Jason turned 33 sometime recently didn't he?

As I've said before my blog is more of my personal recording device. It may not be up to date on time, but I usually go back and fill in the gaps to keep my memories fresh for preservation sake. Today, (January 3, 2009) Jason has taken the kids to Six Flags, and the crip that I am stayed home and was thrilled to have time to catch up on all of this.

Jason celebrated his 33rd Birthday on December 11th. 11 and 33 have become my spiritual markers with God. I don't know why, those two numbers just have become signs of His presence with me, and of my faith. So, as my husband enters his 33rd year of life in our 11th year of marriage, I'm excited about what God has in store for us this year.

We had a wonderful evening on his birthday at Red Robin Gourmet, his favorite place to eat his favorite Whiskey River Chicken Burger. So many of our friends, and my mom and Bill, surprised him and joined us to laugh and enjoy the evening. He was glowing when we got in the car, he was really touched and happy about who had come out for him.

Let me take a moment to write down some of my thoughts on my husband. In the last couple of weeks, I have been gone an extraordinary amount of time with my job, we have become Debt Free (still makes my heart skip!), I have broken my ankle (this too shall pass), he is making some possible changes in career (scary!), and we are walking through a valley with our Church family (uugghh!). With all that, my husband has stepped up to the plate with an inhuman amount of energy, an increase in his faith, and an unbelievable quantity of love and patience for me and the kids. He is now the sole laundry doer, bedtime prayer giver, dish washing, Christmas putting awayer, Grocery Shopping, kid juggling, dinner preparing, honey doing, fence rebuilding, support offering, master of our castle. I see the weariness creeping up on him often, and then I watch in awe as he pushes it away, puts on a genuine smile and plows on through with peaceful precision. All of this, while battling one of the worst colds I've seen on him in years. He's breathtaking, and he's my partner in it all.

The stress of working for Citi during this financial crisis, the stress of having me gone and now down, and the stress of dealing with our hurting church family is a lot to take on, but he's growing and becoming stronger through it. I love him so much.

With all that's going seemingly wrong at the moment, our faith is so secure, that we're actually super excited about what's around the bend. The difficult times fine tune you, and prepare you for blessings God has waiting, and we've known for awhile, the blessings in this next year are going to be fabulous. We've got new nephews and maybe nieces due to arrive in the next couple of months, God will reward Jason in his career I can just feel it, our faith is going to grow exponentially this year when we watch close friends be healed of afflictions, and there's going to be lots of fun times, vacations, parties, celebrations and more! Yippee! 2009 is going to ROCK! Let's get on with it shall we Lord!