God has been FAITHFUL

I can't help but be grateful when I consider how faithful our Father has been to us. It's amazing how He pulls together a family. 11 years ago, he gathered a bunch of teenagers from across Virginia: Chesapeake, Virginia Beach, Fredericksburg, Roanoke and Fairfax and put a desire in us to go to Mary Washington College. He even led almost all of us to choose to live in an all-girls dorm. And then He drew us together and began to knit together this beautiful tapestry of friendship that grew both stronger and larger as our families expanded. When I think how much we have grown in the 7 years since we left Fredericksburg, I wonder what the next 7 years will bring. Certainly more children... but even more than that, hopefully more eternal fruit as we are each led by the Spirit to bring Him glory wherever we go...

Virginia
North Carolina
Maryland
D.C.
Georgia
New York
Germany
China
Iraq
Israel
Afghanistan
Peru...

I am thankful to be part of such a beautiful picture of the family of God.

I can't get no... sat-is-faction.

My child, never forget the things I have taught you. Store my commands in your heart. If you do this, you will live many years, and your life will be satisfying. Prov 3:1-2

I find it interesting and refreshing this morning that it is not a change in my circumstances that will make my life satisfying, but rather remembering all that the Lord has taught me and storing His commands in my heart. I had a particularly rough day at work yesterday, and for months I have found myself really frustrated with my job as a whole... it is certainly less than satisfying.

I often envision that when I am able to have children and focus my energy on raising them rather than on the stresses of the corporate world, I will find great satisfaction. I tend to long for the day when my circumstances will change and I won't have to deal with this job. And yet this morning, I have been gently reminded once again, that my satisfaction with life is the result of a different matter entirely. It is a matter of my heart. It is directly correlated to the Word of God. In His Word - particularly the Living Word: Jesus, I can find true satisfaction.

I'm looking forward to chewing on that today. What does it mean to find satisfying life in Jesus, regardless of my circumstances? How will that impact my circumstances? What an amazing Lord we have - that cares so much about our hearts and our souls. Apart from Him, there is no hope, no joy in the tough things of life. My heart is grieved to think that those who don't know Him are lacking that. I find peace just in knowing that I have a way to find satisfaction beyond my control/circumstances... the world doesn't have that. Its only solution is to change your situation... move on to something new, but the cycle continues.

I hope I can share this lesson learned with someone who has never even met this wonderful Jesus I know.

Fun in Austin...

We had a great trip to Austin to visit the Clements family. We enjoyed Julie's yummy cooking, Josh's crazy driving and Abby & Luke's cute entertainment! We drove around the city quite a bit (thanks to our personal policeman tour guide), saw some of the parks around Lake Austin, ate great Mexican food & Texas BBQ, watched the new Narnia movie & P.S. I Love You (both were great), shopped at the outlet mall when it was 98 degrees out and even checked out some model homes! Your money goes much further in Texas than it does here in Virginia! We found a huge beautiful new home that we loved for the same price as our condo! Too bad Texas is so far away! But anyway, it was a really fun trip and we enjoyed getting to spend time with such great friends.

Beautiful Day at the Park

Here are some pictures from Tuesday night. It was a beautiful day so we went down to our favorite park and had a picnic and a photo shoot :)

http://picasaweb.google.com/mrs.melissawellington/ABeautifulDay

A Rainy Day...

A couple of weeks ago, Mike and I were headed with my parents to the baby dedication of my cousin's little boy, John. It was looking like a nasty day for a 3 hour drive as it was dark and rainy. But then we spotted a rainbow. At first we just saw half of it, but then, as we were driving over the high-rise bridge on I-64, we drove right under the arch! It was awesome. We could see the entire thing, including the bottom of BOTH sides of the rainbow (and for those who are wondering...sadly, there was no pot of gold and no little green leprechauns). But it was a beautiful moment and a great reminder of the Lord's promise and His faithfulness.

No rainbow sightings yet today... just rain, rain, and more rain!

Redheads???

