six months later...

ok, so if you have thought, "today i'll check courtney's blog. i know it's been almost six months, but MAYBE she updated. i can just feel it." good for you! if not, understandable. i am the guilty one. but nonetheless, i am back.

let's just recap the last six months. here's what i've learned (in a very small nutshell):

-teaching is easier and harder than i imagined.
-God is so much closer and sometimes farther than i imagined.
-Jesus isn't who I thought He was...in a very good way.
-Tim is so much more than the picture of any man I dreamed of one day marrying

Those are only the broadest few things I could think of to recap several months, but they are still true. So let's see...

We are a few weeks shy of marking our first full year in youth ministry here in Indiana. There are certain people that pull at our hearts here that we now cannot bear to think of ever being without. Kids are starting to show us what they're learning and what we've said about Jesus that stuck in their heads.

I'm leading a 7th/8th grade girls small group on Sunday nights, and it's scary how much of myself I see in them. I love the relationship I have with them- a relationship that I had with my youth minister's wife once upon a time that changed my life as well. It's a humbling and fragile place to see myself in.

Our baby, a now 8 month old chocolate lab, is now reaching the huge category and is so much more part of our tiny family than we thought an animal could be. She is loving life, rawhide bones, apple slices and the 6 inches of snow.

My family was able to come visit over Thanksgiving, which was a blast. I'd never had the chance to be hostess for a major holiday and I loved it (minus the strep throat part). We had a low-key Christmas in Noblesville with Tim's family, which was great..especially since his dad is still recovering from a massive heart attack he had in the beginning of December. It was one of those, " I never thought it'd happen to me..." moments for us as a family.

2009 is well into full swing now, and I feel like it's a black canvas. I have no idea what it holds. Tim and I are on the edge of so many big things in our tiny little life as man & wife...it's a grand thing that God is so big. We have bigger dreams and desires than ever, and we know the God who can make them all come true.