Summer Part 2

4 posts in 2 days has got to be a record! Anyway, after I made the last post, I was looking through the camera and found these pics and just had to share. This is part of the high ropes course. This particular one is called the Alpine Tower. It is 60 feet of extremely hard work! The goal is to get to the top. There are several different ways to get there as you can see. You must be at least 16 years old to climb so not many of our youth were old enough. It ended up being TJ, me, a junior sponsor named Ashley, and one youth that we convinced should try. As Ashley and I were the only ones that had ever climbed before, we chose the easier of the paths to the top. That is not saying much as it was still difficult! I was so proud of Kate. She was completely terrified to climb. You are harnessed in and your belaying partner is usually one of the people that you came with. Now the scary part of that is the fact that whoever is belaying you may have just learned how to do it before you began! Yeah you heard that right, your life is in the hands of someone you may or may not know and who may or may not have any experience belaying! So the climb up is long and tedious but once you get to the top and stand up there 60 feet in the air and see what you have done you feel amazing! Then they tell you to sit on the top of the platform and push off. That means that you are literally held and kept from a plunging death only by your belaying partner. Fun stuff. So I got to be TJ's belaying partner when he climbed. Now I used to ditch class in college and load up with some buddies and go rock climbing. So I have experience climbing as well as belaying. But it has been a while. So when TJ bailed off the side of the platform i was totally unprepared. He literally picked me up off of my feet when his weight hit the end of the rope! I eventually got him down though with out a single scratch! So then it was my turn. Rather than let a kid that I didn't know belay me, I had TJ be my partner. Who better to trust than my husband right? Well that made for an interesting combination. You need to have a little bit of slack in your climbing rope so that you are not literally pulled up to the platform by the seat of your pants. I like to believe that TJ loved me so much that he didn't want to risk letting me fall. He had my rope pulled so tight several times that I couldn't even move! I had to ask him to give me slack so that I wasn't going up the tower bottom first! All in all we had a blast and it was awesome to hear the encouragement of all the people around cheering you on. Maybe next year we will try the firecrackers. Those are the free swinging logs you can see in some of the photos. What do you think?

Summer Fun part 1

So I thought that I would begin by letting you know some of what we have been up to this summer. This picture is of my and TJ on our way to church camp. We took a group of about 25 students down to the "mountains" of southern Oklahoma for a week. This is the camp that I grew up going to and loved being able to share it with my husband as well as the youth for the first time. It brought back a lot of memories for me as well as making some new ones with TJ and the kids. It never fails to amaze me to see how God moves through that place. To see teenagers with hands raised high singing praises to God uncaring what anyone else thinks. I am moved to tears every time I see this picture of our kiddos. There is nothing sweeter than hearing the voices of the young raised in praise. Several of our students made very important decisions while we were down there and are so on fire since we came home. Go on guys... make Him famous!

This happy little guy is our pound puppy Capone. We have had him for almost 3 years now. He does not even realize that he is a dog much less a pound puppy. He can play fetch for ours. It is great fun to throw his toys in the house where all we have are hardwood floors. To see him try to run so fast but not really get anywhere is great amusement for me and TJ. Capone is my shadow. He follows me everywhere I go. When I am at home, I have to be in his line of sight or he is not happy. If I shut the door to the bedroom when I am getting ready or something, he lays down outside the door waiting. We think that he is part beagle because he howls! It is the cutest thing to hear him get going. Usually sirens or thunder is what really get him going. He loves to play chase! The way the kitchen and living room are set up, there is a circle of sorts in our house. He loves to chase around the circle barking at whoever will play with him. He LOVES kids. Our friends will bring their girls over and Capone is in heaven. He just lays there as they sit on him and pull his tail and ears.. One of his other favorite things to do is go on car rides. Doesnt matter where we are going but he wants to ride. He stands up and puts that hound dog nose out the window sniffing at everything there is out there. The sight of his leash makes him go bonkers. He knows what it is and what it means. He is always up for a long walk or a jog. I know it is bad to feed dogs people food so we dont do it often but he LOVES french fries and ice cream. He can be a bit of a cookie thief when the kids are at the house. If it is held at his level he thinks that it is meant for him. However he never snaps or yanks food away. He is very gentle and before you know it the cookie is gone! Mister Man is a total member of our family and we love him to pieces. Might be why he is a little spoiled!

