Have You Sent Your Christmas Card yet?

As a pastor's daughter, Christmas cards were always a big deal growing up. The perfect posed and planned "Christmas Card" picture was always taken (usually around Thanksgiving) and matched to it's cardstock counterpart, donned with a carefully worded holiday greeting and sent out to (hundreds) of friends and family members.
The first year we were married, I totally dropped the ball & didn't get Christmas cards out, but got back in the game just in time for "Happy New Years Cards." (thank you, next day shipping!) So you would think by our next Christmas I would have been prepared, right? BBZZZZ!! Wrong! Answer is- no! No Christmas Card, no New Years Card, nada, nothing! It was like I was getting worse!
If only I had known about Shutterfly's amazingly beautiful Christmas Cards. The Christmas Cards that are not only unique because of their whimsical holiday cheer and yummyness, but because they are so incredibly easy to use and personalize!
Worried that all your hard work on your family's Christmas Card will get overlooked amidst the throngs of other Christmas greetings in your recipiant's mail boxes??!! Fear Not (a child is born!) thanks to Shutterfly's fabulous matching envelopes, your holiday treasure will immediatly stand out from all the rest!
Go check them out, here, now!!!

here

I Know I Know

I know how terribly long it has been since I posted on our little blog.

Honestly, it has been quite a while since i have had anything to say. Anything coherent or even remotely interesting that is! 

Since the big move life at the Stews has been a little less rosy then either of us would have liked. In May '09, we were told by a law professor at Regent that the first dive into law school is like being extremely thirsty, just absolutely parched, and you are begging for a glass of water and what you get is a person about 3 ft. in front of you blasting a fire hose right in your face.

Yeah. Ouch.

It was definitely a shock to our systems. I think we both felt that we were somewhat prepared for law school because the whole 2 1/2 years we have been married Caleb has been in undergrad. Uhhh Wrongo. 

But you know what? God has been so faithful to us! 

Caleb and I were given the most amazing devotional for New Years. Its a daily read and in the 6 days that we have been reading it, we have felt that every devotion marked with that days date was written specifically for each of us for that specific day. It is incredible. The way the Lord chooses to reveal his presence to us is so precious to me. In a marriage and really in any relationship, you learn to try to read into people's love languages. In what way will this person be most responsive to an act of care? - time, gifts...etc. 

But God, the maker of Heaven and Earth and all there is in between, also formed our hearts in his hands and knows every laugh line and every heart break. 

In the last 4 months, there have been many heartbreaks and there have been many times that I thought my heart would stop due to the scarring. But it didn't.

One of the things that I have been learning (seemingly over and over again) in this last season of my life is that God is faithful even in His silences. For me, especially recently, I have been so frustrated when I really seek God's heart about something and I don't get an answer. I feel alone. I wonder why He has forsaken me in my time of need. But while I am wallowing, God is still all around me in His provision for my life. While I am obsessively fixating on my issue I am missing the blessings in my life that were planned out for me long ago by His hand.

This is an excerpt out of today's devotion that blessed both of us...

" Be careful what you do with the best you have. Whenever you get a blessing from God, give it back to him as a love-gift. Take time to meditate before God and offer the blessing back to Him in a deliberate act of worship."

I have said this in years past, but I am very very committed to be transformed by the renewing of my mind in this new year. Perhaps, because the latter portion of 2009 was difficult, I can recognize the blessing of sheer provision and faithfulness as my love-gift back to God. 

What a way to start out 2010!

Here are some of the things that I am grateful for from 2009

Always #1 on all of my lists....the love of my life.

This is my Whirly Pop Popcorn Popper. amazing. Incredible. The best. 

Our 2009 Thanksgiving Turkey! Our School Schedule didn't allow us to make the costly trip back to CA for Thanksgiving so we celebrated just the two if us with a low key, no stress, laid back day (and delicious food, if I do say so myself!)

My new and improved love of Fabric

My Mom coming out for a visit for my birthday!