A Matter of the Heart

Proverbs 22:6  "Train up a child in the way he should go, even when he is old he will not depart from it."

One of the hardest lessons in life, I think, is to allow yourself to be transformed and molded by God.  That means facing things that you might be doing wrong or could do better.  Isn't it hard to do that when pride gets in the way?  Our human side wants us to think that we don't need to change or that we are too good to change.  I struggle with this in many ways, but God has decided to break me in this area. 

For a while now Dan and I have wanted to take a different approach to parenting.  We realize that our anger has gotten in the way of our parenting because our kids are very young, active, and sinful in nature.  They are challenging and adding the third child has given us a tough time. 
We are on this journey with Dan's job for very specific reasons.  That is clear. I can sense that God has certain goals for us and things to teach us through our experiences while we are away from home.  We were supposed to do this trip.  One of the things God is revealing to us is how to take a very good look at our parenting style.  We have resorted to threatening and raising our voices to the girls.  We find ourselves reacting quickly and escalating when they do little things that don't deserve that kind of reaction. 

We weren't supposed to make a stop in Flagstaff Arizona just yet.  But we ended up talking to our friends Tom and Jenn while we were in the car on Saturday driving to California.  It just so happened that Tom had Monday off because of the holiday and we were able to drive more hours in a shorter amount of time so we could stay in Flagstaff and spend Monday with his family.  Well, here it is Tuesday night and we are still here.  It all worked out and the hospitality has been wonderful.  But, while staying here with their family, Dan and I have both been convicted of how to be better parents with training our children.  Tom and Jenn have studied how to parent from a biblical perspective and we had the pleasure of watching them in action.  Their tone of voice stayed the same, they were consistent with their language, they used biblical terminology while disciplining, and pursued their children's behaviors as a matter of the heart.  Their goal is not disciplining, but to encourage their hearts to respond in a christlike manner.  Needless to say we are leaving our time with them wanting to alter our approach to our kids.  We have ideas of some books to read to help guide us and I am excited to start reading them.  Our hearts have been changed from living with Tom and Jenn these last couple days.  Coincidence.....I think not!

Thank you Cutlip family!

Life Insurance

So right before we left for our journey, Dan upgraded his life insurance to a larger amount.  I had to chuckle today about that because he decided to jump off a forty foot cliff today in to the ice cold water.  I made a joke about how it was okay for him to do that since he has good life insurance.  I thought it was funny. 

Today we went to Sedona in Arizona and visited a place called Slippery Rock.  The dads had fun with the kids in the water.  But the best part for them was jumping off the rocks, I think.  They sure had a rush from that and felt pretty proud of themselves.  The best part was watching Dan and Tom talk themselves into jumping off the rock. 

This is a picture of the kids cheering the daddys on.

And here we have Dan doing a flip off the rock and Tom watching.

Mya and Sara loved the water!

Here is an awesome view of Slippery Rock.

Here are the boys talking amongst themselves about getting up the courage to jump.

Slippery rock again.

Mya found a bug and decided to take care of it by squeezing it and loving on it and bathing it in the water.  Her new friends taught her to handle bugs without fear. 

Dan and Sara enjoyed sliding down the rock.

My handsome husband!  He has been amazing on our trip.

Of course Chloe has to make an appearance on the blog.  Check out the hair in the wind.

My sweet baby!

 Our little blondie.

And FINALLY...the picture of Dan jumping from forty feet.

Some Sights Along the Way

On Saturday we drove 15 hours and yesterday (Sunday) we drove 20 hours.  We landed in Flagstaff Arizona late Sunday night.  Whew!  Below are some sights that we saw along the way.

Here is Chloe in her pose that she sat in for most of the trip.  She is taking after her aunt Jen and learning how to do yoga early.

Driving along the road in Alabama we saw a sight where the tornadoes hit.  It was amazing to see the damage that was done and very sad at the same time.

Here is the largest cross located in Texas.

And finally the GRAND CANYON!  We spent the whole day there with our friends Tom and Jenn and their four kids.  We stayed all day so we could see the sun set.  It was stunning!  Tomorow we are heading to Sedona and Wednesday we take off for California.

Noah's Ark

Did you know that the shopping cart was invented in Oklahoma? Random fact.

