The Fingerprints of God

I'm sitting here with all sorts of stuff tumbling about in my head: We spent some short, but high-quality, time with our families and got much more than we probably deserved (at least, I did); school starts back up in a week, and I have to start planning for our first week back; they say here that the weather is supposed to take a turn for the worse, but I'm guessing that to us it will be like the Opening Days that we experience every April, so I think it will be bearable (though I didn't like driving in it in Michigan, nor did I enjoy shoveling it, I would welcome a little bit of snowfall over the next few days). But mostly, I'm thinking about our house. We went to Lowe's today and looked on Sears.com to check out some deals on a few appliances we need to buy. What's on my mind specifically as I write this letter, however, is our new refrigerator that we are going to buy. Though I don't yet know which model we will end up purchasing, I know that it will be black to match the other appliances. Those of you with children know what black appliances (and black cars, black countertops, etc.) leave behind...fingerprints. And fingerprints are where my thoughts skipped to next.

On everything we ever touch, we leave fingerprints. We all know this, because when we put our glasses on or take them off, we try so hard not to touch the lenses, because we're going to have to take them right back off and wipe them because just the slightest touch will leave a fingerprint that looks fifty times larger when right up next to your eye. We all know this, because when we tried to get cookies from the cookie jar when we were children, we must have left fingerprints behind, because Mom always knew when we'd been in there. We all know this, because when Horatio Caine puts his sunglasses on and does his horrible over-acting, there must have been fingerprints left behind that are going to help the CSI: Miami crew solve the crime. There are fingerprints everywhere. You know what? It's not so different with our Father.

God's fingerprints are all over our lives. He is orchestrating all things beautiful every second of every day. He loves us and wants us to come to Him to celebrate our successes, and He wants us to come to Him for comfort when things don't go like we had planned. If only we let Him, he wants to have a hand in every part of our lives, leaving his fingerprints all over us. This year, we let go of what we thought we wanted, and we let God do His will in our lives, and as Robert Frost wrote, that has made all the difference. Let me share with you how the fingerprints of God have made us new.

In late April, Lisa asked me if I would ever consider moving back to Tennessee. I said absolutely not, that I was happy where I was, we were looking to buy a house in Michigan, she was in the middle of her grad work at Eastern Michigan University, and everything seemed to be going well, according to my plans. One of my favorite sayings comes to mind now: "Want to make God laugh? Tell Him your plans." Shortly after He stopped laughing, He got His hands really dirty and left all sorts of fingerprints over what would happen in the next month's time. One day in early May, at most two weeks after I had quite resolutely said "no" to my wife's thought of moving, I called her and asked her the same question: do you want to move back? I believe now that God had spoken through Lisa, planting that seed in my head that maybe we really were supposed to move back to Tennessee. It took no convincing at all, and soon we were planning our move back to where we first met. There were so many uncertainties in my head, but I can picture God at that moment, rubbing His hands together, cracking His knuckles, and saying, "Okay, time to get to work!"

What are we going to do for money? Will I be able to find a teaching job? Am I going to have to wait tables again? Where are we going to live? This is Michigan...HOW ARE WE GOING TO SELL OUR HOUSE??? Here are the uncertainties of which I wrote above, and those are no small problems. But there He was, knowing my thoughts, ready with the answers, all of which are so unbelievable that I still can't wrap my mind around them. It turned out that I wouldn't have to wait tables again, we wouldn't need to worry about money, and we would know where we were going to live, because God had a teaching job waiting for me. I had already flown to Tennessee, interviewed for three jobs (two of which I turned down offers), and had no leads. Then one day, a woman who would end up being my principal called me and asked me to interview for a sixth grade middle school position. The day after our last day of school in Michigan, I interviewed for the position and was offered it an hour later. Here is where God's fingerprints showed up so clearly in this, and why I am still amazed to this day: I never applied for, nor had I ever even heard of this job. I accepted the position, and Lisa and I continued planning our move, now with not-so-heavy hearts.