Justine & I have always said our poor children will surely inherit red hair, since my dad was one of 4 redheaded siblings and on my mom's side, there are lots of strawberry-blondes. It may have skipped our generation, but we've always known it'll surely surface again in our children. Justine is so afraid, she's determined to marry someone latino or dark-skinned in hopes to trump the redhead gene! Well sometime last year, we were looking into it, and thought we discovered that a blonde and a brown-haired couple had zero chance of producing redheads.... yipee! Mike & I would be in the clear! But then I was looking at my little cousin John... whose blonde hair is quickly turning red (or at least strawberry blonde) and I realized: his mom is a blonde and his dad has brown hair. Crap! There goes that theory! Oh well... I still think he's cute! And while normally I'm not a big fan of redheaded boys... so far the ones that have been born to my cousins have been super cute. :)
(This is my cousin in Florida's little boy, Sean.)

Last weekend...

Here is Shelby in our backyard...
And a few of the many plants we planted...
A beautiful day at the beach:
And... my cousin Amy's little boy, John (the one who was almost 12 lbs at birth!). He's 4 months old now and a very happy baby:

What does FAITH really look like?

The Lord has taught me a lot about faith and dependence on Him through our finances. I know that God provides in many different ways. Sometimes He shows us a way we can cut wasteful spending, sometimes He gives extra income or an unexpected gift from family or friends. I believe He even provides coupons & sales where we can save money on groceries or other needed expenses. I have heard the idea from so many people that "God's math is not always like ours. Sometimes the numbers may not work out on paper, but God is faithful to provide." I can testify to that myself. I know I had some months a few years ago when I was sure I wouldn't have enough to pay all of my bills and yet I did.

But I am trying to understand what exactly it means to walk by faith in the area of your finances. For example: If I have looked at my budget and reduced expenses in every way I can and I come up with say, $5000 in monthly expenses, and my income after tithing and taxes is exactly $5000, can I even consider another expense, or even more generous giving? Do you go ahead and give maybe an extra $100 a month to the poor (or a missionary, or building fund, etc.) knowing that you will be $100 short for your bills, trusting that somehow God will provide, but not having a plan yourself for where that $100 will come from? Is that what faith looks like? Is that how you learn to depend on God more? Even when the math DOES work, I know it is God who provided my job and who gave me wisdom to cut my wasteful spending or to resist impulse buys or to sacrifice some of my wants in order to avoid debts. But am I limiting my faith to what is logical?

Does "trusting God to provide" mean that He will give you new insight and wisdom in where you could earn extra $ or reduce your expenses? Or does it mean you take a step of faith not having any idea how it will work out, and you don't necessarily DO anything, you just trust that when the bills are due, you'll have what you need, even though the math doesn't work? I really am trying to get a handle on this, so I'd love some wise insight...

More to come soon...

This picture is off of my cellphone. I have better ones on the camera at home... We took Shelby (now 5 1/2 months old) to the beach this weekend and walked on the Boardwalk. She loved it... she let little kids come pet her, but when big kids or adults got near, she got a little scared and let out a ferocious growl that we're trying to work on stopping. She's all bark - she loves people once she knows them but gets scared of strangers easily.

I love Spring!

This time of year is absolutely beautiful. I can't help but smile when I step outside and feel the cool breeze and the warm sun and the colors are just fresh and vibrant. I love it! And then I step into my building each morning for work and begin the long trek to my office, each step taking me farther and farther away from the spring day I wish I was able to enjoy... sadly, I have no window in my office, or anywhere near my office. Each day that I leave for lunch presents me with a great temptation... "what kind of excuse could I come up with for why I need to work from home or take the rest of the afternoon off?" But I have yet to give in. Sigh. That's okay... I just have to pray that the weekends won't be filled with rain!

So... do I really have anything to say today? Hmmm... I guess not much. :) I'll post more when life gets more exciting!

Good Dog!

