I love my wife so much, and feel so honored to be able to be on this journey of life with her. It is so amazing to be able to do things like teach a journey class bible study with her in our church! She inspires me with her steadfast dedication to me and the kids – even during difficult days (and nights!), and most importantly – to the vision and grace of Christ. She will never get the appreciation she deserves this side of heaven for how well she loves our family (with such sacrifice!), and the light that she brings to those whose life intersects hers – even if for just a moment.
I posted this video not because I am comparing her to Ruth Graham, but because I don’t want to wait to tell my wife how much she means to me – and how much light and life she brings to me daily!
So, this video has been floating around facebook quite a bit, and so you might have already seen it, but I thought it was very worthwhile, and I hope that you get something out of it today. Today is our 9th anniversary!!! I am so thankful that God let me take care of Ang until “death do us part.” On this very special day in our lives, we want to make sure that everyone knows that we have a long way to go before becoming God’s perfect masterpieces – both together and individually – and this video relates to that.
You know, at the end of my wedding vows that I wrote to Ang, I said, “Angela Marie, you are a masterpiece, and together, we will bring peace to the Master.” – We are pushing forward with that mission. . . . it will not be easy. . . but it WILL BE WORTH IT! - we can’t wait for the adventure that God has in store for us in the next 9 years!!!!
Here are a few things that I really love about this video:
1. chiseling is painful
2. “most of My children just want to talk”
3. “Can you just chisel where I want?” – “that is control”
4. Who do you see in the mirror in the morning?, at noon?, at night?
5. “Can we take a time-out?” . . . . “control or chisel?”
6. “you go to these empty wells whenever you are _______, but they do not work!”
7. “I made you good”
8. My favorite . . .at 4:50
9. “you have listened to so many voices for too long that are not of ME.”
10. “It’s more than a name. . . . it’s a name above all names.”
11. “you bought into the lie thinking that everything was going to be easy when you said yes to ME. . . that’s not how it works”
I know that I will not ever fully understand how God can love us all so much, even though we mess up over and over again. . . . but I accept that grace – and I am determined to live in that renewal today.
Wow- it has been a long month and a half, but I am ready to get back into the swing of blogging again 
. This semester ends a period of time that might have been one of the most refining times of my life thus far. . . but, we’ll get to that some other time
I thought about catching you up on everything, but that would take a book, not a blog – plus, I know some of you have been following me on twitter – and greenlockers on twitter too – so, I am just going to start with a top 10 list of things that I have learned in the last month and half:
10. Lasik is a modern day miracle – seriously going from 20/600 to 20/15 over the course of 5 minutes. . . . . . . . come’on that’s just crazy!
9. God’s adventure (i.e., greenLockers) is wilder than I ever could have imagined
8. Not much compares to seeing a “smaller than average” middle school student encouraging his “much larger” peers to not waste schools supplies, but to donate them instead, and he did not know that I was watching
7. I don’t hear anyone talking about parenting in a positive light – about how wonderful it is to be a Dad or a Mom – I plan on changing that a little bit (get ready for . . . . “parenting tips” – coming soon to this blog ). I figured my wife is currently teaching college course called “Parenting” and I teach Child Growth and Development as well as Adolescent Growth and Development – though we ourselves still have a lot to learn, and are NOT perfect by any means!!!! – we also have a lot to share
6. This is one of my favorite pictures of Kya so far – love his Spirit
5. My wife does not get even a 10th of the credit that she deserves. . . – Here is Dane smiling at her during bath time – yeah, he loves her!
4. I am excited about the God’s plan to use the Church (with all of her quirks) to move His kingdom forward. Here are some middle schoolers from GSM cleaning out 800 bins. . . in the rain!
3. The heart of Bethel students continues to impress me – countless students gave up time and effort to FREELY give up parts of their summer for greenLockers
2. Absolutely NOTHING compares to “intentional use of time” and “open communication” when a family is running fully on mission (i.e., the busy, stressful times of the “six days” before the “7th day” rest period)
1. Blogging and many other “good” things/opportunities are important to me for many reasons, but my family is more important – specifically, being the best husband and father that I can be – - WILL ALWAYS take precedent over me saving my public face. – here is a picture after Dane’s dedication at church.
