(Well, maybe instinct isn’t the correct word, but anyway…)

You know all those things that your body does inside you that you don’t think about?  Maybe you don’t even know about that.  Well, if you study the human body for very long you will see that there are tons of tiny intricacies that your body does that keep you alive, healthy, growing, etc. that your body just does without you ever thinking about it.  Ever notice that when you are swimming you have to think about not taking a breath?  That’s because your body was designed to breath on its own.  You don’t have to be conscious, awake or focused to do it.  Your body just does it.

Have you ever had to think about making more blood?  How about having that blood coagulate?  Do you know how to digest?  Produce more cells?  Grow new skin?  Extract the oxygen from the air and breathe out the rest?  Heal a bone?  Yeah, me either.  I know my body does that stuff, but I sure can’t sit here and tell my body to do these things and hundreds of others.  I can’t tell it to do them on command.  I can’t tell it to do them differently.  I can’t teach my daughter how to show her body how.  It’s just something that we are created to do.

Our bodies are created to keep us alive and kicking!  It is amazing to think about all these things and how they just go.  From the moment a baby is conceived the body just has things it does without having to check with the conscious brain.  To see those things and deny that there is a God out there that is extremely creative is a pretty massive leap of faith.  Just think about some of your friends (or maybe yourself) that just can’t seem to remember to do things.  We lose our keys.  We get lost.  We cause ourselves pain.  We forget what we were…where was I?

I don’t know about you, but I’m pretty sure I’m glad I don’t have to remember to breath.  I sure wouldn’t get much accomplished if I had to focus on digesting for an hour after I ate.  God has created us to do some pretty insane things.  Even still we struggle to believe and have faith that He will take care of us or provide for us.  Remember that God created you and has set it all in motion.  He is in control and knows what He is doing.  Have some faith in the God who didn’t make you have to remember to breathe!

• Schedules
• Calendars
• Timelines
• Dates
• Alarms
• ETA

We live our lives by plans.  Some of us live by fewer plans that others do.  Most of us can think of at least one person that is more planned out than ourselves.  Many of us married that person.  But mixed with a good amount of spontaneity, we like to have our lives planned out.  We wanna know when we are supposed to be places.  We like to know when our shows come on.  We like to know when our planes are going to leave.  It’s true.  You can sit there and kid yourself all you like, but the truth is that without some planning we would be in utter chaos.

So we plan.  We look at the foreseeable future (that is really unforeseeable but we just like to think we have some knowledge and control over what is coming up) and we make decisions that affect our lives and determine where we are headed next.  Right?  But then things change that are out of our control and we have to change with them.  Sometimes this isn’t that big of a deal but other times it is extremely difficult.

As much as I like to be in control of my life, a lot of times it is still hard in that situation to see through the changes to the blessing or plan that God has for me on the other side.  It could be the exact opposite of what I had picked for myself, but fortunately God knows what He is doing.

I know what I’m doing. I have it all planned out—plans to take care of you, not abandon you, plans to give you the future you hope for.

- Jeremiah 29:11

That is something I can rest in.  That no matter what is going on in my life, He knows what He is doing and has it all planned out.

• When you get pregnant
• When you lose your job
• When you get sick
• When someone you love dies
• When bad things in life happen
• When disaster strikes

He knows what He is doing.  Maybe you can’t tell right now.  Maybe you are scared of what is to come.  Maybe you are having a hard time leaving the worries to Him.  Whatever it is, right now, in the midst of the chaos of your life, stop and remember, HE KNOWS WHAT HE IS DOING!  He could be trying to teach you something.  He could be protecting you.  He could be giving you an opportunity.  Who knows?  He could be giving you a daughter that you can’t imagine being without!

