Archive for May, 2010

Seattle (by Ramona)

Thursday, May 20th, 2010

Sorry I haven’t posted in awhile.  Life has been super busy at our house.  Nat has been writing his dissertation and submitting some more job applications.  He’s been spending most of his time on his dissertation, and he just needs to make the final push until June 4th, when he defends!

Nat flew out to Seattle this week to interview with Microsoft.  He left on Tuesday morning and is coming back tomorrow.  One nice thing about scheduling this interview was that he was able to watch Ethan defend today.  Ethan is now Dr. Thompson!  Yay! :)

I definitely do not enjoy life without Nat.  The days seem longer and harder even though I spend most of the day with the boys by myself anyways.  It’s just the thought that I have to do it alone the whole day that makes it hard.  Before the day begins, I already feel my patience running low.  Fortunately, it’s gotten easier watching the boys, and I’ve had a lot of help in the evenings.  It’s been such a blessing to have them help throughout this time period of Nat interviewing.  I think all my friends are amazing for providing dinner, helping out with the boys at bedtime, playing with them, watching them so that I can get out, or just being there with me in the evening so I have company.  I find it hard to believe that they actually like watching the boys and spending time with them; I’m spent by the afternoon! :)   My friends give so much of their time and love, and I feel so extremely blessed! :)

I’ll update you as soon as I find out where we’re going to be next! :)

Posted in Family, Friends, Travel | 2 Comments »

Dana Visits (by Ramona)

Sunday, May 9th, 2010

Dana, my friend from high school and college, came down to visit from Thursday – Saturday.  She had been traveling to Chicago for work for the past few months, and when I found out via Facebook, I told her she should come down and visit.

She came in Thursday evening by train.  Sean was super excited to see the train up close at the station; it was his first time at a train station.  We came home and had dinner, and I whisked Dana away to a game night with some friends from church.  We came home and talked late (for me anyways) in the evening.

Dana had to work on Friday, so we headed to Mirabelles (YUM!) for some pastries.  I dropped off Nat and Dana at Nat’s office and the boys and I headed home.  I brought the hardworkers some lunch, and we were able to sit and have a good lunch together.  Jonas was quite happy to sit in Dana’s lap and be fed cheese and strawberries.  Ah, what a life! :)

The boys and I picked up Nat and Dana at 5, and we headed to dinner at B-won.  After the boys were down, we taught Dana how to play Dominion.  I think she liked it, and it was fun to play together.  We stayed up to chat together, and then went to bed.

Early Saturday morning, I took Dana to the airport.  We had a chance to pray together and it was really sweet.  Part of me still thinks of Dana the way we were in college, but I know that she and I are all “grown up”.  It’s neat that we can still get together and talk.  We were both encouraged how God was working in our lives and seeing that in each other.  I’m excited to see what God will do in Dana’s life.  :)

Oh, to end, I just wanted to say that Sean really liked Dana.  I mean, how could he not?  :)   She arrived on a train, let him play with her iPhone, and left on an airplane.  :)

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Mother’s Day (by Ramona)

Sunday, May 9th, 2010

We didn’t celebrate Mother’s Day too much because we were pretty tired from a busy couple of days.  Nat, however, did get me a present – a picture frame with all the boys’ (include Nat’s) handprints.  It was a sweet gift, and we’ll have to find a picture of all the points to put in the frame.

Other than that, we just had a regular day.  We did have a baby dedication today for all the babies born in the past year at our church.  Each family had a chance to say something about their child, and an elder would pray blessings over that child.  Nat explained why we picked the name Jonas Aiden.  Jonas is a version of Jonah, which means dove in Hebrew.  We love the imagery of the Holy Spirit descending on Jesus like a dove when He was baptized as it is written in Matthew.  We found that Jonas was also Lithuanian for John, which means God is gracious.  Ironically, Sean also is a version of John; John in Irish.  Aiden means fiery, and Nat picked that over Austin because Jonas was more “fiery” in the womb than Sean.  Our prayer for Jonas was that he would be gentle and meek like a dove, but also passionate and on fire for the Lord.

Sean did give me a not so pleasant gift of disobedience today.  I’m not sure what got into Sean today.  We were definitely ready for bedtime today since we had a hard time relaxing  with a crazy Sean.  Hopefully, he’ll settle down tomorrow.  :P

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Proverbs 16:3 (by Ramona)

Sunday, May 2nd, 2010

I listened to a sermon today titled, Your Plans: God’s Plans by Tim Keller.  It was a good sermon, and I picked it because the season we are currently in with Nat’s job hunt.  As a whole, the sermon touched many issues that I’m thinking about in my heart, but I was just going to share a few.

In his heart a man plans his course,
but the LORD determines his steps.

Proverbs 16:9

Tim used this verse to illustrate that we make our own choices and that we have free will, and yet, God is sovereign and the details are all planned out.  He talked about how it’s hard for us, as people, to wrap our minds around this paradox, but it is the truth of who God is.  It was a good reminder of how God is planning out all the details of our lives, and we can trust in that.  Tim did make a point that we will be called accountable for our choices; consequences for bad choices.  This made me think about how badly I want Nat to work at Sandia.  Yes, I can push and push and push for Nat to get a job there and only be satisfied if we get an offer.  God will allow us to go down that path, but we will have to face the consequences if we make that choice – unemployment, stress in our lives, etc.  God will still be with us during that time and He will still know all the details and have planned that for us.  Will it be wise for our family?  No.

This leads me to Proverbs 16:3

Commit to the LORD whatever you do,
and your plans will succeed.

Tim made an excellent point this verse.  When you first read it, you may think that if you commit your plans to the Lord that your execution will succeed.  I have to admit that this was my thought lately about our future plans.  “God, I want to be at a place where I will be excited and happy.  You opened the door to Sandia, and I will commit my plan of wanting to be there to You”.  I waited for the execution of this plan, and it failed.

Tim pointed out this verse is not about committing your plans to the Lord, but the opposite.  It is about you committing yourself completely to the Lord.  It is is about completely surrendering and trusting to the Lord.  It’s about saying, “What You will, when You will, how you will”.  At this point in the sermon, I was tearing up.  Through this process, I have had a hard time letting go.  When the first prospect of Sandia came up, I started getting excited.  The excitement ran away from me, and I am hellbent on Sandia.  Then, God shut the door on this job.  Instead of relinquishing my control and my plans, I pushed harder towards Sandia – asking Nat to apply to more jobs and asking for his resume to be passed along.  It has been so hard to let go of Sandia.  And, as Tim kept preaching on this point, I felt that God was continually putting on my heart to let go – What I [God] will, when I will, how I will.

I liked how Tim ended the sermon talking about Christ.  We will never completely surrender to God and trust him completely, but Christ surrendered to God completely in His life and death.  If Christ loved me so much to surrender His life to God and die on the cross so that I can be reconciled to God, then I should be able to trust Him with my future.  Reflecting on this truth is slowly helping me to die to myself in regards to my wants of our future.

Yes, deep down, I do want us to be in Albuquerque, and I will not be ashamed to pray for this.  But, I will surrender my desires to what God may want for us if it is not Albuquerque.  I know that the Lord will have great plans for us, something better than I can ever imagine.  I do know this with my mind.  Now, I just need to get my heart to a place where I can accept this, especially if it’s not what I have planned.

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