Hey, it's the husband.

Hey all who frequent our blog. It's Derek. Anlee's really good at being a consistent blogger. I'm not, as those of you who've looked at my other blog can attest. I guess I just doubt that people really read these things (maybe cause I don't really read these things) and if nobody's gonna read it then why write it? But here I am, blogging. So, what interesting thing can I share with all you invisible bloggy (bloggery?) people? Hmmm...

Marriage is awesome! Really! I love being married to Anlee. The last four months have been awesome! I've told a lot of people that in many ways, I am the most content, free, and confident that I've ever been. It's not perfect (nothing is) and it has its challenges, but it is wonderful. Anlee and I are having a great time. Being here has some perks for a newlywedded couple. Mostly, we don't have to worry about too many bills, such as rent or car stuff. That is really nice. I would say we don't have as many responsibilities to fill up our time, but that's not exactly true. Somehow, we've got ourselves involved in a lot of stuff and find ourselves actually quite busy. Not really sure how that happened living in Korea.

Being here has been much better than we were expecting this year. After the wedding, we both were really wishing we were not coming back for another year. But there has been a lot of blessings so far this year. We've developed deeper relationships with some of the people in our lives. This has been really encouraging and life-giving. We have a Bible study group that meets at our place every tuesday. This has been a good time to grow closer to others here.

Personally, I've been on a reading and writing kick as of late. I've been tearing through books. It's been great. Recently finished The Great Divorce and The Weight of Glory by C.S. Lewis and The Language of God by Francis Collins. Anlee and I both got each other some books for Christmas and I'm really excited to start those. It's kinda ridiculous, but we have a pretty decent-sized library going here. Gonna cost a bit to get it all home.

As for writing, my friend Tripp and I were talking several months ago about our desire to attend seminary, yet our uncertainty if it would ever happen, and we came up with the idea to give each other writing assignments in the meantime. And it's been awesome. We give each other a prompt, a page length and a due date. And when we finish, we comment on and critique each other's paper. We've each written two papers now. I've found it very rewarding. It's been a great opportunity for me to get out some of the mass of thoughts that I've aquired over these past 5 years of what I'll call spiritual wrestling. This past paper especially gave me the opportunity to flesh out in words much of the realizations and understanding that I've come in this journey of faith. I just posted the paper if you want to check it out. Comments or critiques are welcome.

Well, I could say more, but nobody likes a super long blog post. I miss everybody back home. Anybody is welcome to come visit us. We have an extra room (with a piano in it!). Seriously, we would love it if any of you came to visit us. Flights run anywhere from about 900. You'd have free lodging and free, knowledgeable tour guides. When else are you gonna visit Seoul? Or Asia? Just know the invitation is open. OK. Peace out homies, derek