My First Week at the New Job

Well, it's been an interesting week. It's my first week working with my husband at our shop, Christian Family Automotive.

It's a brand new experience in a field I'm unfamiliar with, taking on a job that I've never done before, with no one to train me. Sounds like a good plan, right?

Right.

And it's actually going okay. This week has been weird, and I'm still trying to figure out exactly what I need to be doing on a daily basis to be productive. There's a lot of grey space in this job, at least as far as I can see. I'm sure I'll find plenty of things to be busy with soon.

I really love being near Robert all day long. We're not spending quality time together during the day, so it's not an overwhelming closeness. In other words, we're not getting tired of each other :) It's really nice.

In other news, I am waiting for Lauren and Max to get here. I want more than anything to stick a tracking device on them, and I wish you could see my planner right now. On Monday of this week it says "LAUREN AND MAX ARE COMING" and below that it says (tomorrow)...(or thursday)...(next week?) haha it's so sad. I just want them to be here!!

I hope you're having a great week!

Happy Easter :)

Happy Easter!! I hope you've had a great one. Mine has been phenomenal, and there are several things going on right now that I'm really excited about.

+ our cruise was awesome! It was so nice to get away on vacation with my husband. We spent a lot of time together, and one of my favorite days was on Roatan (and island in Honduras) where he and I rented a car and spent the whole day together driving around the island and swimming in the ocean. This trip definitely made up for our lack of a honeymoon, and I am forever grateful for the friends who took us.

+ I quit my job!! yaaaaaay. I am finally free of retail work, and I could not be more excited. Working in the same store for the last 2 years has been really difficult for me. It was a negative environment with a lot of angry and sad people. I will definitely miss the people that I worked with (and was blessed to hear that they would miss me, too), but I am glad to be gone. Which leads me to...

+ working with my husband!! Yes, I am so excited to say that starting bright and early tomorrow morning, I am a true part of Christian Family Automotive. I'll be in there every day, working with Robert, and learning all the ropes. I have a lot to learn, and I'm so excited for the opportunity.

+ our Easter services this weekend at church were unbelievable. Over the weekend we saw over 19,000 people attend and over 2,000 people make commitments to Jesus! There are so many stores of life change and new birth pouring out on twitter and facebook; it's the most encouraging thing I've ever seen. The Lord is so good. He is changing this city from the inside out. I really can't express how blessed I feel to be a part of this movement, and I had such a great time leading worship this morning and last night.

There's so much going on, and I am exhausted. But I'm incredibly excited about all that's going on right now. I know that this weekend is going to mark a shift in my life, and I'm anxious to see where God is leading me next.

Giving What's Left

Everything so far has been wonderful. Beautiful.

Growing. Learning. Blossoming.

I'm not sure if I should believe that we are on a cliff or not.  Will there be an end to the knowing smiles, the inside jokes? The poking and prodding, sniffing around new, uncharted ground? Will we tire of this newness, these sensations we've never felt before. Pushing through unknown territory, grasping each other the whole way through.

It's been a beautiful time of discovery and new life. My heart has been broken and mended more times than I can count, and it's only been three months. I'm offered unconditional love and forgiveness on a daily basis, and it is overwhelming and I often can't respond. Breathless. Speechless, so often.

I am unworthy.
But I know I am ready to grow. I know I need to surrender the last bits and pieces of my heart to the One who will help me fully give it and use it to love others, to love my best friend the way he already loves me.

These steps are the hardest for me, but I am at a point where a choice has to be made. I can either draw into myself further and further until I am unreachable and cannot receive or share. Or I can stretch myself to a point dangerously close to breaking until my eyes and heart are truly open to love. Loving others. Loving myself. Loving God. I want more than anything to choose Love, even though the process is trying and promises no earthly reward. My young marriage has taught me that it is far greater to love--even in small steps, with outstretched, unsure hands--than to harbor hurt and anger. And God showed me long before that Love is the way, no matter the cost.

So I'm striving to give what's left behind my walls and defenses. Everything I've got. Everything I've ever had. All of it.

MIL!

Today is the day..

the day..

that my mother-in-law comes to visit.

dundundunnnnnn

But no really, I'm excited :]
I love my MIL! She's so sweet to Robert and me. She always goes out of her way to take great care of us and make sure we have everything we need. And I'm particularly excited for this visit because she's coming to hold down the fort while we go on a CRUISE!!

Have I mentioned that we're going on a cruise yet?

It's the biggest blessing. We're going with 6 of the greatest people we know for a week of unimaginable bliss and relaxation. I absolutely can't wait. So MIL is coming down to help run the shop while we're gone, which is a huge blessing. It's actually really just a big enough blessing that the shop is as stable as it is that we can just leave it for a week! It's not even a year old. I'm so thankful for how God has blessed it.

But with the MIL coming, that means we have a lot of cleaning to do. We're definitely not winning the award for cleanliness in our marriage :]