Christmas, Baby and God's faithfulness!

So much has happened since our last post.  I have been horrible at keeping up with this thing! 

It is now December...  My favorite time of the year.  I love the smells, the sounds, the lights and the decorations.  I love being with my family and sharing life with each other!  This Christmas is a little more special for Charles and I since we are expecting a little one in March.  I keep telling my mom, who insists on buying Baby Miles Christmas things, that this isn't his first Christmas.  Next year will be his first Christmas.  I think she's a little excited.... like all of us, of course! 

Last time I wrote, Charles had just started a job at the custom wheel place.  It turned out to be an awful situation where he was treated horribly, but let me just say this.  It was a HUGE learning experience for him...for us.  We knew that the Lord was teaching him so much through the experience. 

I was in Cape Town, South Africa from October 8th through Novemeber 1st for Cape Town 2010.  The Sunday before I left, Charles and I were out walking and praying and just spending time together.  It was then that I prayed that the Lord would teach Charles whatever he was supposed to learn at that job, but that he would not keep him there a moment longer than what he had to for His will to be done.  The next morning, Charles was fired.  (For reasons that were not his fault...)  In worship the day before that. I just kept hearing that the Lord is faithful, to cling to what is true and to hold fast to His promises.  He is faithful. He is faithful. He is faithful.  I know now that the Lord was preparing me for the next day when Charles would call and tell me he had lost his job... only 4 days before I left for Africa.  We just had to laugh.  Isn't it so like God to answer our prayers, but not exactly the way we were thinking they should be answered?  His ways are higher!  He knew that Charles' time was finished there.  The day before I left, Charles received a call from a place he had talked to weeks before. He went up there and they hired him on the spot.  He's now doing fabrication on big tanks.  He likes it a lot since he's finally getting to create again and it was a little bit more money and way more what he went to school for.  Even though it's not exactly what he wants to be doing or what he's trained to do, this is a great learning experience for him.  We will take the better environment anyday though!  Praise God! 

We are learning more and more about God's faitfulness!  We are starting a course by Dave Ramsey on financial peace.  The previews that we have had are amazing and we have already started some of his techniques for getting out of debt and money management.  (Charles' school loans are looming....)

A couple of weeks ago we went to a parenting conference that was really cool!  We learned a lot, not just about parenting, but about disciplines in our own lives that we need to start now and continue throughout our lives.  It was great because it stirred in us things that we already new to be true.  It was the cry of our hearts being reassured.  Thank you Lord for your faithfulness!! 

I know that I say this all the time, but I can't say it enough!  I am so proud of Charles!  He really is the most amazing husband!  I could never have dreamed up someone better for me.  He loves me like I've never been loved before... I didn't even know I could be loved like he loves me.  He makes me feel like a woman... a woman who is worthy of being loved!  I thank the Lord that my husband is learning to be the head of the house like Christ is the head of the Church!  Jesus, please teach me to be a better wife and to respect and love Charles the way he needs!  

We have recently started reading Proverbs daily.  God's wisdom is so amazing and so practical.  I can't wait to share more about His fatifulness and His wisdom.

Ok, I think that's it for now.  So much for a "quick" update.  haha.

I hope you all have a very MERRY CHRISTMAS and a happy new year!!  May you be reminded of all you have and give thanks daily for the loved ones in your life!!!  (I'm trying hard to do that myself!)

Richest Blessings,
Casey