One big happy family

That was how our Thanksgiving 2011 was. Let me elaborate...

For the past few years we have gone to Jacksonville, FL to spend the holiday with my Aunt, Uncle, cousins and their families. But unfortunately with money and schedules and everything else, it didn't work for us to go down there this year. Which was such a bummer, and we were all sad we were not going, but we decided to make the best of staying in Michigan!

Marks parents came over to my mom's house, and my sisters were home, and so both Mark and I got to spend the day with our immediate families (minus Mark's brother and family who were out of the state). It was fabulous! It was so nice to not have to drive between the houses, and it just made me smile that our parents get along well, and just seeing everyone sitting around the same Thanksgiving table. How awesome will it be when we have kids and can just (comfortably) have everyone over at once??

Also, the Pierce family was not going anywhere for Thanksgiving so they joined us! Jack and Robin own the Doster store and are Anna, Amy, and Shangnan's parents. We have known them forever, and they feel like family. I love their kids sooo much. Which everyone knows so I will not elaborate. :) 

Here is Thanksgiving 2011 in pictures....



These are the little turkey place settings that were actually verrrry tricky



Missed a picture of the table, but here is the aftermath of all the delicious food!



Marks Mom taught us how to knit scarves and hats! We loved it :)



The Menu



Anna and Amy decided they would be team skins. Everyone else was shirts.




We went to Black Friday at Target on midnight (yeah we are crazy - but it was fun and we got some good dvds with our giftcards) with Lex and her friend baby Kate (pictured here). Mark wanted to get season 6 of Friends  for $7.99, which is the only season we dont have. But we could not find it, he was so sad - which is why Kate thought holding up 6 would be nice.



The Pierce family (Robin -holding Amy, Jack, Jenna, Lex, Shangnan, and Me- holding Anna)



Mark's job!

Mark got a job!!!!!!!!

Awesome things about the job:

• Full time
• HEALTH INSURANCE
• Benefits like 401k
• In Kalamazoo
• Its in a packaging company (Graphic Packaging) - which is what Mark's degree is in
• I will get to see Mark some nights
• Free slushies in the break room
• Free steel toe boots
• Free work glasses
• Cool big machines and cardboard  corrugated paper board rolls (I have heard quite a bit about these so I put them under the awesome column)
• No more Pizza Hut (and spending a small fortune each month on gas)

Not so awesome things about the job:

• Every 28 days it goes from 1st to 3rd shift. Might be a little tricky.
• Its in a factory and Mark will be working on the floor. He worked in a factory through college and always talked about how glad he would be to have a degree and never have to do that again. So it was a humbling position to take.
• He will have to work some Sundays
• Mark will be on his feet for 12 hours at a time doing monotonous work, which is painfully boring

All this said, we are really thankful for a job. Mark is going to keep looking and we are going to keep praying for what our role in youth ministry should be.

Mark has been training full time the past week and half, as well as delivering pizzas at night. He has been working like a mad man. The past week and a half I have only spent awake time with Mark once. Its been craziness! I am so proud of how hard he is working for us and to pay our bills and provide for us. Its amazing how he has pretty much paid every cent he has made in the past two years to Wayne State for me to go to school or to various health institutions to get me healthy. What. a. stud. Oh yeah, and while I am bragging about Mark. Even though its easy to say pish a factory job would be easy to get, over 1,000 people applied for this job, and they had 300 people take a test, and 30 interviews (or something like that) and Mark was in the top 4. So, yeah, he is awesome.

Mark is going to be done at Pizza Hut in another week. He is not sure when he starts his 12 hour shifts, but should be in about 10 days. My sisters are also coming home for Christmas break next week, and so I am prettttty pumped for that!

Yay for Christmas and goofing around!

Blogs I'm working on:
- ER rotation in Hastings MI
- Our last Wayne State bill
- Thanksgiving 2011
- Our new church
(hopefully that will make me do them!)

Love,
Brittany

God's Provision

I have debated how to blog about how God has provided in our life during this season - and I hope sharing this will encourage people, and truly show how awesome God is. I don't ever want any one to read our blog and think that "Oh yeah that Mark and Brittany, they are Christians and their lives are terrible and nothing is going right - I would never want that life". Which I assure you there are parts of our lives that seem to be going terribly and I am not sure how God will work them out, but I hope this post will encourage you that God is a loving God and intensely loves His children. He is a perfect father that wants to provide for us, and here is how he has done that for us.

After Mark's car was totaled, we learned that we would get $300 from a scrap yard for it, we were really wondering what we were going to do. We are not swimming in disposable income and $300 dollars would get us a couple wheels of a car. I need a car to get to my rotations everyday, and Mark delivers pizzas each night, which he needs a car to do. We got multiple offers from people to let us borrow their cars for a while, and then Mark got a phone call. The call was from a family that we know from church, and don't even know them that well, but they offered us their car.
 Not for a season, and not for a really great deal.
 For free.
And its not a junker, its a really, really nice car. A Ford Explorer in great condition. Something we could have never, ever gotten for ourselves. And the best part? When they said "please don't ever think of this from us- think of it as a gift from God". So now, we have an awesome new (to us) car, that every time I think about or see it I get a huge smile and think about how undeserving we are and how good our God is.
That's not it either.  Just after we accepted this car, we got a call from a family member offering us their car.  We had multiple offers from people to let us burrow a car long term, but two offers from people for a gift of a car!  We literally had to turn down the gift of a car because we already accepted one!  How are supposed to even process this mentally? 
And then.
(Side note: Cancer is very expensive. I don't recommend getting it unless you have very good insurance and are a millionaire. We have terrible insurance and so all these upcoming bills and bills that we have been working on for the past year are stressful. We know in our heads that money is not something to worry about and that God will provide and getting me healthy is priceless, yadda ya. But these bills have been a huge burden. They have been to me, but to a much higher degree, to Mark. He is working so hard for us every night delivering pizzas, and still looking for a full time job, but him not being able to pay for everything is a huge burden).
And then....
We have gotten three gifts of money from people.
We have not asked for these, and people just saw a need and God provided.
Each one?
$1,000.
We were blown away.
We have shed tears of joy over each one. We literally sit and just stare at each other speechless and laugh and cry. This is huge in our pizza delivering-Doster store working-babysitting budget. Huge.
God is so good.
I hope you read this and can see how awesome God is. How following Him is hard, and painful at times (I mean Jesus, who is our savior and example, died a horrific, painful death after all his friends deserted him, so I'm not really sure why we think this life will be easy, but that's another blog for another day). But God is a perfect father, who wants us to trust him, obey him and he wants to use our weakness to show His strength. Let Him.
Love,
Brittany

R.I.P. Chariot of Doom

I know it doesn’t look bad, but it’s totaled. The wheel is moved completely out of place and locked. Everything behind it is destroyed, probably through to the motor. The driver side door is jammed shut. Best part? Just had a ton of work done behind that wheel, invested hundreds of dollars. New struts, new ball joint, and a new controller arm. All broken in the accident.


