LA Life 1

Earrrrly last Thursday morning, Titus and I caught a jet plane to Denver, then onto Los Angeles, for the reunion with and wedding of my bff Loren Gail Dearth to Mr. Harrie Trotman.

Too much happened to squeeze into one post, so here are the beginnings:

I just cannot even believe how much of the world Titus and I have already seen together - the flats of Indiana, the sunny Florida beaches, the streets of New York, and the hot spots in California!  I feel so blessed to be making so many wonderful memories with such a wonderful husband.

Only minutes after arriving in Los Angeles, we were off to Santa Monica Beach with the bride-to-be and two friends.  We had a pb&j picnic on blankets in the sand and played aggressive beach volleyball.  The sand was soft and pure, the sun was high and bright, and the blankets were spread out for relaxing.  It felt like... vacation!!

Afterwards, we walked along the pier and took in all the sights.  I was most impressed to see an artist crafting and selling caricature sculptures from clay - not your typical chalk caricatures.  We also watched a man "clean" a large fish and then "clean" his teeth with one of the fish's bones.  I would have loved to have had more time to people watch, but our traveling bodies were tired, so our time there was short.

Our time at Santa Monica ended with our toes in the water, and our bums in the sand...

It was a beautiful day!!

Love, Love, Love,
Jewel

A Gold Medal Husband and a Worthy Wife

After breakfast, devotions, and getting completely ready for work this morning, I crawled back into bed with my husband for a few more minutes of togetherness before leaving for work.  Oh how I love him while he sleeps - hair a mess, face so wrinkled.  Maybe because in his unconsciousness, I can truly see him for who he is - quiet, yet strong; still, but moving; humble, yet so empowered.  I laid my head on his chest - always so warm - and thought, "blessed."

I am so blessed.  My husband is a gift of true grace.  His patience is long.  His sacrifices are many.  His arms are always reaching and his heart is always open.  His love so much bigger than all my failures and shortcomings.  Our first nine months of marriage have not been without hurt feelings and difficult circumstances, but even when my heart feels OTHERWISE, I know I know I KNOW without any doubt that my husband loves me unconditionally and is unselfishly and sacrificially trying to be the best husband and to make me happy. He makes mistakes and wrong assumptions (and I do too! (PROBABLY MORE!)) but he loves me. He really loves me. I hope he can say the same about me.

With my head on his warm, naked chest, my next thought was, "I am the bride of Christ."  Such a beautiful metaphor.

On Mount Sinai, God declared that His covenant was a marriage contract, "The time is coming,' declares the Lord, 'when I will make a new covenant with the House of Israel and with the House of Judah. It will not be like the covenant I made with their forefathers when I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt, because they broke my covenant, though I was a husband to them,' declares the Lord." (Jeremiah 31:31)

This covenant was a marriage contract which was sealed with the sprinkling of blood. As we have partaken of His blood and His body, we enter into this new marriage covenant with our Lord Jesus Christ.
Our first and foremost responsibility during this betrothal period - our waiting for His return and our eternal union with Him - is to be faithful to Him. Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 11:2,
"For I am jealous for you with godly jealousy. For I have betrothed you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ." Faithfulness is expressed in a life worthy of the Bridegroom. We are to be presented as a chaste or pure virgin.


May I be found worthy in both unions...

Love, Love, Love,
Jewel

1st Family Camp

Last week, my sweet husband and I spent the week in a small, humble, room on the 100+ -year-old campgrounds that belongs to our district of the Wesleyan Church.  More than 100-yeasr-old!  In 100 years on our campgrounds, think of

♥The number of persons called into ministry!!
♥The number of lives committed and re-committed to Christ!!
♥The number of children who heard the message of salvation for the first time!!
♥The number of sins forgiven!!
♥The number of burdens laid on the altar!!
♥The number of relationships healed and restore!!
♥The number of persons healed!!

God has always been faithful to work in mighty big, mighty powerful, and mighty surprising ways on Fairmount Campgrounds!

Since Family Camp 2011, I have been anxiously awaiting experiencing Family Camp with my husband. Family Camp has been a part of my life for around twenty years, and is an experience that my husband has heard much about. He had no idea what to expect, but he very much enjoyed experiencing the Christian Community like he never had before.

