Christmas is coming!!!

As Christmas nears we are getting so excited to celebrate the birth of Jesus once again! The boys and I have started a Christmas Countdown this morning....only 21 more days!! We have done very little to actually decorate for Christmas this year in our rental home. We decided to just put up the boys' small tree...it is going to be a Charlie Brown Christmas for us this year :) Just this last week a lot happened that I feel like I need to write down so that I will remember so here goes. Last Sunday we were still waiting on word back from our builder on costs and we decided to call our friend Mike and take him to Cushing to see the land that we liked. We decided to load up and go to church there in Cushing too before taking him around town. We got there in time for the service and upon entering the building we saw our friend, Angela Hobson's, Uncle Doug (the Pharmacist in town)...we got to talk with him and then he showed us to the nursery for the wee ones and then we went to church. It was a sweet service...very country, very traditional, but solid in the word and a wonderful message was shared about being in the fire and being molded by God through the different circumstances that we go through in life. After the service ended we saw and talked with Dr. Pyles, whose clinic Dustin will be working in when we start in August. It was neat to see them and catch up with them. We also met a very sweet young couple that has small children like us that morning. After the service we went to eat at the Steer Inn....sounds yummy, huh? Doug was there also with his family. We joked around with him and decided to share with him and ask his opinion about the land we were interested in. He was very hesitant and told us that it was too far in his opinion and that there was land available in Cushing (the land we found was actually Yale, about 7 miles north of Cushing) it just wasn't listed on the MLS. He told us to finish our lunch and come and pick him up at his home and he would make some calls and then take us around town.....awesome!! We were so blessed by him! We finished lunch and went looking at land and some homes with him that afternoon. We really liked the land in town but it was about 3 times more expensive than the farmland in Yale. He was so honest with us about so many things in Cushing and really opened our eyes to a whole new way of thinking when it came to purchasing a home in Cushing. When I think of Doug, I just think what a blessing he is. He didn't have to do that. Give up his Sunday afternoon nap to take us all around town and call people to come out on Sunday afternoon and meet with us and show us homes and land. What a servant...I thank the Lord for him seeing a need and helping us that afternoon...truly what a blessing he was. So we came back a little confused to be honest. We really liked the land in town but knew that it just might not work financially to build right now. We came back and started praying again about the plans the Lord had for our home in Cushing. Tuesday, we decided maybe we should just buy something smaller and live in it for 3-5 years and then we could build where we wanted and what we wanted. Our builder called on Tuesday and told us that the figures were not going to be in our budget. We were not surprised. Although we would have loved to be able to build a home right at the beginning, we really didn't want to be able to spend that much money on it right now. So we thought maybe we could buy the foreclosure home that was listed and fix it up. They only wanted 89K for it, but it looked like it needed about 100K worth of work. We had some time so we thought we would have our realtor call and check it out. Wednesday the realtor called and told us that it was closing that day. Weird. No go on the foreclosure. So for now, we feel like we will just wait until the middle of February and go and look at what is available and purchase something that we can close on in late May. We are so at peace with this decision. We will be able to buy something smaller on our current salary and then be able to pay off almost all of our medical student loans by the time we decided to buy something larger or build. We are very excited about that! We are looking forward to being in Cushing for Carson's Birthday! That is our goal, June 16, 2010...our first baby will be 6! Oh, my!...and just a side note...We have only 93 days until our mission trip to Honduras! Yay! I hope that you enjoy the Christmas picture...I adore it...I was unsure as to if it was going to get done this year but my friend Candace helped me pick out the outfits for the munchkins at Target yesterday (which of course my husband does not like....he thinks they look like a throwback to the 80's...what? I love them....maybe because I love the little munchkins that are in them soooo much!).....which reminds me, I saw this sign yesterday that I loved: Are you including Christ in your Christmas? I sure hope and pray you are for He truly is the reason for the season! Thank you Lord for sending your son, born to die, whose blood covers our sins and redeems us as your own if only we will choose to make you Lord and Savior of our lives and walk in your ways!! Truly a season to celebrate him and the gift of Jesus!