One thing I learned in the accident: I am stronger than my car! Hahaha, not really. I’m incredibly blessed to have zero injuries from the accident. God protected me. And the other driver too.

PSA- put down the cell phone. Just do it. This whole situation could have been prevented by a teenage girl just putting down the phone. That text, that call, that picture isn’t worth it. It’s not worth the damages and it’s definitely not worth injury.

I cringed as I watched my car skid onto the platform with the wheels cocked to the side and not rolling.

Sad day. Lots of good memories in this bad boy.

You might be asking yourself, “What is a Chariot of Doom?” Let me tell you. That is what I named this beautiful piece of American engineering. People kept calling it a station wagon, but I knew this little guy had more in it’s heart and soul then taking kids to and from soccer practice. You might see a station wagon. But I see a verrrrrry small truck. Picture a truck with a topper on the bed. Now shrink that to the size of a car. I hauled stuff to and from school, to and from work sites, long hauls to and from Texas loaded with cargo. You tell me how that isn’t a truck.  And why shouldn't it have a name that reflects it's personality?

I sold the car to a scrap yard. Bummer. They don’t pay very well, but my car wasn’t worth much. So I guess all is fair. However, there was a shred of poetic justice in this situation. The scrap yard is an old drive in movie theater. The massive screen still stands as a monument of a bygone era, a place where people drove their vehicles to escape from reality for an evening. Now, it’s a headstone. A headstone that marks the final resting place of these very vehicles.

R.I.P.
Chariot of Doom
2001-2011
“Beloved little truck, stuck in a dainty little body”

Stayed tuned, next post: “So His grace may abound”

Worst. Week. Ever.

So.
Most people have probably heard all this by now, but for the sake of completeness (since we have been so complete in blogging our lives...) I will summarize everything for you.

Weekend before week at U of M: Awesome.
I felt like crap (I have to go off my thyroid medicine for 5-6 weeks, and since I have no thyroid gland, I have no thyroid hormones in my body. This was needed for the scans they were going to do at UofM). To give you a reference your TSH is normally about 0.4-4.0...mine got up to 75. So I felt extremely fatigued, and moody and so sore. Those were my main symptoms. But! I actually had a nice weekend. My littlest sister Lex was home, which obviously makes me pumped. I got to see our friends Michael and Mandy from Colorado twice while they were in town. Which was soooo encouraging and fun and just wonderful. Church on Sunday was SO good. It was amazing worship and just such a great sermon. They sang the song "Great I Am," which is an amazing song.  So I immediately downloaded to my phone and started listening to it on repeat. I think God was preparing my heart and mind a little...But back to my awesome weekend...I got to babysit Anna and Amy Saturday night. And Sunday Jenna came home and before Mark worked we got to have a family lunch/dinner. Anna and Amy were over to play Sunday and so life was just peachy. Oh yeah and MSU beat UofM. That added to the awesomeness  of the weekend too!

Monday: Pretty great.
Mark and I (and Lex - we had to drop her off in East Lansing on our way) head to Uof M. We knew it would be a whirlwind of scans and tests but all we could think about is the fun we would have staying at our apartment in Detroit that night. We were pumped. (And yes we still have our apartment in Detroit even though I am currently in Kalamazoo living at home - long story). So, U of M is extremely efficient and we zipped right around the hospital getting blood work, chest xrays, baseline scans and measurements for everything Tuesday. Oh yeah, and we had the best parking spot ever. Everything seemed to go really well. We went back to the apartment and rented a redbox movie and made dinner and just loved being in our own space enjoying a little date night. (Mark has Mondays off because that's usually our BSF night).  We had a blast. It literally felt like such a fun getaway!