"Noah did everything as God had commanded him." Genesis 6:22. I have often thought about the time when God told Noah to build the ark. Most likely people thought he was crazy. Build a boat when the people had never seen rain? But Noah did it without reservation. I think about this story because I have had partial obedience. Dan has not wavered and has demonstrated full obedience with our lifestyle change but I on the other hand have had those wavering moments. Our email devotion today was about Noah's obedience and it taught me to recheck my heart and my attitude. We are not really supposed to pick and choose what commands to follow. And we really shouldn't grumble as we go if things get tough. Just because we choose obedience certainly does not mean that the task will be easy. My faith has been tested time and time again and I am learning about what it means to bring pleasure to God.

We just got done looking at the largest cross in the world located in Texas. Wow! And we got to experience 97 degree weather. Now we are headed across Texas and approaching New Mexico. I have great pictures to share but will wait until I have use of my laptop. Did I mention how amazing it has been to have the IPad with us? A big thank you to my brother in law Ben for talking us into buying one. It has been a lifesaver.

Six States in One Day!

We really did six states today. It was amazing! The kids travelled so well and are finally sleeping nice and cozy in a hotel bed. We landed at a great hotel with a very very warm pool that the traveling baby even enjoyed. Tomorrow morning we leave Little Rock Arkansas and head for Flag Staff Arizona. The Lord continues to show us, with little signs, that we are on the right path at this time in our life. One sign was booking this hotel online and driving up to it only to find a PF Changs right beside it. If you don't know us well, let me tell you that that is a favorite restaurant for me and Dan. Okay...so maybe that wasn't exactly a sign from God but I will keep thinking it is anyway. Who knows, right? The highlight of the night was when Mya found ear plugs in the hotel room and told Dan that she needed to wear them because of his snoring. Classic! I have a great picture of it but can't figure out how to upload it on the IPad. Hmmmmm....

On The Road Again

We are Officially on the road again. We made it through Atlanta and are on our way to Memphis. Our goal destination is Little Rock Arkansas where we will stay for the night. My spirits have been lifted today. Once again I have not doubted God's plan for us but I sure wavered these past few days on how things were going to work out. I feel very good about things today. The housing situation is working out. Dan was on the phone most of the morning talking with different companies to secure things and unfortunately due to the holiday weekend we can't finalize everything. But we are both very comfortable with the state of things now. We have had a blast as a family today and the girls have been great. I can honestly say that I am very excited about this trip. It has been fun chatting in the car with Dan today too. We needed some quiet time together. These next 3 or 4 days will be full of sightseeing and tons of picture taking. We have friends in Flagstaff Arizona and we are looking forward to stopping to see them. Be awaiting some fun posts these next few days!

The Whole Truth and Nothing But the Truth

I had a blog a couple years ago and have since forgotten how nice it is to write my thoughts and feelings out.  It is therapeutic and calming for me.  One thing you will need to know about this blog is that I will be very real about our experiences.  So let me start by telling you about our vacation this week.  There were ups and downs.  It was great to be with my family and enjoy island life.  We ate well and the kids had a ton of fun together.  But a large part of the week for Dan was spent finding a place for us to live in California. The timing of his first placement has been rough on him.  Things just moved slowly in California.  Until today (Friday), we had no prospects on finding a place that would house all five of us for a short term lease of 13 weeks.  Dan spent many hours on the internet and phone searching for something.  We also, today, signed a contract for his job at the hospital in Porterville.  So you can imagine the stress that we both were carrying this week.  I kept thinking.....we are leaving on Saturday with no set job and no place to live.  We could arrive in California and have no where to go.  When I said we had ups and downs, I meant we had UPS and DOWNS.  Some moments I wanted to quit and say, "This is ridiculous!"  "Why are we doing this?"  And other times I just knew that our faith would get us through.  This is one of those times in life when pure faith is all we have to lean on.  We are on a journey of complete uncertainty.  I have to remember why we are doing this and that Dan has our best interest at heart.  He is paving the way for our kids by getting us out of debt.  But finally, as of tonight, we have a faxed application to the apartment complex and a signed contract.  Once we are on the road tomorrow I can finally relax a little.  Until the kids wake up and need our immediate assistance to feed them, clothe them, and meet every little need that they have.  All in all, it is a tough start to our journey, but I know there are good things in store for us.  My first question is......."Are we there yet?"  At least we all look put together, right?  Below are some pictures from our trip.

