place....and the list goes on and on.  Anyway, after being lied to and treated really poorly by the builders, Michael had to make the decision that he felt was best for us as a family.  I have to admit, I was not so supportive at first because of the emotional attachment part.....but I now realize that there must be something else for us.  So, we will continue to house hunt and pray for God's leading.

So, for my update...to those of you wondering if we are moving soon....we are not buying the house!  I'll keep you updated as God does His thing!

Warning....this will be mushy!!!!!

Sunday, July 20th was my husband's birthday!  He turned 25...I know...youngen!!!  I always remind him that I was already sitting up on my own maybe even crawling when he was born!  :)  Anyway, I wanted to use this post to talk about my hubby!  I am so thankful that 25 years ago the Lord brought him into this world!  As I listen to his mom talk about how big of a surprise he was being 8 and 10 years behind his sisters, I just grin inside because we all know it was no surprise to the Lord.  What's even more amazing to me is that before he was even born the Lord knew he would be my life partner.  It reminds me of the sovereignty and goodness of the Lord!  I am going to attempt to express my gratefulness for Michael in words, knowing that words will never do him justice!  

I am thankful for my husband because:

~He is a student of the Word!  He loves the Word of God and he is studying it all the time!  He challenges me in so many ways!

~He is an amazing teacher/preacher!  He has such a gift and the Lord has really used him in my life and so many others!

~He is a leader.  I love that I can trust him and his leadership of our family.  

~He still opens the car door for me every single time we go somewhere!  :)

~He works hard as a teacher and coach!

~He is a man who stands by his convictions.

~He has been an encourager, supporter, and best friend.

~He is sensitive to the Lord's leading and is so obedient, even when it's hard.

These are only a few reasons, and I could really go on and on!  I love him so much and am so blessed by him.  Having him as my husband is a huge reminder of the grace of the Lord on my life!  I am so thankful for his 25 years of life that the Lord has used to mold him into who he is now.  I look forward to the next 25 and can't wait to see what God has in store for us!  Happy Birthday baby!  I love you so much!

Coming up with blog titles....

is really hard!  As I was trying to think of a creative title for my blog today I was reminded of a story I want to share!  When I was a freshman in high school I took a journalism class.  I thought maybe one day I could be a journalist because I really enjoy writing.  I went to a UIL competition that involved different journalistic (i think I just made that word up) categories.  One of the categories we had to compete in was headline writing.  We would read an editorial piece and then write a creative title for the article using a certain number of spaces.  Well...after this competition was over I received my scores.  Written next to my titles was the statement, "Melanie, you're writing is really great but, if you become a journalist have someone else write your titles!"

Things here in the hill country are going well!  Michael and I are still really enjoying our summer off together.  It is a huge benefit of teaching!  We had a great time in St. Louis at the wedding.  We were able to see alot of people that have known Michael since he was born so it was fun to hear stories!  The wedding was beautiful and very classy!  Here we are before the reception.  

 St. Louis is really pretty and we were able to see the arch, which is huge!!!  The Mississippi River is really high because 

of the flooding so we didn't get to take our river boat cruise!  :)  It was nice to get away and have a little vacation!

For the 4th, I left Michael in San Antonio and headed to Round Rock, TX just North of Aust

in to stay with Tracy!  She was my roommate during college and is one of my 

best friends!  Her sister Jamie and our friend Stephanie came from Dallas and we had a really fun girl's weekend!  We ate out, shopped at the outlet mall in Round Rock, swam, talked alot, and ate some more!  It was a blast! These girls are friends that I truly cherish and we had so much fun!

To those of you wondering....I didn't go to my doctor's appointment on July 3rd.  I rescheduled for September.  I have many reasons for doing this, but mainly just to give us more time!  Currently I am doing an ovulation predictor kit to see what it will tell me.  I will definitely let you all know how the appt. goes in September.  I am doing a Bible study right now that has been discussing the glory of God.  This week, I am reminded that the work the Lord is doing in our lives is for His glory!  With this baby situation, He will work it out in a way that allows Him to receive the greatest glory.  I cling to this hope and the truth of knowing that He is in control.  We desire for Him to receive glory!  

Currently we are distracted from all of that because we found a house that we love!  It is in a neighborhood that is more of a middle ground between our schools.  I will keep you posted and when it is more of a sure thing, I will post pictures!  We are ready to be homeowners!  We are going through the process right now, so if everything goes well, we will close the beginning of August.  

I hope this blog finds all of you doing well!  We would love to hear from you!  Life is good because God is good!  If any of you have any tips for blog title writing let me know!  :)