Blessed

This post has been a long time coming and I keep putting it off but it's been on my mind a lot lately and I feel like I need to scratch it down.


Those of you who know me know where I stand when it comes to religion and know my background so this isn't just some Bible thumping post. I have my beliefs but I'm not the person to try to force them on someone else. I grew up Southern Baptist but have since became a little more liberal in my beliefs and life in general than what they try to feed you. So, no, I'm not preaching or standing on a soap box.


I wanted to talk about a few things. Maybe it's all coincidence or maybe it's something a little greater. Amie and I have been married for almost 7 years now. Over the course of that 7 years I wouldn't say we have had the best luck when it comes to finances or really anything. It always seemed like when it would rain, it would pour. I started to just expect things to come in threes. If I got a ticket in the morning on the way to work, I was going to get one when I left for lunch and then one on the way home. Not saying that we had the worst luck, it just seemed like things never really got in a groove.


Back in September, I think, we started going to Journey Church with our friends Christopher & Melissa. It's really a great church. I love the music and Clark always has a great message and to make things even better, apparently his wife is perfect. I always ask Amie, WWCWD...What Would Clark's Wife Do? Anyway, when we first started going nothing much really changed in our life, or I guess I should say my life because I'm not sure if Amie feels the same. Amie was pregnant with Emily and it wasn't the smoothest pregnancy so we had plenty of distractions from what God/or coincidence was doing in our life. After a couple of months of attending Journey I was driving to work one morning and going over our budget in my head. While I had all these visions of dollars signs dancing in my head I got this real heavy feeling in my heart and my thoughts went right to tithing. Amie and I didn't tithe, I had no intentions of tithing and honestly we couldn't fit it in our budget. I mean, I guess we could but we'd have to give up something. I tried to just put that out of my mind and go on with my business. But the thought stayed with me, for the next several weeks I kept going over our budget trying to figure out how I could tithe without taking anything away from my family. I didn't want me giving a tithe to effect my family at all. The only way I could figure out to do this was to give a little bit of my weekly allowance. That by NO means was anywhere close to the 10% you are "supposed" to give but it was 33% of my weekly allowance so it couldn't of went a long way for me. I felt like it was the right thing to do and I did it happily. That was an awesome feeling to me, I'm not one to enjoy just giving money away, but I was able to tithe and be happy about it.


I continued to tithe every week we went to church and only what I could give from my allowance. It was kind of weird after doing that for a couple of months my concerns about money and our budget slowly faded away. Don't get me wrong, I was always money conscious but I wasn't overly concerned like before with everything.

As Christmas got closer my job seemed to get worse, I had a jerk for a boss and I was debating quiting my job and finding anything just to get by. Amie was pregnant and we wanted her to be able to stay home with the girls once Em got here but with my current salary at the time that wouldn't be possible. The day before our two week Christmas break (when I had planned to go job hunting) the owner of the company asked me if it would be okay if she called me over the break to talk about a few things and of course I said sure. She called and we talked and right after break we had a little meeting and I also got a promotion and an increased salary and some other perks like vacation and sick days that I didn't have before. This increase in salary meant that we would now be able to let Amie stay home with the girls and not have to really stress about keeping the lights on.


On March 4th Emily was born and despite all the drama we had during the pregnancy she was perfect. I knew she would be all along but maybe we had a little help in getting us to this point.

About six weeks ago we decided we were going to put our house up for sale and try to find something bigger. I didn't want to use a realtor to sale because of the cost and we were a little concerned as to if we would even get anyone to look at it without really marketing our house. Within a month of having a For Sale sign in the yard we had signed a contract on it and were able to to work everything out to everyones best interests. Then the house hunting began for us. Within two weeks of looking we've found what to us seems like the perfect house. We go in Thursday evening to sign the contract on it and then I guess just cross our fingers that everything works out from here on out.

Like I said, I'm not preaching or bragging but I wanted to let everyone know that maybe, just maybe, by following your heart it can lead to good things. Maybe I had a little Heavenly help or maybe all the cards just fell right for me on this hand, I don't really know but I am thankful either way.

Now, God if you are reading this, I would really like to win at least one race this season (maybe it could come at Tulsa Tough so I could be on the jumbotron's) and a five door Mazda 3. If I can only choose one, then give me a win, any race really, I'm not too picky.

Brag

I just wanted to take a second and show off my girls one more time. I've been slammed at work and haven't had much time to blog and I apologize to all my loyal readers...I'm pretty sure I can count them all on one hand but I appreciate them wasting some time here.

This picture brought a tear to my eye. My little girl is growing up. She looks like a big girl here.

Em with her big beautiful blue eyes.

Big Sister, Little Sister. Addi is so proud.

Two of the three reasons I love going home.

Andy, here in a couple of months it will be family portrait time. I need your A game, make sure you get a full nights sleep because you haven't met an Addi yet!