One year with Superman!!!

Today is our anniversary - we've been married for one year!!!

God is so gracious - now I'm the wife of a man with his bachelor's degree - he graduated on Friday!

AND - it's our anniversary. AND he got me a corsage to wear to church. :o)

AND - life is just wonderful. We're going to the zoo, and then out to dinner!

Wow. i am blessed beyond words.

9 months of Happily Ever After....

5 days ago, Gabe and I celebrated 9 months of marriage. Can you believe it's been 9 months already?! Time flies! In so many ways I can't even remember life without my best friend being there all the time - and in other ways, I can't believe it's already been almost a year since our wedding!

The day before our '9 month anniversary', Gabe and I celebrated our very first Valentine's Day together. Last year I was in Oregon and he was down here in California - the year before, we hadn't started dating yet. So, our very first Valentines was together!

Gabe got me a rose, a necklace, and one of the best dinners ever - In 'n Out! Seriously - we were both in the mood for burgers, so we decided to do something cheap. It was so fun! We came home and watched a movie, and it was one of the greatest days I've had in a long, long time!

We've also been working on our ministry plans for Russia and Ukraine. Guess what?! We actually have plans, and truly, it seems as though they are the Lords plans for us. If so, then very possibly we will be moving forward with them. If not, that too will be revealed, in His timing. Whatever the case, it is exciting, following God. As He leads we grow in faith more and more - it's an adventure, and the fact that we are together for it just makes everything that much better!

We have a niece!

Today we had an amazing experience. We were able to be at the hospital when Jade Elizabeth Baljet was born - our niece! Our first niece, I might add. Watching Gabe hold Jade was, to be honest, incredible. Holding her myself was incredible as well! Wow. God is so great!

Over the past few months we've had the amazing privilege of holding babies in the church nursery. And guess what? My Superman is not only amazing - he's amazing with babies, too. They love him! And he understands them. We've talked a lot about babies lately. We want some. In God's perfect timing, we will have the incredible privilege of being parents - hopefully within the next 2 years!

So many blessings and challenges have come our way in the past few weeks, we're almost...exhausted. In a good, blessed, happy way. We are burdened for souls, perhaps more than ever, and we are convinced of God's greatness and grace, daily more than the day before.

God is providing for all our needs!!! We found out this weekend we're hired to work the summer in Alaska at Yes Bay Lodge, a fishing lodge in one of the most beautiful locations I have ever been to!

We have a general outline of the next few years. If the Lord decides to change those plans, we won't be upset - but for now, He seems to be leading us in an amazingly exciting direction. Sharing His truth! Proclaiming His gospel! In quiet ways and loud; living every moment for His glory, by His grace.

We are so blessed - and we get to do all of that together!

I still can't believe I'm married to my best friend. Thank you, Lord, for giving me Superman!

200 things I love about you

My dear husband and I have been married 200 days!!!

Gabe,

There are millions of things I love about you. This is just a list of some of them:

