Jeremiah 29:11

For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. -Jeremiah 29:11

I have been seeing this verse absolutely everywhere. At a time where we are unsure of our future, it is very encouraging. A few times that I've seen it in our lives were first, my bible study leader had us read it a few weeks ago. Second, when Cathy sent my birthday card with that verse written in it. Mat and I play frisbee golf once a week and I looked over and saw it written accross the back of a car. Then, yesterday, it was a huge part of my bible study homework! Yay God! I love it when he communicates super clearly :)

A quick note about Abby:

She discovered her belly button on Monday. Her favorite game is still peek-a-boo. Abby tried to eat poop at the park, but Mat, being the amazing dad that he is, rushed to her side and popped that poopey right out of her mouth. She is climbing all over EVERYTHING! I was talking with a youth and turned away from her for a few seconds and when I looked back she was halfway up a flight of stairs. Other times it's been on a box, in the dishwasher, on the cat post. She sure is fun!

Week 2 of Prayer and Fasting

Our LIFE group is still fasting and praying for us, because we are still waiting for a job! God has been good this week, no job yet, but good none the less.

Day 1: Mat decided he was going to go to grad. school :)

Day 2: A friend of Joy's told her about a friend of a friend who has a job opening delivering medical supplies.

Day 3: Mat got in touch with the person who has the job opening.

Day 4: Mat tried to figure out how to pick up the application for the job (it's happening on Tues.).

Day 5: A day of rest.

Day 6: Mat finished filling out the FAFSA for school.

Day 7: We celebrated Mother's Day, Yay!

Abby Update

This morning Abby and I were in her room and Garfield came flouncing in and I said, "Here comes the kitty." Abby then tried to say kitty, but it just came out as "key." So cute! I love the baby babble. She is beginning to try and say a few words. She has "mama" and "dada" down, and is working on "Bumper" (my parents dog) pronounced "Bumpa," "Baby" = "bebe" and hi. We think she calls herself baby, which we often refer to her as, and Abby also sounds like baby. I know, it's confusing, but it's fun :) She also says hi, but I'm not sure she knows what it means.

Recently Abby has also learned to clap and kiss with her mouth open. We ask for a kiss and make a kissy sound and she give us a big, opened mouth, wet one, yummy! Today she also started playing peek-a-boo by herself. She would hold whatever was in her hand over her face and wait or not, for us to say, "where's Abby?" Then the idea is that she'd pull it off and we'd say, "boo." But sometimes she just gets too excited and does the whole process before we get any words out. One last thing she is learning is how to share. Mat said, "we didn't even have to teach her!" She shares her pacifier, sippy cups, gooey cookies, and more (you're jealous, I know). Next time you see her, I'll be sure and save some cookie for you.

Four more teeth are very rudely making themselves at home in Abby gums. They are all on top and only one has poked through so far. I'm checking her mouth every morning, but all I keep seeing are swollen gums with the outline of teeth on them. Hurry it up teeth!

We went to the park yesterday, as we do every Sunday afternoon, and most of the time we were on the grass, Abby was bear crawling around. We saw a Dr. who attends our church and he was watching Abby crawl around and pull herself up on the stroller, and he thought she might be walking in a month. Yay, I'm excited! People keep saying that she'll get into more things, but I really don't see how that's possible, I'll let you know when she starts though. I have been wrong about various other major events in my life before, such as thinking being married or having a child wouldn't be as much work as they actually are.

Review of Week One

Members of our life group have now been fasting and praying for God to provide Mat with a job for one whole week! Thank you so much :)

Day 1: Mat was able to get an incredible amount of applying done (7 applicaitons), and we found out that our rent will be lowered.

Day 2: Nothing new.

Day 3: Mat received a phone call from the Cal Baptist soccer coach, giving him advice on starting his collegiate soccer coaching career.

Day 4: Mat talked to a lady from William Jessup University about job openings, he called her, but it still counts as something!

Day 5: Joy received an email from on online teaching position she applied for in January. They are going to contact her in 4-6 weeks.

Day 6: Our day of rest, ahhhh.

Day 7: We received a check from a member of our church to help support our family until Mat finds a job.

Thanks for your prayers! God has been and is good to us :)

Why Life with Abby is so humorous

1. It's not every day I get to tell another person to get her mouth off of the garbage can, only every other day.

2. Mat talks to Abby the same way as he talks to the dog...no, sit, stay.

3. When Abby finishes her meal, she gets a whole second one with the contents of her bib.

4. We get to talk about poop.

5. We are raising an expert in escaping naked from stinky situations.

Life Group

I'm convinced that we probably have the best LIFE Group in the whole world. We've been sharing some of our job concerns with the group and, of course, they've been praying for us since we found out about Mat losing his job. We meet on Monday nights, and last week, the idea of fasting and praying for us was brought up as something to do until Mat finds or is offered a job. We thought this sounded great, but didn't seem to really go anywhere until we received an e-mail mid-week asking our group members about it. We didn't realize it until Monday night, but the time of fasting and prayer began Monday morning and we had several good things happen.

The first took place when we went into our rental office to give our 30 day notice. We have a new manager now, and we haven't been very impressed by him, but then again, it seems like we're always finding little things to complain about...another thing I need to give over to God (Thank you Jesus that I am saved by grace and not by works). Anyway, he asked us what was going on, found out Mat is a pastor and actually lowered our rent for the next two months instead of raising it :) Whoopie! Yay God! When he was working in his office, the assistant said to us, "He never does this, it must be because of God."

We didn't even realize the second had happened until we were at LIFE group. Mat was able to apply for between seven and eight jobs in one day. I thought, "wowzers, that's a lot" and he made up some excuse about being able to use the same resume and cover letter for them all. Needless to say, this is the first time he has come close to being able to apply for this many in one day. Yay God again!

Even though we've had all this amazing stuff occuring around us, he is still without work, and I feel like we're being attacked. Great things happen yesterday, but not without much conflict within our home :( At least we realize this now, ah the beauty of hindsight. Please continue to pray for us!

May

Please join us in praying that Mat finds or is offered a Job in May. Our rent is going to skyrocket in June, so we will be giving our notice on May 1st, that we will be moving out. This means the packing must begin...ugh! Moving again, for the 4th time since we've been married.

You may have noticed that we've changed the blog up a little. The links to the left are some things that are important to us in our lives, like church, Elody's photography business, and the Eden Projects. Check em' out and we'll add more periodically.

Abby is sleeping, something that she's been very good at lately by the way. Yay! I like getting sleep. Mat is trying to shove donuts and cupcakes down my throat! Tell him to stop! I don't think he understands that I'm trying to lose the rest of the baby weight. The cats are fighting in the hall and Squirt is begging Mat for some of his cupcake. Mat made the cupcakes for me for my birthday, how nice of him. Funfetti...mmmm...my favorite :)