Christmas Crafts

I love to make crafts! So this Christmas, Brent and I made 2 stools for our cousins' little girls - Molly and Addie. They were fun to make. They turned out pretty well. Although we messed up a little bit on the ladybug. I stole the idea from my friend Jen P. Thanks Jen!

The drying stage

Finished!

New Things

Well it's ours! We signed the papers on the 23rd! Brent and I are now home owners!! Hooray!! We are moving in the 2nd week in January - most likely! We plan to paint some and start working on part of the floors after we return from camp next week! Also, we now have 2 black lab puppies! They are so cute! Brent got me a puppy for Christmas - his name is Hurley and he is 6 weeks old today! He's such a chunk! Cody was given to us by April, Brent's sister! Cody is 12 weeks old! They sure are a hand full! I think they will be great dogs for us. Cody is named for the Alabama lineman and Hurley is named for the character from the TV show LOST, it is also in honor of our time in Texas! I'll have to post pics later! It was crazy yesterday at our house - there were 5 dogs and a 1 year old baby! My parents have two dogs and our two and my brother and his wife spent the night and brought their little dog!

I hope everyone had a very enjoyable Christmas!

December 22

That's our closing date! Well, projected closing date, I should say! It's so crazy! We are getting closer to owning our own house and 6 beautifully wooded acres!!! All though takes an act of Congress to buy a house, it really has moved along quite quickly! Brent has been fabulous and has done EVERYTHING! I think the only thing I have had to do is make a copy of my driver's license and sign a few papers!

We probably will not move in until January. There are a few things that need to be done to the house. Some of the flooring needs to be repaired and it needs a good face-lift in paint. It's pretty exciting!

I'll keep you updated on what happens and post a few pictures, but probably after the 22nd!

2 Things:

One:
We might buy house!!!! Yep. No kidding!! Brent found this house yesterday. It sits on 6 acres and needs a bit of work and paint, but it's still nice. Well that's what Brent says. I haven't seen it yet! He said he might could take me by tomorrow! It's being foreclosed on, so it is a good price. The family has already moved out. Brent filled out the housing application or loan application this morning. I know that the economy is on it's way down hill, but the Lord owns the cattle on a thousand hills right? So maybe He will sell a cow of us? We have learned though to wait and be patient. God has the right place for us to live. I just hope this one is it!! Trust me, if we were not patient, we would have already bought this other house that is way, way above our price range!! haha!!

Two:
Some of you may or may not know that Brent and I are hoping to adopt a child. :)
And last Thursday our fingerprints from the ABI (Alabama Beauru of Investigations) came back! They approved our background checks. Now we have to wait on the FBI. They take a little longer. Then if we are able to move in to this house, we can start our home studies!! Although I have to send in some paper work first.

We are using an agency in B'Ham. www.lifelineadoption.org
It is a Christian agency, which I did not know until the day before we went down to talk to a social worker. We are planning to do a domestic adoption, however it is possible that we could do international, but we really like certain aspects of the domestic adoptions that the social worker told us. China is out of the question though, you have to be at 30 when you go to the child and make $80,000 combined income.
Lifeline just began a partnership with Uganda. So maybe we will have a child from Uganda! The social worker said this is a little different from the other countries in that when you travel to Uganda, you go the orphanage and "pick out" your child. Like picking a puppy.

So if you would like to pray with us in this process, we would appreciate it!

Have a happy Thanksgiving!

Facebook Troubles

Hello Friends,
Marianne here, as of yesterday my facebook does not work. In fact, I'm pretty sure that I am going to have to create a new page. So if you would like to go ahead and delete my page from your friends, go ahead. So this is not the most urgent matter in the world, but if you are wondering why I am not responding to you, that's why.
Well I'm off to GA for the weekend and Brent is in TN. See you next week!

Destin Turns 1

Brittany did a great job on the party! There were about 22 people in their house! It was so crowded. Destin got a ton a gifts! It's a shame we don't get that many gifts for our birthdays when we are older!

He was giving the bow a kiss. Which was funny b/c as his mom says:

"He has texture issues."


Then came the sugar high! :)

Love This Room, Don't you?

What is white on the outside and grey on the inside?

Our new car!! Yep, we are a two car family again! Although I would still rather ride with Brent. A family friend of my parents was selling his 2001 Ford Tarus for $1,500! So we got it! It's so clean inside! It's very nice not to be driving my dad's truck around anymore. I have the Malibu and Brent drives the Tarus. I'm so glad we were able to get the car. Especially b/c we do not have any car debt! That is a HUGE blessing!
Thank You, Lord!

I Heart Fall!

Fall has been completely stunning this year in Alabama. Trees are orange, yellow, red, some are a mixture of two or three colors with a bit of green or purple. It's amazing. I love fall. I love that God created fall and that He decided the trees should change colors.

(above - this is the road we live on)

(below - a church that is beautiful every year at this time)

We have been back in Alabama for 3 months now. It seems hard to believe that we even lived in Texas in August. Brent and I were talking the other day about Texas and our time there was so short! Some days I thought seminary would never, never end and now in some ways, I wish we could have a few moments back. But at the same time, I wouldn't want to go back either.

The Lord has been absolutely incredible the past months at West Point. I told April the other night on the phone that I feel like God is doing everything for us and we are just the hands and feet. We run the errands, set up the things needed, and move our mouths, but God has been orchestrating everything. We have been learning to trust God in a new way and watching how He provides. Early on in seminary, Brent and I were talking about God providing and how faithful He is. For us, at the time, we were learning to depend on God just to pay the rent for the next month. We did a lot of learning to trust God with monetary things. We were wondering about the day when maybe there would be a new way to trust God to provide other than money. And two and half years later, here we are. Well, we still have to trust God with money - for pete's sake, we don't even have our own house yet!

When we came, we thought we wanted to keep a lot of the things the same for awhile, esp. for the youth, b/c it's scary for them when a new guy comes in. But some things just haven't worked out; and not because of us either. Some things were just out of our control and we had to make a plan B. I believe that God wanted to make a few changes here. And He did. So not everything is perfect, but God is here. And He's working. I am thankful God brought us here and that He's letting us be a part of this work He is doing.

side note: this is Destin, the sweetness. My mom had a yard sale Saturday and he is playing outside.

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Fall Retreat

This weekend we took about 27 youth and 8 adults to Camp Cosby for a youth retreat. The Lordship of Christ was the theme. I only have a few pictures. Shannon who had neck trouble was our photographer on the ropes course. She did a great job. Here are a few pictures: