Happy Labor Day! {please take this moment to squeal over the baby workin’ man boots}

»Now I am officially certified to have a son named Silas Clark since I’ve recently finished reading Silas Marner and tasted a Clark bar for the first time. (It’s basically a Butterfinger.)

»Stephen and I had a very happy anniversary date thanks to our friend Becky who graciously spent her evening playing with Silas. Stephen took me to Pappadeaux’s a restaurant well-known for their fresh seafood. Our meal began with an alligator appetizer. Yes, you read that right—alligator! Of course with all that yummy batter, it tasted like chicken, but with a hint of “wild” to it. After gumbo, lobster, and filet mignon for dinner, we ended our date with carrot cake cheesecake. I’d never heard of such a thing before, but it was a hit!

»Last Saturday some Indiana friends were in town and met us for dinner at Garcia’s. During dinner Jamie had the unique privilege of giving Silas his first lemon slice. Silas looked worried, gave a delayed shudder, and then promptly decided he liked lemon and wanted more.»I’m constantly amazed at how far Baby can reach and how tall he can be when he’s grabbing at something. The other day he figured out how to play the piano on his own. He’s now starting to stand without holding onto anything, but only for a few seconds at a time. He now crawls on all fours (usually one knee, one foot and both hands). We’ve discovered that the little punkin’ belly boy LOVES cheese (yet again, taking after his father). The first time he tried it, he immediately began stuffing more cheese in his mouth than he could hold. Once we rescued the cheese cubes left on his tray, we realized he had cheese held tightly in both fists.

»Our piano is tuned! We had a missionary speak at church last Sunday, and he is also a piano tuner. He graciously spent hours and hours on two different days working on our piano. It took two tunings and a lot of adjustments to get the piano where it should be.»Friday night we attended a Diamondbacks game with a group from church. It was the second baseball game I’d ever been to. Silas was sporting his D-backs gear.»One of Bitty Boy’s new favorite toys is an orange baseball bat. Since the bat is so rounded, it looks like Silas is carrying around a caveman’s club ready to beat someone over the head!

So there you have it—little bits of life.

Just a little over a year ago I wasn’t at all sure that I wanted to part with our first car—our first car as a married couple, my first car ever, and Stephen’s first nice car. (Of course he had owned a beastly dinosaur of a car—his 1988 black Astro van. After many years of trips to Greenville, SC, hauling a van load of college guys to extension every week, losing its grill and hood, etc. we “sold” the old thing to the junk yard.)

Anyway, back to the beloved Impala. We bought the snazzy silver car in January of 2007 with over 137,000 miles on it. The previous owner had cared for the car meticulously, so it was in great shape. We loved that car! Road trips were always fun and comfy, and we made a lot of good memories driving through the cornfields of Indiana, the mountains of West Virginia, the lake front in Michigan, the ocean shore in Virginia. Although we had discussed owning the car for only a couple of years before upgrading to something newer, I had visions of someday strapping my babies in the backseat and cruising around town on my errands.

However, continued car problems have a way of bringing you back to reality. Our car seemed fine as long as it lived in Indiana, but I don’t think it cared much for the Arizona climate. (Come to think of it, the car didn’t do so well in the cold eastern climate. We broke down on a trip to Chicago on President’s day weekend.) It seemed we were having car problem after car problem since we came to the desert, and I quickly became disenchanted with an unreliable car.

We posted the car on Craigslist and actually had several people make offers on it without even looking at the car! I guess they needed a car—any car—in a hurry. Finally, someone came to see the Impala this Saturday, made an offer on it, and now it’s sold. I was still sad to see it go.

Now I drive a white 2004 Buick Rendezvous we bought on Memorial Day weekend. It’s great to have all the space to haul luggage, furniture, and such! Maybe I can post a picture soon.

Crossroad held evangelistic services Sunday through Wednesday with Evangelist Morris Gleiser. We were privileged to keep Evang. Morris and his wife Lynn in our “Moody Motel.” It’s been exciting to host guests in our home as we have an extra bedroom, bathroom and patio that are all connected. Our house in IN was too tiny to have overnight guests so we are learning the art of hospitality!

Each night we would come home from work, freshen up, attend the evening service, grab a bite of supper afterward and try to get in bed as soon as possible. Living 25 minutes away from church made the evening a little longer, but our Toyota Camry also needed a lot of tender loving care this week, so we were going back and forth to the Midas shop after services as well. Morris Gleiser graciously took Stephen to work one morning! I must say I have great respect for anyone who works until late and then attends evangelistic services at night. Since I’ve always been a school teacher who lived close to church (literally within walking distance or about 5 minutes away), I didn’t realize what an effort other folks have to make to be at church.

Thank you, thank you, thank you to all of you who have prayed for us to find jobs. What an adventure the Lord has given us! His mercies are new every morning. Stephen is working for Americus Logistics as an IT technician. It is a great office to work in, and we are so thankful Stephen gets to do what he loves! My job as a data entry clerk for the US 2010 Census has been so interesting. We are all in training so far, so it feels a lot like school.

