Officially a Pastor's Wife

Well, Mark had been preaching at a church in Weatherford for seven weeks when they decided it was time for the church to vote on whether or not he should be their pastor. On May 6, 2012 Mark was voted in as Central Baptist Church of Parker County. God in His infinite wisdom had the church vote the day after Mark finished his last paper for the semester. So now he is taking the summer off and just learning how to be a pastor. We were so amazed and shocked that this was the path that the Lord has brought down. We never imagined that after being in Texas for five months that the Lord would want us to pastor a church! We are excited and nervous and expectant of what the Lord will do. We pray that we will honor and glorify the Lord in everything that we do at CBC. There is more exciting news though!! We get to come HOME and VISIT in July. Not only do we get to come home and visit but Mark is going to be ordained while we are home so that all of our family and close friends can be there. So look out Georgia we will be home July 20-27!!! Mark will be ordained at Maysville Baptist on July 22nd at 3:00 in the afternoon. We are so thrilled we get to be home for this special service and time so that no one will miss out! We hope to see you all there!! I know I say this every time but thank you so much for your prayers. You will never know how much those prayers mean to us and how much we feel them. Without your prayers and support I am convinced that things would not have gone as smoothly as they have. More and more we are learning of the power in prayer. So though I say it every time I will continue to say Thank you! Thank you, thank you, thank you for all of your prayers, support, and love! Brandi

April Fun

Well there has been A LOT that has happened over the past month. Let's start with the fun things first. Since everyone in our building was here for Easter we did a "family" Easter dinner together which was so much fun. It was nice to have everyone together so we weren't all thinking about how we were missing out back home. The Thursday and Friday before Easter we got all the kids together and colored eggs and then did an Easter egg hunt also which was a lot of fun. Then the Monday after Easter my mom, sister and three nieces came to visit. It was my nieces Spring break at home and they decided to spend it with me. It was so good to see family and get to spend time with them. While they were here we went down to the Stockyards and saw them herd the long horns through the town. That was really neat to watch. Then we went to the zoo. It was so much fun! Fort Worth has a wonderful zoo and I highly recommend it to anyone to go! What a great reason to get to see us too!! ;) One of my new but very dear friends is pregnant so after Easter everything was about getting ready for her baby shower. It was so much fun and Amber got a lot of really great things. While all the craziness has been going on around here school is coming to an end for Mark. He actually has his last finals on Wednesday and then the semester is already over! It has flown by!! I am very proud of Mark and how well he has done in school this semester especially after not being in school for 12 years! The last big thing that has happened to us over the last six weeks is this. Our good friends and neighbors had started serving in a church in Weatherford, which is about 45-55 minutes from where we live. Well they were also looking for a Pastor and Youth minister. mark submitted his resume and was asked to come preach for them. Well six weeks later he has still been preaching there and this coming Sunday we will be brought before the church to be voted on as pastor!! Never in a million years did I think that after only being in Texas for a few months that we would be pastoring a church! We know that God has called us here and are very excited to be working with these wonderful people. So thank you for praying with us for us to find the place that God wants us. Boy did he ever surprise us! We are hoping to be able to come home this summer for a visit. We are still looking at dates and watching the gas prices and all of the fun stuff that goes along with making a trip! The one good thing is we won't have to pay for a hotel while there since our family is there and will be glad to house us! As we know more about if and when we are coming home then I will let you know. Thank you again for praying for us, we can feel them. Please continue to pray over us especially as we embark on this new journey and roll in church. We love you and miss you all!

A Picture is Worth 1,000 Words!

Here are some pictures from our life over the past month or so!
This one is from Noah's 5th Birthday!




Next is our first cookout with the people from our building! We have already had three or four cookouts. If you know us at all you know we love to cookout!!







And lastly is from our day at the Botanical Gardens and the butterfly exhibit!

Well it has been a month since I have written anything. In that month I turned 30 and Mark and I celebrated eight years of marriage. Life has been pretty normal around here. The last weekend in February Mark's mom and dad were able to come out and see us and spend some time with us. It was such a wonderful visit and so good to see someone from home.

Mark had his first spring break in twelve years this past week. It was a little weird!! But one day we were able to go to the Botanical gardens together as a family which was really fun. They had a butterfly exhibit going on and that was so neat to see all the butterflies flying around like crazy and have them land on you. The day we went was our anniversary so that evening one of our new friends kept the kids for us so that we could have a date night!

