God has a sense of humor and a perfect plan.......

Since Jen and I have gotten married, one of the things that I am daily learning is how to be patient during all circumstances, even the difficult ones. Just a few days before Jen and I left for our trip to San Antonio, I prayed a couple prayers for Jen and I and our marriage. With one prayer, i prayed that God would work His power in us so that we could be more patient with each other and with our circumstances. In addition, I prayed for Him to renew in me a fresh desire to connect with Him, through the Word, through prayer and just in my life. Never would I have thought that God would use a 5 hour airline delay, a rude couple at the airport and two books that I didn't even anticipate getting to read on our trip to San Antonio. Nevertheless, God is supremely in control and I'm not, so, I learned this past 5 day stretch that God's humor is much better than mine, and He always has the perfect plan.


This past Saturday if you haven't heard, turned into a nightmare of a travel day. Jen and I were slated to fly out of Norfolk to Dallas Fort Worth at 6am, then connect to San Antonio and land around 10:30am San Antonio time(1 hour behind us in Virginia.) We arrived at the airport with high hopes and we promptly made our way through check in, customs and security, and still had close to an hour to spare before departure. We boarded our plan as planned, and just as we are getting ready to back out of the terminal, our Captain comes over the radio to tell us there is ice on the wings, and they have to get a de icer truck over to take care of it. Nothing to worry about says the captain, we'll be gone in 15 minutes. As we saw the de icer truck pull up with a gentlemen inside one of those boxes that phone companies use when they are working on phone lines, we all of sudden heard and felt a loud THUD, and then two minutes later, here's the captain, "Uhhhh, apparently we've had some technical issues with the de icer, we gotta get a mechanic to check it out." Long story short, due to operator error, a part of our tail wing was damaged and photos had to be taken and emailed to American Airlines in Tulsa, Oklahoma to determine if the plane was worthy to fly. By the time we took off from Norfolk around 11am, we had gotten a free breakfast, been taken off the plane, and had witnessed a rather odd couple who seemed to be gunning for the rudest airline passengers known to man.


I say all that to tell you this...don't be surpised when God uses random situations to teach you about patience and understanding. I had brought two books with me to read, just some regular stuff, not anticipating I was gonna be able to finish them by delays end, but as luck would have it, I finished them, and knowing that we had a solid layover in St Louis coming back from Texas, as well as some extra time since we were on vaction, I ended up getting two books that were on my wish list for Christmas. One is called the Power of a Praying Husband, and the other is a new book by Gary Chapman called The Five Love Languages of Apology. By the end of the trip, I am halfway done with the Five Love Languages of Apology and I had made some good progress in the Power of a Praying Husband. Want to know the best part ?? With the extra time that we had, Jen and I were able to have several conversations about our marriage that really helped us grow in some areas that we have been needing to for awhile. Are we a perfect couple now who gets everything right and is patient and understanding all the time ?? No way is what I say, but if there's one thing I learned it's this, never doubt that God can use the most random, funniest or weirdest situations to help fulfill your prayers. If you're ever doubting that God's power can't help you with a particular struggle or area of your life, I want to say to you that I am living proof that God can do whatever He wants, whenever He wants and it's always what's best for us.


For now, I'm gonna keep reading and keep searching for the power of God to do His thing in my life, in my marriage and in the lives of those I come in contact with. It's a fun ride and I'm enjoying seeing Him more and more each day.

Please pray for my Grandpa John

Several weeks ago Jen and I received some difficult news about my Grandpa John. He had been having some serious physical symptoms for months that had led to a pretty severe weight loss, and ended with a couple weeks ago having to be rushed to the hospital for emergency surgery to have his gallbladder removed. After the surgery he was placed in the ICU, and we were praying for a swift recovery. However, that has proven not to happen.

My parents are in Lynchburg this weekend visiting Jen and I. Last night at dinner, my mom shared some more news that she got just a day or two ago about my Grandpa John's situation. Apparently, John is still in the ICU. He's scheduled to get out next week, however, there has been a very serious development. John apparently has full blown dementia and he is unable to speak or understand basically anything. There is very little movement on his part on a daily basis, and he is not functioning physically as a normal adult.

The hard part for my family with this is my Memere(Grandma) is looking to put John into a nursing home, which will severly drain his financial resources. In addition, Memere can't drive anymore, and she has depended on John for years to drive her around, so, she is now having to use public transportation to get to the hospital and she has no life aside from being there all day.

There is much much more to the situation, too much to share in one email, I just wanted to give you guys an update and ask you to pray specifically for several things:

1. Pray for a miracle that God will lift John's dementia

2. If it's not God's will for the dementia to go, pray that a good nursing home can be found for John

3. Pray for Memere with her physical needs, one of my aunts is trying to talk to her about going into an assisted living community where it will be alot easier on her to do the things that she likes to do, however, there are some barriers that are in the way of that right now, so, please pray that something gets worked out.

4. Pray for wisdom for Memere and my Aunt Annette as they are making medical care decisions related to John

5. Pray for the peace of God that surpasses all understanding for everybody involved, this is just extremely hard on Memere and many others in my family in a variety of ways, pray that we will receive God's grace and comfort each and everyday.

My family and I truly appreciate your prayers guys with this, I will add updates as we hear more. We are trusting in the Lord and His Hand, and if it's time for John to go, we understand and accept that it's his time.