Tuesday - Thursday: Terrible.
We knew this would be a busy day again. We got to the hospital on time and got a few hours worth of scans (literally). Mark waited patiently and nothing seemed out of the ordinary. Mark had to work Tuesday night (at Pizza Hut), and so my mom was coming to switch with him and stay with me. So my mom got there and we got to eat lunch with her - and Uof M has a realllllllly nice cafeteria. I am still on this iodine free diet so couldn't really take full advantage, but it was great. Well, then Mark left for work and my mom and I went to the next appointment which was the meeting with the doctor.
So we waited.
And they put us in the little room.
And we waited.
And waited.
And nervously talked. And wondered what was taking so long.
(the thyroid cancer clinic is not exactly booming with patients)
So in strolls the two doctors and she small talks for a few minutes and then...
The cancer is back.
And then she showed me on the scans where it wasn't there on last year's scans, and lit up hugely this year.
What?
This is suppose to be the cancer that you get with surgery and radiation and then you are done.
She explained that she was surprised to see this.
That 95% of the time the first treatment gets it.
That there were some cells on my right side of my neck behind my trachea that multiplied into this mass.
Ugh.
I was so thrown off.
So she explained how I would get radiation that day and then hopefully it would be gone. She had everything all calculated out (which is what took so long), and I was going to get that dose right now. Oh yeah and that my salivary glands were damaged from the last radiation. And now I get more. Double the dose of last year. Yay. Let me do a back flip I am so excited.
Ugh.
I was mad.
But the doctor was straight forward and just told us what to do.
And so we went.
Down to the cancer center pharmacy to get some zofran (to not be nauseous) to take before the radiation. I called Mark on the way. (Ummm fun call). He was so mad he wasn't there. I felt terrible for him. He was so upset.
But, we got the medicine, I gave my mom a hug (knowing that I would have to be in isolation for 5 days), signed my life away, and off I went for radiation. See last years post about isolation;
So we drove home as fast as we could. I cannot pee until I get home and in my own bathroom (and then have to flush multiple times, blah, blah, blah). I did not feel good at all, but my mom made me a PB and J and cut up apples for me (I am a 4 year old), and I went to set up my isolation station. Well like 30 minutes after I get home, I get a call from Mark. I usually don't get many calls from him while delivering, but I figure he is making sure I am still okay, but nope. He was in a car accident. A 16 year old was doing something on her phone (uggggggggggh) and ran a stop sign and smashed into the side of Marks car. He is okay. (Which I really am so grateful for, and literally the day could have been SOOO much worse if he was not okay- and I am so grateful that God protected his body). His car is totaled though. He just did all this work (see a few posts back) with his dad fixing his car up too. The girl got a ticket, and the police officer drove Mark back to Pizza Hut and his car got towed off to the shop. It was sad. But I figured Pizza Hut or his insurance (I feel like we pay enough for insurance that they would like send us a brand new car) would cover things. So I was able to sleep.
For an hour.
And then I was rudely awaken out of a dead sleep with a terrrrrrrible stomach ache. Literally my whole intestines hurt so bad, and I was so nauseous. Ugh. I went to the bathroom and I will spare you details but I puked up everything I have eaten in the past month. I could not stop. And I knew I was puking up radioactive material. How did I know? Well they told me that might happen, but I knew because I felt my sinuses burning like none other. Like that feeling of chlorine up your nose? Multiply that by a million and that's what it felt like. Unrelenting. And I could not stop dry heaving. And I am in isolation so no one could come near me. Mark and my mom were both sleeping upstairs so I just called the home phone and my mom answered. I told her to come immediately. I was really snappy with her and crying and she was amazing. (Side note: My mom is amazing. She really is. She had an emotionally hard day, and I literally bossed her around and snapped at her for hours in the middle of the night, and she was so patient with me, and called everyone we needed to call, and discussed things with the on call doctor at 4am. She could not come near me, or the bathroom, but she was so patient). (Another side note: You might be asking ummm where is your husband? He was sleeping. He just had a terribly emotional day, and I figured if the phone call and all my chaos in the basement didn't wake him up than he just needs to sleep. You can nominate me for wife of the year later ;). Also, he is not so good with puking and calling doctors for medical advice. And so, some things in life are just best handled by moms. And I knew he would be better suited to go to the store and pick up meds and handle all the errands the next day if he had a full tank of sleep.) Anyway. I literally thought I was going to die. I somehow made it through the night and next couple terrible days. My stomach felt like crap and I just felt so nauseous all the time, and my sinuses and glands all burned so bad and were so swollen (confirmed by a scan done today - so I really am not crazy). We also had to deal with Mark's car situation during these past couple days. Which was terrible. I am not even going into that, but it was stressful. And after meeting with insurance people we get....drumrollll....$500 from the PLPD insurance we have on Mark's car and the accident not being his fault. We had recently changed his insurance to plpd to trim down our budget. AH. And Pizza Hut doesn't have any reimbursement for someone hitting you while you are delivering for you. At least we have the 15% off coupon from Pizza Hut. Ugh.  I will let Mark discuss everyything else with the car situation.
 We were just a terrible duo those few days. Both of us felt like we were in way over our head and we were miserable but we could not be near each other (because I was radioactive). So any communication was texting or yelling from other rooms.

Friday: Ashes to beauty.
We had to go back to UofM for more scans and fun, and I was mad. I have not felt well, slept well, eaten and just am generally mad. But off my mom, Mark and I went. On the drive I had a huge meltdown. Actually, that'd be an understatement. Getting off the highway to the hospital I started lashing out at my mom and being so mean to her. I was sobbing and could not get control of my emotions. Anyway, I will spare you details, but I literally walked the whole way to the appointment (which is about 300 yards) sobbing with my mom and Mark trailing a few feet behind me (because again no one can be close to me - and I'm sure they didn't want to be). I am sure I looked hideous. I did not care one single bit. Luckily I got my act together while laying in the scanner and Mark played peacekeeper and smoothed over the damage I had done with my mom in the waiting room.
And so we left.
And I felt a little better.
And that's where I will stop for now. But things are looking up.
I will go back to UofM in 6 weeks for further tests, and they really wont be able to tell if all the cancer is gone until I go back in 6 months for more extensive tests.

Also, everyone who facebooked/emailed/texted nice things during this time. THANKYOU. I literally think I would have totally lost it without the encouragement and prayers that I received. You made a huge difference. Even though I did not return calls or texts well at all, please know you brightened my day. I went and read each message and the long string of comments on my whiny status on facebook at least a dozen times. Thanks!!!

Mark is posting soon. So get pumped.

Happy Anniversary?

Yes, that question mark is suppose to be there.

So this past week has been crazy, awful, gross, sad, and everything else. But let me catch you up by starting with the week before this one.

A few days ago I came home and there was this nice (like Hallmark) card sitting on the top of the mess on our desk. It was a fancy card, and I could tell had something in it like a gift card and something else. Sweet I thought, someone messed up our anniversary a little (or a lot) and we just got a little unexpected present. (Mark and I had not discussed this said card due to our crazy schedules - although we are living in the same room he is working nights and I am working days, so we don't chat much). Anyway, I saw this card and for some reason got really excited. Well my excitement was fleeting as I opened it I read that it was from Pizza Hut. And the gift inside? It was a pin. And the gift card? 15% off at Pizza Hut. Ummm...not what I was hoping for. (Before you think I am a huge brat - this is like week 6 of being off my thyroid medicine and in the middle of this terrible diet as I prepared for scans - and being just kinda discouraged in general). I was sad. I actually started crying. While I get as excited as the next person for a card and coupon (probably more excited than the next person).
I was not.
At all.
I was so frustrated with God. Here's what I was thinking "How on earth could we still be here, one year later God?" Mark has been delivering pizzas for a fast food restaurant for a year. I am prepping for cancer scans and still thinking about cancer a year later. We are still living in my bedroom at my mom's house, Mark is still applying/interviewing for jobs A YEAR LATER - uhhh God, this was NOT suppose to be like this."
And then I heard God say...
Nothing.
I just layed in our bed furious. And I cried and pouted. And wished we had so many other peoples' lives.

This is Amy demonstrating my attitude.
(P.S. I stood by and took this and love this picture - worst babysitter ever? Probably.)
(P.S.S. I took her for ice cream after and she recovered nicely)

Luckily, my pout fest did not last too long. I kept thinking about being content. I had recently listened to a sermon about how it is a sin to look at other people with envy (umm, confession - I look at some peoples facebook pages solely because I know they will get me all rev-ed up and make me jealous), and we are commanded to be content.
With Pizza Hut.
With living at home.
With the health situation I am in.
So. I decided (although didn't exactly feel it, I made the choice) to be content with where we are, and being thankful what we have been blessed with (which is sooo much by the way).

P.S. Being content does not mean that Mark is not looking for jobs (constantly), or that we are not getting treatment for cancer. Just to clarify that :).