Mark and I have both said on numerous occasions that when we prayed for God to bring friends into our lives that would become our family. He has far exceeded any thought that we had as to who or what those people would be. On Saturday we did a cookout, Mark built him a new smoker so we did BBQ. Well once we were done eating the women all went inside to play Phase 10 and watch the kids, while the men stayed outside. The men sat outside praying and singing praise and worship music!! How awesome is that!! Also several of us ladies are going tho start the James bible study by Beth Moore. And these are just women in my building!! Like I said before God far exceeded our expectations!

Mark was given a unique opportunity. One of our new friends is the acting music minister at a church, that same church is looking for a pastor as well. Last week Mark was called and asked to preach for the pulpit search committee last night. Well they enjoyed his sermon so much that they have asked him to come back for the next two Sunday mornings to preach to the entire congregation! What an opportunity that God has given him and us! I keep promising pictures that I haven't posted yet. So the next couple of days I am gonna try and just put up some pictures. As always, we miss everyone and are so thankful that you are praying for us and keeping us in your thoughts! Love and miss everyone!

Girls, Girls, Girls

When we left Georgia not only did we leave family but some very wonderful friends. While I still talk to my friends back home, I am very blessed to say that God has put us in a wonderful building where there is several ladies that have become my friends. The weather has for the most part been fantastic everyday since we have been here, and if you know me or my kids we can't stand to be locked up inside. So very quickly we started going outside to play, well now while all the kids play us moms sit and fellowship. It is wonderful to be able to have women that I can talk with and bond with and we all are experiencing the same things. All of our husbands are in school and have to study and work and serve in church in some capacity, so it is wonderful to be able to connect. One really funny thing about some of us girls is all of our daughters have the same names. So I have Emileigh Elizabeth, one of the other daughters is Emma Leigh and then another daughter is Elisabeth! It can get very confusing!! I am truly blessed to say that I now have some wonderful friends in Georgia and Texas!

Another wonderful thing here at school- it feels like the whole family is in school, is there is a seminary wives group that meets once per month. I have only been once and the next meeting is next week but I am so excited to be a part of this already. It is a place that we as women can grow and fellowship. I actually am praying over getting more involved with Metochai- that's the name of the group.

Again we are still searching for the church God wants us at, I know that He will lead us to the right one. I get very discouraged about finding a church but then I remember we have only been here for a month and a half and sometimes it takes time to find a church. God will provide here just like He has in so many other ways. And this makes me excited for the day when I can say we found a church!! Thank you for continuing to pray with us and for us. Though we do pray for you regularly if ever you have a special request please let us know so that we can lift you up in prayer. We love you and miss you all!

Our Little Home

Well I promised pictures of our house. Well technically it is a town home! I only have a couple of the rooms but promise to get pictures of the other rooms very soon. So here is the living room:

Please excuse the mess in the living room!! Its small but we like it. Here is a picture of the kids room:

Emileigh was in her big girl bed for a little bit, but she decided it was more fun to play at bedtime than to go to bed. So for now we have put her in her pack-n-play.


We really enjoy living here and have already made some friends. It has been really nice weather here since we have been here which brings all the kids out to play so therefore it has brought the moms out to play too! I have made friends with most of the ladies in my building and we spend lots of time outside together! We are still looking for a church and are waiting for God to show us exactly where we belong. Please continue to pray that He will lead us right where we are supposed to be. It is a hard task, especially when there are 207 Baptist churches within 20 miles of where you live!! Thank you for your prayers. So for our next post I will put more pictures of our home and pictures from Noah's fifth birthday. I can't believe my baby bow is five!! Thanks again for prayers, and following along!!

Changes!

You know how when God tells you to do something and you decide to follow Him, you may still plan out how things are going to go. Well at least I do! So when we decided that God was calling us to Texas and that we were going to follow Him, we KNEW that I would be the one that has to be the primary provider and that life would change.

Well it did!! Mark got a job!! Praise the Lord he got the job!! We knew before coming out here that the Friday that we got here he would have an interview for part time work on campus. That day they offered him the job and for more money than most get paid. Most jobs on campus are for minimum wage, Mark is getting more- not much more but at least its more!!! Thank you Lord for providing a job that will allow Mark to go to school, spend time with our family, study, and actually work and earn a wage! He started working the same day he started classes.

