How much longer and what's next???

These are 2 questions that we get a lot lately. Lots of people asked us those questions when we were home for Christmas. It is so nice to know people really care about your lives! This is demonstrated to us over and over in so many different ways. So, since we got back from Christmas break I have been intending to do a post on this and now I am finally sitting down to do it. We have been here 3 years! WOW! When we moved here we were thinking (well more me than A) that we could be finished in 3 years-HA!!! All our Seminary friends know exactly what I mean! I remember meeting people who said oh we've been here 7 years or whatever and I was thinking what are these people doing. Well, now I know. They are trying to maintain some sanity while working, and being a spouse and parent, and keeping up with the unbelievable demands of being a Seminary student. It is just one of those situations where you have no idea until you've been there and done that. When we first got here A worked part time and was able to take more hours but it was still rough. We saw very little of him which was so hard being in a new place, etc. After less than a year he began working full time and started taking less classes. Also, after that first semester he realized that yes he had been called to Seminary and he had to do that but that he had us to take care of us as well. I have gained more respect for that man by watching him balance it all than by anything else. I also have gained a lot of insight into the pressures men feel. He struggled with what God would do with him during this phase (other than being a student), he struggled with being the provider, he struggled with making his wife and children happy after they left everything they knew, and the list goes on. I say struggled but he continues to struggle with some of these things at times, just like we all struggle. I guess what I am trying to say is that it was not until we dealt with some of those things that I became much more understanding of males and that they really do have concerns despite the stereotype given to them that they don't have a care in the world. All of that to say that this has been and continues to be quite a journey! As of right now (and I say that carefully because I am well aware that anything can happen) we have 3 semester left including the one he starts this week which is roughly a year and a half (May 2009 which seems like such a short time to us. What next? Only God knows! Some of our friends here are working up some pretty good schemes to get us to stay here. I have to say that I do love it here. OK, I said it-I love Texas. Did I really just say that? The people here are just great and we have made so many wonderful friends and we joke that we will be getting out of here as soon as we are finished with school but who knows. That did not used to be a joke, however-I was for real! The one thing wrong with being here is the distance we are from our families. Sunday afternoons still get to me, holidays still get to me, birthdays still get to me and no I am not a traitor-I still love the deep south! Always will. So, our desires are to be closer to our family (whether that means an hour east of here or in the same state). We would be thrilled to be called back to AL or even the surrounding states. If God called us to stay in this area, we would be good. This has become another home to us. The reality is God may call us much further away or He may call us closer to our families or He may want us to stay right here in this place called Texas! Another wonderful thing I have learned is there is no place like the place God calls you to be! So your prayer for us over the next year and a half can be for us to seek God's will for our lives and for it to be clear to us where He wants us and for us to not allow our personal preferences to get in the way. Another words, pray that I don't tell God I'm going to AL no matter what HE says! On a funny note, last week a friend and former pastor of ours was in town for a conference and he is the Director of Missions for one of the associations in AL and A was going to have lunch with him. A calls and says he is going to have lunch with Bro. Ken and the others at the conference (meaning a conference full of DOM's) so I say, "yes honey you go enjoy your lunch and make sure you get to know all the DOM's from AL, GA, TN, and FL!" As usual he just laughed at me! That night he said something about a DOM from Birmingham and I said oh I love Birmingham! One thing for sure I won't be saying where I won't go! I used to say I would never leave AL and well, you know the rest. I am so glad I allowed God to talk me into this! I still long for "home" but we have grown so much through this experience. Thank you all for your part in our lives. We love you all!