Brad's Wedding

This past week, I had the incredible honor of being the best man in one of my closest friend's wedding.  It was so much fun.  I have known Brad for about six years now, and he is one of the men that has "spurred me along in my faith" the most.  Brad is one of those guys that is always only a phone call away and is quick to encourage, gently correct, teach, and just be an authentic guy.  Right now Brad is doing social work and taking seminary classes online with hopes of pastoring a church in the future.

I got to meet new people and build new friendships.  Getting to know the other groomsmen was a complete joy.  I think what made it the most fun was the fact that we all had very different personalities (outgoing and introvert, slap stick vs. dry humor), life goals (science, ministry, business, and adventure), interests (sports, fashion, authors), and geographies (Kalamazoo, Grand Rapids, Lansing, New York, and Chicago).  But we had one thing in common, a deep joy in our relationships in Christ.  This kept us up til all hours of the night discussing theology, the church, our roles as Christians within the church, and spilling our trials and triumphs with guys that we have known for about 6 hours. 

Because it would be too boring for me to recount the whole weekend (let's be honest, it's because I'm to lazy), I'm breaking it down into a list of highlights.

Highlights:

- Getting to spend a lot of time around Kevin DeYoung

- Eating ribs with the groomsmen until we were sick

Beautiful, isn't it?

- Enjoying great beer, great conversation, and better fellowship

- Doing what I do best, goof around!

Think I can pull off the cabby look?

- Standing next to Brad as he got married

One word, "Stud!"

- Dancing with my wifey

Ok, I know we aren't dancing, but isn't she pretty? Go Sparty!

- Meeting Ted Kluck (he wrote a book that Brittany and I really liked)

- Seeing old friends

The Dupuis', The Hass', The Imminks, and the Maronicks

- Hanging out with the Maronicks

- Giving the best man speech

Nailed it!

Congrats Brad and Steph!  We love you!

Work and Play

Recently we have had the opportunity to spend some time with my parents that has been really great!  I think we have to break down the time into two phases: work and play.

The work:

I think we can consider many things in our lives as both a blessing and a curse.  Houses (having a place to sleep vs. repairs), phones (having a place to play angry birds vs. phone contracts), jobs (making money vs. work), and the focus (this is a pun, hahaha) of this blog: cars.  In particular, my Ford Focus station wagon  (get the pun now?).  Normally, I'm used to getting a lot of comments about how my car is a babe magnet or how it oozes testosterone, but lately it's been aging a bit.  My car has been battling cancer, and I'm sad to say, it's not looking good.  My rear window motor quit working, so I have a road atlas jammed in it so that the window stays up. 

But the big problem was my front struts, the key component with the suspension.  So I called up Dad so that we could work on it ourselves and not take it to the shop.  I was told this should be an easy fix and save me some money.  It turned out to not be much of either.  Theoretically, the fix was easy.  Jack up the car, pull off the wheels, remove 5 bolts, and replace the part.  However, removing rusty bolts like being in a street fight (I'm in a ton of street fights, so I know from experience).  Things that you will encounter in both instances: anger, rolling on the ground, blood, bruises, dirt, frustration, and the satisfaction of knowing you kicked that nut's butt!  Literally took us hours to loose those bolts and nuts, broke a couple of tools in the process, including a Craftsman wrench (which are quality, guaranteed for life, American made tools).  Replacing these ourselves, probably saved us about $500!



My Beautiful new front struts :)

 However, this lead to getting my front tires replaced, which is where I found out my ball joint was shot.  So I took it into a shop, and when they were working on it, my controller arm disintegrated from rust  (re:cancer), so I had to get that replaced.  Then got an alignment done, and found out my rear struts were shot.  So we tried to fix that ourselves, and couldn't.  Brought it into the shop, got those replaced and new tires on the back.  So it was pretty cool to be able to spend the money that I saved so quickly (insert sarcasm).

Unsafe tires.  Notice the wearing on the left, yikes!!  My other front tire had wire showing...

Hundreds of dollars later, my car is back to being a blessing, except in my pocket. 
I'm sooo thankful for my Dad and the work that he did with me any my car :)

The Play:

Over Labor Day, we went out to the pines and had an awesome time!  We got to see my parents (of course), Grampa and Janet, and Matt, Christine, and Riley!  It was seriously so great so see all the fam!

We did a lot of hanging out, relaxing, did a ropes course, and had one of my favorite meals: a low country boil :)

Brittany striking a pose on the ropes course

Loooove playing with my little buddy Riley :)



Low Country Boil!!!  Hooray for Shrimp, Corn, and Sausage!!!



Summer update from Mark

Wellllllll, I guess it's been a while since I have updated the blog. Why does it seem like I start all my blog posts with "I guess it's been a while?"

It feels like nothing has happened in the last couple months, but at the same time, it feels like a lot has really thankful for time that I spent there. So with the end of chapter in my life, and next one yet to begin, happened. Most notably, my interim position at Gracespring came to an end. I learned a ton, and I'm I am in this limbo period. Orrrrrrrrr, as I like to call it, my free agency period. Some how, free agency always sounds way cooler on Sportscenter than in real life, hahaha!

But seriously, thank you for all of your thoughts and prayers as I seek to gainfully employed, aka, not delivering pizzas. I really appreciate it!

On a different note, Brittany is doing super great on her rotations as PA student! I seriously couldn't be prouder! She finished up her family practice rotation in July and made a great impression with her coworkers there. It was fun to see her thrive in an atmosphere that she enjoyed. However, I will say that it has been reaffirmed that Brittany and I sometimes (ok, often) have different ideas of what is interesting. I'm not exactly sure how many stories about oozy, gooey, needles pokey, infected, un-repeatable things that I stomached, but to see Brittany's face light up as she told me alllllll about these icky, yucky, gross, weird things, made all worth it. (Run on sentence anyone?)

These stories pale in comparison to what I'm hearing now. Ohhhhh the humanity!!! (read: over reaction) Brittany is currently wrapping up her rotation in surgery. She has seen and done things that are beyond description. But let me try. Imagine you are playing the board game "operation" but instead of trying to not touch to metallic edges of the oddly shaped incision as you remove the funny bone, you are desperately/frantically (your choice on the adverb) trying to wrangle intestines back into this persons body that are dancing out of this persons torso like those floppy/dancey/spastic (again, your choice) inflatable wind-people that are commonly found outside of car dealerships. (Seriously, what's with this guy and long sentences?) (And why does he keep asking questions in parentheses?)

Back to the point.

