3

"And the Lord spake, saying, 'First shalt thou take out the Holy Pin. Then, shalt thou count to three. No more. No less. Three shalt be the number thou shalt count, and the number of the counting shall be three. Four shalt thou not count, nor either count thou two, excepting that thou then proceed to three. Five is right out. Once the number three, being the third number, be reached, then, lobbest thou thy Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch towards thy foe, who, being naughty in My sight, shall snuff it.'" The Holy Grail (as if you didn't already know)

Ok...so thinking I could post everyday in the countdown to the big day was a bit ambitious. But hey, what do I know. Here we are, welcome to day 3. Three days til the wedding and the "to do" list seems to be growing. Laura is off tomorrow and Friday, so she'll be running around Montgomery. I won't be off until Friday, so the madness really begins then. Hopefully....Lord willing....most of the stuph will be done because we're moving Laura's furniture on Friday which will take a huge chunk out of the morning. Ah yes, gotta love the hectic life. Bring it on! :-)

BTW, I know I promised stories of the engagement, etc. If you'd like to hear the condensed version of that, you can click on My Fiance' in the links section. Maybe one day I'll get to the part of the story that is my favorite, her initial reaction. Somehow "oh crap" wasn't the phrase I was expecting :-)

Anyway, don't know if I'll post again before the wedding. If not, please keep us in your prayers. And drop by the big shindig if you get a chance, we'll be the ones up front with the new shiny rings.

Peace!

8

8:28.....Have you ever had one of those times when God reminded you that He's been there all along? I had one of those experiences. June 26, 2004, Laura (my fiance') and I were sitting in the crowd watching our good friends Russ and Jessi get hitched. As I sat there I thought, "Hey, that's cool. There anniversary is 6/26. Russ must have done that to help him remember. That dude is one smart....hey, wait a minute, Laura and I's anniversary will be 8/28. Score! I shouldn't have a problem at all remembering that..." It was at that moment that God put His mighty hand on my shoulder and I had one of those moments I had only read about.

For those of you who don't know alot about me, I moved back to Montgomery in 2000 after a handful of really tough years. During that time I felt God remove my calling as a youth minister. I worked a humbling job in a machine shop for 6 months sweeping floors, scraping grease, and loading parts (I was the only one in the shop with a college degree). I got divorced after 2 and a half tumultuous years, and basically came crawling back home looking for shelter.

My friends and my family helped bring me back (I'll get into that in another post), and then I met Laura, we dated, got engaged, and are getting married in 8 days (wow, one sentence that covers almost 2 and half years!)

Anyway, back to the story....it was in that pew...during that wedding...that God whispered in my ear, "Remember Romans 8:28... 'All things work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to His purpose'..." God had been with me all along. Through giving up my calling, dealing with the humility of working a "grunt" job, struggling through a divorce that rocked my world, He was always there. Coming home, getting back on my feet, refocusing on His message and His mission, meeting Laura and falling in love again (something I wasn't sure would or could happen again), He was always there.

So...my anniversary, 8:28, will always be a reminder that I never have been and never will be alone. No matter what happens, God will never leave. He loves me. He's looking out for me. What can I say, God is good!

Thank You Lord for being faithful to a child who lost his way...

9

We are now in the single digits!! That is hard to believe! Everyone tells you how time really flies once you get engaged. I remember people telling me that when we had 4, 5 months to go. Needless to say, I didn't really believe them, but they were right! A week from Saturday...

Hopefully, over the next few days I will get a chance to fill you in on how everything's going, how we met, how we got engaged, etc, etc. Most of you probably already know all of that, but just in case there's a person out there who stumbles across this blog. We wouldn't want them to be totally confused, noe would we? :-)

Anywho...stay turned for the exciting continuation of...COUNTDOWN TO WEDDED BLISS!!

10

The countdown begins...not that I haven't been counting down for the past, oh...I don't know, 6 months! 10 days from today I will marry the most beautiful woman in the entire world. I know some of you probably have other opinions (if you're already married, you had better), but you would all be wrong. God has truly blessed my life with Laura and in 10 days we tie the knot!

We are busy taking care of last minute details...you know, the ceremony, the music, the flowers, etc., etc. Did I mention we're trying to paint a few rooms in the apartment also?

Anyway, it will all get done AND it will be great! Can you tell I'm a little excited? Please keep us in your prayers as the big day approaches...

Ok, I promise there will be an actual "word" post eventually, but until then....more figures!! We move again to basketball. This is one for a kid in Elba, AL. Believe it or not, this one started out as Stephon Marbury. I had to sculpt hair on this baby. I think it turned out pretty good, especially for a first try. Anywho, let me know what you think...