We still needed to sell our house, though. Many of you know how daunting a task selling a home is, let alone trying to do it in Michigan during these times. But check out these prints: Our house sold within two weeks of my acceptance of my position! Can you imagine God laughing and having Himself a good ol' time while making all of this happen? It's truly mind-boggling.

Continuing to leave His fingerprints all over the place, God moved us to Tennessee in late July after we signed a six-month lease on an apartment in the city of Spring Hill, less than ten minutes from my school, and everything started to snowball. Shortly after moving, Lisa applied and was accepted to Lipscomb University to continue her graduate work. After being offered a position as a seventh grade special education teacher, we were informed that Lisa's work in the program at EMU wasn't enough to warrant teacher certification in Williamson County (where my job, and the position she was offered, were). The principal who had offered Lisa the position held it for her while Lisa worked tirelessly to find a way to hold on to this position...she wasn't the only one at work. As you may have guessed, once again God's fingerprints were found at the scene, as Lipscomb University sent a letter to the county, stating that she indeed had fulfilled enough requirements to warrant teacher certification. Lisa had her first teaching position! I am so incredibly proud of her, and we are both now proud teachers in the finest school system in the state of Tennessee.

One might think that with God's fingerprints all over our lives thus far, that it would be enough, and I would agree, but God apparently did not. He led us to our new church home in Leiper's Fork, which is only minutes from Lisa's school (and which you can visit by clicking on the Grace Chapel link on the right!). This church is unbelievable and we are so happy that we have found a place where we can worship the God who has blessed us so richly. In November we celebrated our fourth wedding anniversary, which have been four of the most wonderful years of our lives. We also celebrated Grace's fifth birthday! (Grace is our beautiful silky terrier and shares her birthday with our wedding anniversary - or I should say we share our day with hers.) And of course, as you may have already read, we bought our first house and will move into it at the end of January!

God's fingerprints haven't stayed in only our lives this year, but are found all over our families, too. In May, Sarah Ann Chanter was born to my sister and brother-in-law, two months early. Sarah was in the hospital for a long time, but she's grown big and strong and healthy, and now joins her proud big brother, Steven, in keeping their mommy and daddy from a regular sleep schedule. Earlier this year, after many years of working for State Farm, Mom (Darlene) retired and is now relishing her retirement as she spoils Steven and Sarah, and yes, even Grace! Our brother-in-law Steve was promoted to the rank of lieutenant earlier this month, and we are incredibly proud of him for this accomplishment.

The fingerprints of God were found on our shoulders as He comforted us when we lost two important members of our family this year. In March, Lisa's family had to make the difficult decision to euthanize their dog, Molly. Molly was so much fun, and I loved playing with her. She was a great friend and a very loyal companion, and she is missed. In October, Lisa's grandmother (her dad's mother) passed away. Fortunately Lisa was able to fly up to Michigan to say her last goodbyes to Nina. That was a rough time for the family, but again, the fingerprints show that we weren't alone.

This year we moved, acquired great educational positions, found a wonderful church, celebrated another awesome year together, saw our families richly blessed, and were comforted in times of sorrow. If Horatio were on the case, it would be a very short episode, because the evidence of God in our lives in abundant. His fingerprints are all over, and we couldn't be more in love with God. This new year, we pray that you will let Him do His will in your life, welcoming the fingerprints that will come when you've been touched by the hand of God.

As for the fingerprints on our new appliances, well...we'll work on accepting that.

Merry Christmas!

My plan was to send our Christmas cards, and then write our Christmas letter and post it here. Well, as you have figured out, I've not quite gotten around to writing the letter yet. But here's my thinking: It's a letter about 2007, so I still have two days in which to write it, so that's what I'm going to do.

Here's an update to the poll you've read at the right: I beat Travis in bowling! That's right, in a three-game series, I whooped my little brother, and he cried all the way home. By the way, he had all his faculties working so there are no excuses. Personal note to Travis: it's okay T.J., some day you'll be able to beat your big brother, but not today!