Brittany is doing great. My medical vocabulary is increasing(for instance, I now regularly use words like "palpate", "dermis", and "gross"). We are both excited for what the future holds in our lives(including, possibly/hopefully/fingers-crossed updating the blog more regularly).

Thanks for reading,

Mark

Mountain Biking

Mark and I love mountain biking.
I think it is our very favorite thing to do together. We have been going to Fort Custer recently on Sundays (Marks only day off), and it is so great. We actually have nice bikes that we bought back in college. (Funny story - we co-lead this youth group at Lansing United Methodist and we got paid well, and we wanted to do something fun, but at the time we were only dating, so we decided to get awesome mountain bikes so then it would be something we could enjoy together, but if we did not end up together we could each have a bike and go on our merry little way - well obviously we are stuck with each other and our matching bikes :)

So this past Sunday we mountain biked and as I bumbled along behind Mark I was thinking - marriage is a lot like mountain biking. Here is my analogy:

- I do best when following Mark. I have tried to lead us in biking. I get nervous and hop off my bike every other second, and go much slower because of fear. I can trust him to not do anything too crazy, and warn me when danger (like big jumps or logs or critters) are coming up. I just need to stay neatly tucked in following him and trusting his leadership. Just like in marriage.

- Some parts are easy and relaxing. You can just pedal and enjoy the beautiful view and catch your breath for the next challenge. Kind of like life - some seasons are easier than others.

- Some parts are very challenging. Some parts strain your leg muscles and make you nervous and give you bruises, make you bleed, and are hard to catch your breath. Kind of like the season of life I feel like we are in - we are being stretched and it is uncomfortable. We are being forced to trust in God's provision and faithfulness.

- Encouragement always helps. I love so much hearing Mark tell me how great I did on some little obstacle (the only kinds I can do - don't worry Mom), and hear him yell how wonderful and hard core I am. I try and encourage him along the way too, and I feel much closer to him and much more content even in the hard times when I hear encouragement.

- We need to ask each other how we are doing as we go. As well as encouraging him, I need to ask Mark how he is doing with the ride, and he needs to do the same for me. In addition to making me feel loved, it keeps us on the same page. Just like life.

Welp that's about all I thought of while riding on Sunday. Just makes me glad I have such an amazing husband, cool mountain bike, and beautiful pure Michigan places to hang out with my husband.

Love,
Brittany

Celebrations

Today I attended the state championships for girls soccer. Plainwell was playing, and it was awesome. I have gone to a few games, and they are really entertaining. I love soccer, and Lex has a few friends that play, and its just fun to sit in the crowd and chat. Anyway. Today, after a very toasty, intense 80 minutes of game Plainwell won. Plainwell girls are the state champions. I sat with my mom and Jenna, and we celebrated. We hugged and got way more into it than was probably necessary or appropriate for a family that has no one involved in the Plainwell soccer program. I watched them jump and scream and hug and people cry and run out and hug them so tight they spun them around.



Right after Plainwell won.
(I totally creeped and stole this picture from facebook)



And I actually got sad.

Sad.
In this moment of pure happiness I got a bit jealous. I thought I will never win anything like that. I will never win a big game or a race or triathlon and get to have everyone cheer and jump up and down with excitement. I wont have anything to celebrate like that.
And then I got thinking.
Nope, I wont.
I will never win a state championship for soccer, or a race or anything athletic. Ever.
But, we will have victories to celebrate.
We will celebrate graduating PA school next May.
We will celebrate (oh will we celebrate) when Mark gets a full time job.
We will celebrate beating cancer.
We will celebrate when first find out we are going to have a child.
We will celebrate how God is pursuing us and loving us and providing for us.
We will cheer and hug and spin around.
We will celebrate.


That is what God taught me today.
Go Plainwell.

Rotation #2 - Family Practice....

in...
KALAMAZOO!!!!!

Praise Jesus!
I was getting ready to start internal medicine at the VA (which I was less than thrilled with and had no idea when the next time I would see Mark is...), and I got the go ahead to head to Kalamazoo to start the next day. This was literally a last second come back. To say I was thrilled would be the understatement of the century. I have no idea why I had so much invested into getting this rotation in Kzoo (I think the whole living across the state from Mark was wearing on me), but I did, and when I found out I wanted to do a backflip. But I did not. Or I would be in the hospital right now.

I decided to surprise Mark at church on Wednesday with the great news. I thought (as of that morning), that'd I would be at the VA, so continued to let him assume that and just showed up at church where he was working. It was awesome. Even though he has already discussed in this blog how he is not a very good surprise receiver (like when I showed up in Texas), it was so fun. I cant wait to be with him everyday! Ah!

So.
I started today....and loved it!
I am doing the rotation at Promed with Borgess.
Today I got to see several patients, take out stitches, and cut off a bunch of skin tags from a guys neck and armpits. Which actually thrilled me. I am excited for this rotation!

Psych is sad....

Oh my gosh, psych is turning out to be really sad.
At first, there were sad patients, but many were also drug abusers, and that made it easier to swallow that they were homeless and had such rough lives for me. But lately, its been different. We have had so many young people in just terrible situations.
I the past few days I have seen:
-  A 22 year old college student driving her car, hit head on (not her fault) and has been in the hospital for over 2 months and will never be the same (her parents have gotten divorced over the stress of the accident).
- A lady with a BMI of 11(no joke) who weighed 60 pounds. It was being investigated if her husband was abusing her.
- A man who got tied up with 3 of his friends (after robbing someone), and his three friends got shot and killed and he got let go. And has been in so many street fights and in and out of jail.
- A girl who was high on crack and had her baby on the floor of her house while she was high (so did not get medical help for a while), her baby got taken by the state.
- A girl who got pregnant when she was 12 and her mom beat her when she found out. The girl is now 20 and wants to have a relationship with her 8 year old son.
- A girl who thought her son was being molested, and we had to call child protective services.
- A 19 year old girl who just gave birth to twins, and has a 9 month old and 2 year old, and we were called for her cutting her self because she was stressed out (really??)
- A pregnant girl who asked how she felt about her baby said "I don't want it"
- And today, was literally the hardest patient I have seen, it was a fairly young girl, who had just gave birth to her 4th child. She had her at 4pm yesterday, and I saw her this morning and she had not seen the baby yet. When I asked why, she said she didn't want to because she did not know what to do with it (she kept saying it even though it was a girl), and it was just heartbreaking. She had not named her. She did not want her in the room. She was not aloof, you could just see her heart being broken. She cried throughout the whole hour interview, and just said how she doesn't think she will be the best mom for the baby. She seemed to genuinely want to better her life, but has three other kids (two who don't live with her) and is just spinning her wheels. She said the babies father has no interest in her or the baby. She is living with a friend, and braiding hair for income. She literally broke my heart. She was really open with me and I felt like I was talking to a friend, or a sister. We talked about adoption a lot, which praise Jesus, thanks to my avid blog reading, and research into adoption I was able to talk to her intelligently. I literally was holding back tears.
This is just so not God's design.
 Babies are suppose to be celebrated, and loved, and prayed over.
 Families are suppose to rejoice.
 Dad's are suppose to be there to love and support their wives, and hold their babies.
 I just kept thinking of that poor baby girl down in the nursery, perfectly healthy but no had been there to see her. No one celebrated her birthday yet. It literally just like broke my heart. I wanted to lay down next to my patient and just cry. Then I wanted to take her and her baby home with me. It literally just broke my heart. Mark and I have wanted to adopt, and this just confirms it so much. Detroit is so broken. I want to adopt more than ever.I think of my friends who are pregnant or recently had babies, and how much support they get, and how their families are so excited, and how they celebrate each milestone, and how if there is bad news - there are people around them to speak truth and support them. This girl had not told anyone she was pregnant and no one had been there to see her. She did not have a relationship with her parents or any siblings. No friends had called or came.  So much brokenness.

