Onwards and Upwards!

Turn your eyes upon Jesus,
Look full in His wonderful face,
And the things of earth will grow strangely dim,
In the light of His glory and grace.

GEEZ, it's been a long time since I posted a blog! It's been busy here at the Brawner household, and though I'd like to tell you it's slowing down, I have to confess that I think it's about to get CRAZIER!

As far as "time spent away from home", this may be slowing down a bit. Thursday was my last day working with children up at church. The spring semester has come to an end, and it won't kick back up till the fall. I am SO SAD to see this come to an end! I really fell in love with all my "little people" and will miss them dearly. I don't think I will be able to help out in the fall. I will be ready to POP when the semester starts and then once I do, haha, I'll have to take the time away with baby B. There is a possibility that I could start back up in spring 2011, but we'll have to see how things go. Also, our Monday night CBS (Community Bible Study) is coming to an end! I am also SO SAD to see this happen! I have never had such an amazing time at a bible study. Keith and I have made some wonderful friends, been in our bibles deeper than maybe ever before, and I also have had the chance to share my music in WORSHIP, which has been incredible. So, that frees up Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday. Keith's Wednesday bible study has finished as well, so that leaves Wednesday open... Looks like the only truly SCHEDULED event we have is Saturday night church service!

Wow! All this free time, you say! Not so fast... can you believe that in 5 months, yes, 5 short months, we will be a family of 4?! It is time to buckle down and start moving towards the fun and exciting craziness that this entails! Oh, and by the way, I'm just realizing that I never posted an official "I'M PREGNANT" blog. So in case anyone reading didn't know, I'M PREGNANT! I'm actually almost 17 weeks pregnant. That means in 3 weeks I'll be halfway through! There is lots of planning and preparing, and I probably need to start now. This is also the time of year when we start planning summer trips and visits. This will make time fly even faster.

It's so hard not to wish life away, by rushing to get to that next "fun date". Currently, the "fun date" I'm looking forward to is a getaway weekend in May. We are headed to Deer Creek Lodge for a going away get together for my brother and his wife. They are moving to Idaho in early June, if I'm not mistaken, and we're going to get in one last "hurrah" before they move and forget all about us here on the east coast. *wink wink* Jack will finally get to play with his 8 month older cousin, and the rest of us can enjoy the much needed break from the crazy jumpstart of 2010. Then on to May 25th, we find out the gender of little baby B! That will be a super exciting day. I still can't believe I'm actually pregnant. There is then a possible beach trip in July, and the next thing I know it, baby B will be making his/her appearance and the fall seasons and classes will all be starting up again. Whew! Let's slow things down a bit!

Here on the home front, we've been making a lot of progress. Good progress on all things emotional, physical, spiritual, financial... the list goes on. It is amazing to think that in 1 month Keith and I will celebrate our 2nd wedding anniversary! At our Community Group meeting last night, the question was asked "Why did you get married?" Ya know, it really made me stop and think for a bit. I wasn't really looking to "get married" when I met Keith. And I don't know if I ever really came to the point that I was like "I need to marry this guy!" It was just like there was a "duh" factor in it all. We just always knew we would from the beginning. In the whirlwind of these almost 2 years, (3.5 since we started dating) I never really took the time to say, why did we do this, and how did we get here. But ya know, just like God's will, the coolest part of it all is in hindsight. It's amazing to look back in hindsight and now understand "why" I got married and "how" I've gotten here. It was OBVIOUSLY all GOD! And literally everything in our entire life together has been all GOD, including our current situations and the way we look at our future endeavors. We are living out faith in a way neither of us knew existed, or thought was attainable to us personally.

With all of this "wow, that sounds wonderful" situation (or maybe I'm the only one thinking

that... haha), there is also so much challenge and spiritual attack that we go through everyday. Since we have really made this decision to have faith in all present and future intentions, it seems like recently we have really been under attack by things of the past. Things that haunted us before we changed our life decision. Things that we can't move away from without revisiting them. I hate this. It is such a roadblock and a PAIN in the neck. The amazing thing about it, is that one by one GOD is helping us resolve each and every roadblock so that we never have to see it again and can move forward and keep our focus upwards!

This week we were able to put one more thing behind us that will help us move forward together as a unit. That was awesome. Praise GOD! :D