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It's been a while since I've updated, so I thought I'd put some new stuff up. We are still staying busy. With midterms right around the corner, we are trying to stay focused. Ethan is getting over some cold/cough stuff and I am doing my best to avoid it. The weather is perfect right now. We both wish we did not have any responsibilities so we could just stay outside all day. I have planted a small indoor herb garden to hopefully help me want to cook more fun things. I hope I am taking care of it the right way because I really want that cilantro to grow! We have some really cool opportunities coming up, one of which is a conference in California. Ethan gets to go because he is on staff at the church, but I get to go to be the additional woman on the trip with our children's minister. It's in Los Angeles the first week of April and we are both just busting to go. Other than that, our lives have not changed much. God has continued being faithful, especially in the small things. We are so grateful!

My Kids

I have a great job! I am an assistant teacher at the daycare on the campus of the seminary. I work in the 4 year old room and my kids are incredible! Just thought I'd share some of the faces that I see five days a week...

Mavericks/Lakers

For Christmas, I got Ethan tickets to the Mavericks game this weekend. It was incredible! Ethan really enjoyed his first pro basketball game! Here are some pictures from the evening.

Exciting News

As of this morning, Ethan is officially the pastor of discipleship/administration at Bear Creek! We could not be more excited about this step in our lives. God has blessed us tremendously with a church body that is so loving and we are ready to continue serving alongside them in this capacity. Ethan has his first day on the job tomorrow and cannot wait! We are so thankful for this opportunity. Please pray for Ethan as he starts this new job.

Also, classes have started up again. We are both taking a full load of classes and are already a bit overwhelmed by the work load. These classes will help us both so much and we are praying that we can keep up and give the adequate amount of time to our studies. We would love for you to join us in that prayer.

Thank you for praying! We feel it and God is obviously answering our prayers. Thanks for keeping up with us also. It is always nice to know there are people who care!

Christmas

Ethan and I are so blessed to have the family and friends that we do! We had such a wonderful Christmas. We are thankful also for safe travels for the over 25 hours we spent in the car. We drove up to Slayden to see the Joneses, then to Jackson to see the Princes. We got to go to New Orleans for a night, which was so wonderful. We were able to see a lot of friends while in town also.

For Christmas, I gave Ethan Mavericks/Lakers tickets for a game in January and Ethan gave me tickets to see Wicked when we go to Chicago. How fun!

Some pictures from the Christmas adventure...

Thanksgiving

We just got back from traveling across Mississippi seeing our family and some friends. We had a great time and are very thankful for our safe trip. We went to Jackson first to see my family and then to Slayden to see Ethan's family. We ate a lot and had plenty of time to relax and rest.

We played a lot of Guitar Hero III in Jackson...

...with one of my favorite families...

...and roasted marshmallows to make smores...

...but Kate and I ate ours plain...

...then the men got a great fire going so we could stay warm...

...and sweet little James slept through it all.

Ways to Pray

Ethan and I have been incredibly blessed! God has been so good to us. We know we don't deserve it, but we are so thankful for it! Here are a few things that you can be praying for us, if you'd like.
1. God would continue to keep Ethan and I healthy. As you probably know, Ethan had a bit of a medical scare this summer. He is totally fine now, but we pray that God will keep His healing hand on both of us.
2. That we would stay on top of things and manage our time well. With both working a lot of hours and being students, time management is pretty important. We want to accomplish what we need to, while being able to sleep enough and spend a lot of time with each other.
3. God would continue to provide financially for us. We have never been without enough to eat and have never missed a payment on anything. God has surprised us in the ways He has provided. We do our best to remain faithful, so that He will do the same.
4. Ethan and I would really develop some lifelong friendships.
5. That our relationship with each other would continue to grow as we do our best to protect our time together.

Thank you so much for your faithfulness to Ethan and me. We are beyond fortunate!
emily