Some of my favorite moments included:
♥Lying in bed, beside my husband, listening to an hour-long crazy, loud storm. A muddy campground isn’t necessarily the ideal, but we needed the rain and how powerful the storm was! I loved it!
♥Swimming at Kokomo Beach with my fun-loving husband and eleven crazy children that I love! When I arrived, my husband had 8-10 children lined up on the side of the pool and they were all jumping in one at-a-time in “wave” fashion. It was quite the show! We jumped, splashed, raced, dunked, and did lots of other crazy things in the pool. Riding in a 15-passenger van with my husband, two friends, and 11 children was no less than very entertaining.
♥Cuddling little bodies in the nursery. For at least the fifth year, I was hired again by the nursery directors to run the two- and three-year-olds class in the evenings. Some evenings were harder than others (getting decent volunteers was like pulling teeth!) and some were more fun than others, but every night I enjoyed cuddling Tea, Isaiah, Micah, Hannah, Garrett, and others.
♥Singing praises to Jesus under a tent in the rain. On Tuesday morning, another loud storm rolled across our campgrounds. Just as we started our worship time – 30 bodies gathered under a tent, behind the barn – the rain fell hard. It soon became too much of a “distraction” and a danger to the instruments and sound equipment, so we were ushered inside the children’s barn for the remainder of service.
♥Walking hand-in-hand or arm-in-arm with my husband around the campgrounds during the “cool” part of the day. The beauty of being on vacation was no agenda! We walked leisurely, stopping at various campsites and cabins, and moving at our own pace – slow!
♥Laughs around the campfires. Many of my friends are still getting to know my husband; those he is comfortable with have seen a side that he so often protects – the very funny side! Some of my best Family Camp memories have been late nights around the campfire. Although there were fewer fires, and fewer late nights this year, memories were made!
♥Chats with Christian brothers and sisters. No book, sermon, study, nor devotional can replace transparent, heart-felt, digging into deep subject matter conversations with sincere brothers and sisters in Christ.

On Sunday evening, the last Family Camp service of 2012, the speaker requested that all children's workers come to the tabernacle and bring our children on the stage following his direction. Because I had been in pre-K nursery, I hadn't heard the Message, but his point seem to be to implore parents and church leaders to stand up for the children, to protect their rights, and to increase their own faith that they may be an example and a rock for the children. It was a powerful moment; one that I was glad I could participate in.

The previous morning, I was able to help serve Communion at the family service. Looking back, I am so glad that I was asked to help, as it was a very powerful and formative experience.  How humbling it was as I repeated to each person

"This is His body and His blood,

which were given for you..."
realizing: He lovingly died for each one - each one of His children, for each of their souls.  Humbling, yet empowering, as I offered the Bread and the Juice; symbols of The Sacrifice, of amazing grace, of His broken body, which saved my broken spirit.

Love, Love, Love,
Jewel

A Full Life

The last month of life has been FULL - full of busyness, full of ‘firsts,’ full of memories, full of overtime at work, full of surprises; and as a result, full of craziness!

Some of the firsts have included:

Titus' first baseball game, June 26th:

Our Indianapolis Indians lost, but we had so much fun with our friends, Jeff and Amy, on their 13th anniversary. 

Titus' first trip to the zoo, June 29th:

 For our eight-month anniversary, I took the day off and we went to the zoo.  My husband saw a real, living zebra for the first time in his life, and I mourned because there were no elephants! BOO! In almost four hours time, we made it through 3 of 4 exhibits before a horrendous storm blew through and we were ushered into the basement by zookeepers. Upon exiting the basement, we were greeted by a forest of branches and foliage at our feet.On our way home, we were parked almost 45-minutes on the interstate while road-crews cleared fallen trees and over-turned semis.  It was a very warm, fun, and memorable day with my sweet husband!


Our first Cambodian house-guests:

For three days last week, we had friends from New York visit and stay with us. We were able to visit Titus' best man on a number of occasions when we traveled to New York to see Jessie at grad school, and when she graduated two months ago, we wondered when we would see the Nov family again!  We were so excited and surprised when they said they would be in Indiana, and we really enjoyed the few days with them - eating Fazoli's and Khmer food, playing Scrabble, and staying up late talking.

Other than working an unusually large number of hours this week, life has been fun and relaxing otherwise.
Titus and I are both looking forward to going to our church district's Family Camp next week. We'll be taking fans and a cooler and moving into a small dorm at the campgrounds this Sunday afternoon and returning next Sunday evening. I have almost 24-years of memories at the campgrounds, and I am so so so excited to make more this summer with my husband!

Love, Love, Love,
Jessie's proud twin sister,
Jewel

Another Fiance Visa

My future bayaw (brother-in-law) is one step closer to reaching his bride-to-be in America!

As of Tuesday, Aldean's fiance visa petition has been APPROVED [state-side] and we are really praising the Lord!!

His documentation should be on its way to the US Department of State now; and soon after, on its way to the US Embassy in the Philippines!

I am so excited for my twin sister, Jessie, and Aldean as they continue on this journey
 so unlike any other!

God has been so good to our family.
"Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!" (Philippines 4:4)


Please keep praying for Jessie and Aldean!

