Christmas 07

You have to remember these pics are taken early in the morning, so excuse our appearance! lol!! We had a good Christmas. We made homemade cookies the night before and went to look at lights. We also opened our PJ's which is a new tradition we started last year. We had a beautiful, worshipful candle light service at the church plant the Sunday before....even Tayler sang and said it was very meaningful!!

Christmas morning, we woke up and ate Brian's mom's recipe that I began to cook last year. (see first pic) This will be a continued tradition. Christmas day was mostly relaxing, Tayler playing with gifts, and us as well (thank you Melody for the physical perfection books! and Laurie for the expresso cups! now, I need a machine and I will be in heaven!) Of course, Brian's favorite gifts were all Star Wars characters-although Hereoes came close. I was able to get him 33 original characters (from the 70's)from a neighbor and a case they came in. He had no idea!!! We also loved our gift cards. I especially love the one from my step mom to Pottery Barn (thank you Sharon!!)We then went to see National Treasure.(and I was able to look so chic due to Rachel's beautiful gifts!) Because we don't have family here, we do this every year as well. Enjoy the pics and a year in review to be coming up soon.

ps Yes, that is Chewbaca in the background with a Santa hat! Gotta love it!!

Merry Christmas!

We would like to wish everyone a merry Christmas!

FitnessbyKarin

Check out Karin's new blogspot!! She is starting her own business, which she has done before and did fabulous, so we will see.

wwww.fitnessbykarin.blogspot.com

Graduation Day

Yes, it snowed and yes, it could have been treacherous. However, after two years of work and sacrifice I just could not pass up the graduation ceremony. I wanted to go for the official recognition and closure of the completion of this degree. It turns out that the storm was not as bad as predicted and we made it with relative ease. I'm glad because it was a once in a lifetime opportunity.

It was really exciting being there with so many others and celebrating this accomplishment. There were only three guys (including myself) that graduated from my cohort. But, there were about 1,800 that graduated yesterday. Thankfully they had three graduations and many people chose not to come to ours so it went by relatively quick.

We had a good time even though it was a little sad to say good-bye to guys that had challenged and encouraged me over the past couple of years. Also, it was surprisingly sad to leave IWU even though I was only on campus a few times. I'm not sure if I'll pursue a doctorate or possibly a second Masters but I will enjoy this degree for now.

Our first snow (older post)

Should've done this a few weeks ago. But, anyway, this was our first snow of this year-for all of our Southern friends and family

Happy 13th birthday Tay!

It has become a tradition that we wake Tayler up at his actual birth time (5:00 am) with the house decorated for him. We then cook his favorite breakfast and sing to him. Here are a few pics of that. Can you tell he was tired?

We also took him to a movie and dinner with his best friend, Jake. They are silly!

Tayler's surprise 13th B-day party!

We had a surprise birthday party for Tayler last Saturday. He thought his party was next weekend as his birthday is today. We invited all of his friends and his little girlfriend via their parents. Brian took Tayler shopping that day and he came home to us all shouting "Surprise" It was a lot of fun and Tayler was truly surprised. Enjoy the pics! Some are blurry as I was too excited and they didn't turn out well.

Catharsis

I know Brian has used this blog for cathartic purposes in the past, so I think I will and actually need to as well. For a while now, I can point back to six months ago but probably longer, I have had so much anger in my heart. I actually told Brian in June that it was so strong, it scared me. I had a picture in my head of black weeds, more like thorns, wrapping around my heart and closing in on me. I was totally afraid. I had never been this angry or aware of my anger anyway. I am so disillusioned with the church; in fact I hate it....not the church as the people, but the institution. I am not saying this is the right attitude to have. I am just telling how I truly feel. I know some of you may be gasping.... as some have said, how can you hate the church and plant a church? How can you love Jesus and hate the church? In fact, I have a book in my house titled that- I should probably read it.

Just like I should read my bible.....I have been praying....but, not reading. In my defense, I have been praying for God to bring me back and I feel Him bringing me back. Thank God for that. There are many issues here that go deeper than just this, but this is what I choose to talk about tonight. Maybe my anger is with God as well for reasons that are too deep to go into tonight...I don't want to scare my Christian friends.:) ....more than I already have. Don't worry, just pray for my heart.

I hope this is making sense as my thoughts are all jumbled and I have been holding it in for many months and probably years. Maybe my anger is just my defense mechanism against the messiness of the church.....including my own messiness. I am just glad I am aware of this anger now so that I can deal with it. This is the first step in healing. I am broken, it is heavy, scary, and very emotional. But, I feel His presence and I feel His healing....the comfort is there.


To understand better if I didn't make sense, go to this

Our one year blogiversary...

Well, we started this blog as a way to let people know what was going on in our lives and to see the progress of our house. However, it has turned into much more than that for us. Some of our relatives have joked that we should just put on our answering machine "Hi. This is the Hume's. We're too busy to take or return your call. If you would like to know what's going on in our lives then check our blog". It's true- we love using our blog for updates, devotionals, random thoughts and pictures. But, this post happens to be about our past year and all the things you all have been through with us on this blog.

It started with us writing about our house and all of the things that went with it including not knowing if we would get approved for financing to having to move-in in just one day.We moved in the cold and rain with little help (Thank you again Tom Toussant!). We have discussed adoption and foster parenting. I resigned from the Methodist Church and started Restoration Church. Karin had a job advancement and began working at Pure Weightloss. My mother passed away and my father has been in the hospital several times this year. I finished my Masters degree.

Many people have come to our aid in prayers, friendships, finances and their presence this year and we could not have made it without those things. Our life has been anything but boring! We hope you will continue to journey with us as we enter another year. Tayler turns 13, Restoration will continue growing (or God will open a new opportunity for us), promotions, vacations and hopefully many more things to write about here.