A Few Details

I realized as I was reading over my previous blog entries that I was missing some details in our story.  A few years ago Dan and I took the Dave Ramsey financial class and started the track to being debt free.  Saving money and being debt free is natural for Dan.....but not so much for me.  This is an area of true submission in or marriage.  And only blessings have come from that over the years.  So when the travelling PT job came about Dan was excited to use it as a way to pay off debt.  The pay is good....and the sacrifice is travelling for a year.  Our plan is to travel for approximately 15 months to make and save enough money to finish our final debt...our mortgage.  Our goal is to be one of those couples who call into the Dave Ramsey show and yell "WE ARE DEBT FREE!"  We probably won't actually do that but it is a nice thought. Once Dan made a decision to do the travelling job and we both felt peaceful, everything else fell right into place.  So this coming Saturday we will leave our vacation and head west.  And hence the blog to allow family and friends to track our experiences.  As I am sure the experiences will be great!

We are here

We made it to South Carolina without a hitch.  The girls were amazing in the car.  We arrived here on Saturday and have settled into a routine now.  We "beach" it in the mornings and explore the island and its surroundings in the afternoon.  We have a four bedroom house, each with its own bathroom and a great back deck for the kids to play on.  The beach is about a half mile walk and thankfully there are strollers at the rental house for our kids.  Mya is in love with the ocean and has enjoyed playing in the water with her daddy and cousins.  After packing up our house and leaving it on Saturday, this is a much needed vacation!

First destination....the beach!

Last Night

Here I am sitting in my bed experiencing our last night at home.  What an odd feeling.  Today was a very tough day for me.  If anyone hugged me, I cried.  I have never doubted that this experience is right for our family, but it still is hard to leave everyone.  I find that I must face forward and know that the journey to come will be amazing.  I will be relieved to pull out of the driveway tomorrow because it means that I don't have to pack another thing or clean another room for a little while.  Packing for this trip was quite a challenge.  For days and days I had piles of things laying all over the house.  I lived in clutter and did not like it.  It made me feel crazy because I didn't know where to put everything.  Sometimes I would find myself moving piles from one spot to another just to make myself feel better.  I had moments of feeling very overwhelmed.  But today it all came together.  The house is clean and tomorrow I can take my time doing little tasks.  What a relief! 

Through this adventure I just pray that I can relax and enjoy this time with my family.  I pray for peace for the kids as their environment and living situation will be quite different.  And I pray that Dan grows professionally and enjoys trying out new areas of physical therapy.  We pray the Lord's blessing on our family and marvel in the awesomeness of His great plan. 

When we get to the beach I'll take some pictures to share.

Preparing to Leave

Well, the adventure has started and I find myself asking already...."are we there yet?"  It seems like it has been such a process to get ourselves prepared to leave and we haven't even gotten in the car yet.  Between getting Dan's license transferred to California, updating his shots and paperwork, and packing the house up, we find ourselves quite exhausted at night.  It has been a lot of work, but we are very excited. 

Most of you don't know the process we went through to get to where we are now.  It is an amazing story of God's plan.  One day Dan's mom stopped by and as we were chatting she mentioned to him that an acquaintance was trying out a travelling physical therapy job.  I thought that was neat but didn't think much more about it.  Well.....it triggered something for Dan and it was all he wanted to talk about.  Knowing my husband so well, I decided to just let him talk about this dream all he wanted.  I was pretty certain that's all it was...a fun dream.  But, he kept talking about it and one day contacted a recruiter to check the job out.  Once he made that move, I knew it was in the works.  Dan asked me to pray about it as he was doing the same.  I wasn't sure how I felt, but I complied.  The next Sunday I was sitting in church and felt the spirit move me.  I felt ready immediately and knew that it was our time to move.  It was right.  I cried and mourned the fact that we would have to uproot the family and leave our "roots" behind.  Dan and I were born and raised in this town so its not so easy to just leave.  But when God calls you to do something, you do it with new strength and confidence.  And that is what we both had and still have to this day.  Our faith is what is driving this great adventure.  So now here we are packing up and leaving in a week. It is very bitter sweet.  Sometimes I catch myself just bursting into tears as I will miss leaving my family and friends.  But then I remember how exciting this journey will be for us and the kids.  It is a bit romantic for me and Dan. We will only have each other to lean on while we are away.  I am excited for our marriage to only get stronger.

Please join us on our travels as we explore new territory in the country, in our lives, and most importantly in our faith.  I will do my best to update the blog each week and post pictures of the girls so you can watch them grow while we are away.