Shelby is starting to become a good little dog! :) We had friends over Friday night, and she was amazing. They fell in love with her, and we were just in shock at how sweet and good she was! Yay! She spent the night with her other grandparents on Saturday night and all day Sunday while we went to Chase City for John's baptism, and had no accidents! Woohoo! She learned from her Golden Retriever uncle Chevy how to chill and lay around. Good stuff! I tried to take some pictures of her but realized the batteries in my camera need to charge... Anyway, she still requires constant supervision when we're at home, but she got all kinds of brownie points with me this weekend and I began to see the hope that she will mellow out of the crazy puppy stage and we'll be glad we have her! :)

3rd Time's a Charm

Don't you love when the Lord confirms what He is showing you by bringing it up by several different unrelated means on multiple occasions! I had a conversation a few weeks ago with my friend Hope about the idea of the missional church and the impact it was having in her life. She sent me some reading materials last week and I was really challenged and encouraged by this concept which seemed to put words to the thoughts I have meditated on for years. Well, the very same day, I went to chapel at work (a daily thing that I had missed several days prior). The man who spoke never mentioned the words "missional church" but he shared what he had been learning from this book. And it was like everything he was saying was exactly what I had read from Hope earlier that morning. And then, this weekend, we participated in the missions conference at our church and I heard much of the same themes as one of the missionaries from Belgium shared and challenged us all. I'm excited to engage in this more. I've started reading Jim & Casper Go to Church, and it is very eye-opening. So far, I'd definitely recommend it! What a great reminder that the people who were usually offended by Jesus were the religious leaders, not the sinners. Hmmm...

What's my problem??!

I've had a slow morning at work, so I was browsing articles online about healthy snacks and ideas to take off a few pounds. I wrote down some great ideas, and reminded myself that it's really time to start shedding this extra weight I've put on in the last year. I've been drinking water, and have cut out sodas (soda-sober over 1 month now! yay!) but I need to step it up a notch. So I was all ready to head down to the vending machine to get a bag of low-fat pretzels, when an email popped up in my inbox.

My manager brought in doughnuts and they are down in the lounge. So with no further thought, I headed straight there, heated one up for 10 sec. in the microwave and came back to my desk to indulge in that warm gooey doughnut at my desk. As I inhaled it, I looked up to realize I was sitting surrounded by my bottles of water and notes on healthy snack ideas. :) I'm pathetic! I don't even really like doughnuts all that much. When will I learn?

Happy Tummy!

I don't know if anyone wants these recipes... but last night we made for the 3rd time a healthy recipe I found & love. It's super-easy and everytime we have it, we're like "yumm!!!" so I thought I'd pass it along...

Chili-Rub Steak Tacos
makes 6 tacos: serving should be 2, we eat 3 each!

1 tbs. chili powder
1/4 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. salt
pinch cayenne (ground red) pepper
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 lb. steak (the better the steak, the better the tacos, but you can use cheaper beef if you want, we use whatever good steak is on sale, last night was NY strip)
Corn Tortillas
Shredded Cabbage
Chopped Cilantro
Limes
Guacamole (we love "Wholly Guacamole" from Harris Teeter)

Shred 1/4 head of cabbage like lettuce. Chop fresh cilantro (about 1/4 c.) Trim fat from raw steaks. Slice into thin strips. Chili-Rub: Mix first 5 ingredients in a small bowl. (Will be crumbly). Toss steak with chili-rub to coat evenly. Cook in skillet on medium heat. Cook just until outsides get brown. Don't overcook! Heat corn tortillas in skillet with a little cooking spray for 30 sec. each side.

Spread guacamole on each tortilla. Fill with steak, cilantro, and cabbage. Serve with lime slices. Squeeze lime juice on tacos just before eating.

This is a super fast and easy meal. The original recipe called for making your own avocado cream sauce, but we love the easy pre-made guac! Also, if you don't want quite so much seasoning on your steak, you could rub the steaks and cook them before slicing. We like lots of flavor.

My husband does cool stuff!

Mike doesn't work here yet, but this is a job he is applying for and he already knows how to do pretty much what you'll see here. He has worked at one of the few labs in the country that does tissue engineering to make muscle. This company (Tengion) is currently engineering bladders, and working on kidney research and more.

