On the home front...

Well... we're heading back to ATL this weekend to look for houses. Please pray for us. Pray that if one of these houses is the one that God has for us, we will know it when we see it, and if He's not prepared to show it to us yet, we will patiently bide our time and wait until he does. Thanks!

Ally

House news...

So it looks like we've lost the house. The seller accepted another offer, and the only way ours will be considered is if something falls through with this one. It seems like the good houses are flying off the market, so we're just not looking much online until right before we head down there again in a week to look at other houses. Please pray that when we see the house that God has for us, we will know it so that we can put in an offer quickly.

Ally

House news...

Well... we put an offer in on the house today, but it may be several days before we hear anything, so keep us in your prayers as we wait. There are four other offers on the table, so we just have to hope that ours was good enough to win. Or if not, God's got a better place in mind for us that He hasn't shown us yet. We'll keep you updated.

Ally

Our pick

Well... it's about that time. Time for Jim and I to start looking for houses in Atlanta that is.

I went down for a Bridal shower last weekend and spent Friday, Sunday afternoon and Monday looking at houses and getting TONS of pictures to bring back to Jim. Here are the pictures for the one we really like. I'm posting them mostly so that my parents can see the pics (since they're too big to email) but hope the rest of you enjoy them too.

Please pray for us as we search and wait for God's will for us in choosing a house.

In Him,

Ally

I'm standing in the foyer. To the right is a formal sitting room (front) and formal dining room (back).

Still in the foyer. To the left is the half bath and beyond that the kitchen. (Somehow I missed getting a picture of the kitchen.) The den (below) is to the left of the kitchen.

All bedrooms are upstairs. Here is the master bedroom, bathroom and LARGE walk-in closet.

Here I'm standing outside the master getting a picture towards two of the other bedrooms (and I think the hall bathroom).

The hall bathroom would definitely need a new paint color.)

These are two of the three extra bedrooms (the top one has a walk-in closet).

This is the finished part of the basement, which is a BIG plus for us. (It also has an unfinished part for storage!)

Here is another shot of the finished basement. If you walk over to the shelves in the above pictures and take a right, this is what you'll see.

Here is the back yard. This is the one drawback since it's VERY shallow, but it is wide, and the view behind the house will be really pretty in the fall.

His ways are higher than ours

So as many of you know, we've been through a LOT emotionally/spiritually over the past two months. First, we lost our baby (after two stressful weeks of OB visits, bloodwork, and scary unknowns), then a close friend of my family was killed in a car accident (at 16), and last Saturday my Gigi (Great Grandma) died.

I have done a LOT of praying over these last months, and have begged for relief from my pain. God is good and has given me temporary periods of joy (through photography and visits with family) to ease the emotional load I've been under.

The last loss of my Gigi brought back the pain of losing our baby full force because one of my life long dreams was to get a picture of Gigi holding a great great grandbaby, and that dream died with her. The last couple of days I have struggled anew with the intense desire to get pregnant again followed by tremendous fear of repeating our last experience. (This is where the really cool God stuff comes in.)

When we first lost our baby, God lead me to Isaiah 41:10 on three separate occasions through three different sources. The passage reads: "So do not fear, for I am with you. Do not be dismayed for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you. I will uphold you with my righteous right hand." (emphasis is mine) I felt like He was promising to fulfill my dream to become a mom and telling me not to let my fears over losing another baby consume me.

When Gigi died and these fears began to resurface, He did two awesone things. First, my friend Tania (who is teaches at Grayson) sent me a package containing birthday cards from some of my former students that are now in her class. It was on a day that I REALLY needed a pick me up! I emailed several of them to say thank you, and one of my students emailed me back to encourage me and share a scripture that has helped her lately. You can already guess what scripture God laid on her heart. Isaiah 41:10!!! I got goosebumps when I read it... He still hasn't given up on me! He still wants to calm my fears! And He's willing to tell me the same thing four times (or probably more) if He has to so that I'll trust Him!

So while all this doesn't take away the pain, it does restore my hope for children and give me strength to face another day.

"I can do all thing through Christ who strengthens me."