Well, that is my sad story. But I really do love being in the hospital. I enjoy learning, and seeing patients and it's just a really fun thing. And, we do see lots of funny things still. Things that are a little less intense, and just pretty funny.

And, in other exciting news. I have a roommate! My little sister Jenna got an internship in Detroit this summer at Enterprise. It's great. We have never lived together outside of our parents house, and its fun! Minus the fact that in the first few minutes of her being here she opened the fridge and a whole carton of eggs fell on the floor and smashed. Oh yeah - I have a carpeted kitchen. Shoot me. Now we are trying to get the rotten egg smell out. Any ideas?

Other news: Mark has a phone interview Monday (also his birthday!!) at a church. Pray. We have literally gotten 530895 "no-you-are-great-but-not-enough-experience" letters/e-mails/calls. We are ready for a yes :)

Brittany

First Rotation!

I started my first rotation yesterday - and it's psychiatry at Detroit Receiving Hospital.

And....

I LOVE it!
It has been awesome. I honestly love being in the hospital and seeing patients, and my preceptor is so great.

Here is what our days have been like so far:

- Park about a mile from the hospital and take a shuttle with other medical students to the hospital.

- Try and remember where we are suppose to go.

- Wait for our doctor to come in and quickly tell us we are going to see patients (and we literally have to pop up and start our sprint).

- Follow our doctor (a psychiatrist) around (at practically a run) and he asks us questions all day, and we dont know very many answers - but he is patient and teaches us - and then re asks us later in the day (and we usually remember the answers).

- See interesting patients including: a  patient who is seeing cats running across the floor in his hospital room,  a patient who thought he was brought by a boat with his friend (which I assure you he was not), a patient from prison who had banged his head and cut it open and keep picking open the stitches with his nails, a patient who had attempted suicide with drugs with her boyfriend (who died), a patient who had voices telling her to kill herself with rat poison, and a patient who wanted a new room because there was a "big, black, insect hanging from the ceiling".

- Continue to chase around the doctor all day - by now my legs and feet are killing.


- Try to answer his questions, while furiously writing things to look up later in my little notebook.

- Eat my packed lunch in this little back office and totally enjoy sitting down. Use the restroom - we dont have any time to all day. I am pretty sure he would not slow down to give us enough time to use the bathroom.


- See other patients including  combative patients who need medications adjusted (usually increase in Haldol), patients who are way too sedated with their medications (usually decrease in Ativan), patients dealing with tough diagnosises (we saw and amputation, and a girl who just had a stillbirth).

- Watch our doc do wonderful interviews with patients. When they say crazy things, he just listens and clarifies. He asks them if they know where they are, who they are, and what the date is first with everyone. Then he asks "how the voices are", and if "they see any family members in the room with them at the time", "if anyone is telling them to hurt themselves", and always asks about suicidal and homicidal ideation.


- Get a lesson in something, yesterday and today it has been depression. The doc actually takes time and prints us a PowerPoint and gives us a lesson. Which this is pretty awesome, because he does not get any reimbursement from Wayne for having students, and I am sure he must get paid a lot if he would see patients, so it is pretty great he is taking time to do this!

- Done! Ahhhh, so great. My legs and feet can hardly move.

- Take the shuttle back to my car. Battle crazy Detroit drivers and get back to my apartment.

 Eat. Study (and read blogs). Sleep (yesterday I went to bed at 7:30, and had to force myself to stay awake until then -pathetic I know!)


We get to start seeing our own patients on Thursday (and charting) in the morning and then do rounds and present the cases to the doctor in the afternoon. I am pretty excited - and a little nervous!

This is the beautiful Detroit Receiving Hospital - very interesting there! 



Here is Harper Hospital - which we haul to like every other patient, what a walk!



My lovely little break!

I have had a wonderful little break here between year I and year II of PA school. It has literally been such a refreshing and relaxing time! I cannot believe I made it through year I of PA school, man, it was rough. I start my rotations next week, and have orientation the rest of this week. My first rotation is in psych, at Detroit Receiving, and it is a month long. The only info I know about it is to show up at 9am on Monday, May 2nd. No idea what my schedule will look like - should really just be an interesting year!

Anyway, here is a summery of the highlights of my break....

Lex and her awesome Harry Potter cake that Mark made her! (and I helped a little bit) She loves HP, and its suppose to be Hogwarts. It was verrrry tasty!!



For Lexy's 18th birthday my mom surprised us with a dinner at the chef's table at Zazios. I had never heard of the restaurant, and was a little skeptical, but it was absolutely fabulous and we felt very special!



For my moms (39th -ish) birthday we made cards of 60 reasons why she is the best mom every, and put them in balloons and surprised her in her room. She loved it! Yay!