Me

So I guess it is time to talk about me! I am not really good at this part. This pic is an old one, from last year when TJ and I went to the Christmas Train. I am always the one behind the camera so there are not that many pictures of me by myself so this will have to work! Anyway, I am Gina. I am married to my best friend and have many other great friends. I have an amazing family that I love and get together with as much as possible. Lets see... I graduated college with a degree in Kinesiology with a minor in education and Spanish. Before moving to another state, I was working on my masters degree in Education. I love kids and I love to be in the classroom. Currently I work in finance and its not too bad. TJ and I have worked really hard to make it to where as soon as we get a child, I am going to be able to be a stay at home mom! Is there a better job than that? I am so excited. I like to think of myself as progressive, but at the same time I can be very old fashioned. I have no greater desire in my life than to be a great stay at home mom and wife to my husband. I love to cook and decorate the house to make it warm and inviting. I want everyone that enters the door to feel comfortable and at home. I know it is a little Leave it to Beaver, but I dont really care. I have all sorts of interests though. I love sports. TJ always says that he lucked out becasue we never fight over the remote during football or baseball season. I was raised with all brothers so sports were huge growing up. I love to be outside and to get dirty in the flowerbeds. It is so awesome to plant seeds and watch them grow into gorgeous flowers! I am crafty and creative. I love to make things, some turn out great, others not so much. Photography is also something that I enjoy but would love to be better at. Being around the kids in our church youth group always reminds me to not take myself to seriously. I love to be silly and dance around. I can be a real dork. I love to read. I like classical music, I am a klutz, and a champion Trival Pursuit player because I am full of random facts that no one really cares about. I am an open person who does not believe in secrets. Above all, I am saved by God's grace and made new every day. I am not a perfect person, actually far from it. I can be stubburn and opininated but because God loved me so much and died on the cross for my sins, all is forgiven. My place in this world is to know Him and make Him known. I try every day to live my life in a way that is pleasing to Him. God has so richly blessed my life. So blessed!

Meet TJ

This handsome guys is my husband TJ. The picture was taken on the 4th of July at my family's yearly get together. I thought that I would take this time to introduce our family to everyone one by one. The first blog is about this handsome guy. TJ is a great guy. He has so many interests and everyone loves him. I am so blessed to be married to my best friend! TJ loves working with the youth group at church. He is so good with the jr high and high school boys. They cant get enough of him. Maybe that is becasue he is a big kid himself! TJ was raised on a large ranch and loves to go home and help his dad work cattle and mend fences. There is something so satisfying about really putting in a hard day of work out on the ranch! TJ also enjoys just about any activity that has him outside. We often go hiking and camping. When the weather is warm you will often find us at the lake with friends. TJ is also a hunter. He has never killed anything so I don't think that is the reason he goes. He gets to go to the woods with the guys and spit and not take a shower for days! I love that he has this chance to go and fellowship with other men. Sports is also a huge interest for my husband. He plays softball every spring and fall, watches whatever sport is on tv and loves to go to all the high school games in the area. If I had to choose one thing that I love the most about my husband, it would be his heart. He is so loving to everyone. He is the guy that goes out of his way to make everyone feel welcome and included. He has never met a stranger and loves to get to know people. He truly has a servants heart and you can see God working in my husband's life. He is my best friend and I am so blessed!

Busy Busy

Back in April, we bought a new house. We were really blessed in that we found a really nice large home for an amazing price! It has hardwood floors through out and a split floor plan. There was nothing that we did not love about the actual structure of the house. It is all cosmetic work that we are doing. Whoever owned the house before us decided that mustard yellow was a neutral color and proceeded to paint every single room in the house this lovely shade. To add to the gold theme, we have pale oak hardwood floors and brass light fixtures! Now this is a new home or at least built within the last 6 years. Why would anyone decide to put ornate brass fixtures in a new home? So needless to say, TJ and I have been busy working on the house. We have ripped out all of the overgrown landscaping, which is another story for another day. And we have started working on the inside. First we tackled the smallest room in the whole house, the guest bath. We ripped down some horrible butterfly wall paper and gave it and the cabinets a nice coat of paint. The walla are a cheery red and the cabinets are a sparkling white. Much better! Next were a few light fixtures, one in the entry way, one in the dining room and one in the breakfast room. There are still many more lights to exchange but we are trying to do it a piece at a time. This past weekend we finished our bedroom and master bath. I have to say that they turned out amazing! We still have to shop for some accessories and such, but totally excited about finally being able to wake up to a calming blue-gray on the walls instead of mustard yellow! Hopefully the next room we get to do is for a little girl that we are waiting to hear about. I already have an idea on how we can decorate and the paint color and everything. We have known about this little girl since April and we are still waiting on her TPR hearing and then for a decision to be made in regards to her placement. In our hearts we already feel like she is our daughter. Be praying for us as we wait! We already have a crib and everything in the room and all we are waiting on is the call that we have been selected. We have faith that God will bless us soon with a child! But working on the house gives us something too do as we wait. I will try to post some pics soon.