We're still in Sparta, but leaving soon. I should probably start packing. Please pray for us for a safe trip home, and for all of the fun (please note sarcasm) mortgage paperwork to come! Love you all!

News

It's not "baby" big news, but the next best thing: we bought a house! We made an offer on a house last week, and yesterday the sellers accepted our offer. We close and take possession on the twenty-fourth of January, and we are so excited!!! God has blessed us so richly in so many different ways. Here's a picture of the front of our house.











You can take a look at some pictures of our new house by clicking the following link: http://www.realtracs.com/MediaDisplay.aspx?ListingID=1067411

In other news, well, there isn't a ton going on other than that. This is the last week of the semester here in Williamson County, so my kids are doing some closing tests while Lisa's kids are doing their final exams. As you can imagine, all of the children are very excited about it all! Believe me, we're just as excited.

We're going to be heading home to Michigan later next week. With all these new developments, we want to get as much done as we can before important people leave town, so we'll miss Christmas with our families. However, we'll still be in-state during the twelve days of Christmas, right? That counts for something, I'm sure.


The weather is getting colder here in Tennessee, and it should be staying colder for a little while. I haven't seen where we'll have more 70-degree days again anytime soon. There's no snow in the forecast, but I'm sure we'll get our fill next week in Michigan!


That's what's going on here. Hopefully everyone is doing awesome, and enjoying the holiday season thus far (I got a great new Christmas tie from my Secret Santa today!). Love and miss you all.

TWIT Notes (This Week In Tennessee)

Not one of my better titles, I know, but I'm lacking a certain creativity at the moment, so you'll have to forgive me. So let's see, what has happened this past week or so here in Tennessee?

We had our first celebrity sighting the other night when we went to Macaroni Grill for our anniversary dinner (for those of you who sent us cards, phone calls, etc., thanks!). Actually, I'm not sure you'd really consider him a celebrity, considering I don't know if he's going to release an album or not. Anyway, Chris Sligh was there. For those of you who don't know who he is, he was one of the finalists on last season's American Idol. We liked him, but he was around longer than I think he should have been. Anyway, that was our run-in with pseudo-celebrity this week. One of my student's father is Toby Mac's keyboardist, and I've met him a couple of times...does that count?

Our Wii was delivered last week, and I can comfortably say that we are completely addicted to it, Lisa moreso than I, I think. The Sports game wasn't working properly when we got it, so I had to call Nintendo and have them send us a new one, which we haven't yet received. But our favorite game is currently Big Brain Academy: Wii Degree. It's an awesome game that helps you with memory and other brain-related activities. It's highly addictive, as evidenced by our recent late bedtime. Hey, I figure there are worse things to which one can be addicted, right?

The weather has been nuts here. One day, it's 45 degrees, the next 65, the next 50, and now on Sunday it's supposed to be 72! I don't miss the snowfall those of you in Michigan are getting, but I miss the consistent weather. Hopefully it'll get cold and just stay there soon!

I can't blog today and not mention the huge baseball news that took place today, news about which I'm extremely excited! The Tigers traded six prospects (including Cameron Maybin and Andrew Miller) to the Florida Marlins for Dontrelle Willis and Miguel Cabrera. I think Major League Baseball can go ahead and print those World Series tickets right now, baby! I'm going to try to talk Lisa into going to Florida for Spring Break and perhaps catching some Tigers games in Lakeland.

No new news on the house-hunting front. We're shopping for a realtor now, and have a few houses in mind that we really like. We'll keep you all updated on that.

Right now I'm totally procrastinating on getting the work done that I need to get done for my third and final classroom observation on Friday. Now that I've actually written those words of admittance, I think it's time I get back to doing it. Love you all!

The Latest about Everything...

Lisa's folks came down for the week of Thanksgiving and did some Grace-sitting toward the end of the week while we took a day-trip to Chattanooga. We went to the Tennessee Aquarium, which was awesome! We took a bunch of pictures, some of which I'll try to post on here later. If you ever have a chance to visit the aquarium, please do! Anyway, the folks are back in Michigan now, back to the chilly cold and snow. Ron thought it amusing that while they were here, he heard a lawn-mower start up, rather than the snow-blowers that he was used to hearing already.

