Liz and Charlie

this would be part 2 of my "why i love my family series." this week, liz and charlie. liz is david's sister (yes, we both have liz's...it can get confusing) and her husband, charlie.

liz and charlie started dating around the same time david and i did. i haven't really known liz without charlie. liz is hilarious. she is a nurse in atlanta. from what i have gathered and been told in stories of their childhood, david and liz hated each other for the better parts of their childhood. it's understandable. david can be what is sometimes referred to as a pest or a bully. when they moved from texas to panama city (and david had grown up a bit) they got to be actual friends. and so they still are. 

i got to spend a good bit of time with just liz and charlie in michigan this past week after david had to fly back to atlanta. it was so much fun. charlie and i have a bond of being "the outlaws." we stick up for each other and bond together when the rest of the family is doing something we don't understand. 

we are very excited about living in the same city with them and getting to hang out for more than 4 hours at a time. i'm also very excited for david that he will finally get to live next to family...something he hasn't had in 6 years. we love them. 

Michigan...Flipside

well, i have finally returned from my pilgrimage to the swedish holy land and now is the time for the revised top 8, bottom 4 of the trip. (pictures are to come, i need to get the sand out of our camera)

top 8:
1. sunsets on the beach/at dinner
2. getting ice cream at the well and walking home to counteract the effects
3. card games at night and the inevitable overreaction of someone during a game of "oh heck"
4. dinner on the lawn at chickaming (the country club) while the sunset behind the willows (it could have been out of a movie)
5. my first bethany beach church service (can't even really explain it)
6. getting to meet david's grandpa through a booklet of questions he answered a few years ago
7. not watching tv or talking on the phone or getting online for an entire week
8. no chore day this year!

bottom 4:
1. david leaving on tuesday
2. the day i went to read on the hammock, there were 2 huge spiders hanging out there
3. 3 days of rain
4. leaving

In the Land of Vacation

so one of the joys of vacation is no communication with the outside world. i haven't watched tv in 4 days and i only glance at my phone a few times a day. part of staying in this weird swedish community is no internet (although the well is now a wi-fi hotspot). anyway, my point is I won't be posting again this week but please please please don't give up on me! I'll be back saturday.

Hope

for inquiring minds...

inked april 6, 2008

by ms. deborah

the journey to this tattoo started back in swaziland last summer and the overwhelming odds the swazi people are up against. in a country of a million, they have close to 100,000 orphaned by AIDS. they have the highest infection rate in the world. you can hear people saying its hopeless. if something doesn't change, the country will literally die out. 

and then you meet them. you see Jesus in their faces and you remember that God is hope (romans 15:13). that as long as He exists so does hope. and its not a lost cause. not yet. 

Michigan 2008

i am so excited because saturday david and i leave for michigan. we are going to drive from atlanta with his sister, liz and her husband, charlie. michigan is so fun. this will only be my 4th year to go but already it has become one of my favorite things to do...definitely my favorite part of the summer.

we go to this place called bethany beach on lake michigan. its a swedish community that 2 years ago celebrated its 100 year anniversary. the place is overrun with carlsons, nybergs, andersons and ytterbergs (among others). the kids dye their hair black to be rebellious. its like no other place i've ever been to. and i love it.

so in honor of bethany beach, i present my anticipated top 8, bottom 4 for this week:

top 8:

1. 70 degree weather and breezy while laying on the beach

2. you feel like your getting in the ocean but then when you get a mouthful of water, its not salty

3. the second you step off the beach, it feels like your in the mountains

4. the best food every day for a week

5. the well - the place to go to get ice cream

6. swedish bakery treats, coffee cake being the best

7. the hammock

8. playing cards at night

bottom 4:

1. i got a tattoo a while back and only liz and charlie have seen it (the rest of the fam - no too pro tattoo)

2. having to sleep on a day bed with my husband on the trundle

3. chore day

4. 12 hours of driving

(maybe i'll do a revised top 8/bottom 4 once we return...)

Elizabeth and JD

liz is 14 months older than me (i was not exactly planned). since the day i came home from the hospital liz called me "my baby" and that pretty much sums up the last 24 years of our lives. i think liz has always felt an innate responsibility to take care of me. i probably wouldn't have gotten into college had it not been for her reminding me to get in my applications. most of who i am and what i have done (at least up until college) is a direct result of me competing with her. we held the exact same offices for school committees. she was captain of the soccer team, i was captain of the soccer team. she was top 4 in her class, i was top 4 in my class, etc. etc. but we were always best friends. it was more of an unspoken competition, or really just me trying to be like her. but as our friend, mel, says "i have never met two sisters more alike, but more different at the same time."

i have been extremely blessed with an amazing family. i know that is said a lot, but a lot of different things have led me to realize just how thankful i should be. and not just for my immediate family. i have the greatest family of in-laws ever. i don't think anyone loves their in-laws as much as i do...anyway, that being said. i have decided to dedicate one post a week to a family member (which will, probably include their spouse).

so, this week, i introduce you to my beautiful sister, elizabeth and her husband, jd. meet the wilson family.