So, what do you think? With God on our side like this, how can we lose? If God didn’t hesitate to put everything on the line for us, embracing our condition and exposing himself to the worst by sending his own Son, is there anything else he wouldn’t gladly and freely do for us? And who would dare tangle with God by messing with one of God’s chosen? Who would dare even to point a finger? The One who died for us—who was raised to life for us!—is in the presence of God at this very moment sticking up for us. Do you think anyone is going to be able to drive a wedge between us and Christ’s love for us? There is no way! Not trouble, not hard times, not hatred, not hunger, not homelessness, not bullying threats, not backstabbing, not even the worst sins listed in Scripture:

They kill us in cold blood because they hate you. 
We’re sitting ducks; they pick us off one by one. None of this fazes us because Jesus loves us. I’m absolutely convinced that nothing—nothing living or dead, angelic or demonic, today or tomorrow,

high or low, thinkable or unthinkable—absolutely nothing can get between us and God’s love because of the way that Jesus our Master has embraced us.

Romans 8:31-39

Sometimes we just need this reminder.  Life gets hard.  It gets painful.  You seem surrounded by enemies trying to hunt you down.  BUT it is in those times that God shows up and shows us His power again.  He shows us His love.  His grace.  His truth.  I love that.  None of this fazes us because Jesus loves us.  I’m absolutely convinced that NOTHING can get between us and God’s love.

We just had our baby yesterday.  What did you think I was gona talk about today?  Of course I’m gonna talk about the baby.  But you got a pretty good dose of Jessi yesterday so I’ll hit it from a different angle.

This is our first baby.  We have never done this before.  I had lots of people tell me all kinds of things in preparation.

• Watch the birth.
• Cut the chord.
• Save the placenta (gross).
• Don’t look!
• Don’t watch the epidural.
• Don’t complain about anything.
• Soak it in.
• Take pictures.
• Focus on momma.

But no amount of pep talks from everyone can really prepare you for what you are about to experience.  Yes, the birthing process is amazing (and messy) but there is so much more to it than that.  There is new life!  There is a first breath.  There are fingers and toes!  There is lots of screaming.  And through it all I don’t understand how anyone could miss God in the whole thing.  I can’t in my wildest dreams imagine that what happened yesterday is happening by accident or because of survival of the fittest or whatever other theories one might have.  There is no way that all the insane intricacies of that whole day are chance.

• The baby practices the main skills she needs after birth in the womb.
• The baby’s body temperature is regulated by touching the mother’s skin.
• The mother’s milk changes to fit exactly what the baby needs.

I mean seriously?  I wouldn’t ever think of those things.  To see everything that I did yesterday and walk away not KNOWING there is a Designer and Creator just seems crazy.  I’m just still amazed that I get to see these things.  And I’m just through day 1!

One way that my family is extremely blessed is through prayer.  I’m not talking about me being an excellent pray-er, but rather the numerous people all over the place that are always praying for us.  People that we talk to often and people that I probably don’t remember their names.  But, they know us or are connected to us and love us enough to pray for us.  Many of you are part of that group as well.  We are IMMENSELY grateful for that.

But today, I would love for you to pray for a family close to us.  I don’t know that the issues are public so I’m gonna keep it on the DL, but I know that God is bigger than that.  This family is pregnant with a little boy and he is having some issues with his heart developing correctly and needs our prayers.  They are going in tomorrow to meet with a doctor about it.  I don’t know all of the medical stuff or the details surrounding it, but I know that they are an amazing, godly family and that they would absolutely appreciate being lifted up through this.

So please, today and tomorrow and on, join me and my family in praying for the health of this little man, strength and courage for his wonderful mom, dad and big sister, and above all peace, faith and trust in God throughout the whole ordeal.  Thank you all so much!

Last week my wisdom teeth were chopped out of my head.  Not the most fun I have had for sure, but it could be worse.  Well, the most common complication from the removal of wisdom teeth is dry socket.  That’s when some crap happens to cause the new hole in your head to be unprotected and heal slower.  Oh and there is pain involved.  Well, I was warned ahead of time by my now fellow wisdom teeth removal survivors that dry socket is something that I should do everything I can to avoid.  So, I did.  I didn’t spit.  I tried not to yawn, cough or sneeze.  I still haven’t used a straw.  I didn’t even brush my teeth for 4 days!  Ok, that’s a lie, but I brushed them VERY gently.

