Family portraits

I have a wonderful friend who took some amazing pictures of the family! She took some great candid shots too that I included. Some of them aren't in the right order but you can get the point. I highly recommend hiring her if you ever need a photographer.





















We are doing pretty well adjusting in fresno. I made a friend at work who works in the OR at my work and she invited us to her church. Afterward we hung out at her house and the guys went and played Basketball. It was a lot of fun!

I really enjoy my work. People are really nice there. One of the hospital educators, who isn't into the Christian religion, stated she could tell there is a Christian spirit at this hospital. And then she stated, "You can tell the difference between people who believe in Christopher". She thought Christ stood for Christopher. I loved it! Right now I have been in a room a lot of the time studing and policies and procedures that I have to learn. Tomorrow I get my feet wet for at least half the shift. Woohoo! I have been burning the candle at both ends. I get up early for work and have several moments throughout the day where I am exhausted. My last time is right before the kids go to bed, but I am in need for the bedtime routine. And just as they fall asleep I get my second wind. Oh well, I'll get some sleep, hopefully....

Russell is adjusting to staying home with the kids. We are still waiting for his transcripts to come in the mail so we can get him on a waiting list. It will help the more we get out and get into a routine. We haven't quite figured that out yet.

Christmas time is here

We got our tree up! See isn't it pretty. Yes it isn't exactly like the trees I have done in the past but this maybe took all of 1 hour to put up and together with of course the help of a little girl who put the decorations at only her eye level, no higher and no lower. It is a little more then the 3 foot tree I wanted to get that already had the tinsel on them. But those trees were really 1 foot at best and had a total of 3 decorations on them. So instead I got this. It made a little girl happy. Who, by the way, has been talking about a tree all this season. We might have to do a new Christmas tradition now that she seems to be old enough to help out. Austyn has been asleep so he hasn't seen anything yet but the lights, which he of course wanted to hold so we couldn't place them on the tree. At which point we took them from him to decorate the tree and he cried hysterically.







Penelope posing before the tree! LOL.




Here is the official picture of the tree:


Not a whole lot to report. We still have a little bit to unpack. But it's not been unpacked more out of procrastination then anything. We both love the new apartment. I think it is slightly bigger then our old place by maybe 100 or so more square feet but it seems bigger because we are all on one floor. Fresno has been treating us well. They are really nice here. The people I've met at the hospital are really nice. I'm just doing hospital orientation so far, but I'll start getting my feet wet on monday when I get to start orientation on the unit.

We tried to go to church wednesday, but the service was canceled for the holiday time. We ended up stopping by another church but haven't really found our new place to call "home". With the holidays around the corner it's going to be hard to get an idea on whatever church we "try out". Oh well....

In the mean time, Russell is learning his way around town a little. At least finding the grocery store, home depot, best buy, target, stuff like that. I am just learning my way around the hospital and probably just as confused as I was before going to the grocery store. Though I did find a Fresh and Easy. I love that place!

Journey

I am recently reading a book called "One in a Million: Journey to your promised land" by Priscilla Shirer. At least reading several pages a week when I am have a moment of careless activity where I can just put my nose in a book with nothing else I can accomplish at the moment. However every time I pick it up it resonates within me. In one of the passages she elaborated about how God had promised a land of milk and honey. She thanked God of course for the milk. One of the choice "drinks" that could sustain infants and toddlers. Something that has so much nutritional value in one tall glass. However she was glad that God didn't stop there. That He didn't leave the promise land to simply a description of "milk". Because there are a lot of joyous things that honey bring. Honey, though it does carry some nutritional value isn't taken for its supplement to the diet. But merely for the outlook of flavor or enjoyment. He promised both a sustainability and a enjoyment. Bounds. Overflowing milk and honey.

With that said, as I enter into this new phase of my life. New town. New job. New people. New church. I follow God's leading to a place that He has for me. That from this vantage point seems as if the land I am to enter is flowing with milk and honey. The idea of all it has to offer I am holding onto with both fists. But when it comes to the 12 spies that went into the promise land. I would like to think that I am like Joshua or Caleb, firmly planted and sure of that providence. No wave in my faith. However, I fear I am not that firm. I don't think I am cowering away like the other 10 (which, sadly, for the most part are known as the other 10 spies). But somewhere in the middle. Somewhere in the middle, moving forward but all the time scared of the unknown and then scared of losing the unknown. So here I come LORD. The wavering one of little faith. The one who seems too scared sometimes to move forward but too scared to move back. Let me have faith like Joshua and Caleb. Let me be sure. Make me remember that one more assurance you already gave me. The so many answered prayers. The clear lighted path I am still scared to trot upon. Let me move forward, without being scared of the unknown or scared of losing it. Not in the middle, but standing firm like the two did that got the promise land for all it was, flowing with milk and honey.