1. Your smile

2. Your hugs

3. That you’re always willing to give me a hug when I need one

4. Praying together

5. That we can talk about anything

6. That we can laugh about anything J

7. That you love my cooking

8. That you’re such a great listener

9. That you are my Superman

10. That when I have a problem you care enough to pursue the solution

11. Listening to sermons together

12. Discussing Theology together

13. Discussing missions together

14. Your little messages you leave around for me

15. The “I love you” stones you bought me

16. That you love to ski

17. Reading together

18. Discussing the realistic-ness of MacGyver and JAG (or lack thereof) with you

19. That you love baseball

20. That you open doors for me, all the time, every time

21. That we hold hands wherever we go

22. That you work so hard and take such great care of us

23. That you love to take things apart and put them back together

24. That you don’t eat things I can’t

25. That you think I’m beautiful

26. Grocery shopping with you

27. Hart Park dates

28. Watching you hold babies in the church nursery

29. Hearing you speak Russian

30. That you proposed in Russian

31. That you don’t like cats as much as you like dogs

32. Okay – that you don’t like cats at all J

33. Your spiders J

34. That you let me cut your hair the way I like it

35. Your goatee

36. Our ‘donut breakfast’ dates

37. Watching you umpire

38. Watching you referee football

39. Your laugh

40. ‘Finding some good heresy’ to listen to

41. That we sold the Ipod

42. That you buy me flowers

43. That you take such good care of me when I’m sick

44. That you are humble

45. That we play catch, and both love it

46. That our favorite food in the world is hamburgers and fries

47. Our good-morning hugs

48. That you like guns

49. Drinking tea together

50. Eating ice cream together

51. When you text me just to say ‘I love you’

52. That you love the Word of God so much

53. Playing Monopoly with you

54. Going on ‘errand dates’

55. Andy Griffith

56. JAG

57. MacGyver

58. Remembering IBEX together

59. That you bought my promise ring in Jerusalem

60. The conversations we had in Galilee

61. Hangman on the whiteboard

62. Gladiator

63. Quoting ‘The Terminal’ with you

64. Despicable Me

65. Playing Scrabble

66. Working in the caf and being able to kiss you every so often while we work

...and 144 other things that you 'n I share, but not with the rest of the world. :o) I love you, my dear husband!

Happy 200 days of marriage!

I

Even when I'm sick...

I knew it would happen sooner or later - colds generally do, y'know. The fever, runny nose, feeling like your head is about the size of a hot-air balloon, achy muscles and skin, the whole package deal. Last week I felt great - until about 9PM on Friday night. I crashed hard, and my dear wonderful husband took amazing care of me. I didn't exactly look my best, but that's the fun part - he didn't even care! Not that I plan to look like that all the time, but it was a reminder of how deep our love goes, and how wonderful it is to love someone so deeply you really don't care what kind of circumstances you find yourself in - you just wanna be with them.

I couldn't possibly ask for a more wonderful husband. God has used marriage to sanctify both of us, more and in different ways than we could have imagined, but so beautifully!

If I could share just a few of the precious things I cherish, they would be:

- Praying together. I absolutely love praying with my husband. It is a precious time, and it deepens my thankfulness and respect for Gabe every time we do!

- Our good-morning hugs. Sometime between when we stumble out of bed and eat breakfast, Superman gives me a wonderful, warm, good-morning hug. I think I am addicted to them.

- Reading books together. We're on book number 16, I think - since our wedding. It's become a habit to read a few pages aloud during most meals, or driving in the car. We interrupt and discuss almost as much as we read, which is all part of the fun. I love it!

- Holding hands wherever we go. It's become second nature - more than a habit, I honestly don't think we could walk together without holding hands if we tried! It's wonderful.

180 days ago, I became a wife. It has been wonderful, and I can't wait for whatever's next...

Even if it's getting sick again - I have Superman to take care of me! ;o)

5 months of happily ever after

5 months ago, Superman and I started the most incredible, happy adventure of our lives. We're well into the fall semester here at The Master's College, and learning so much! Mostly we are so grateful - eternally so - that our hunger for God and His word has been growing in leaps and bounds. How incredible, to sit and read His word together, to discuss theology, missions, the Gospel, and, lately, the reformation. Fascinating stuff!

I am so thankful for my husband. Reading books with him, sitting and talking with him, walking along holding his hand - such precious, precious gifts from God.

Five months - can you imagine what's next?! :o)

10 Things I Love About You

The past couple of days, Gabe's given me clues to find a list of 10 things he loves about me, 'hidden' somewhere in our home. Using some pretty creative hangman puzzles on our whiteboard in the kitchen, he directed me (with clues; I didn't get it right off the bat) to his day planner. In the back, he'd written a list of ten things he loves about me.

I have the best husband in the world! He's working hard, being a full-time student and working several jobs as well. What an incredible gift the Lord has given me!

I've been working on jobs for us for next summer, fall, and winter. We have ideas where we'd hope to work, and so far it looks good - too early yet to tell, though.

Pray for wisdom, strength, and that our focus be ever and always on our awesome mighty God!

He alone is worthy - we are so blessed to be His!

4 months of bliss....

Last night, Gabe took me out to an expensive dinner. We actually realized as we were at the restaurant that we've never been to a real, nice, expensive restaurant together before! That's actually just one of the amazing blessings about our relationship - we like burgers & fries better than just about anything else in the world, so $10 will get us a great, happy date and we'll both be totally satisfied with that!