And guess what!

I got dry socket.  The bottom left side of my mouth is not agreeing with the other three surgery sites that healing is a good idea.  A few days after the surgery, this wonderful new friend of mine decided to check into Extended Stay Hotel Brook’s Mouth.  Good times.  Frustrated, annoyed and hurting I finally talked to the on call doctor on Friday night and got it as taken care of as possible.

Seriously?  I deprived myself of all those things I have enjoyed for so long (spitting, drinking from a straw, snoughing…you know…sneezing and coughing at the same time) and I still ended up with the evil phantom tooth?!  Well, it happened.  Now I have to deal with it and move on with my life.  But if nothing else (and I highly expect there is nothing else good to come from this) it made me think about some things in life from a different perspective.  We all have our goals, ideas and desires for our lives.  We take steps to reach them.  But sometimes we can do everything right and still end up in pain.

Maybe you have done all the preparation, get dressed up, have a great interview and still didn’t get the job.  Maybe you have conditioned, strengthened and practiced but the other team is still better.  Maybe you have poured yourself into your kids or a friend or a protégé and taught them well, but they still strayed from what they learned.  Life just doesn’t always go the way we planned it.  But in those times we have to learn perseverance, patience, and trust.  Whether you are in pain or just hurting watching someone else fall apart, you must have faith in God and trust that He knows what He is doing and is in control.  Our lives are not always measured by the successes that we see.  Sometimes the success is fighting and learning through the pain.  Sometimes the math just doesn’t add up to the intended goal, but relying on the FACT that God has a plan and knows what He is doing.  Find your success in Him and His understanding, not your own.

We have now reached the point in the pregnancy that we have doctor’s appointments every week until our little girl gets here.  Pretty exciting.  That means we are getting so close.  She is rocking out to her music all the time now and moving around in there like an alien trying to get out!  It would be kinda creepy if it wasn’t my little baby.  The thing is that the contractions have started coming more often and getting more intense!  At the appointment today we found out that our little one could realistically be here in a couple days or in a couple weeks.  As the countdown to the right says, we should have a couple more weeks, but that’s all in God’s hands now!

We are measuring at a full 37 weeks now which is about 5 days ahead of schedule so who knows?!  We were really hoping to have a couple extra weeks for Kara-Kae to get some rest in now that maternity leave has started, but that may all be out the door.  The washing of all our little girl’s clothes commenced last night and we have decided that we should probably figure out exactly where to go…oh…and how to put the car seat in!  Gonna be an interesting month!

If you don’t mind keeping us in your prayers that would be greatly appreciated as we are heading into uncharted waters (for us).  I can hardly believe that the time is almost here!  I’m so excited!  Plus it means we will finally be able to introduce you to our daughter!  Wow.  I’m gonna be a daddy really soon.

Thank you all for your prayers, love and support!  Stay tuned for all your Baby Girl James news!

This is officially the 100th day in a row for me to write here.  I actually made it that far!  I decided back in October it was time to step it up and take this blogging thing to the next level.  I would say that blogging for 100 straight days is doing that.  I didn’t think I would actually write every day for this long, but I have loved seeing God do some cool stuff all over (including my own head) through this.

I have no intention of letting up.  I believe that God has more in store for me and I believe that this site will be a tool for that.  I don’t know what that will look like in the future.  I have lots of ideas and thoughts.  But we will see.  God knows what’s up.  So, here’s to 100 straight days.  Thank you all for being a part by reading and adding your thoughts!  From here, God, it’s all Yours!

