God is so good!

so, i started filing our taxes online on sunday, and cannot stop thinking about God's faithfulness. what do taxes and God's faithfulness have to do with each other, you ask?

well... since we've been married, we have made tithing our number 1 priority. literally, that is the first check i write every month. that can sometimes be very difficult because 10% of our income could be used towards a mortgage, or for car payments, or we could go shopping. there's lots of ways i can think of to spend that 10%, and especially in a day and age where consumerism is at its peak and credit cards allow us to live a lifestyle of spending more that we make.

this year has also been financially "interesting" because i only worked for 1 semester, then we had a baby. because i was no longer in school, i had to start paying back my student loans; and because i was no longer working through the university, we no longer had state employee benefits, so we had to start paying more for health insurance as well as add joshua to our policy. (i know, this is getting personal, but i want to share this because it is hard to wrap our heads around the fact that God is bigger than our brains and that Kingdom economics do not work like what we learned in school.) so, basically, using 3rd grade math, less money coming in plus with more money going out equals something in the negative, right? well, no. that's wrong because the laws of Kingdom economics make the equation: faithful tithing equals abundant blessings.

well, we have been blessed beyond what we could ever imagine. we have a wonderful baby boy and somehow i am able to stay at home with him despite the math (and i am really good at math!). we've been careful about our spending and we were given so many gifts for joshua. we have absolutely everything we need and we are so happy. we lack nothing. seeing the numbers on the taxes just confirmed God's hand in our lives. logically, there is no reason for our income to have been greater in 2006 than in 2005. we truly are sons and daughters of the King.

this is the same thing that happened when we got back from malawi in 2005... i had been carefully tracking all the support money we had been given. when we left, we still needed a few more hundred dollars to come up with, but when we got back, nothing was owed. isn't God's math great?

as we seek His Kingdom faithfully, we are blessed abundantly.

joshua at 4.5 months

yay! we finally found that camera charger (thanks mike!), so i thought i'd post some pictures of joshua at 4.5 months (ie. from today). there's lots on flickr, so, i'm posting some of my favorites.

updates

well, since i haven't updated since before Christmas, i ought to start there. we had an amazing Christmas. it was small, but it was wonderful. well, we went to mike's parents for their annual Christmas eve party and that was definately not small. we got to see all of his family. we sang Christmas carols, exchanged gifts, swapped ornaments, ate lots of good food, and had good conversation. that was a lot of fun. then, on Christmas morning, we slept in with joshua. we opened gifts with just the three of us. then, luis, daniella, and romena stopped by just in time for breakfast-- ham biscuits! after having our own little christmas, we went to mike's parents house and opened more gifts.

not much has happened since Christmas. i was sick for about 3 weeks (not terribly sick, just that it has lasted so long) and then joshua got sick, but i think it's about gone now. so, we've been lying low since Christmas, getting some much needed rest. since all the festivities during the Holidays kept us out later than usual, joshua's bedtime was often extended, and he stopped sleeping through the night for a while. then just when things were back on track, he got sick and was waking up every two hours because he was so stuffy and couldn't sleep. hopefully we'll get back to his 12-hour sleeping pattern soon!

joshua went for his 4 month check-up a week and a half ago. they had to measure him twice because they didn't believe he was 27 inches long, which puts him in the 97th percentile for his height (he is taller than 97 % of all kids his age). he also weighs 17 lbs., which is the 95th percentile for weight. the thing is... he doesn't look heavy at all, quite the contrary. he looks very slim and narrow. he is solid and very strong. right at 4 months, he began rolling over (stomach to back), playing with his toys, and "cooing" a lot more.

oh, and i still can't find the camera charger, so, i can't download or take any more pictures until i do! also, mike got a video camera for Christmas, and hopefully i can eventually figure out a way to post some video footage of joshua.