Overdue Update

Brothers, Sisters, Family and Friends,

I first must apologize for the two month void I have allowed to happen in your knowledge of what God has been doing in our lives. Please forgive me...I will try to do better.

God has been doing great things here in Clarksville. We are surrounded by His grace and I can not thank Him enough for all that He is giving us. We began moving in our new home on 27 June. The road trip was long, but with the help of Nathan and my mom, we were able to drive straight through. Of course, Caleb was great during the road trip. He seems to settle in quite well on road trips. That is a blessing I hope continues for the next 17 years or so. We are still "moving in" and will probably be doing so for another couple of months. We have painted five rooms. We will eventually paint the two bathrooms and the hallway, but we are taking a break for now. We had a privacy fence put around the backyard so now the dogs have more space to run than they have ever known in their two and a half years. They are quite happy with their yard and it makes us happy to watch them enjoy it. We can not wait until Caleb is old enough to run and play with them. We still can not fit any cars in the garage due to all the boxes, but we hope to move most of the stuff into the attic in the next week or so.

I started my new job at USIS 10 July. I am one of those Special Investigators who track you down when you need a security clearance or a PR. One of the good things about it is that I make my own schedule and I work out of my home office. I will be driving a lot during the days I must venture out, but I do not mind driving. I have a company car with full expenses paid, insurance, gas, maintenance, repairs, etc. I am also allowed to use it for personal use as much as I want so that is great! God has truly blessed us with this job. I am not thrilled about the actual job and I do not see myself doing this for an extended amount of time. However, it pays the bills and provides insurance and my start date worked out perfectly with my ETS. I did not have a day that I was not paid. I ask for prayer in regards to our future direction. I am seeking God's face in what I do for a living. I am feeling a tug in a direction that is not so comfortable. I do not want to say more at this point. I still need to pray and think on this more. But I would greatly appreciate your prayers that God will open my heart AND eyes to see and accept the direction He wants us to go. If He puts something on your heart, please share it with me. He often speaks to us through those with whom He surrounds us.

Jade is doing well. Please pray for her back. It has not been right since the pregnancy and the Army kept dancing around the issue so now she is stuck dealing with VA on the matter. Please pray that God would guide and direct her through this process. That He would surround her with comfort and grace as He works this out for her according to His will. She loves being a full time Mommy again. And Caleb really flourishes in her presence. He seems to grow faster and faster each day. He is almost crawling now. He is so very close. I suspect he will be doing so within the next month. He is so very attentive and examines everything very closely. Nothing gets by him. If there is one new thing in the room, he will immediately notice it. Today, Jade was feeding him carrots. This is the second round of carrot attempts. The first round was a couple of weeks ago and he does not like them. He opened his mouth, and then looked at the spoon, he noticed that this was not the yellow squash color nor the green broccoli color..it was the evil carrot color...ORANGE. He closed his mouth and gave Mommy a look like, "where do you think you are putting that." He is too cute.

There are GREAT things afoot at our church, but that is another letter all together. I will get to that in the next week or so. Just be encouraged that God has already shown us many reasons why He brought us here. We are excited for the coming months as we begin to jump into His purposes here in Clarksville. Until next time...God bless you all and we love you!