Mike & Steph

Giving it a whirl
Tuesday, January 29, 2008

I am not a frequent blogger, but due to receiving great encouragement via reading other's blogs, I thought I would give it a whirl.  So if you did not know already, I am pregnant.   This pregnancy has been anything but easy.  As many of you know, Mike and I had a miscarriage about 6 months ago.  The day I found out we were expecting I experienced overwhelming joy followed by overwhelming anxiety.   Many times during the first trimester I had to give the pregnancy over to God minute by minute, and some days I have to admit I had very little peace despite my resolve to trust Him with our family.  My anxiety was compounded by the fact that it seemed every 2 weeks something happened to shake my faith a little more.  First, it was the lack of morning sickness. With the last pregnancy I was ill from the beginning. With this pregnancy, the "all day illness" did not start until eight weeks.  Just when I started "feeling pregnant," I started spotting. After an emergency ultrasound, they confirmed everything was alright even though my nerves were shaken every day as I continued to spot for 2 weeks.  That spell was followed by dropping hormone levels and then another episode of spotting.  I am now approaching 14 weeks, and the doctors have assured me that everything is going perfectly. (In my head I am thinking - if this has been perfect I would hate to see complicated.)  I am thankful that through it all the Lord has continued to assure me. Often times I would just find myself saying over and over. "The Lord gives and He takes away so blessed be the name of the Lord."

I am finally starting to relax in being pregnant.   Of course, there are plenty of stresses considering Mike is graduating in May, and we have no idea where God is calling us.  I am doing my best to give that to Him as well.

In addition to being a little crazy, this pregnancy thing has given me quite and education.  I am very fortunate to have several close friends and family members in a similar stage as me. Either they have just had kids or are pregnant but farther along than me.  When I start to get overwhelmed with things like Boppi's, maternity clothes, "hooter hiders," "travel systems" (and no this in not a car - it is a stroller), and nursing bras, I have plenty of people to talk to.

All things above said, I am thrilled about this next phase of life and I am doing my best to enjoy all the changes as they come.

Posted bySteph posted 3:02 PM 1 comments  

What is God doing?
Tuesday, January 22, 2008

What is God doing?
Stephanie and I have been praying lately that God would reveal to us what he has up his sleeve, and it might be something that we could never have possibly anticipated. During a conversation I was having with my wife, it was mentioned that if I was not able to find a position with a church or with a campus ministry, then maybe I would teach for a year or so. It seemed like a good idea, and we both agreed that it would work if God led us to that point. Soon after that conversation, Stephanie had a conversation with her friend Melissa in which she told Melissa about our conversation. Melissa promptly responded that we should come and teach at the school that her husband Adam has been teaching at for the past couple of years. Stephanie passed that on to me, and I was not opposed to the idea. A few days later, Adam relayed to us a position opened up at the school that requires an ordained pastor. The person in this position would plan and direct chapels and also spiritually mentor the students. What a great position! As of this week, I put in my application to this position. The way that Stephanie and I have been feeling God directing us as of late is that if I am offered the position, we will most likely take it. But we will wait and see what God is doing.
Oh, did I mention that the position is near Teguchigalpa? Yeah. That's right. Honduras.
What is God doing?

Posted byMike Fennema posted 10:04 PM 2 comments  

My 15 seconds of fame
Saturday, January 19, 2008

Well it is official. I unsuspectingly had my 15 minutes of fame as I was walking out of the Mount Dora Library yesterday. A couple of DVDs that I had requested were on hold for me. I was busting my tail to get in and out of the Library so that I could get home and surprise my pregnant wife. She wasn't expecting to see me until she was already asleep in bed for the night, but my class got out early and I decided to make the hour-long drive home, surprise her, spend the next half hour with her, and then drive an hour back to Oviedo. The things you do for love.

