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26Feb/090

No Greater Sacrifice

Today I witnessed one of the most heartbreaking scenes I have seen in a long time. I watched as a young soldier, one of four on our flight today, said goodbye to his family as he boarded the plane. The whole scene caught me very off-guard, I was just doing my usual thing at the airport, headed for my gate, but as I arrived I caught a glimpse of this young man's face as I scanned the area for a place to sit. At first I just looked away, I did not want to watch, but yet I kept looking back. The sheer agony on his face, the way he held his wife and looked at his two sons (I'm guessing they were around two and four) was almost more than I could take just watching. As they called for the final groups to board, I saw him draw them close for one final embrace and as he held the younger son in his left arm, he wrapped his right arm around his wife and the older one hugged his leg. Her face exhibited a somber strength, no doubt the strength she will need until he returns and his face showed sheer agony, pure and simple. I don't know that I'll ever understand the emotions I was witnessing (I pray I never do), but my appreciation for our soldiers and their families changed today.

PS - During the short trip the flight crew acknowledged the presence of the soldiers and told us that they are all headed to Iraq. I pray God keeps them safe and they can return soon.

Filed under: personal life, travel No Comments

27Jan/090

Back In the Swing of Things

Hey everybody,

It's been a little while since I've posted, the holidays tend to really through me out of all my usual routines and it sometimes takes a while to get back to normal. Anyway, I'm glad to be back and I'm really excited about all the awesome things this year will hold. I think that with out a doubt, 2009 will be a year that I will look back on as a defining time in my life and in the lives of those around me. Lot's of big things happening, so I'm just getting ready to hold on for the ride.

Obviously, the main big huge thing is that I will be getting married this summer on June, 20! How freaking cool is that? Our engagement sometimes feels like it's going to last forever but it's really been moving along alright, today the widget on my homepage tells me we have 174 days left. We've enjoyed being engaged so far, but I'm really hoping these next few months move quickly!

There are some other cool things going on this year too. Sometime during 2009 (dates are still somewhat flexible) our church (Rolling Hills Community Church) will be moving into our first building. This will be a great new development for our church and will open up a lot of new doors for our ministry. I love our church the way it is now, but not having a facility really does put a lot of limitations on us and this will help to address a lot of those issues.

A big development in our country was the inauguration of our new president, Barack Obama, last week. It was a great time for our country and the world to see how a free country can operate. There are not many other countries in the world where the people can both choose their leader and install that leader peacefully. Admittedly I did not vote for him and I still have many concerns regarding his administration, but for right now, I can do nothing but wish him the best, vigorously support him when he is right, and oppose him when he is wrong. I do believe that his heart is in the right place and that he wants the best for our country, although we may sometimes disagree on what the "best thing" is or how to achieve it.

So all around this year will be a major time of "change" (man, I'm sick of hearing that, lol). I'm sure there will be both good and bad, but with God's help I hope the good will outweigh the bad and we'll all look back on 2009 with fond memories.

Filed under: personal life, politics No Comments

13Dec/080

It’s the most wonderful time of the year!

It's my favorite time of year! The weather starts to turn cold (we had our first snow of the year yesterday!), Christmas decorations are everywhere, and I can spend my evenings building a fire, drinking a cup of coffee, and listening to Bing Crosby sing White Christmas. Ahh, it's great! If you don't have any good Bing Crosby Christmas stuff in your iTunes you can start your collection by downloading this free holiday sampler from Amazon.

What is your favorite thing to do during the Christmas season?

Filed under: holiday, personal life No Comments

3Jul/080

Exciting new times!

It's been a little while since I've posted, I've been very occupied the last few weeks with a lot of things going on in my life. The big news of course is that last weekend Laura and I got engaged! A lot of people have been asking for the whole story so I'll try to write it all down at some point, but for now I can just say that we are very happy and excited about this new phase of our relationship. We have not set a date yet but the ballpark time frame right now is sometime next spring (maybe April). Thank you to all of you who sent congratulations. I'll get some pics up later as well!

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15Apr/080

Radnor Lake Fun

Last week was perfect Nashville weather, the sun was out but it wasn't hot, there was a little rain but not enough to cause problems and just enough to create a cool breeze. That kind of weather inspires me to get outside in God's creation and just enjoy the beauty, so on several days I went down to Radnor Lake to go hiking. I really enjoy that place, I'm sorry that I didn't make use of it more in college but I'm making up for it now. On one day in particular, I came in contact with a lot of wildlife, it all started when just as I started hiking, as I was rocking out with my iPod I wasn't really paying attention to what was in front of me, then I almost stepped on this:

From Radnor Lake

So, that freaked me out a bit. I don't know a thing about snakes so I don't know if this one is poisonous or dangerous at all, but I decided to avoid it nonetheless. Another couple miles down the trail and I came across several deer as they were just chilling out in the woods. One of them was eating just a few feet off the trail I was on. It was a pretty cool moment, I'm not sure I've ever been that close to a deer outside of a zoo before. As I approached it never left and I was able to take some fun pictures.

From Radnor Lake

And lastly I took this picture of some turtles, I didn't know they like to get together like this, but I saw several different groups of them huddled on logs throughout the lake.