But sometimes (y'know, perhaps once a year or so) it's really awesome to go out to a 'real' dinner. I had steak, he had shrimp 'n ribs. Yeah - it was amazing.

The best part is, we never would have done that (I was thinking walking to the donut shop for breakfast would be a great way to celebrate our 4-month anniversary), but for the amazing blessing of my grandparents sending us some money with a note that said 'do something fun with this'. Gabe took it, and did indeed do something fun - he surprised me by taking me out to dinner!

Praise God for His blessings. Gabe's been in school for 2 weeks now, and we are incredibly blessed by the fact that we truly enjoy being together while he does homework and I work (on Russian, writing, reading to him, or doing 'wife things' - cleaning the house, making food, etc).

As we look back on 4 months of marriage (well, as of Wednesday - we celebrated on the weekend 'cause it's the free time we had :o) ), Gabe and I are so amazed at how much closer we've grown, even since 2 months ago!

Wow. God is great! All glory to Him!

A wonderful day

Yesterday, Superman and I had a pretty amazing day together. We've been getting up earlier (practicing for the school year) and swimming most days right before or after breakfast. It's an awesome way to start your day - especially when you're an Oregonian living in Southern California! Ahem. Excuse me. My husband is still working on teaching me - it's 'So Cal'. And never 'Cali'. Anyways, yes. Back to yesterday. So, to start our day of interestingly, we found a lizard in the pool! It was a little tiny lizard - pretty cute, really. we thought he might be dead (Y'know, when they don't breathe and lay there all limp in your hands, it's kind of a hint...). Our lizard, however, turned out to only have been 'mostly dead'. A bit of rubbing (expertise thanks to watching 101 dalmations as a kid) and the little guy started breathing again. He was pretty scared, so we brought him inside and put him in a box. And...woohoo! A pet!! Our keeping of this pet was pretty short-lived, though, 'cause about an hour later he came to his senses and decided the indoors was no place for him. We let him go, and he happily scurried off to...well, we're not sure where. Somewhere.

So yes - it was fun! Our day was great - rather productive, and then in the evening, we went for a walk around TMC's campus. It was a warm evening (aren't they all...), and the sprinklers were going, so....that's right. We grown-up married people ran thru the sprinklers. THAT was awesome. Then we came home and had root-beer floats (with soy ice-cream, of course).

It was an awesome day - this week has been an awesome week. God's grace knows no bounds, and marriage is truly one of the greatest earthly gifts ever given. 3 months - and we love life with all our hearts. God is so awesome!

My husband is my hero. At one point during our engagement, I called him Superman, and it stuck. He is most definitely my Superman. It's not because of the things he does for me - although they are most definitely endearing and precious. And he's really good at doing them. It's because he captured my heart, and made me feel like a princess. His princess. And he does it every day. We are so excited to be each other's best friend for the rest of our lives, and we're committed to fighting for that. It's awesome, to have a precious, wise, caring man as my best friend - my husband, my hero.

I have now been married to my best friend for 85 days. Somehow, it seems impossible 85 days have gone by - and somehow, it seems impossible that it's only been 85 days. 85 days ago, we had a beautiful, blessed wedding, and every day since then, I have understood more and more how wonderful it is to be married.

We've been learning a lot this summer - mostly about patience. Not with each other - although we've been learning that a bit too (by God's grace, we've both adjusted to married life quite happily and shockingly easily). Patience regarding the wonderful world of job searching. It's been an awesome summer of being able to spend lots of time together and do fun things, creative things, and lots of free things (parks are good. Very good.), and it's been awesome that Gabe is an umpire, and therefore we spent a good deal of our summer at baseball games (he, working, and I, listening to people critique his work from the stands), so that's an incredible blessing.

God is so awesome - He provides exactly what we need. We've just realized this summer that He's teaching us to trust Him, and that's a humbling thing to realize - even if it is tough, it's oh, so good.

Life is incredible - not because it's easy, but because God is good, and He has blessed me with the most wonderful husband in the world. I am married to Superman - to me, he's the hero I always dreamed of, and so much more!