Love, Love, Love,
Jessie's proud twin sister,
Jewel

Staycation 2

Last Thursday, I took my second saved vacation day and my sweet husband and I took another one-day "staycation" to enjoy the blessing of a few extra hours together during the work week.

We slept until the wonderful hour of 9:00, grabbed our bathing suits, towels, and sunglasses; stopped for gas, coffee, and donuts; and headed west to Kokomo Beach.





Kokomo Beach might be one of NE Central Indiana's best-kept secrets. For only $5/each, we enjoyed hours of relaxing "togetherness" on the lazy river, in the leisure pool, and twice down the slides (then the lines became too cRaZY.)  We had lunch at a picnic table in the shade, and a few hours later, found ourselves at Markland Mall.

At Target, I found the perfect short sleeve, yellow, cardigan sweater to wear with a dress [that I can't wear without the perfect short sleeve, yellow, cardigan sweater (or some other form of covering up my shoulders!)] My husband found 2 pairs of good-looking cargo shorts on clearance for only $5/each. (I even convinced him to buy a pair that isn't plaid. Plaid doesn't go with everything you know.)  We perused a few more stores and enjoyed the best soft pretzel that I have maybe ever had (and the guaranteed first that he has ever had!)

Oh the way back home, our small corner of the world got it's first rain in more than three weeks; and it wasn't just a rain, it was a downpour - a "the windshield wipers won't move fast enough" kind of downpour.  It was both equally tense and relaxing to drive in the rain. :)

Despite the sunburn that is still bothering me six days later, the horrible embarrassment of locking my keys in the car at Culver's, and the discomfort of wearing wet clothes (due to locking my keys in the car in the downpour;) without my husband's input, I will declare it "the best day that we have spent together since our honeymoon."

Love, Love, Love,
Jewel

Our First "Just Us" Vacation

Vacation! Vacation! A happy time of year! Vacation! Vacation! With the one I hold so dear!

On Friday, my sweet husband and I enjoyed a wonderful few hours of "vacation" together in the Big City.  It was just one day, but it was so wonderful to just be together and to be away!  10-15 miles down the interstate, I realized that I had forgotten my camera at home [on the charger!] and I was so angry at myself!  10-15 miles later, I had convinced myself that we would have more fun without the distraction of a camera and needing to take pictures.  (I'm not sure the credibility of that statement, but at least I wasn't angry at myself!)

Our first stop: The Children's Museum of Indianapolis, where we explored the SpaceQuest Planetarium, CSI Flight Adventures, Treasures of the Earth, Dinosphere, and more.  We saved $10 using a coupon, so we each enjoyed a huge $4 ice cream cone!  I was initially hesitant to go to a Children's Musuem "just us;" we skipped a lot - legos and dress-up clothes, etc. - but we had fun! I learned a lot and had fun experiencing something new with my husband!

After the Children's Museum, we went down the road to White River State Park, and walked along the canal in downtown Indianapolis.  I couldn't convince my shade-loving husband to venture very far before he insisted on resting on the soft, green grass under a tree.  Sitting in the grass, we enjoyed a unique garden of colorful blooms, fragrant flowering shrubs, a variety of textured foliage and the sounds of water flowing down the canal.  It was the perfect spot and time for a blanket, picnic basket, and camera!

When we had just enough of the heat, we saw To The Arctic in 3D in the IMAX theater at the Indiana State Museum.  The 45-minute movie was well worth the $9.50 paid to watch polar bears in 3D on a 6-story screen! To The Arctic took us on "a never before seen journey into the lives of a mother polar bear and her two seven-month old cubs as they navigate the changing Arctic wilderness they call home."

For dinner, we took the recommendation of many people and tried Jasmine Thai at 4825 East 96th Street in Indianapolis. I was pleased and would eat there again, but I had higher expectations!

I have two more vacation days that I need to use [or lose!] before June 30th.  I'm not sure yet when I will take them and what we will do, but I am very much looking forward to them!  After June 30th, I will be saving my vacation days for a trip to Cambodia!  I'm already dreaming about it!!

Love, Love, Love,
Jewel

Thankful

After a long and grueling day at the office (make it three eight in-a-row,) and a meeting that made my head spin in circles, I was physically exhausted and mentally bankrupt... and actually feeling pretty sorry for myself.  Then I decided to check my e-mail one last time before running to my car and going home.

A sweet grandpa from our church has been put on a ventilator.

How guilty I felt for feeling so sorry for myself!  How grateful I am for health and strength, for a good job with wonderful people, an amazing husband and a nice apartment to return to at the end of the day.  How truly blessed I am to have a church family that encircles those who need prayer, care, and anything else from bed frames to bicycles to rides and anything else!

God is good. His faithfulness continues to all generations. The joy of the Lord is my strength!

Please say a prayer for Charles Sexton!

Love, Love, Love,
Jewel