So two days ago – here was Ang and Dane:
Wow what a day yesterday. . . and now we have a “Square Day” (i.e., because he was born on 3/3/09) baby. Ang is so amazing, and I could not be more proud of her, she really had to fight for this one! Here is the room setup at St. Joe hospital:
We got into the hospital to start the induction at 6am. Once again there were some issues in getting Ang’s IV in – only 4 tries this time (thank goodness for the IV therapy people!). Instead of using Pitocin, which is what is typically used for inductions – they have always just used a “cytotek” pill with us. Sure enough – once again, Ang started to have good contractions. By noon, however, she was only dilated 3cm, and so we wait. . . .
Side Note: – People about ready to give birth should not be this cute!!!
By 4pm she was dilated 5cm – even though she was having full-blown contractions, and was in a lot of pain – so we went ahead with the epidural – to try and relax her body a little. At this point, they realized that her previous IV was no longer functional, and so we had to wait for what ended up being around an hour until the IV therapist could make it back. . . . then the 45 minutes it takes to get a bag of fluid into her system, and then the 15 minutes for the actual epidural procedure so, the two hours between 4-6 pm were definitely the roughest (oh, and she was throwing up too during this time!!!) – so thank you so much for all of you praying for us!! The anesthesiologist actually stuck around and personally adjusted the epidural every 10 minutes or so. The nurses were great, especially Rachel during the day – Bethel nursing graduate, GCC member with a passion for doing mission work in India – coincidence. . . I don’t think so! – we had some great discussions.
Soon, after this little baby Dane Justice was brought into the world, and it was wonderful!!! – this picture was minutes after a 13 hour+ day – 9:45pm birth.
Here is the resident who helped (far left) and our main Doctor – Dr. Cavallo – who was amazing! – he has delivered 3 out of our 4 children – we love this guy!
6 pounds 14 ounces, 20 inches long. . . and a lot of hair!
A little tired after his first breastfeeding – he ate great – no problems at all!!!!
Yes!!. . . I am a proud Dad – it is sooooo great to finally meet Dane - I wonder what amazing plans God has in store for this little guy!
Here is a picture of Dane that looks a lot like Elliana when she was born – one of my favorite pictures so far – gotta love the hair! This was taken soon after I gave him his first bath (I had never done that before for our other kids – that was a great experience!)
Visitation at St. Joseph Hosipital is from 11am until 8pm – people are welcome!! Room 702 – thanks again everyone!! and Praise God!!!
So, many of you know that 3 times a year Ang and I put on a workshop at our church called “Beyond I Do.” Typically, this all day workshop (or sometimes spread out between 2 weekends) is for engaged couples within the church. Recently, however, we have had more married couples coming for a kind of “refresher” on some things.
We cover a lot of material, which we break into 4 broad categories of Spirituality, Communication, Conflict Resolution, and Sexual intimacy. Here is a picture of most of the 21 couples that attended this past Saturday (Feb. 28th).
- We had a great time, and I always love working together with my wife to help influence people’s lives!!
Here are my top 10 highlights from the day:
10. A comment from one of the couples “to defray desires becoming expectations, simply imagine what it would be like if you were still alone.”
9. Giving people some insight on how the enemy is going to try and attack your marriage
8. Outlining in detail the “good” fight – conflict is inevitable, and the proper handling of it can make you stronger than ever!
7. Talking about the idea that if the point of communication, especially disagreements, is to truly understand each other. . . .then. . . “winning” – really has very little to do with it!
6. Seeing people “get it” when we talk about some of the gender differences that can lead to all kinds of communicative difficulties.
5. Helping couples begin to pray together, outloud, – some for the first time – ever!
4. Having one of the guys comment in front of everyone – “WOW, I am getting a lot more out of this than I ever expected!”
