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Royal Servants

Peanut butter and honey sandwiches for breakfast.

Waking up at 5:00am.

Heartfelt teaching and worship.

Students connecting with God.

Dairy Queen and (even better) Dairy Dream.

Rows and rows of tents.

It felt as though I had never left. Twenty four hours felt like a week. I had the time of my life...and I did not want to leave.

It's the middle of the night and I woke up with a strong feeling that something is wrong. I had just fallen asleep and I sat up unnerved. I tried to wake up John, but that is almost impossible since he sleeps like a rock and it takes literally minutes mixed with loud noises to even begin to wake him. Instead I began to pray for different people close to me. My mind started to wander to Jeremy and that's when the feeling got even stronger. I suddenly had this flashback of when I read this book in high school, Fresh Wind Fresh Fire, written by Jim Cymbala. In the book he talks about his rebellious daughter and how he woke in the middle of the night to pray for her the exact minute she was hitting rock bottom and chose to give her life to Jesus. I decided to pray for Jeremy even though I had no idea where he could be or what he could be doing.

As my thoughts wandered to more things, I began to calm down, all the while thinking about my baby brother Jeremy. Growing up, he loved our kitten Socks so much! I remember the way he showed his love for that cat by swinging her in circles by her tail, and throwing things at her =) I remember not even three or four years ago I was taking him to get icecream and a SUV swerved right into out lane and almost caused a bad accident. I screamed "Shit" very loudly. I then had to listen to my ten or eleven year old brother give me a lecture on how swearing was not healthy and I should learn to control my tongue. I also remember Jeremy telling me that lots of his middle school friends smoked but he was never going to because he wanted his lungs to stay pink. I thought back to the two weeks he spent visiting my in California at my apartment. We literally spent the entire time, watching 24 DVD's, playing tennis and swimming. We had long talks about his "stint" with marijuana, and I tried to talk in into being excited about leaving Cali to go on his first trip with Royal Servants to China. Jeremy was just starting to experiment with rebellion and was not excited about spending the summer with a bunch of "good kids."

Although I think he secretly had an amazing time i nChina, he came home even worse...and it has been downhill from there. Since that summer two years ago Jer has dropped out of high school, gotten into trouble for stealing, taken many drugs, recieved an MIP, moved out of my parents house, seriously almost had to sleep on the street on different occasions, and I'm sure many more things I can't even imagine.

He calls John and I on occasion, usually to ask if there is any chance of us buying him and his friends alcohol. We did pick him up a few months ago and took him to dinner at Buffalo Wild Wings. It was a very awkward time. We weren't sure to to act. Should we pretend we had no idea how he was living his life? Try to talk some sense into him? Preach at him? Sympathize with him, and saying how we know what he is going through? We ended up mostly making small talk, and ended with night with John asking him if he thought about the consequenses of his actions that would later take a toll on him. He didn't seem to care. He did send me a message on Facebook telling me he has to pay his MIP fine and subtly hinting he needed money.

My sixteen year old brother is on the fast track to severe consequences for his actions. I am not judging, mind you. I am aware I was probably just as destructive, only I chose a different path of rebellion. I had (and probably still do to a degree) a lot of baggage to work through. I do not wish that upon anyone, especially Jer.

I miss my brother. I wish he would come to his senses. I pray daily that he will realize his need to Jesus. I long for him to have his innocence back.

Alright, maybe I'll be able to go back to sleep now...

Finally...

My house is almost done. Although we are only renting and do not own this house, I am proud of all the painting and decorating John and I have done to make it "ours". These are just pictures of the living room, and they don't do it justice, but we are quite proud of how well everything came together. By the way, make sure to take notice of the hole in the door in the left corner of that last picture. Apparently the previous tenants thought it was useful for something! We use it for Fiona's kitty door =)

Lucky Dog

Twelve years ago this October, my dad went to the Humane Society and walked dog after dog trying to find just the right one for our family. After much consideration he decided on a one year old mutt who my dad was attracted to because she was friendly and entergetic, yet very well behaved. My dad walked to the front desk of the humane society five minutes before the closing time to tell them he wanted to adopt her. As my dad adopted her that night, the receptionist explained that the particular dog he had chosen was supposed to put to sleep that very night once they closed. When she was brought home for my brother Aaron's tenth birthday and my dad told us the story of her, we decided to name her Lucky.

For the last twelve years Lucky has been a constant in our lives. No matter where we moved, what we did, Lucky would always be at home waiting there to greet us. She loved running away to the beach and bringing us home a fish, long walks, and most of all human fo0d. On Sundays my mom would always cook a grand meal and when dinner was on the table and we would bow our heads to pray for the meal, Lucky would "join in" by whining...that's how much she loved human food. After the meal, my dad would gather all our leftovers and put it in her dish. She loved Sundays. We learned very quickly that we could no longer say we were going to take Lucky for a walk, instead we would have to spell it out saying "I'm going to take Lucky for a W-A-L-K"...becasue when she heard that word she would get so excited, almost hysterical. Even though Lucky was technically Aaron's dog we all loved her very much. My dad especially has a special place in his heart just for her. When he would go away on trips he would say to me "I really miss my daughter." I would say "Awww...thanks Dad." He would laugh and respond "Oh, I do miss you Danielle...but I was talking about Lucky."

Slowly, over the last year or so Lucky hasn't been as excited about walks. Her joints began to hurt and she didn't move around quite as much. In the last week or so she didn't move much at all, and quit eating. We made the decision as a family...Aaron took her to the vet and put her down today.

I called my dad (who is in at training camp six hours away) to tell him what time Aaron was taking her to the vet. Our call was lost and he texted me and said "I can't talk on the phone right now...my heart is breaking."

For me, it isn't even the fact that Lucky isn't alive anymore, but more that another chapter has ended. The final part of my childhood is over.

We are going to miss that girl.

May was an amazing month...

John and I were married on May 2nd. It was a beautiful, intimate day filled with friends, family, dancing, and so much more. My dad performed the ceremony, Shaundra Bloomberg sang, and I was surrounded by seven of my best girls all day.

For a honeymoon, John and I stayed at my Uncle's cottage on Clear Lake for two days before departing for Cancun. The cottage was a cozy, meaningful place to stay. My dad grew up there, it was where my parents and I lived for the first few months of my life, and we have spend many, many family vacations there. I woke up early one morning and sat out on the dock surrounded my nothing but peace. I sat there stunned at how beautiful and blessed my life is.

Then in was off to Cancun for five days of relaxation and great times. I figured since the wedding and reception went so well there was going to be a problem in Cancun or something. Yet there was nothing...our balcony hotel view was amazing, the timeshares we took shuttles to everyday were each so much fun...I could go on and on. Needless to say we were so excited to be there and thankful for my mother-in-law's gift of the honeymoon to us.