A Really Long Update on Jimmy and Rebecca

Well, we love to blog about our growing boy. But we decided to do a post to write about what we are doing these days, too!

Disclaimer: This is obviously a long post. We don’t think people are this interested in our goings-on, but we are hoping to print our blog at the end of the year (yes, you can make a book out of it!) so we have a copy of all these memories in our hands! I wanted to record for memory’s sake what Jimmy and I are doing in this season of our lives.

While these past five months have provided many precious times of being with each other and our new son, there have been many difficult times as well. Besides what I think would be the normal selfishness issues and “culture shock” of going from “married-couple-on-the-go-doing-whatever-time-and-money-would-allow,” to “married-couple-responsible-for-another-human-life-who-depends-on-us-completely,” I experienced some postpartum depression. Counseling from a wise elder from my church, great support from Jimmy and the ladies in my small group, and a low dosage of daily medicine helped things tremendously. I am feeling much better and Jimmy and I feel like we’ve had a fresh start together. We are thankful to God.

[Jimmy] I started a new job in March at Home Comfort Furniture, and I really enjoy it. It is definitely less stressful than my previous job. I’ve had a great time getting to know my co-workers and supervisors. My main task is delivering furniture to customers’ homes, but I also do my fair share of driving the delivery trucks, assembling furniture, and setting up and rearranging the four stores. We moved to our new warehouse a few weeks ago, and now we are right next to the RDU Airport.

[back to Rebecca] I started a new job recently too! I am now employed as a server by both Girasole Trattoria and Gatehouse Tavern in Wake Forest! They are owned by the same people, so I will work both restaurants. Last night I finished 6 days of training, and the night before I had to take a very detailed test on both menus. I was glad that I passed and now have the go ahead to work my own shifts!! I have really enjoyed waiting on tables again and meeting new people, and I am hoping that I can love my co-workers well. I pray that they would see Christ in my actions towards them and that I would have chances to share the Gospel with them. To back up a bit, I pursued this job as a way to simultaneously help our family make the money we need and to be able to stay home with Charlie during the day. I have very much enjoyed hanging out with Charlie! To back up even more, I quit my job at the church prior to pursuing this job. The several weeks surrounding this situation were some of the darkest for me since having Charlie. I actually walked off my job one day and did not go back. I tried to cast blame on another person for this decision… and the situation at hand when I left... I tried to blame it on my hormones… I tried to justify myself… but the Lord kindly and gently helped me see that I had been wrong in the situation and then led me to repentance. He showed me patterns of sin in my life I needed to see, and he softened my heart towards the person I wanted to blame. He led me to call the pastor I worked for to ask for his forgiveness, and then I sought the forgiveness of the church as well (through an e-mail to everyone) for leaving in a manner that did not honor the Lord, and leaving them without a replacement. Thankfully, Christ gave me some sweet encouragement during this time. The pastor and the people at Gorman were very forgiving, and since then, I have had several sweet conversations with one lady that goes there. They have given us until August 1 to stay in this house before moving back to Wake Forest, and they even paid an outstanding bill we had without telling us until after it was done. What sweet Christian love in the midst of the mess I made. I am so appreciative for the Lord’s grace in this situation and for their grace as well.

Now, on a lighter note, here are some fun things we have been up to….

A few weekends ago, Charlie went to Granana and Granddaddy’s house for the weekend while Jimmy and I had some awesome time together! On Friday night we went to Girasole. We had a leisurely time together eating artichoke and spinach fonduta, baked ziti, and an amazing flourless chocolate and hazelnut torte! Woohoo for good food! Saturday Jimmy worked some overtime hours at his job. I took him to work that morning, came home and slept in until 11 AM (oh, it was amaaaaaaazing…), caught up on some blogs I like to read, and cleaned the house. After I picked him up from work that night we went to Moe’s to grab dinner and then had a great time at the airplane observation deck at RDU!! Then we came home and vegged on the couch. Sunday we went to church together, spent a fun afternoon at Burger King after lunch reading the Word together, encouraging each other, and talking about stuff, then went to the Bruner’s Open House/Baby Gender Reveal!! Ashley had a friend make these amazing cake balls, and when everyone bit into them at the same time, we all saw PINK cake! It’s going to be a girl! How fun! We are excited to be able to watch them become a family of three! We had a great time together that weekend!

Ashley watched Charlie the following weekend while Jimmy and I had another date. Jimmy’s job had been pretty demanding for the prior two weeks, with his warehouse moving and then just the normal deliveries, so I wanted us to be able to relax together again while having some inexpensive fun. We ate Cook-Out burgers and shakes in the car in their parking lot and then went to the $1.50 movie theatre to see Rango. We were able to relax together, but we don’t recommend watching Rango…. we do, however, HIGHLY recommend the peanut butter/chocolate shake from Cook-Out!

Every other Tuesday night we’ve been participating in a marriage Bible study. It has been so helpful and practical, and we’ve gotten to know some great people from Gorman! The youth pastor from Gorman, Joel, is hosting this study. We have all laughed a lot during this study as well as learned a lot! Jimmy and I have also enjoyed some great conversations about our marriage as we prepared for each session by doing the homework. We still have a couple meetings left.

Precious time has been spent with small group friends too! We love hanging out together on Wednesday nights and also like the various times we get to hang out outside of small group as well. Jenny and I had breakfast together on Saturday and I get to see Sarah on Wednesday night! The  next several months will provide some opportunities to celebrate with and serve some of our peeps as our group will be helping the Kielsmeiers pack for their new adventure in California (while we rejoice that they are following the Lord’s direction we are SOOO sad to see them leave NC), packing the Porters so they can move into the new HOUSE they just bought, and as I mentioned earlier, celebrating with the Bruners in the pregnancy and birth of their daughter! We love doing life together with these people… fellowship with them is encouraging, edifying, and just downright fun.

For several months now, I have been enjoying trying new recipes for dinner and getting into a groove of menu planning and grocery shopping. Oh, this is (usually) SO much fun! I really enjoy cooking, and I’ve never had so much fun eating at home!! (I didn’t have a pattern like this of regularly cooking at home before we had Charlie.) Jimmy is sweet to watch Charlie while I have fun in the kitchen. Jimmy still likes to cook when time allows. We also like to read when time allows- I'm currently reading Emma and Jimmy is reading Shepherding a Child's Heart.