Thanksgiving 2010

Thanksgiving this year started off a little bittersweet for a couple of reasons. First, Judd and I recently moved to Southwest Florida and were not able to make it home to Atlanta, GA to be with our parents like we have for the past 4 years of our marriage and the 23 years before that. Second, it marks the ending of another year during which we lost another baby. I say Thanksgiving "started off a little bittersweet" because God has a way of taking something that we think is going to be one way and revealing to us how good His plans always turn out to be.

So, we ended up traveling only 2 1/2 hours north to Tampa to spend Thanksgiving with Judd's brother, Joe, his girlfriend, Molly, and their almost 3 month old baby, Bronte, aka Joseph Charles Wright III, aka Brontesaurus. Joe and Molly were so sweet to open up their home to us, and Molly was so sweet to invite us to spend Thanksgiving with her family. We were even able to bring our "child", Amos, and had a blast watching him play with Joe and Molly's dogs, Elvis and Cinderella. We were able to spend some time taking care of Bronte and really enjoyed getting to know Molly more and seeing where her and Joe spend their days. It turned out to be an amazing Thanksgiving and we wouldn't trade that time for the world. Here is a glimpse of our time together:

Judd and Bronte: Judd was so good with him!

Sweet Baby Boy

Amos made a great traveling companion. Ha!

Elvis in his Thanksgiving best

Joe did a great job carving the turkey.

Elvis settled into "his" chair after the big meal.

Elvis Wright, Cinderella Wright, and Amos Moses Wright had a great time chasing the ball and swimming in the pool. I'll always laugh when I think of Amos running into Elvis and them both falling into the pool! Lol!

I hope you all had wonderful Thanksgivings!!! Leave a comment and let Judd and I know how your's went.

In His Hands,

Katy :)

It is a test we all hope to pass, but none of us want to take.

Is that not so true?

We want to believe that we will choose to trust in who God is and not in what He does or doesn't do. That we will be happy just with God alone if:

1. We never marry.

2. We never have kids.

3. People very close to us pass away.

4. We lose everything financially and are in suffocating debt.

5. Lose our health.

6. (Any dreadful scenario we imagine but BEG God never allows to be true of our lives.)

But will we ever know until He does?

Some of us will never have to find out. We will never be faced with any of these difficult situations. We will just continue hoping that we WOULD pass the test, but never REALLY have to take the test to find out.

While others, will take one, maybe two of the things on the list, and others maybe all of them.

Shattered Dreams

Right or wrong, I grew up believing that dreams generally come true and that things generally work out. Maybe it's because I was born in America to a middle-class family with two parents that are believers in Christ and raised me to believe. Maybe it's because I was born on 3rd base and had pretty much everything going for me compared to the majority of people around the world. Maybe it's because most of my dreams have come true: did well in school, had great friends, participated in great activities, graduate with a degree in education from a good school, married a wonderful man in the ministry, have had the honor to see God do awesome things in and through us, etc., etc., etc. Maybe it's because I've read too many Fairy Tales.

But . . .

the more that God allows this season of Judd and my life to be prolonged and the more He seems to actually be turning up the heat instead of wrapping things up into a nice little bow, I'm beginning to question this belief.

This book:

was brought to my attention recently and after reading these quotes:

"It's hard to hear, but it is important to know that God is not committed to supporting our ministries, to preventing our divorces, to preserving our health, to straightening out our kids (or to giving us kids- katy's words), to providing a livable income, to ending famine, to protecting us from agonizing problems that generate in our souls an experience that feels like death (which is what I feel like quite often)."

"We cannot count on God to arrange what happens in our lives in ways that will make us feel good."

"We can count on God to patiently remove all the obstacles to our enjoyment of Him. He is committed to our joy, and we can depend on Him to give us enough of a taste of that joy and enough hope that the best is still ahead to keep us going in spite of how much pain continues to plague our hearts."

and these summarizing points:

1. The goal is that God be glorified in us, not that He be useful to us. Crabb says that we have taken the "Holy God of Passionate Wrath," and turned Him into the "Helpful God of Useful Principles." One thought that occurred to me in this regard is that Crabb makes the case that what we need to repent of is our desire for God to make us feel good and give us a sense of well-being. If this is the case, many probably need to re-examine their "salvation experience," since many in our day come to Christ because He has been presented to them as the "useful God." Come to Christ - He is useful to get you out of hell and into heaven, come to Christ, He is useful to give you a happy life, etc., etc.. Could it be that the Christ that many have allegedly "accepted" is not the Christ of the Bible, and could this explain why so many who have allegedly "accepted" Christ fall away? If nothing else, this insight from Crabb should cause all who name the name of Christ to re-examine their hearts to see what kind of "Christ" they are naming.

