The crazy love of our life

We love our dog, Sydney. She has been a fantastic addition to our life. In fact, I can't imagine our life without her. I am excited to wake her up in the morning and I am excited to come home from work in the evening and see her happy, playful self. She is absolutely wonderful and I feel so much gratitude for her. I thought I'd share a few pictures of our lovely puppy!


On a different note, Josh wanted to make sure that I added that we met some terrific neighbors tonight. Tammy and Jimmy Perez live across the street and a few houses down. They are a couple of the only neighbors our age! (They are 27 and 31). We had dinner at Buffalo Wild Wings with them and had a fantastic time! We're excited to get to know them better.

Have a great weekend!

Courage is fear that has said its prayers

I really like the Valentine's story that our pastor sent. It seems that many people view Valentine's day as a "made up" holiday created to boost Hallmark's sales and they boycott it for that reason. This is a great story that shows the true reason for Valentine's day. Enjoy! (I especially like the quote from Karl Barth at the end. It reflects exactly how I feel right now with the journey we are on).

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Valentine, the priest after whom Valentine’s Day is named, was martyred for the godly institution of marriage.

The emperor of Rome, Claudius, passed a law banning marriages. His reason was simple: men would not volunteer to join his Roman army with wives and fiancées to leave behind. Valentine knew that God instituted the family and His will included marriages. So, he kept on performing marriage ceremonies – but in secret. He would whisper the words of the ceremony, while listening for soldiers on the steps outside.

One night, he did hear footsteps. The couple he was marrying escaped, but he was caught. He was thrown into prison and sentenced to death.

Valentine remained cheerful while he was in prison and many people came to the prison to visit him. He even continued to perform marriage ceremonies while he was in prison! The jailer’s daughter would often visit Valentine in his cell and they sat and talked for hours. She believed he did the right thing ignoring the Emperor and performing marriage ceremonies.

On the day Valentine was to die, he left this girl a note thanking her for her friendship and loyalty. He signed it, "Love from your Valentine." That note, written on the day Valentine died –February 14, 269 AD – started the custom of exchanging love notes on St. Valentine’s Day.

Valentine was truly a man of courage. I like what the theologian Karl Barth wrote: "Courage is fear that has said its prayers." Let’s be as courageous as Valentine himself and bring about change to a world that’s hurting. Simply by serving as channels of God’s healing love, we can inspire more change in people than we might ever imagine.
Pastor Derek
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Valentine's Day 2008

Yesterday was our 7th Valentine's Day together... I can hardly believe it!

Not only do Josh and I work in the same building, but we work on the same floor. In the morning Josh surprised me and brought my favorite Caribou drink to my desk. Very sweet. Last night we went to dinner at Chianti Grill in Burnsville. We had a great time! We both got a glass of red wine with dinner (we're really into wine right now) and I told Josh that we should toast to something. He said, "let's toast to you" and I said, "we can't toast to me on Valentine's day". And he said, "Let's toast to our future family". Awww... could he be any sweeter?? He is so excited about being a dad.

We went to happy hour after work today and now I'm sitting at the kitchen table at 8:15PM on Friday night and I have to read 50 pages of articles and then write a paper on IT management. I'm pumped about it.... really...

The odds don't make sense

I (Whitney) am a very reflective, spiritual, emotional, and undoubtedly logical person. I tend to think in terms of odds.

• When I was 10 years old, 3000 young girls auditioned to dance in Superbowl 26. 300 were selected. I fell within that 10%.
• In April 2005, 95% of the test-takers failed the U.S. Customs Broker exam. I was in the lucky 5% that passed.
• Many people interview for the current position I have at Target. Somehow I was selected.

So in January when I learned that I was 80% likely to have a healthy and full-term pregnancy, I loved my odds. I determined they were even above the much-researched 80% liklihood. Given our young age and the fact that we don't smoke or drink (much), in my analytical mind I figured I was about 90% likely to not have a miscarriage. And then I did. This time I was devastated to be in the minority. I realized that when I beat the odds it was usually because I wanted it bad enough, I worked hard enough, and my incredible determination lended itself to making it happen.

So it's especially hard for me when I can't make this happen. No matter how strong our desire for a baby, there is little I can do by working hard and being determined. I leave it all up to God. And you know what- God doesn't care about odds. He doesn't know what it is. He is bigger than the odds could ever be.

I completely do not buy into the "everything happens for a reason" mentality. I think we live in a fallen world and tragedy happens as long as we are separated from our Creator and God's original plan. However, I do believe with my whole heart that God takes terrible situations, situations that are beyond our comprehension, and he makes good out of them. I became acutely aware of this during and after my parents' divorce. It was the deepest, truest, most gut-wrenching pain any of my immediate family members have ever felt. But since then God has poured innumberable blessings upon my family. I don't think there was a reason for their divorce, much like I don't believe there is a reason we lost our first baby. But I am certain that He will bring good out of the pain.

I am so thankful for the tremendous support we have received. I am especially thankful for my mom, Annie (Josh's mom), Sarah, Jessica, Cindy and others who simply poured out their compassion and cried with us. We are incredibly blessed to have an amazing support system. I also see God shaping, molding, and blessing my and Josh's extraordinary marriage. It is easy to be and grow in love during times of blessing, joy, and ease. It is through the times of adversity, pain, and struggle that we truly grow. I know that God is using this terrible journey to make our marriage even stronger.

I am scared, confused, sad. But I have hope and I know that God has a plan for our life. I will never waver in my trust and love for the Lord. I will praise Him in this storm. I will pray for His will to be done, even if it clashes with mine.

"You give and take away.
You give and take away.
My heart will choose to say
Lord blessed be Your name"

Just some recent pictures from our life!

Our house in the winter My beautiful friend Sarah and I on my birthday. She's getting married March 14th, 2009 and I am honored to be her Matron of Honor!
Brother Chris, his terrific girlfriend Becky, Dad, Josh and I on Christmas morning. Can you tell the picture is on auto-timer??
What Josh wears when lounging around the house. It scares me too.

We have a blog!

Welcome and thanks for visiting our new blog! We will be the first to admit that we don't lead a crazy life but we are going to blog about it anyways! With the recent events in our life, I was going to start journaling but I figured this is a sort of online journal and we can share our ups and downs with those we love. We hope you check back often!