Ally

Our Journey up to this point

I wrote a letter at the beginning of December that I intented to include in our Christmas cards. Unfortunately due to unexpected tragedies that we faced in December and the beginning of January, I never got the cards out. So below is the letter that I would have included. It should catch you up on our young life together thus far. More to come!!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Dearest Friends and Family,
Hola from way up North! Some of you probably didn’t know that we’ve been transferred to Michigan for a year! We’ve not been the best at updating everyone on our lives or sending Christmas cards since we got married, so I’ll do my best to catch everyone up now.
We started married life in Opelika, AL, where I finished my student teaching (PRAISE THE LORD that it’s over!) and graduated from Auburn in December 2006. We then moved to married student housing at Georgia Tech (in down town Atlanta) so that Jim could finish classes and his AWESOME senior design project and then graduate in August 2007. During this time, I started a job as a Spanish teacher at Grayson High School in Loganville, Georgia, and was driving 40+ minutes to work and 1 hour 10 minutes+ home! The drive was tough, but Grayson was such a good teaching experience for me. I started teaching Spanish I and III the first year and the second year, I traded the Spanish I for the mucho more challenging task of teaching Spanish V. It was truly a blessing to be given the chance to teach upper levels right out of college and through this opportunity, I discovered that Spanish III and V are really my niche, and I hope to have the opportunity to teach them again one day. I also made some amazing friends in my department, and God gave me the opportunity to mentor several of my students through problems with classes, parents, work, dating and other issues. I know that he placed me at Grayson for a reason, and it was very hard to leave that “family” when we moved North.
To catch you up on Jim’s activities of the last year, he took a job with CH2M Hill as a controls engineer, and we moved to Lilburn, Georgia, which is in the suburbs of Atlanta and provided me with a much shorter commute! Jim did very well his first year receiving RAVE reviews from both his mentor and his boss, and he was soon assigned to the project here in Michigan. Here he serves as CH2M Hill’s on-site controls engineer in charge of installing the instrumentation for the BASF chemical plant that they are constructing as well as troubleshooting any controls/instrumentation glitches that arise. We are looking to be here until sometime next summer when we will head back to Atlanta and hopefully buy a house.
God has really been blessing us all this time and using us to advance his kingdom. To begin he provided us with wonderful churches in Atlanta and Trenton (Michigan). In Atlanta, I was involved with our church’s multi-ethnic ministry as a Spanish translator and a helper at the clothes bazaars (where we distributed free clothes to needy Hispanic families in the area.) God also allowed me the privilege of leading one of my students to faith in Christ, and it has been such a blessing to watch her grow! Since we moved to Michigan, God has given Jim the opportunity to be a witness to some of his co-workers, and He provided us with a great group of Christian friends through our life group at our church. We have had wonderful opportunities to serve other group members in special ways, and it has been a blessing for me to have a group of ladies to pal around with since I am not working while we are here. On that note, God has blessed me with the opportunity to stay at home and work on my skills as a wife. I made jars and jars of jam when fruit came in season this year. I have also taught myself to make bread, yeast rolls and cinnamon rolls from SCRATCH, which is something that I have always longed to undertake! I am learning to sew, as well, which is an adventure in and of itself.
I have continued to be very involved in Nicaragua, Central America, which as many of you know is dear to my heart. I am raising continual support to send Kenia Gutierrez (a wonderful young Nicaraguan sister in Christ and my dear friend) to college, and I have lead teams from Canopy Roads, (my parents’ church in Tallahassee, Florida) on mission to Nicaragua the last two summers. I will be part of the pre-trip team going down in January or February of 2009 (if the political situation in Nicaragua will allow) to plan our trip for next August, and can’t wait to see my “Nica family” again!
Unfortunately the last of our news is sad. We recently lost the new baby that we were hoping to welcome in July. Many of you have been faithfully praying for us through this whole ordeal, and we truly believe that this is what has carried us through it all. We very much appreciate your continued prayers as we look to our heavenly Father for the healing that only he can give and for the hope of future children.
That covers all our news. Thank you for your precious friendship, and we continue to covet your prayers as we strive to serve our Lord, wherever He may send us.
Merry Christmas,
Jim and Ally