Other highlights that I don't have pictures of are:
   - Sleeping in with Mark (today he woke me up at noon - after 12 hours of sleep - pure bliss)
   - Reading a non school book
   - Selling books on Amazon to make some money
   - Babysitting Anna and Amy :)
   - Easter and spending the day with Mark's family in Holland and Hudsonville
   - Getting a scholarship! Praise God!!
   - Getting a new computer (a verrrry early birthday present from my mom), but its an acer laptop, and was a great deal, and I LOVE it! (and my old one officially would not hold a charge - so had to be put down)
   - Getting to hear Mark give the lessons for the youth group twice, which is so encouraging for me. He is so gifted, and for me to hear encouragement in that is just huge in our lives right now.
   - Hanging out with Mike and Kelly (friends from college) at Applebees for a few hours, they are just great, and it was a fun time.
   - A MSU visit with Lex. I got to be her parent for this info thing, it was such a fun day, and we got lunch in the caf, which was probably the highlight. Its so fun hearing about MSU, and seeing her get excited to go there, and just to be on campus again. We went to the presentations, lunch, a tour, the bookstore, Bubble Island, and then to Trinity church to meet Ashley for dinner at Cancun (of course). It was such a fun day, and I just so enjoy spending time with Lex!
   - Celebrating being done with my first year! My mom took my sisters and I, (and Anna and Amy) to Carabas for dinner (Mark had to work). Such great food, and we all just had such a nice time!
   

Well, that was a little summary of my break!

Mark is still working at gracespring church until the end of June (when they are letting him go), delivering for Pizza Hut, and random jobs for money. We are not sure what is going to happen after June, we are praying for a full time opportunity to open up before then. Ideally in youth ministry, but would be open to anything. This has been such a difficult season of life, but we have much to be thankful for, we know that God is God, and God is good.

Love,
Brittany

Guess what starts tomorrow at 3pm?!?

SPRING BREAK!!!!

I literally cannot wait. I am almost giddy I am so excited. I feel like this means that I made it through the first year (even though I will have 4 weeks after I come back). But in those 4 weeks there are NO more write ups (the history and physicals we do at a local hospital and then write up in 30 page write ups...and they take hours upon hours and my hand gets so sore and wants to fall off), only 1 POPE (patient orientated practical exam = the most nerve wracking thing ever), NO PE exams from mosby's (which spelling counts and I spend eons memorizing spelling, which does not come naturally to me), so yeah...pretty pumped about making it this far! Praise Jesus!

So. What are we doing for spring break you may ask?

Well, let me tell you (this is also serving as a little accountability to actually get all these things done):

1. Taxes (ugh, but with all of our money going to school and medical bills we are hoping to at least not OWE money to Mr. Obama, that seems reasonable, right?)

2. Bills (we are STILL getting medical bills - and it seems like there are 439 from each appointment/procedure, but thankfully for once in our lives we were organized about something - this is literally the first time - and have a beautiful excel sheet to keep track of all these horrific medical bills)

3. Haircut for me (we cut Marks hair ourselves). I have not had a haircut since early July, and have terrible split ends, and my hair is just pretty gross (see super bowl post pic) - I think I am just going for a trim, but maybe I will go crazy and go a bit shorter.

4. Clean our room (this includes trying to eliminate the pizza hut smell from my lovely husbands uniform)

5. Clean my car (story of my life, I have no idea why I cannot keep my car clean. I blame it on driving so much back and forth across the state every weekend, and that seems to work, but yeah, def needs cleaned).

6. Study? That's on list, but we shall see. I have to do these health care issue journals that I have procrastinated all semester, boo.

7. Scholarships. (neeeeeed scholarships - see #2)

8. Babysit Anna and Amy (yippeeeee, I am not sure how many days I get to do this, but I am pumped. Its my favorite thing ever, and is a nice little help having some extra money)

9. Ultrasound of my neck. At 9am Monday morning. So pray everything looks good! I cant wait to we get to go to the ultrasound place for exciting things like babies, instead of seeing if they can find cancer. Blah.

10. Hang out with our friends Kelly and Mike Hass. Kelly was my roomie in our amazing Grand River house, and Mark was in their wedding as Mikes friend. They have 2 precious babies and just joined Crusade staff and moved back to Kalamazoo from Virginia! Yay!

11. Going to a meeting at Bethany Christian Services about adoption. This is just an informational meeting, and we are not even close to starting the process of adoption, but we are interested, and so we thought it would good to go and hear what they have to say. We both feel like God has such a heart for orphans, and we want a heart for what God does, and feel like adoption is such a sweet example of the gospel.

12. Going to Caraba's for some fundraiser thing that my mom bought tickets for with my family. I have never been there and am prettttty excited for some Italian!! My mom is also taking me out to dinner (because Mark is delivering) to celebrate surviving til Spring break

13. Spending much needed time with my amazing hubby. Things we are looking forward to include: sleeping in together (one of our favorite things), sleeping in the same house, catching up on The Office and Parks and Rec, practicing with our camera, and spending time with both of our families (including Mark's mom who currently is on a mission trip to Haiti...pretty cool huh? I cant wait to hear about it).

So that's it!
Some of the things are a bit less than glamorous, but I am so pumped to be home, with people I love, and not driving to Detroit Sunday night to go to school all week.

Oh yeah, and tomorrow I get to practice suturing on pigs feet at school! I am pretty pumped, hopefully I can sneak a picture to share!

Love,
Brittany

Photo Safari!!!!!!

We have been experimenting with our new camera and here are some of the results:

-Mark

Happy Wayne State is closed day!



This was our awesome super bowl party!! My mom made us little appetizers and we drank wine and had a good old time! Please excuse my pose. I have no idea....



Lex, as usual, was too cool for the team



We spent a weekend (Friday night through very late Sunday) babysitting the Engelmann boys. Mark took them sledding to wear them out for me (what a guy right?) Here is Mark and Thomas in their matching Carherts! ....On a side note babysitting an extremly energetic ten year old boy and a teenaged boy all weekend  (while Mark worked, and I tried to study) turns out to be a lot more exausting than we thought it would be. But we survived, it was fun, and it might have cured my baby fever for a while :)




Mark and I got to go on a lovely date the other night, and the moon was full and perfect, so we thought we would go out and try and take some pictures. Turns out we havent mastered the art of moon pictures, the moon looks dissapointing in this pic, but it was beautiful! (I have my backpack on because I was carrying it in from the car - I dont wear it all the time, dont worry)




My beautiful sister Jenna and I! She has moved home for the semester, and it is so much fun. We have been getting along so well, and I love just bopping around with her all weekend. P.S. Somtime Mark will have to share his story about moving Jenna into her new apartment (which was awful and they moved her right back out of).

 Mark drove to Detroit today, and is staying for tomorrow. There was another big snowstorm and school was cancelled today! Mark braved the weather and got here this afternoon and it has been absolutly wonderful, its so great just having him at our apartment! He has hardly made it to Detroit this winter because of all the work he is doing and just my sucky crazy school schedule. School is absolutly nuts, and I will do a post about that later...but I am really trying to remember how hard I worked to get into school, how much of a blessing it is to be in school, and to be thankful.



