Friends and Family Update Winter 09

Hello to our dear family and friends,

Hope the new year has been good to you all so far. Joel and I welcomed it as we seem to welcome most new years with feelings of excitement and newness, but also with the familiar wondering of "what course will our life take this year"?

LA is constantly changing. Friends come and go (often too quickly, and usually as soon as they start a family), business store fronts constantly change, or construction adds a new dimension to ones neighborhood. It's never really a given when interacting with a group, or neighbors, that anyone comes from a similar background, or even speaks the same language. I guess you probably get the picture. LA is not suburbia:) Some may say it is harsh, and well... it really can be, but Joel and I have come to love this city and think there are priceless treasures in living here, even though it can be rather hard sometimes. The sunny weather does help take an edge off the harshness at least.

With all the uncertainty of living in LA, another dimension of uncertainty we have had could be summed up in this: Joel is pursuing a "career" in ministry; He received a Masters of Divinity, not a degree in medicine, or business. I am still a student with a long way to go, motherhood on the way, and technically I have no career yet. When I do have one, it will have something to do with music. We both realize the reality of having picked uncertain fields:) but we really support one another, and even though the journey has been hard at times, it has been extraordinary. We wouldn't trade it for anything!

We never expected, with all the waiting and limbo we have experienced over the last years, that SETTLING news would greet us this new year. Joel's part-time position at church as the Young Adult Director is going full time! It's actually miraculous with the state of the economy. We are so excited, not just for the idea of Joel having a full time ministry job, but it's a church we love, and it's right in the heart of the city we love, LA. This also means, I can continue with my education at Pasadena City College, where the education is cheap/affordable, and surprisingly really outstanding. We also know where we will be raising our little girl, at least for a while. We still don't know how long we can stay in our current apartment, and there are other "up in the air" things, but we feel blessed to at least know our general geographical location. It's been like a gift.

The pregnancy journey has been fun since I stopped feeling sick at around sixteen weeks. We can both feel her kick and move at twenty five weeks now. Joel reads to her sometimes, especially Psalm 139, and I do my best to eat healthy and walk about three or four miles a day. I still have yet to start my pregnancy yoga video and need to get on that soon:) I've been juggling organizing to get ready for our girl, as well as some intensive music classes. I get a little overwhelmed with figuring out what we will need because I'm pretty simple, and for some reason, the idea of having more than I might need sort of freaks me out. It might have something to do with the fact we will be sharing a bedroom with our baby (we are in a one bedroom apartment), and have about zero storage space:). But, overall I'm just really having fun and we are excited to start our Bradley Method classes soon.

We get pretty busy because until Joel goes full-time at the end of June, he is juggling third grade teaching, the church part-time, and a pretty full load of guitar students. I'm also really involved with helping Joel at the church. We try to relax on Saturdays, and Joel has fun riding his road bike to work, and gearing up for the Pasadena triathlon this spring. We really try hard to keep quality family time a priority, and value the ideas of sabbath and rest. It's been so important for us!

There are some updated "Winter" pictures on my blog now. We didn't really take any trips this winter, and we just stayed home for Christmas, so the pictures are just our winter life, here in SoCal. We love feeling connected to family and friends even though we are far away. It's always so wonderful to hear from you!