Title

The title of our blog comes from a sermon that we heard at church camp in July. We went with our church youth group to a huge christian camp called Falls Creek. This is the church camp that I grew up attending and that my parents even went to when they were youth! It had such an impact on my life and cant wait until we have kids that will be old enough to attend as well.
Anyway, back to the title of the blog... The Skit guys were the speakers for the week. If you do not know who they are then I seriously suggest that you search for them on YouTube. They are some of the funniest men I have ever had the opportunity to meet. They incorporate their skits into their sermons. They relate really well to the youth and keep their attention. It was an amazing week that we got to spend with them and 5000 other youth. One of their sermons was about the scripts that we have written for our lives and how often times those scripts are not what God has in store for our lives. This really touched me. If you had asked me 10 years ago while I was in high school what I thought my life would be like now, this is not what I would have told you. As a high school kid who didn't even know what miscarriages were. Who really plans for that? Anyway, TJ and I thought that this was a very fitting title for our lives right now. We are constantly revising our scripts to fit into the script that God has written for our lives.
We are only the characters in this script we call life. As much as we want to think that we are also the writers we are only fooling ourselves. There is nothing more in this life that I want than to lead a life pleasing to my Heavenly Father. TJ and I have been through so much in the 5 years that we have been married. Many times we focus to much on those bad things and forget to praise God for the over abundance of amazing things as well. Our goal for so long has been to have our own family. We have been trying to follow our own script and not try and see what the big picture is and trust the Author of our real script. We know that God has a plan and we are working hard at waiting for that plan to be revealed. One of God's promises is that He makes the barren women keep house and be the joyful mother of children. We are standing on that promise and just waiting on His timing.
So we are living our revised script. This may not be the only time that we have to revisit and revise but we know that as soon as we turn back to God than He will direct our path and get us back to the script He has in store for us. I encourage each and everyone of you to look at your life and see if the script that you are living by is one written by you or by our Heavenly Father who loves you more than you will ever know. My prayer is that you, like, TJ and I, will realize that His plan for us is much greater than the plans we have for ourselves.
Check out the skit guys anytime you need a good laugh or an encouraging word. The Adam and Eve skit is a great place to start! Or if you would like a more serious one that will leave you breathless try the chisel skit.

Blogging

So we are new to this whole blogging world. I have always kept a journal of some sort but this will be a new experience for me! Anyway I thought that I would begin with an introduction... My name is Gina and I have been married to my best friend TJ for the past 5 years. It has been a long 5 years in some aspects and in others it seems to have flown by! We have recently bought our second home and love to spend time remodeling it. We adopted a puppy from the pound. His name is Capone and he comes from questionable ancestory. He is the best dog ever. He loves car rides and playing with kids. He will chase a ball or whatever else you want to throw for hours and never tire of the game. Walks are another one of his favorite activities. Capone really is an important member of our family.
Lets see what else... TJ grew up on a large ranch. We love going back and helping TJ's dad work cattle and just hang around the ranch. There is nothing more beautiful than seeing a sun rise over the plains and just get to hear the animals greeting a new day. TJ has 2 sisters a step sister and a step brother. Add to that 3 nieces and 2 nephews and it is quite a large group! The kids range in age from 7 to 1 and we love them all! One of his sisters and her family live about 10 miles from us so we get to see them more often than the others. TJ's mom lives in Denver and it is always fun to go up there and visit.
About me... I am a middle child andwitched between two brothers. Neither of my brothers are married so no nieces or nephews on my side! I am definately a country girl at heart. I love to be outside and do anything active. My family is awesome and we see them as much as we possibly can. I grew up with lots of aunts uncles and cousins always around. We are all still close today.
Us as a couple... TJ and I are so busy! We love to do anything active, camping, hiking, playing sports, working on the house and the yard. We are very rarely bored. Our greatest desire in life is to lead a life of grace pleasing God in all that we do. Our second desire is to share that with a child. We long to be parents and that is what has led us to where we are now. When were first discussing kids we agreed that we would like to have a whole handful of them and that we wanted a mixture of biological as well as adopted children. We both felt that God had laid on our hearts the importance of adoption. Well as time went on TJ and I had several miscarriages and after much prayer and research decided that God was leading us to adopt now. This was a huge step as we are both in our 20s and had no idea where to begin. God blessed us again with friends that were going through the same trials and so we had someone to walk the path with! Our decision to adopt domestically and through foster care was definately something that God led us to do. There are so many kids in our nations foster care and they all need a home and someone to love them and give them that forever family. So that is where we are now. Praying daily for the child or children that God has planned for us. It is a long process and sometimes seems never ending but we know that in the end it will be worth it. God has big plans for our small family and we cannot wait to see what they are!
Our plans for this blog is just a place where we can share our thoughts, struggles and joys with others. I am not sure how often we will post or cant promise that we may not cover some sensitive subjects at times so be forewarned! But please keep reading! We will update with pictures as well as stories as to what we are up to. Please join us for the journey into trying to find God's will and live a Godly life in a Godless world as well as the path to parenthood!