Mark also has been taking lots of pictures he promised to share them soon!!
 
Love,
Brittany
 
P.S. Spell check is not working so bear with my terrible spelling please!

Real Grace

In my effort to be as transparent as possible, I feel like it's time to share this story because of what it taught me, even though I am still trrrrrrremendously embarrassed about what happened.  So here we go :)

About two weeks ago, I had a really neat opportunity to go to a conference in Lansing called, "Finding God's Will Conference."  It was cheap, close, and only one day long, it was a complete no brainer to go.  It featured two great speakers, Dr. Garry Frieson- author of "Decision Making and the Will of God," and came highly praised by my senior pastor because of how this book challenged his own faith many years ago.  The other speaker was Kevin DeYoung, author of "Just do Something," and perhaps one of the greatest living theologians, period. 

Brittany was going to come with me to Lansing and hang out with her friend and study.

The conference was at 8:30, and we had an hour and a half drive to get there, so it was an early Saturday morning.  I wanted to get there on time and didn't want to be late, because I was reallllly excited!  Like most people, I don't like to be late to things I'm really excited about, but in standard Mark and Brittany fashion, we were running late.  I won't say who wasn't shuffling around fast enough that morning, but I will say that it wasn't me... so I was beginning to become frustrated.

We were going to drive both cars to Pizza Hut, so that on the way back, I could just be dropped off there and this could save us at least a half an hour on the way home, because we have to leave the conference a little early so that I could be back in time to deliver pizzas. But, when I went outside to brush off the cars, I noticed that both of our cars were blocked in, a fact that shouldn't surprise me.  But it frustrated me.  It frustrated me because I was already in the early stages of frustration, and because I was trying to figure out the thought process of females parking cars (I live with 4 women, who drive 4 cars, who have a two stall garage that rarely has more than one car in it....), a quandary that has plagued philosophers and civil engineers alike for centuries. 

So I go back inside to get the keys to the car, that was parked by a person that wasn't the car's owner.  After I find the keys, I go to move the car behind another car that is blocking the empty stall in the garage.  Frustrating.  It's cold.  I have to brush off about eight cars in the process of solving this parking conundrum.  My wife still isn't even outside yet.  Growing more frustrated.  I get in the car to move it, turn it on, and have an polar, gale force blown in my face, instantly freezing my eyelids shut, preventing me from being able to see the controls in order to turn off this man-made blizzard and the radio that was kindly turned to the volume to it's appropriate level to instantaneously rupture your eardrums.  Growing more frustrated.

I finally defrost my eyelids enough to turn off the blizzard and "music," in to nurse my bleeding ears and frostbitten face and move this Japanese death puzzle (it was a Honda).  I proceed to move the car and cannot get the car back up the driveway.  Growing more and more frustrated.  My ignorance was finally relieved when I notice that the parking brake is on.  Ignorance is not bliss.  Who even uses their parking brake???  It isn't like we live in Machu Picchu or some sort of other mountain settlement were you are parking on a precipice.  We live in a subdivision that has a sign with its name on it at it's entrance.  It's quaint and lovely.  I park the car.  At this point, I am Frustrated.  Capital F, Frustrated. 

At this point, I finally see Brittany and grumpily assert, "Finally, lets get going," or something to that effect.  My tone and words were the opposite of endearing and encouraging.  I get into my car and pull out of my parking spot quickly because it's is a little difficult to get out of because of the snow and I was late and frustrated.  BAM!!!  I back straight into my Mother-in-Law's car.  I take a lot of pride in my driving and parking and being able to maneuver my car into and out of tight spaces and I can very loosely be called a professional driver (pizza delivery).  I am so frustrated and embarrassed, I don't even know how to act so I proceed to grunt loudly and kick piles of snow (not super proud of this, but that's what happened).

Brittany gets out of her car at this point and is frustrated (no doubt because frustration is contagious), and yelling at me for being so dumb and how we can't afford anymore bills.  I make some dumb comment about wanting to spend some money that wasn't on medical bills or school tuition.  She didn't appreciate this comment and I probably even tried to blame me backing into her moms car on her.  She starts crying.  (She claims that I started crying, but I didn't.  Even if I wanted to, I couldn't have because my tear ducts where still frozen shut from the Japanese death trap I have just freed myself from.)  She goes to tell her mom, cries more, and grows more and more frustrated with every passing second.  She is not at, or exceeding my frustration level.  we get into our cars and drive to pizza hut.  I didn't have to turn on my heater the whole way because I was fuming so much.

Here is where my lesson is learned:

We get to pizza hut and I get out of my car fully expecting to be received by a wife that is as cold as the arctic blast that I had experienced when I was stuck in that Japanese torture chamber, but was quite surprised at what happened next.  My wife got out of her car and greeted me with a big hug.  She told me not to worry, things would end up fine, and that she loves me.  Wowwwwww!  My mind equals blown!  I apologize and we end up having a great conversation and had a great hour and a half car ride in which we grew a lot closer together. 

I would be hard pressed to find a more REAL illustration of the grace of God.  This situation couldn't be a better real life view of the Gospel! 

Here I am, a slandering, rebellious, destructive, insulting, demeaning, blaming, and completely an annoying person towards my wife Brittany. Before I can do anything, she breaks down the wall I created between us and reaches out in forgiveness before I can even apologize.  After I apologize we talk about it and our relationship grows and we grow closer and trust each other more.  The damage to the car still had to paid for, and will be in order to make this situation completely right.  This is almost exactly the pattern of the way we are towards God.

WE are a slandering, rebellious, destructive, insulting, demeaning, blaming, and completely annoying people towards God.  But He chooses to reach out in forgiveness to us.  Because God is just and holy, and our sin has consequences, our sin needs to be dealt with in order to be reconciled with God and fully receive this forgiveness.  So in order to break down this wall between us, God sends Jesus as a propitiation (a two-part act that involves appeasing the wrath of an offended person (God) and being reconciled to them) for us.  Now when we believe in Jesus Christ and actively repent in his name, we are reconciled with God and feel His loving embrace.  After this, Sanctification(the process in which believer are pattern and grow in the likeness of Christ) happens and our life long relationship with God grows. 

God is good.  I thank Him so much for these clear examples of His love and forgiveness in my life.  Although I am still embarrassed about the situation, it is something I will never forget.  My prayer is that each and everyone of you will experience the grace of God in incredibly practical ways and that you can respond to them, pass along the grace, share your stories and grow closer to God and those around in you in the process.

 Romans 3:21-26.