It seems that many of us spend most of our lives fighting change.  We take the same route everyday to work.  We eat the same food.  We follow the same routine every day.  We talk to the same people all the time.  We love what we know.  We love that feeling of safety.  That comfort zone is an easy place to be in.  My wife and I have not been strangers to the concept of change in the last several years, but it is still easy to get into that comfort rut.  Last night we decided to rearrange the living and dining room(s).  We felt like it was time for a change.  But then there are those of us that are like our dog.  We don’t like things moved around at all and we wear ourselves out completely stressing out about it all.  We like to live our same ol’ same ol’ lives.

But God calls us to something different.  He calls us to reach out to the person that is different than we are.  He calls us to lay down our cares and desires in order to be used by Him.  He calls us to a life of change.  We need to learn to flow with the change.  Embrace the change.  Embrace the uncertainty.  Embrace the fact that He is in control.  Change is good!

Honesty and Craigslist more and more often seem to be two things that don’t go together.  And when it comes to honestly, I think there is either 1st Place (being honest) or 2nd Place (the first loser).  It seems the more I use Craigslist the more I wish it was eBay.  There are great deals to be had, but sometimes it is so difficult to wade through the load of crap to get to something that isn’t a complete waste of time.

Just a couple weeks ago we decided it was time to find a crib for our baby.  Kara-Kae was very excited about this and ready to get one.  So she decided on the crib she wanted for our baby girl and set out to keep me happy in the process by finding the best price on this Da Vinci crib.  Low and behold (as my mom would say) the best price on the exact crib she wanted was a post on Craigslist from a girl in Anaheim!  Sweet.  The perfect crib at a great price is hard to pass up.  So it was time to get it.  Through back and forth conversations with this girl about the crib, KK’s blog and her wanting to check out our church, KK got all the details about it and found out that the baby had only slept in it twice.  So it should be like new!  The girl was about to leave the country for work so we decided to go see it before she left.  Unfortunately that meant we had to go in the evening to see the crib in a dark garage.

Once we had arrived, we were told that the crib was in great shape and that the kid had only slept in it like five times and played in it like 10 times.  (Wait…what happened to only two times???)  The crib wasn’t in the shape it was promised in, but in the dark it seems to be ok.  We made the deal, gathered the parts and headed home.  Once we got home and got the crib into the light we could see it for what it really was.  If the kid had only been in it a few times, those few times must have been extended periods of time.  It was pretty beat up.  But, we had seen some of that and it was very fixable.  Then as we were checking to make sure all the parts were there we discovered that the instructions didn’t say Da Vinci anywhere on them.  Turns out the crib was made by a company called Jardine Enterprises.  If you go google them you will notice that the dominating topic is that in the past several years they have recalled 300,000 cribs because they were unsafe and endangered the babies.  Awesome.  And on top of that, we didn’t get a single piece of hardware for the matching changing table we purchased with the crib!

So we immediately started trying to get back in touch with the girl hoping that she would be civil and honest (which I’m not sure why I even had hopes that she might considering she listed a completely different crib, which I’m sure had nothing to do with the fact that hers had been recalled a few years back and had even posted pictures of the crib she claimed it was) and work with us.  Nope.  Not a chance.  She didn’t care one bit that the item was falsely listed and that we had been straight up lied to and misled.  She didn’t care.  She had her money and was not interested one bit in being honest about it.  Yes, we should have checked it closer before we bought it.  Yes, we should not have trusted someone who seemed to be a nice person interested in our lives and church.  Yes, we have learned to no longer trust ANYONE on Craigslist.  But, she still knew she was not telling the truth and never even thought to mention that it was something completely different than what we were expecting.  I think I’ll save her to my favorite sellers list and give her a 2nd Place ribbon for her efforts.

But, through the whole thing God took care of us.  I hope that some day she checks out a church, even if it’s not ours.  And then God took care of our baby too.  Because the crib had been recalled in the past, we decided to try to see if they would still take it back.  They did!  We just received a voucher to Babies ‘R’ Us for MORE than what we purchased the crib for so that now we can get a brand new crib that is exactly what we want and exactly what we think it is!  Thank you God for taking care of us in our moment of weakness of trusting someone from Craigslist.  Take that crib lady.