Oakley, Bible College, and Some Exciting News!

Thank you all for baring with us. This has been an incredibly busy month for us. Just Oakley growing keeps us incredibly busy trying to make sure we enjoy each season of her development. But on top of that we had the largest event our church throws each year this past week in Kidz Fest, our annual free event that gives us an opportunity to love on hundreds of families from our community. It's kept us pretty busy!

So I guess first thing to update everyone on is Oakley's health. The celluitis definitely went down immensely. Unfortunately it's still there, and we have an ultrasound tomorrow before we leave town for Grandma and Grandpa's to check on it. There is still a small mass but we are hoping it will go away on its own as it has gotten much smaller over the last month. It just seems to have stalled out as of late. Maybe it's like smoking pork though, and it's just about breaking through the stall point and then it will all be good. She has been back to herself for a couple weeks though. She is really enjoying daycare and she is starting to crawl. It's exciting to watch but we have got to get this house baby proofed, ASAP.

In other exciting news Tanja and I made the decision for me to start at Charis Bible College. It is a very intense two year program that will give me the tools I need to continue developing my ministry and prepare me for what God has planned for our family in the future. It' going to be an exciting time for us, but it also means even more on our plate. I'll be taking the first year mostly online, and then the second year will require some time at an extension office here in Kansas City and a mission trip, but this will not require me to relocate at all, which is a huge blessing, and just one of the many reasons we chose Charis Bible College. It sounds like I'll also be taking on some additional responsibilities at the church in the near future, so our plate is going to be pretty full over the next 24 months.

It coudlnt' be any fuller right? Well we have decided to break some news to our faithful blog readers before we announce it anywhere else online, Tanja is once again expecting!!!! We are very early on, in fact we have our first ultra sound next week. But we are in the camp of "the more prayer the better". We've been through a loss before, and we know it's much easier to walk through with an army of believers loving on us than it is to do it alone. So we are letting the cat out of the bag early! It looks like we will be due the first week in March but we should find out soon! This made the decision to still start Bible College a difficult one, but we prayed over it, we weighed the pros and cons over the last month, and we decided to move forward. We couldn't be more excited to have two children so close in age, to be able to teach them both about who Jesus is, and bring them up with a passion to love God and love people, even if it is later in life than most.

The next 24 months are going to be absolutely crazy, but it will be so worth it. I'm humbled to start the journey to do what I've always known I'm called to do. I ran from that calling for a couple decades but it feels so much better to be walking with God hand in hand into it. We ask for your prayers around all of this right now, that you pray for Oakley's complete healing... pray for me as classes begin here shortly... pray for the health and development of the child on the way... and pray most intently that our family continues to walk in his calling on our lives. That we allow him to work both in us and through us, even during this chaotic time in our lives. We could not be more thankful for all of you, our partners in ministry. Thank you for going on this journey with us!

"But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope: The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. "The Lord is my portion," says my soul, "therefore I will hope in him."

(Lamentations 3:21-24 ESV)