along the journey

I’m sitting in the bathroom, while Caleb plays in the tub after throwing up for the second time this evening. He’s done now. I need to get him out. Poor baby. I took him to the doctor this morning who gave us a prescription for an antibiotic if his fever went up. It was fine all day yesterday and into this morning, but this afternoon it started going up again. he’s said all night long that he was sick, but never throw up until about an hour ago.
Poor baby.
Smallville was interesting tonight, Clarks powers were affected by the biggest solar flare of the century, pretty coincidental that it aired the same as the biggest that we’ve seen. Skies are clear tonight, I’d love to be able to see the auroras!
I got some work done on a few sites that I maintain this evening while Caleb laid by my side on the couch. Oh yeah, we paid our internet bill this morning!

So it’s been exactly a week since I wrote last. Still fighting a cold, as we all are.
Our DSL got turned off temporarily until we pay our bill…. yes, diapers are more important than DSL. It was almost a week until we got an AOL Cd in the mail- you know you’re an internet addict when you have your DSL turned off and install AOL just for the free internet time.

Found out this morning that we were not succesful in getting pregnant, again, for the 10th month in a row. Found out Saturday evening that my brothers on-again-off-again girlfriend is pregnant. It’s definately very difficult dealing with unwanted/unplanned pregnancies when you’ve been trying for so long. I don’t write about it much, mostly because I don’t think about it much, but that doesn’t mean that it doesn’t hurt. I just think that we’re being guided down the path that God wants us to be on…. afterall, he is the creator. I can’t imagine how we’d survive the additional cost of another kid, and I’m sure that it’s just not a good time…. but it’s all about timing, or miracles. Who knows.

I’m crashing fast. I started out this morning feeling fine…. throughout the day though it’s just started to take over, an achey,sore throat, headache sitting right on top of my eyes, stuffy nose. Nothing has been able to quell it. I just took some generic psuedephed, but I can’t see it helping my concentration level any…. leads me to procrastination, that I definately don’t need any help with.

Our pastor forwarded an email to us today of someone that has left our church community for several reasons, most of which seem to be that they’ve come to a point in their life where Cornerstone doesn’t meet their current spiritual needs. It ends up being that they’re wrestling with what they believe, not with being a Christian, but with theological and doctrinal beliefs. This is definately acceptable and encouraged in our community, but what hit me the most was I feel some how responsible for at least not missing them. Some what responsible in that I wasn’t available to help them connect and bounce ideas off of…… and that I don’t have any strong theological or doctrinal stances that would be a good sounding board. I don’t feel as if this makes me a “bad” Christian, but I feel that it makes me some what less credible, but I’m working this all out for myself and my family too! In response I wrote the following email to my pastor and others that have volunteered for leading the young adults/20 somethings ministry- also known as Xaris

This is one where I feel in over my head. I’m a seeker… I care…. and desire to know God. This is the kind of things that make me feel inadequate, that I don’t understand and/or don’t have any particular stance on these issues…. this is where I get scared.

Open dialogue is not what scares me, what scares me is that I don’t know how to
respond, mostly because of lack of knowledge. I know God wants me/us to be in leadership, I know that God doesn’t want us to wait… I know that we’re not
perfect…. but what now?!

I’m sure these are feelings that so many people are feeling as a result of
on-the-job traiing etc… where we don’t necessarily have to have degrees in
theology or something to be leadership in the church.

This in now way means that I don’t want the responsibililty that comes with
leadership, it just means that I’m being moved out of my comfort zone…. with
which I want to grow.

I realize there is probably nothing that Amy and I could have done to really change the way that this family was feeling, and they honestly weren’t complaining about not fitting in or feeling that our church was not a good church. It’s just that they had reached a moving on point, Amy and I are very fimiliar with those, and they were courteous enough to share their thoughts and feelings with our pastor.

It’s very easy to get defensive of our faith and our methodologies for that matter, but I don’t think that this is an appropriate reaction, and I hope that I don’t come across that way. In truth, I encourage the family to continue seeking and I hope that they find a place where they are able to grow.

I welcome any comments, as they really help me figure out what I’m thinking!

I’m sitting here listening to some music I downloaded from Emerging Minister - chatting with Doug, just finished chatting with Darren. Thinking about worship, God, life.

I had an awesome day. Today was Amy’s first Pampered Chef Kitchen Show and I got the chance to stay home with Caleb while she was out. She left around noon. About 12:30 our pastor called and asked if we’d watch his two sons while he and his wife were at a wedding. I happily said yes. His sons are 10 and 6 (i think)- both of them are absolute jewels. The 4 boys had an excellent time hanging out, playing gamecube, watching cartoons, wrestling and playing keep away.

We’ve had some stressful times in our life lately, but I’m content, now. I love life. I love each new day. I say that now, but in the midst I know my story changes. Getting plugged-in and commited at church really helps things flow smoothly on the spiritual side of things…. even if it does make us much more busy. We’ll spend most of our day tomorrow at the church, with services and a leadership meeting. We’ve got a meeting on Monday night for our Young Adults/twenty somethings ministry, and Tuesday is the first night I’ll be at a programming meeting. This week is the first chance the guys from our small group are going to get together, I’m excited about that. I have lots to look forward to this week.

By now Amy’s about finished her first Pampered Chef Kitchen Show. I just wanted to take some time to publicly encourage my wonderful wife. She’s such an amazing woman to take on some many tasks on top of being an busy mother and wife. I love you babe.

Is this not the cutest kid you’ve ever seen?

Mick O’Sheas
328 North Charles Street
Baltimore, MD 21201

We’ll meet on 10/20/03 at around 7:00pm on. Kids are welcome.

For $5 you get a great burger and beer/soda/etc. until midnight.
RSVP to Rob let him know you’re coming.

I put up a bunch of pictures the other night, sunday maybe….. here’s the links to them.

Pics from our trip to Va Beach
A couple of pics from the Italian Festival I went to this with Darin and Bryan and Sarah when Amy went to Ohio.
Cornerstones Ice Cream Social
Cornerstones Luau
Added some to this gallery- the cutest kids on the whole earth

Apparently, Naomi, was found somewhere in Montana. I’m not sure of the story, but just wanted to let everyone know.

Naomi Klimowicz — approx 5 ft 3 in, 155 lbs, (Birthday Oct, 1981-almost 22 yrs old)– left for work at ~ 6:50 AM on Tuesday, October 7, 2003, from Ryan Avenue, Hanover MD. She failed to arrive at her job at SunTrust Bank, Stewart Avenue, Glen Burnie, MD at approx. 7:15 AM.

from FindNaomi.com