School is Starting!!! :)

School is starting this week for School of Mines and we are really excited to see what God has in store for us. We are going to be helping out with Christian Challenge which is a student group on campus led by our good friends Robby & Mary Pruett. We already feel so welcomed into the group and any insecurities of not fitting in or knowing if this is the right thing for us to be doing have been wiped away. Over the summer, we got to know some of the students through a Bible Study and have really enjoyed every minute we have gotten to hang out with them since. We have gotten more babysitting offers than I know what to do with! :)

We are officially settled into our new townhome on the border of Arvada and Golden and have recently welcomed a new roommate, Steve Slater, to our home! He is going to be living with us for at least the semester and we have been blessed by him already. Our new place has 3 bedrooms and 2.5 baths which will serve as a perfect home for us for the next 5 years or so.  All of our neighbors are super friendly too. There is a ten year old girl, Amy, who lives a couple doors down and comes over 3-4 times a day asking to play with Luke! We have really been trying to reach out to Amy and her brother who have just gone through a divorce and live with their mom now. Please keep them in your prayers!

Tom and I had a really good heart to heart a few days ago about how we both have let things slip with our relationship with God. If you could even call it a relationship at times. We had a really good wake up call and decided that every night right after putting Luke to bed, we are going to go through a passage of the Bible together and pray through it! We have only done this twice now but let me tell you it has already made the difference! My mind already feels a lot less cloudy and more clear throughout the day. It is so easy to just go through the motions with being a Christian and not experience God. I think the biggest thing is that you have to pursue it! Spiritual disciplines are so important, especially when you feel like you have no time for anything. "You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart." (Jeremiah 29:13) Trust me, He is worth all of your heart!

Luke is doing well, he has had a hard last couple of weeks but today we discovered why! I can already see three more teeth starting to poke through! He loves sticking his tongue out and touching them. He is getting really active lately too! He can crawl and pull himself up and walk alongside tables and couches! Last Saturday, he started standing on his own for a few seconds. It is only a matter of time before he starts walking... His favorite pastime lately has been wrestling Molly, which is pretty cute.

This Fall is going to be pretty busy for us but we are so excited for every piece of it! Tom will continue Caraway Street (a puppet ministry at church), I am going to be involved in the women's bible study at church, we also just found out that we are going to be co-leading our life group with some other friends, then we have a bunch of trips coming up that will be a lot of fun! Including my sister's wedding! :) Please be praying that in all our busyness, that we can stay focused on our Creator. We love you guys! Thanks for listening.

Background...

For those of you who do not already know our story, here it is:

Tom and I met in college through a ministry called 'Christian Challenge'. We went on a few trips together and saw each other grow in amazing ways. By Lindy's sophomore year, there was definitely an attraction going. We even decided to flirt by creating a contest on who had the most ridiculous facial expressions. I am pretty sure I won that battle.

 

After Lindy's junior year of college, she led a trip to Bangladesh through Focus international. It was a hard summer being apart but it really grew our relationship and helped Tom decide that he couldn't live without me :) That Fall, Tom proposed on a surprise trip to NYC and instead of jumping into Tom's arms and saying "YES!!!" I asked him what marriage was and replied 'i think so' to his question of "Will you marry me?"

We got married on January 3, 2009 and are still best friends. We have had a fun journey and wouldn't trade it for the world. I think the biggest question that we have asked ourselves as a couple thus far is what are our strengths and how can we best use them now to serve the Lord? Through prayer, talks and life, I think we are beginning to figure that out. 

Along our journey, we have had a lot of fun surprises! For example, when we found out that we were pregnant after coming home from a second trip to Bangladesh!! Luke was born December 3, 2010 and has been such a blessing! We love him so much and can't wait to see him grow into a man of God. 

Luke keeps things interesting for us. Recently, he has started pulling himself up on things and crawling like crazy! It is amazing how much he has grown in the past 7 months!

Through prayer and many talks we decided last Spring that we wanted to move to the Arvada/Golden area and help out with Christian Challenge at School of Mines and also stay involved in Cornerstone Church. We are all really excited to get to know the students at Mines better and to serve in any way we can! I think it will be good for Tom to relate to other engineers (with their Star Wars and math jokes) and also a chance for him to speak. He is a really gifted speaker and I think the students will benefit from him. I want to have the chance to listen to the girls and their hearts while also showing them what it is like to be a stay at home mom! I am pretty excited and we are both insecure, but God will cover over our faults. 

I have also decided to develop a passion of mine of home making recently. When it comes to our home, I love decorating it and helping people feel welcomed to it. A month ago I started selling At Home America decorations and am super excited to see where it goes! I even have a website so check it out: www.athome.com/Lindy :) I have gotten a ton of decorations out of the deal and am excited to have a hobby of my own where I can express myself. We will see where it goes.