3. Referring to our very frank Q & A session regarding Sexual intimacy – yes, we talked about _________.
2. Seeing several couples crying during one of the prayer times where we have them look at each other while Ang prays for each one of them – she does an amazing job with this!
1. My amazing wife pausing throughout the day to breath through contractions and back spasms – I am so proud of how tough she is for the Kingdom! One time I even reassured everyone “don’t worry, she’s a professional. . . “
There are so many things to say about how appreciative I am for my wife, and all that she does for me. BUT, it doesn’t stop there – with her being at home with the kids, she is also the foundational element of how are family is being raised. . . . . . and I couldn’t be more proud!
I ran across this video that is a tribute to Ruth Graham (Billy Graham’s wife), but I wanted to show it as a tribute to all of the women, wives, and mothers out there that CHOOSE to do amazing things in their relationships and circles of influence. Those who CHOOSE to put others’ first, love well, have patience, model integrity, persevere through double standards, forgive your loved ones, and give – though you are rarely thanked for it. . .
Though I shouldn’t speak for all the men. . . I will anyways, and say – THANK YOU!!!!
Ang and the kids
I am amazed by my wife. . . some people who know me think, . . . Ted is alright. . . he has at least some skill at a few things, but. . . . I tell them. . . have you met my wife??!! – once they have . . . well. . . . they end up joining her fan club
Seriously. . . I love viewing the world through her heart and mind. . . . she just has a different perspective on many things that fascinates and inspires me! . . . . so, I confiscated her Bible this morning when leaving for work, and I am going to share some of the things that I have found in the “notes” pages . . . . many of these things have come from church services, books, speakers, etc… but there were no names listed. . . . . nevertheless. . . . enjoy what she has highlighted!
- Our goal is NOT to look strong or feel strong – but to become strong
- Satan will find us blocking his way at every point. Until God commands otherwise, I SHALL NOT MOVE!
- How are you measuring that you matter?
- There is no corner of human experience so hidden or so hopeless, that grace can’t find it. . . . . Love changes everything!
- Success has ruined far more people than failure has
- Goodness is not just the absence of badness
- Go after a dream that is destined to fail without divine intervention
- Holiness is not a list of things that I won’t do. . . . but a list of the desires of my heart
- The purpose of influence is to speak up for those that have none
- Crises don’t create heroes. . . they reveal them
- Sometimes we think we’re waiting for God when God is really waiting for us
- Courage is the absence of self
- To live the life God has for you . . . you must be willing to risk
- It’s not about men or women. . . it’s about God
- Change happens when the fear of where you’re going is less than the pain of where you are at.
- I commit that. . . no one is going to hurt me so badly that I’m going to hurt back.
Because:
pursuing her throughout the adventure – is my favorite thing to do
there are not enough words to describe her
celebration is Godly
I am soo honored and grateful
appreciation doesn’t even come close to matching her sacrifice
this is our song
she has helped me discover me
words seem pathetic next to what I feel
she gives her whole heart to our children
she makes me smile. . . . she makes me laugh
Elliana, Kya, and Dakota simply adore her with all they are
she loves Jesus. . . . . and she breaks for the broken
I can . . . . AND. . . I want to
next to Jesus – she is my definition of Love
This post was suggested and dedicated to my wife, the mother of my children. . . . and too often – the invisible woman. . . I am so proud of her, and I am so honored to be her husband!
Go and build!
This is my beautiful wife, yes I know. . . I married wwwaaayyy up. I don’t think I could be any more proud of her right now. I’m sure as the blogs come you will learn more of her amazing story, but today, I am just smiling at the thought that she is successfully making the transition from being a very gifted licensed mental health counselor for 6 years, full-time, to being home full-time with the kids (4, 3, and 1),
grateful
while also wanting to vomit all day long (1st trimester of pregnancy. . . always fun!); AND she does this without complaining. . . are you kidding me! Thank you God for giving me such a godly woman to journey through life with.