I’ve loved learning how the census works. It is constitutionally mandated that we count every individual living in the US every 10 years. The stats from the census are used to assign the number of congressmen in the House of Representatives for each state, and to give the states their allotment of government funding. How fun to be part of something historical and of national significance. Make sure you mail in your census forms!

This past weekend, we had yet another serpentine belt break on us. The previous serpentine belt broke on a weekend getaway in Chicago in the dead of winter. Stephen’s parents drove four hours to come rescue their poor stranded children! This time the misfortune occurred just as we were returning from an evening walk in the park. As Stephen turned the car into our covered parking spot, the belt snapped, and we lost power steering. We were so grateful that it happened while we were home rather than on the east side of the valley where we had been earlier that morning.

Since being new to a city means that our network of friends is sorely deficient, we weren’t sure who we could call for a ride to Auto Zone. Thankfully, our friend from church, Ray, was able to help us out by giving Stephen a lift. However, the problem seemed to be that a bearing in the idler pulley had seized, and the pulley would need to be replaced along with the belt. Because by this time the Auto Zone had closed, Ray and his wife, Lisa, graciously lent us their car for the weekend. What great friends God has given us already!

Monday was car repair day. Thankfully the temperature has dropped to the mid to low 80’s, so the weather is perfect for being out of doors. (The arid climate really makes a difference once the temperature drops to double digits. Anything above 100 is hot, dry heat or no!)

Stephen was able to replace the pulley and the belt, and now our car is back on its wheels again. I have been so grateful numerous times for a man who can get his hands greasy and fix the car!

It’s times like these that I am humbled as I remember my need to be fully dependent on the Lord. While I don’t enjoy having to depend on others for transportation, I am thankful for the lesson it teaches me that nothing is under my control anyway. God is all that we need, and He is our One source of stability.

Last Sunday (just a week ago—hard to believe!) was our last service at Grace.  After the evening service, we were grateful that many of our friends there stayed to say goodbye.  We were humbled to be the recipients of generous gifts from several—in fact, the amount we were given ended up being nearly enough to cover all of our fuel costs for our travels!

On Monday morning, my family and several friends from church came over to help us finish packing and load the moving truck.  Packing went even more quickly than I thought, and it turned out we were basically ready to go by 1 pm.  We were temporarily stymied by a couple of problems with our car dolly, but a quick fix (thanks, Melvin!) allowed us to get on the road by 2.

After spending about 8 hours on the road and covering about 400 miles our first day, we spent a comfortable night at a Best Western in Rolla, Missouri.

It was neat to see the scenery begin to change the second day as we left Missouri, crossed Oklahoma, and began across the Texas panhandle.  The route we were following, down I-44 to Oklahoma City and then via I-40 to Flagstaff, follows old Route 66, so even though we didn’t really take time off for sightseeing, it was interesting to see the various historic memorabilia along the highway.   Perhaps someday we’ll have a chance to travel that route again and spend more time taking in the nostalgia, but for now we’ll have to settle for watching Cars again. 

We spent Tuesday night at a fairly seedy (but really cheap!) little motel in Amarillo, TX.  In the morning, we took off across New Mexico.  I was surprised to encounter periodic thunderstorms along the route nearly the entire way.  We entered Arizona mid-afternoon, and by early evening we were in Flagstaff, where we turned south the follow I-17 down to Phoenix.

It quickly got dark, and the steep descent from Flagstaff to Phoenix (almost 6,ooo’) and several construction zones made this part the most challenging driving of the entire trip.  We arrived at our destination at the Horkavy’s in Buckeye, AZ (in the far-west suburbs of Phoenix) about 10:45 that night after driving about 780 miles.

Thursday morning, some guys from Crossroad came over and helped us unload our belongings into the Horkavy’s garage.  It all fit!  We’re really thankful to have a place to store our things indefinitely while we continue to look for more permanent housing.

Friday we moved in to the house where we’ll be house-sitting for the next 10 days and then went to drop our moving truck off at the nearby Penske store.  Unfortunately while returning the truck our car had some problems with overheating, so we need to take it to a garage first thing Monday and get it checked out.  We’re once again grateful to the Horkavys for lending us their van to drive while we work on getting the car fixed.

On Sunday we attended our new church for the first time.  After the morning service, we were presented for membership and joined the church.   It was exciting to finally become a part of the ministry the Lord has called us to, both officially and in participating in the fellowship and worship together.

This week our immediate priorities are to get the car fixed and begin looking for housing, preferably an apartment or house that we can rent month-to-month.  I’ve got a lot of information out and some promising leads on jobs, so I’m hoping to hear back regarding some prospective interviews soon.  We’re praying not just that the Lord will meet our needs for transportation, housing, and employment, but especially that He will help us to be a good example of living by faith to our fellow believers here.  We would appreciate your prayers!