I can be a slow learner. So God is showing me that just because you are following Me, doesn't mean I will go ahead and give you the full plan. As a matter of fact He is slowly revealing things to us about His plan. Where we had it all planned out how things would go once we got to Texas, He decided to build our faith even more. Which is very evident by the fact that right now Mark is the only one working! We feel for the time being at least, I am supposed to be home with the kids. Could this change? Of Course!!! This could change in a minutes time, but for now we will follow God through faith and I will stay at home.

We are still looking for a church home. This is such a daunting task. Church here is very different than back home. Or maybe we are just comparing everything to back home! Either way please continue to pray that we find a church. My soul longs to be in a church home and fellow-shipping regularly.

Classes have started! For the first time in eleven and a half years Mark is in school! He was scared and anxious and excited all at once. Well so far things are going great! He is still trying to adjust to going to class, going to work, and studying and how exactly to fit it all in and when. But other than that things are going wonderfully!

We want to say thank you again for all of your prayers and support. Thank you also for cards, texts, Facebook wall posts, and phone calls. Getting those help us remember that you are sending prayers our way and help us not get quite so homesick. We love you all and miss you dearly!

Travel and Set Up

Well I know it has been forever since I wrote- or at least it feels that way! We made it to Texas. We left Georgia on January 2nd around 7 a.m. My mom and dad were able to come with us which was such a blessing. As we drove we decided to go ahead and drive straight through until we got here. The kids did AWESOME!!! we couldn't have asked for them to travel any better. I was more worried about Emileigh traveling that far than I was Noah but she did so good. So the hardest part of the drive is the last three hours which are all driven in Texas. The rest of the drive seems pretty quick and painless, then you hit the Texas state line. Oh My Word!!! It takes forever to get from the state line to our house. At least that's the way it feels!!

So we were supposed to get all of our furniture on Tuesday, but that of course didn't goes as planned! We used a moving truck that we packed ourselves. Well actually, three guys from our church back home came and helped us pack it up and spent our last days in Commerce with us. They will never know how much it meant to us that they were willing to sacrifice their time to come and help us. Back to Texas, well the moving company then calls us on Tuesday saying it should be here Wednesday. Then Wednesday morning we get a call that it won't be here till maybe Thursday. Very frustrated we talked with the people found out it was in Dallas, and the quickly arranged to have it here in Fort Worth that day. So Wednesday afternoon we finally got all of our furniture. We then had to rent a moving truck here in Fort Worth, unload the big truck on to the little one and bring the stuff to the house!!

The unpacking then began!! We had some wonderful neighbors that once they saw us pull up in the moving truck came over and started helping us unpack the truck. SO about two hours later everything we owned had been unpacked and stacked in our house. The next two days consisted of us unpacking everything and finding a place to put it. I am very thankful that my mom and dad were here. My mom was a HUGE help in helping us get unpacked and organized.

I haven't been able to yet but I plan to take pictures of our little hose and let y'all see were we live! It is small but cozy and we love it! We have slowly been meeting all of neighbors. Everyone is so nice, encouraging and informative! It is so nice to have people that are in our exact same situation that understand exactly where we are coming from!

It has been amazing to see how God has been providing. We have been overwhelmed and humbled from those who have sent us notes, donations and the support that we have received. Never in our lives did we ever expect to get the kind of outpouring of love that we have received. We are so grateful for all your prayers and love. We could not be doing this with out them!

Reflections

As 2011 ended I relected on the year, just the same as everyone else. This has been a year of ups and downs like many people. We had the joy of watching Emileigh grow adn develop. as well as enduring the hardships of sickness, thank the Lord for tubes!! We saw Noah start Pre-K which was scary and exciting all at the same time.

This weekend has been full of so many emotions. We have had many tears, frustrations, and joys. While celebrating the new year and new beginning that we get to have, we have also endured the leaving behind of friends, family, and loved ones. Saying good-bye is never easy, or fun. So as we leave Georgia for a new adventure in Texas we choose to not say goodbye to anyone but see ya later! This is my last post from Georgia. Tomorrow we leave for Texas and a whole new start. Once we are there and settled I will take some pictures of our new "house" and update on the trip and how things are going. I know I say it everytime, but thank you for your prayers and support. We love you and will see you later!!

Brandi