We got our Wii! I'm unbelievably excited about it, and I think Lisa is too, though maybe not as much as I am. It'll be fun and be some good exercise at the same time, which I desperately need. Some of my students were actually jealous that we got it, and I think that's hilarious. I'm looking forward to Travis visiting so I can kick his butt in bowling on it (as well as in real life...bring it, bro!).

The first step in our first home-buying experience is done: we were pre-approved for our mortgage! I know it's a miniscule step in the process, and the actual pre-approval doesn't mean a whole lot, but it's something! We're going to be looking for a realtor next and then get even further along in the process. We'll keep you updated!

We are celebrating our 4th wedding anniversary on Thursday, along with Grace's 5th birthday! We're excited about them both, and we appreciate everyone's continued prayers every day.

Love you all
Todd

Wet Wednesday in Spring Hill

Okay, so today was our first day of Thanksgiving break, and of course since we're not teaching and can get out to enjoy the weather...it's pouring! Ah well, what are you going to do? Grace is enjoying the rain, and Ron and Gail are enjoying that it's not snowing here.

Lisa's folks were able to come down to spend the week with us for Thanksgiving and to do some Gracie-sitting while we go away for a day or two this weekend for our anniversary. We're planning on just getting a hotel for a night down in Chattanooga, going to the Tennessee Aquarium, and just enjoying a little time away with each other.

I got my new glasses today. It turns out I have the same prescription that I had with my last glasses, but I wanted new glasses and have insurance, so why not? I really like them a lot. Lisa ordered new glasses too, and she got hers in the other day...but the wrong ones. Instead of some very stylish-looking glasses, she got some not-so-stylish red ones. I think they actually look pretty good on her, but she thinks her students will laugh at her. Anyway, the insurance company sent the wrong pair, so they're fixing that. Hopefully we'll get Lisa's glasses early next week.

Michael, a guy I teach with, is from Ypsilanti, and is a huge Detroit sports fan like myself, and we're really looking forward to watching the Lions kick the Packers' butts on national television tomorrow. We're outnumbered at school 3-2, because two new teachers and our guidance counselor are either from, or have ties to, the Packers (Dee Dee's husband played at wide receiver with Favre in college, Kris and Matt are both from Wisconsin). I didn't make any bets with anyone, but Michael lost a bet with some kids in his class last week over the Ohio State vs. Michigan football game and had to do 20 push-ups in the middle of each science class. That was pretty fun to watch. It serves him right for being a Wolverines fan.

We just got back Nashville about a half hour ago, and I always love driving into town. We went to pick up Lisa's parking permit at Lipscomb (where she's working on her Masters degree), and tried to return a sweatshirt to a store that has been closed twice now since I've wanted to return it. I was at a conference in Nashville last week and got really cold, so during lunch I walked down to this store (the only one I found on Broadway that sells clothing) and bought a Vanderbilt hooded sweatshirt, intending to return it later (I kept all the tags on it and everything). So I've driven into Nashville twice now, and it's been closed both times. Perhaps I'll call next time. But I love Nashville, so I don't mind the drive.

Our anniversary is next Thursday, and it's hard to believe Lisa's put up with me for four years now! I love this beautiful woman more than I've ever loved anything or anyone in my life, and I'm so happy that no matter what else happens in this world, there'll always be us. The date, November 29, is also significant because it's Grace's birthday, and she's going to be five years old! I think I'm in for a shock when we have kids, because I always hear from people how quickly their children grow up, and I've always sort of dismissed that as cliche, but Grace is just a dog and she's growing up so fast! I can't imagine how fast it's going to go when we have kids!!!

I am going to take my new glasses and go read for a bit. I've been wearing them as I write and I have to say, they're working very nicely! I hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Loving and thinking of you all always.

