Marriage Encounter Weekend

This past weekend, Marie and I attended a Lutheran Marriage Encounter weekend, part of a larger ministry called Worldwide Marriage Encounter. I've really wanted to attend a marrige retreat with Marie for a long time, and when this retreat popped up on the Daily Announcements for the sem saying there was a discount for us it was hard to turn down.

I had no idea what to expect. I have never been to a marriage retreat before nor had I heard anything about LME or WME. So we went with no expectations nor any idea what we would be doing. My first impression when we first arrived was, "What did we get ourselves into?" I was nervious and uncertian. However, after we started I began relaxing.

I don't want to give to much away for those couples interested, but I will say it was a physically and emotionally exhausting weekend. But I am glad that Marie and I went. I ended up realizing I was holding back part of myself from things that happened in our past. I wasn't even aware of this and confessed this to Marie and asked her forgiveness. It really helped us bond and connect and gave us the tools to really be one. I highly reccomend people to go to a LME or WME weekend!

Nearing the End of Hell Week(s)

Today brings Timothy and I one day closer to being done with our Hell Week(s). Four weeks ago we began looking at apartments. This added extra appointments to our already packed schedule, sometimes three or four extra appointments. We also, being social people, kept adding more get-togethers with friends as a way to counteract some of the stress of finding out that we're parents. So we are drawing to the end of our Hell Week(s) and we are thankful. Timothy is nearing the end of his finals. Classes end on Friday, but he has two take home exams due in the following weeks to work on. We're looking forward to some time to just relax (although I'll still be working during Timothy's break).

One way we'll be relaxing is by attending the Lutheran Marriage Retreat held in St. Louis over February 22-24. We will be required to leave life behind for these days and we'll be staying in a hotel, with meals provided. (Read here, no cooking, no cleaning and most importantly, no dishes.) This time will be great for Timothy and I to focus on the two of us before becoming the three of us in August. It's a time we both are looking forward to, although we don't really know what we're getting into with the retreat.

We're also newly addicted to Lost, a television series (somewhat older now) about people who crashed on an island. We're renting the DVDs from the library and watching several episodes in a row. We're close to finishing Season 2 now (of 6 seasons), so look for us to have finished Season 3 by the time Timothy is back in school in March.

Excited!

Timothy and I are expecting our first child in mid-August! After we started getting over the initial shock, we are both really excited! The baby is a wonderful surprise.

We're also going to be changing a lot about our life over the next few months. For starters, we're moving into a new apartment (as soon as we find a new place). We currently live in an one-bedroom place and it is illegal for three people to live there. This will start a string of moving every year, or rather continue this trend. We will be moving before our vicarage year (beginning July 2014), moving back to St. Louis to finish seminary in July 2015, and moving for our first call in May/June 2016. That's a lot of moving! We're also starting to revamp our life for a baby. We're talking about my jobs and Timothy's school. We're looking at babysitters and how life will work after the baby is born. We've started changing our saving and spending habits, not that we spent a lot of extra money before this. We're also becoming well-versed in governmental assistance programs.

Bottom line: our life is in for a new adventure. And we're as ready as we can be :)