i think because we are so close in age, we have some kind of twin thing going on. if you separated us for years, we would probably wind up doing a lot of the same things without realizing it. we are more often than not, saying (or thinking the same things). we sound alike. but there are a lot of differences. and here are some of those:
1. liz is classy. well put together. i'm not. i don't know how you would classify my style, but its not classy.
2. liz is short, i'm tall (because of this, most people think i'm older)
3. liz is a momma's girl, i'm a daddy's girl (and most people would say we are exactly like our mom and dad, respectively)
4. liz is intentional, i'm a little more flighty
5. liz was in design, i was in history (the artsy vs. the dork)
6. liz is more reserved, i'm a little more hyper and loud

there are a lot more, but this is already going to be long. anyway, liz is amazing. after a wedding last week, my friend malorie said "bek, your sister is probably one of the nicest people i've ever met. when she talks to you, she actually listens." that pretty much sums her up. she doesn't pretend to be something that she's not. a lot of time, in my pride, i don't want to admit that i don't know something. she always wants to learn and asks a million questions. i'm so happy she was able to find an amazing guy like jd, which brings me too....(see how i did that?)

jd...he's awesome. he's hilarious. some think he's a mexican. he is such a great leader for liz. when he is convicted about something, he really feels it. like his recent decision to start driving the speed limit. it wasn't something he just did, he really feels the weight of wanting to live to glorify God in all areas of life. together, they do more to bring glory to the kingdom than they could apart, and they realize that and want to bring that to light in everything. basically, i love them...a lot. they always give me a place to stay when i get bored at my parents' house. they give and they give and they give and they never ask anything in return. they are probably two of the most selfless people i have ever met. so, yeah, they're pretty cool.

Affected

i have been trying to catch up on a beth moore bible study that i started last fall and then started working a new job and couldn't go anymore. so i have taken it on by myself. so today as i was sitting at cambridge while there was an open house at my own home, God chose to reveal this to me about his character...

He is a God who is  affected by His people. 

when He chose to love us, He chose pain in knowing that we would inevitably let Him down. in exodus 33 God is so angry that the israelites worshiped a golden calf that He tells them He will send them into the promised land without Him. He would still give them everything else and they would even be given an angel to go with them, but they would not have His presence. 

but moses, fearing the loss of God's presence begs Him. moses is desperate and says: 

"...You have said, 'I know you by name and you have also found favor in my sight.' now therefore, if i have found favor in your sight, please show me now your ways, that i may know you in order to find favor in your sight. ...if your presence will not go with me, do not bring us up from here. for how shall it be known that i have found favor in your sight, i and your people? is it not in your going with us, so that we are distinct, i and your people, from every other people on the face of the earth?"    --exodus 33:12-13, 15-16

and what does the Lord say?

"this very thing that you have spoken i will do, for you have found favor in my sight and i know you by name."   --exodus 33:17

but God, not doing anything that isn't first and foremost for His glory, loves us despite ourselves. He is personal, intentional and close...not because we've done something to deserve it...not because there is something awesome about us that God just can't get enough of (I mean, He just keeps getting manipulated into loving us after it all!)

absolutely not! He is affected because that's what makes Him God. He is loving and personal because an all-omniscient God "shouldn't" care about creation. but He created us to  care about us. because that's what gets Him the glory.

photo credit

When it Rains, it Pours

right now i feel like i'm living in that episode of "the o.c." when it was like the one rainy day in california and everything else was falling apart too. the weather this week has been less that great. i like rain, though. it cools things off. we need the rain. but right now i feel like it is an outward expression of the state of life we are in.

as of last monday, my husband moved to atlanta to start his new job at matchstic. he loves it and it is amazing. but he's not here. or i'm not there. whichever way you want to look at it. we have been struggling because we were both unemployed for about a month before he got this job, and thankfully we were able to make ends meet. but i can't leave auburn until our house sells. 

(this blog was briefly interrupted by the sound of a key in the door which caused me to throw aside my computer and attack my husband as he walked in the door - he's home for the weekend!)

but anywho...so we are trying to sell the house right now, which is looking better (after a couple of weeks of absolutely no one wanting to see it). and then i dropped my phone in the toilet, which i know isn't the end of the world, but as i mentioned in my previous post on the subject it is just a senseless waste of money). and then this morning, i am woken up by a call from david, and he doesn't even say hi, he just says "so there was a really bad storm last night and i woke up and a huge tree limb fell on the honda and cracked the windshield and knocked off the side view mirror." if you know david, you would probably have my same reaction...none, because you would expect him to say, "just kidding," and go on with what he was going to say. so i said, "you're kidding." and he said "no, i'm serious"...."you're kidding."...."no, i'm serious." so by this point i'm starting to get the picture that he is actually serious. so that's another thing that we are dealing with right now. and it's like at any point we could handle these situations fine, but because of the circumstances, i am starting to get a little worn down. 

the past few weeks have been wrought with emotional breakdowns, mostly because i miss my husband. i can't even imagine how people deal with husbands who are overseas or traveling constantly. i'm usually one of those people who is like "give me my space!" but i think its because for the longest time we worked together and came home together and i needed my time. but i didn't know how much i needed him til he was gone.

but then i was going through some things i cleaned out of our car and i found this note my friend, courtney, had written for me a few years ago on the back of a bank envelope and is so perfect how the Lord gives encouragement when needed (why of all days, would i choose to go through the stack of trash out of the tahoe?):

"dear brothers and sisters, whenever trouble comes your way, let it be an opportunity for JOY. for when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. so let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be strong in character and ready for anything. if you need wisdom, if you want to know what God wants you to do - ASK HIM, He will gladly tell you. He will not resent your asking."       james 1:2-5

so thank you, courtney, for your note that means so much years later. and thank you, Jesus for bringing this to me amidst my business.

side note: as i was writing this, i was watching glenn beck (what else) and his interview with bob barr...i think i am voting libertarian this year...)

Caroline

this is my niece. she is precious and getting to be so fun to play with.