It's the final COUNTDOWN!

Derek's 30th birthday is quickly approaching. (July 23rd) Our lives, however, are in uncertainty, so we are celebrating Derek's birthday with our friends here this coming Sunday. Look to the left to see the invitation I made for the party guests. The theme is "Beer, Birds and Books." What better way to celebrate Derek, right? Guests are bringing Derek a gourmet beer or theological book of their choice.

The plan is to have a build-your-own-sub bar with pasta salad, coleslaw, chips and dip and of course, beer!

Wish you all could attend with us! Someday...

After the party we will be in a mad dash to pack for our trip HOME! Georgia bound next Tuesday! We can't wait. Our plan is to stay overnight in Birmingham to cut the trip up a little bit, enjoy a few days in Nashville, then sweet Georgia Peaches we will be HOME! Ezra is pumped up about being in red and black country, to meet his many aunts and uncles and to enjoy HOME!

Comparison

My nephew Caleb around 5 months and Ezra at 6 months!! Same shirt. Same nose. Same cuteness!! What do you think? Maybe some of my family in this kid after all!

Derek - the blogger

Hi friends and family,

If you haven't subscribed to Derek's blog GODS GLORY, mans joy - I highly recommend it! This week Derek is blogging about "worship." I put it in quotations because Derek foundationally believes that worship is more than the sing and praise portion of our Sunday morning church service. Worship for Derek extends into every thing he does, every thought, every word spoken. He started off the week blogging about "What will you worship today?" Here's an excerpt:

However, as will be clear, worship is something that is meant to be all-life encompassing. But even more than that, worship is something that everyone does by nature, all the time. We are worshiping creatures. We give worth to things. We highly esteem things. We give money, time, and thoughts to certain things or people. We all worship something, all the time.  Food, sex, making money, spending money, comfort, religion, morality, business, respect, family...all around us are voices begging for our worship.

I like to think that life is like a big game of king of the hill. There are many things vying to be the object of our worship, many things trying to become the king of our lives. We worship food one day, but eventually the high wears off (we get bloated or sick) and we turn to our job or family or religion or image to assume the throne. But there is only one true King of the Hill, only one thing that rightfully deserves our utmost time, treasures, and thoughts. And that is God.

I've discovered that I worship being a mom. What does this mean exactly? Well, I worry ALL.THE.TIME. about how I'm doing, am I doing this right, are E's needs met? Is he hitting milestones? Does he laugh enough? Did I make the right decision to delay vaccines? Is my body making enough milk? Did I enjoy him enough today? yada yada yada...

This endless cycle of ????'s leaves me tired and distracted and completely unfocused on where my identity should come from - my heavenly Father. So, today, as I raced around town trying to find homeopathic first aid solutions for my first aid kit (dye free, gluten free, essential oil heavy, natural healing ointments, etc) I'm now realizing that I'm driving myself HUNGRY for time spent enjoying my Father! If I'm not full of him then I have nothing to give my husband and son. I will fail miserably at this mom thing, but on the day I stand before the Lord he isn't going to judge me as a mom, he's going to love me as His child.

Father & Son

 This past weekend we celebrated six sweet months with our precious little one and Derek's first father's day! Sunday's are not usually fundays when you work in full-time ministry, but we had a great day together as a family. Here are some shots from our daddy/son photo shoot.

 Our blue-eyed beauty refused to take a nap all day, but still managed this smile even though it was 100 degrees outside!!

 In case you are wondering, Ezra has one stingy patch of eczema left on his left temple. We've mostly cured his skin completely by doing an intestinal cleanse for formula #1 & #2 from www.herbdoc.com
We are so thankful that Ezra is almost over this season of itchy skin. Seriously, we believe in herbal medicine! None of us have had any medicine in months now!!

 He loves to sit up!

 I know everyone calls E mini-D, but E looks an awful lot like my nephew Caleb!!

We have our first tooth people!!

One family shot. I'm working hard to lose my baby weight. It is a process...

Post Audition Update

So - just wanted to send out an update on the weekend with the new guy. Short story: no decision has been made to hire "newbie" or not.  Long story - newbie and his fiance came into town on Thursday. It was a weird week. We weren't included in anything. I guess we've always felt "inside" of the elders group, but we were definitely "outside" of the weekend festivities. We were a bit anxious knowing that all of O.U.R. elders were bumping elbows with our replacement. We love these people so it is hard to think we might not have these close relationships much longer. So anyway, newbie came and led rehearsal Thursday evening. I have no idea what else he did because for the FIRST time since we moved here, for the FIRST time since Ezra was born, DEREK WENT TO CHURCH WITH US!!! That means that my husband and the father of the most beautiful babe woke up WITH US on Sunday morning. We had breakfast. I made a delicious dessert for potluck. I had HELP carrying said potluck and Ezra with all of his belongings to the car and we drove to church together. A normal Sunday morning involves a lot of timing finesse and stress on my part. Showering with a deadline is near impossible with a six-month-old! Anyway, I digress....for the first time our little family worshipped together. I - MOM - was able to raise my hands in worship instead of holding my sweet boy because DADDY WAS BESIDE ME! If anything comes from this experience, worshipping next to my husband and son was soooo worth it!

Newbie did a good job, but he made D and I feel our age. 22 seems a vast span on time away from our rounding the bases to 30! 22 seems eager and on-top-of-the-world! The Elders have decided they want to fly in another candidate to audition before making their decision so we are back to our waiting game. We are waiting, waiting, waiting on decisions to be made, doors to open and close and a moving date to be set! Anxiously waiting/dreading/hoping that this past weekend would deliver this much anticipated date had us packing a box "just in case." But, back to waiting. Dr. Seuss calls this the waiting place...as I remember he is not very fond of this place and strongly encourages us to move on, get up and go to "oh all the places you will go."

While we wait we will watch Ezra play, explore and grow. This week has proven that our little guy will not stay little for long. He is sitting up and playing with toys for longer time spans, content to just be in his own little world. When he is ready to snuggle he will lift his hands up in the air and whine like a little puppy. In our little Ezra world, waiting is turning out to not be so bad!  More updates to come...thank you so much for covering us in prayer. And thanks to my amazing grandparents for their ever present encouragement via email and calls. The puppy (baby) is now whining and waving his arms :)

Just little update

Hi friends and family,

Well, today is a big day...it marks the beginning of "the new guy" auditioning for Derek's job and the possibility of a new season on the way for the Fekkes Family. In a few short days we will know whether or not Derek has a job still or... well, I don't actually know what "or" could be. Because we use this blog to update our loved ones on our lives, I'm not going to succumb to the pressure to censor how we are feeling. IT SUCKS! This waiting, anxious feeling of looming unemployment combined with a "God is surely in control - who are we to TELL him how to work in our lives" mindset - SUCKS. A part of me just wants to scream, "LET THIS BE OVER!" But I know that this is a teachable moment, a moment of great growth as a family and great faith as a believer in Christ. As I type I look over at smiling Ezra and know how blessed we truly are. So, if you want some prayer points for us, here goes:

Faith, wisdom and discernment

Employment!! 

Contentment

Financial provision   

We'll keep you posted on how things go this week! ON the upside, Derek actually gets to worship with his wife and son this Sunday! First time EVER!