Lazy Saturday

Okay, it wasn't really all that lazy. I had a conference today, where I went to four different math workshops. They were awesome, and I'm looking forward to using some of the things I learned in the classroom. When I got home, we took Grace over to Longview Elementary and we played soccer in the courtyard and then on the playground. I think that's her favorite place to play around. Lisa put Grace's soccer ball on one of the swings, and Grace walked to the swing, got up on her hind legs, and literally punched the ball off the swing with one paw. She then continued to play soccer by herself while we just watched and laughed. That dog is just too much!

We're contemplating buying a Wii. Those things are just way too cool, and there are games for everyone (including uncomplicated ones that Grace's grandmas can even figure out!). There are a ton of other features on it that look really neat. The problem is, noplace can keep them in stock long enough for us to go and buy one! I'm sure once Christmastime rolls around, places will be stocking up on them, so we'll just have to wait for a few weeks.

Lisa's parents are driving down for Thanksgiving in a couple of weeks, and we're really looking forward to that. We want to go away for our anniversary, so they'll serve honorably in the roll of Gracie-sitters for a couple of days. They enjoy that, though. I'm hoping to get some Amish friendship bread from someone at school to make in time for Thanksgiving (if you've never had it, it's awesome, and very easy to make...I did it, after all!). I don't know what's going to be on the menu.

Our search for a house is about to come into full swing. I'm doing some research and educating myself on all the intricacies of buying a house and saving money doing so. There are a handful of houses in which we're very interested. We're going to start within the next couple of weeks with finding a good mortgage lender and realtor, then it'll feel more "for real." I'm so excited about this. Though it's very nice, I don't particularly care for the apartment, especially after living in a house for the last 4 years. We're also very excited for Grace, who will have her own backyard in which to run around and play soccer without us having to drive to elementary schools and other playgrounds (though we do it gladly).

Both of our jobs are going very well. I love teaching middle school so much more than I thought I would. There are things I miss about elementary school, but not enough to take me away from these sixth graders...they're awesome. Lisa's is enjoying her new career as a special education teacher. I'm sure she'll share some stories with you about her school and her drive to school, which are very entertaining.

Life in Tennessee is great. We love it here, and are unbelievably happy that we are here. I really believe that this is where God has wanted us to be all along, and He has blessed us incredibly. We love you all.

Happy Halloween!

Whether she looks like it or not, Gracie loves dressing up-especially for Halloween!

Financial Peace

I'm reading Financial Peace by Dave Ramsey right now, and it is phenomenal. I highly recommend it to anyone, whether you're having financial difficulty or not. While we plan to apply all of the suggestions to our finances, right now we are concentrating on getting out of debt, and it's a fun ride! I enjoy seeing our debt dwindle every month, and there is such a feeling of relief and accomplishment when one of those debts goes away forever!

That's all...just a reading recommendation. I hope you get a chance to check it out!

Welcome to Our Blog!

We've been here in Spring Hill, Tennessee, about three months now, and life is good! We have a two-bedroom apartment about 10 minutes from Todd's school and about 30 minutes from Lisa's school. We've recently begun our house hunt (the very preliminary stages), and like the selection we're seeing!

Grace likes it here a lot, even though she doesn't like us both being gone for very long. Todd usually comes home right after school, lets her out, and plays with her. Grace's favorite new place to play is at a new elementary school just down the road. They have a great fenced-in playground where she can play soccer and run around without worrying about traffic or other animals bothering her while she plays!

Halloween is just around the corner, and Lisa bought Grace a bee costume. It's probably the cutest costume she's worn since she's been around. We'll post pictures of her wearing it when we figure out how to do so on here. We just bought a boat-load of candy for the kids who will undoubtedly be coming around on Wednesday night. Todd's eating some of the candy corn right now, and it's delicious!

Our goal is to post on here at least weekly to let our family and friends know how things are going with our new life in Tennessee, and to just air out some general thoughts about, well, anything! Feel free to comment or e-mail us at any time, as we love to hear from all of our loved ones. We pray that God blesses you all with an awesome week!