2. God is committed to bringing us the greatest joy possible, however such joy is only found in Him. Therefore, He allows, and even causes, us to have our most cherished dreams shattered in order that we will quit hoping in them and find our joy in Him.

3. Though we can now claim to be the bride of Christ, we live in the betrothal period of our relationship. The wedding feast of the lamb is yet to come - the relationship has not been consummated yet. Therefore, though we are secure in our relationship with Christ we cannot and will not ever feel as close to Him on earth as we long to. There is distance in the betrothal period that is not present once the wedding has taken place. God feels hidden from us because to a large extent He is hidden from us.

I think there may be something in this book for me.

Katy

Progress?

When I first arrived at Judd and my new home in Bonita Springs, Florida, it looked like this . . .



Yikes!!!!!!!!!!! The movers just dumped everything in here with no rhyme or reason.

Throughout the past 6ish weeks Judd and I have gotten it to this . . .



Progress??? SOOO much better to me!!! But a LOOONNNGGGG way to go!

Amos Moses doesn't seem to mind though.



With this place being somewhat temporary (waiting until our house sells in Chapin, SC) we don't have everything set up the way we did in our home. Amos has totally taken advantage of this and found a new spot to hang out.


Judd and I wake up in the middle of the night to the whole bed shaking because Amos is scratching under it. I think it's hilarious! Judd doesn't think it's that fun. Haha!

Trying

Trying . . . to remember that God has a good plans for my life.

Trying . . . to believe that they are plans to prosper and not to harm me.

Trying . . . to have hope and peace.

Trying . . . to know that life's greatest joy is in God and not in the thing I desire during this season of my life.

Trying . . . to believe that if God allows trials in my life they will ultimately result in good.

Trying . . . to persevere.

Trying . . . to believe that God works all things together for good for those that are called according to His purpose.

Trying . . . to believe that God desires to give good gifts to His children.

Trying . . . to know that it's not others' fault that they are getting pregnant and not me.

Trying . . . to trust with my whole heart and not to lean on my own understanding.

Trying . . . to know that God will never leave me nor forsake me.

Trying . . . to be happy knowing that I have everything I need in Him.

Trying . . . not to despair.

Trying . . . not to hide from the outside world.

Trying . . . to build up enough courage and hope to . . .

Try again -

Saying Goodbye

Normally these boys LOVE Judd. Not sure what went wrong here. LOL!

Sweet, Amazing Tina

Praying with Precious Friends

Leading Worship at Gateway one last time.

Neighbors Jason and Candice at Fusion Bowl in Lexington, SC.

Neighbor Stacia

Neighbor Kelly and me with weird eyes!

Neighbors Greg and Amber

W for Wright! Haha!






Neighbors Tim and Lily

Part of me is inspired, the other part is just plain mad!

It's a little easier for her to be thankful. She had a baby already (so she didn't have to experience that awful nagging question: "Will my body EVER be able to carry a baby?) and is already expecting another one after the miscarriage! There is no way she could understand the pain that can come with Infertility AND Miscarriage. People that think they understand and don't, make me so mad even though I know it shouldn't and they are just trying to show that they care. Sigh.

My raw, honest message to a hurting friend about pain and God

Hi ---,

I'm so glad you sent a message and that you didn't have to have d and c. It's good that the physical part of it is over now. I get the medicine. I probably need to start taking mine more regularly but I don't want to. That will be a tough conversation with ---- and I'm so sorry that you have to have it. :( I want so many good things for you -----! I hate that you've had to go through so much. I'm still forming my opinions about life and God and pain, but I'd like to believe that God loves us and will use the pain of those that know Him for something good in our lives. I know that's what the Bible says and I've always believed it. I've just been struggling in my relationship with God lately.

I don't think I've ever told you my story about my relationship with God. I hope you don't mind me sharing. If so, you can stop reading now. :)

My parents always took me and got involved in a Bible teaching church in GA and when I was 8 I decided that I wanted to ask God into my life by admitting that I wasn't a perfect person and couldn't ever be "good enough" to earn my way to Heaven, trusting in Jesus's death and resurrection - believing He did it to forgive me and allow me to have a relationship with God, and asking Him to be the boss of my life. I think I understood it as much as an 8 year can. For me it was really all about going to Heaven, and not very related to my everyday life (not that an 8 year old has much of a "life". Haha!