When I saw this video, I was pretty fascinated at how amazing this technology is, and even more, that my husband will likely be a part of such amazing medical breakthroughs, if not at Tengion, elsewhere:

Just for Suzanne

Well... you say I don't update this thing enough... so I'm signing on to write some more. If only my life were so interesting that it warranted a daily entry! Last night...I worked late. We ate Taco Soup and cornbread (which I'm looking forward to eating again today for lunch!) I closed out a Princess House party which turned out to be a really good one, so that was exciting. We watched American Idol (except that I missed all my favorites because I was on the phone closing out the party!) I think it's past time for Kristy Lee Cook and Ramiele to go. Of all the rest, I'm having a tough time picking a favorite. Probably David Cook. But it's tough.

Then we wrote a new cover letter for Mike and finished tweaking his resume and he sent it off to the first (of hopefully several) jobs he is interested in pursuing! Yikes! So now I guess we need to get back to getting our house ready to rent! It may be a while, but now that his resume is back out there, we want to be prepared whenever he does get a good offer. So that means CLEANING and PAINTING and DE-CLUTTERING! And maybe I should just start by finishing the endless loads of laundry that seemed to pile up worse than usual when I was sick last week. Have I ever mentioned how much I hate laundry?! I think it's #1 on my hated-chores list. The rest aren't so bad... if only I had time! Keeping a house clean is a never-ending battle!

Well, that's my Wednesday morning update. :) Hope you enjoyed it!

TEST

So I'm starting to wonder if no one likes my blog. I know I don't have any adorable babies to post pictures of... but do I have any friends who read this? Cause no one has left me a comment in over a month! Hmmm.... just wondering!

Something New

Sometimes change is difficult, and knowing which decision to make is tough... but this time it's been so easy. Mike and I felt the Lord releasing us from the church we've been at for about a year and a half to search out a better fit for us. The first new church we visited, we both felt really clearly was a no. Then we went to the next one. We loved the worship service, were really blessed and challenged by the teaching, and we met a couple who invited us to their small group. We decided to go ahead and check that out too, and we absolutely know that God has led us here! It's such a great fit, and in the few short weeks that we've gotten involved, we have found new friends and soaked up the fellowship and great Bible study together. God is good.

There was some hesitation to uproot ourselves right now when we know that within the next year, maybe even 6 months, we will almost surely be moving again. But no matter how short this season may be, we are so encouraged to have such clear direction from the Lord, and to be able to connect and grow with a local church. As it turns out, almost everyone in our small group is in a time of transition right now! Community Church of Chesapeake is where we're at, if anyone is curious! :)

Fun in Raleigh...

Mr. & Mrs. Ehresman

Michael, Lex, April, Hope (+ baby#3), Elizabeth, Luke, me, Mike

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What a great weekend. We drove down to Raleigh on Saturday to witness Elizabeth (one of my LIFT girls) and Luke's wedding. We also got to spend Easter with Suzanne & Aaron, so it was just a wonderful 2 days with great friends. It's hard to believe it has been 6 years since I was hiking in the snow with those girls. We have really only gotten together at weddings (this made #6) but whenever I spend time with any of them, I walk away encouraged and challenged and reminded of the greatness and creativity of our Lord. I love that we are all so different, personality and background-wise, and that is exactly what becomes such a great blessing when we are together. I agree with the guys... we really should make a point to have a weekend retreat together sometime this year.

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We got to worship with Suzanne & Aaron on Easter Sunday and then we made a delicious Easter dinner together. All my favorites! The ham was so yummy, Mike & I stopped by the store on the way home to get one ourselves so we could have leftover ham sandwiches this week!

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We really enjoyed driving around parts of the Raleigh-area again. We would love to end up there if a job opens up for Mike. We'll see... But for now, it's back to work in Virginia Beach... yipee!

Living in a zoo...

We are dogsitting my parents' two papillons this week... and it's an adventure to say the least! Cody, Gabe & Shelby are pretty adorable all together.

Shelby and Gabe LOVE to play - they chase each other around and around the coffeetable and Cody loves to run with them in the big backyard. They are FAST!! It actually makes life so much easier having them entertain our very active puppy! We get to just sit back and watch and laugh. We've realized we need 2 things... a big fenced in yard and another dog! But neither of those two are quite feasible just yet. Oh well... at least they are a fun stress-reliever, and between both jobs, I need that this week!

Look at Shelby's crazy huge ears! They actually look bigger in the picture than usual... but she's still got some growing to do to fit into them!