At 16, I realized that a relationship with God was so much more than just a ticket to Heaven, but something I could have on a daily basis. A friend that never leaves me. Someone that always loves me no matter what. I decided I wanted to invite Him or really to accept His invitation to have that kind of relationship and ask Him to be in control of my life.

Life was pretty good for awhile. I really enjoyed learning more about God through the Bible and felt encouraged and safe in my relationship with Him. I went through the regular tough stuff like break-ups and fights in friendships, but nothing too major. In college, I felt that God wanted me to be a Special Education Teacher and met Judd my husband through a Christian group on campus. He wanted to do music for Churches full-time and I thought it would be really cool to work so closely with churches while having my own "thing" with teaching.

We got married and I taught a year in GA before we moved to SC. I taught 2 years in Lex. 1 and loved it but we were living in Chapin and I wanted to be closer to home for when we had a baby. I got pregnant while teaching in Lex. 1 but lost the baby at 7 weeks. It was really tough because everyone at my school found out that I was pregnant when I had to run out of an IEP meeting to throw up! They were all really supportive and it was tough to follow through with my decision to move to Lex 5.

RSES turned out to be SO GREAT! It feels like I was there for 5 years, not 1 and a few months! You know what happened there with my 2nd baby. :(

Now, I've followed Judd down here and am working at a school that frustrates me so much! I hate that we don't have our own place but can't do much about it until we sell our home in SC. I'm watching friends younger than me have 1st and 2nd and 3rd babies and wondering why God let my babies die. Why He hasn't provided Judd and I with a healthy baby. We had fertility testing and nothing major is wrong at all, just a couple of little things that we can take meds. for.

I tell you all of this because pain sucks. I wish I could tell you that God will take all of your pain away, but it's not true. He just makes the pain less lonely and promises that if you give your life to Him, he'll work all of it together for good somehow. I'm hanging on by a thread, but that's what I want to keep believing. I guess that's what faith is, huh?

Anyway, that was an extremely long message! I'm praying for you ---- everyday! Tell everyone hello for me. We'll both take our meds. together and when you need someone that feels miserable as well to talk to - give me a call. :)

In His Hands,
Katy

Pets, Family, Bronte, and Bubble Room

So this is going to be an incredibly random post, but here's an update about our lives:

1. Our two year old cat unexpectantly died about a week before we moved to Fort Myers. He really was more like a neighborhood cat than just ours as he frequented everyone's homes on a regular basis: found his way through doggie doors, visited the neighborhood bar as "the bar cat", took rides in people's cars to the Chapin Mexican restaurant, etc. Our neighbors were so sweet about Sue's passing and even had a Sue-morial for him. Here it is below if you want a good laugh!





Sue Wright

2. While interviewing at Summit Church, our brother (Judd's brother, my brother-in-law) and his girlfriend Molly, came down to visit from Tampa. She was having some contractions but wasn't due for a couple of weeks. I kept joking that Bronte (Joseph Charles Wright III) would arrive that weekend so Judd and I could be there and sure enough he did!!! I could probably do an entire post on Bronte's story. As you can see in the pictures below, the doctors thought Bronte had a heart condition when we was first born. After a few days in the NICU and some tests, the defect they saw on the ultrasound was completely healed and he was able to go home with no surgery!!!! Such a miracle! Thank you Lord!!!

The Day before Bronte was born:



You could see Tampa Bay from the hospital room:


About a month later. Our first weekend living in FL.



3. My parents, Karen and her Fiance, Scott, came to visit for one last weekend in Columbia before we moved. Karen had recently finished her years worth of "puppy walking" Kyle, a dog in training for the Blind Society. Kyle has recently graduated from school in NY and has been paired with a disabled person. Now, Karen is co-training a new puppy - Ariel. Such a doll!!!



4. Russ and Patty (Judd and my "roomies" when we first moved to Cola and ministry partners/brother and sister in Christ) came to visit us last weekend!!!! They stayed near Sanibel Island and came to Summit Saturday night and Sunday Morning. We spent the afternoon on Sunday on Sanibel and Captiva Islands and finished the night at a wacky restaurant on Captiva called the Bubble Room. It was recommended to us by a friend and was amazing but we were pretty scared to eat there when we first drove up and walked in!






Hope you are having a great weekend and have a wonderful week!!!!

In His Hands,
Katy :)