Anyways, so I pull up to the Library, and I notice signs announcing that it is an early polling place. Florida's primary is coming up on the 29^th of January, and people can vote early if they want to avoid the chaos of an election day. As I near the entrance, I see a camera crew. Hmm. Interesting. Some goofy looking guy with long grey hair is joking around with them and you can tell he wants to get on TV. I park my car, and I see a large satellite truck parked in the grass behind the building. What I noticed about it was that it wasn't some local station's truck. It had no obvious markings on it. It was simply very non-descript, so I was wondering who these people were and where they were from. As I am walking up to the entrance, a retired couple passes me excitedly talking about how they just go interviewed, and in my head I'm thinking about what I should do to avoid the camera crew and just do my business. So I pull my hat down, put an "I'm in a hurry, and I mean business" look on my face, and plow ahead into the library.

Once I am safe inside, I get what I came for and quickly head back out. The crew is still there, and they are blocking my way to the parking lot. My only hope of avoiding them is to have someone already talking to them as I pass. No such luck. As I am trying to brush past them quickly, the reporter asks me if he could talk to me. Everything in me wants to say "Sorry. I'm in a hurry." But what comes out of my mouth is "I didn't vote…" I assumed they were doing a story on people who were voting early. Wrong. "Oh, that's ok. We'd like to talk to you anyway." For some reason I uttered "Ok" instead of "Sorry, I have to get home to my beautiful wife." I don't know what I was thinking.

So he begins by asking me questions about what issues are important for me as I am choosing a political candidate. Seeing as I view myself as slightly well informed on things (I have been known to listen to a little talk radio from time to time, and I try to keep up on the news), I was able to list things like national defense, the war in Iraq, the economy because I am a conservative and um…uh…I think…uh…something …you know, the typical answers. Then he starts probing a little and asking about the economy. I talk a little about people warning that a recession is coming and I mention the speech that Bush gave yesterday about giving the economy a shot in the arm. I'm feeling impressed with myself because I feel like I kind of know what is going on. I say something to the effect that I think it is important to put money back in the hands of taxpayers to give our economy a boost. I thought it was pretty slick, and I was impressed with myself.

Well, after seeing the clip, I wasn't feeling so impressed with myself. It turns out that God has a sense of humor. He knows that I struggle with arrogance and pride, so instead of allowing me 15 minutes of fame, he cut mine back to 15 seconds. And instead of sounding extremely intelligent, he made me sound …um…uh…um…well, you get the picture.

Posted byMike Fennema posted 7:31 AM 2 comments  

Letting the Cat Out of the Bag
Tuesday, January 8, 2008

Steph is pregnant!
There it is. The cat is out of the bag. We have been trying our best to keep it on the down low, just to make sure that everything is ok before we make the announcement. We have told a few people under the condition that they be fervently praying for our little one. Since the word is getting around now (I won't name any names as to who might have let the cat out a little early) and Steph is pretty much out of the danger zone, it is time to officially make the news public.
Also, we need prayer because we had a little scare yesterday. Steph got test results back yesterday that were cause for concern. In fact, the PA at the OBGYN's office said that it could be alarming. A stress-filled, prayer-filled, tear-filled day ensued. Our fears were put to rest with an ultrasound where we saw our beautiful baby and his/her beating heart, happily bouncing around in mommy's belly. Our tears of fear were turned to tears of joy.
Today, we went to the OBGYN and everything is fantastic. Nothing to worry about. We even got to hear our baby's heartbeat! It was the most beautiful sound I have ever heard.
So everything is ok, but we still would ask for your prayers. That is the condition that we have had for telling people: once you know about Stephanie being pregnant, you are now under obligation to pray. So please fulfill your new obligation. We certainly need it and would appreciate it immensely.

Posted byMike Fennema posted 11:33 AM 6 comments  

Pray for peace in Kenya
Sunday, January 6, 2008

I don't know if any of you have been following what has been going on in Kenya recently, but from what I have been reading and seeing on the news, it looks pretty bad there right now. Many people have died due to violence after their recent elections because the results are disputed and people think that the election was rigged, according to my understanding. It is just sad to see so much corruption, violence, and death.
Having spent almost 6 months in Kenya when I was in college, there is a very special place in my heart for the country and its people. Ironically, Kenya has typically been viewed as one of the most stable countries in Africa after it gained its independence back in 1963. However, peace is being held hostage as people protest the results of the election. Please pray for the nation as a whole and for the people specifically. During the passing of the peace in church today, our pastor mentioned that we need to be praying for peace ot reign on the earth, especially in placed like Kenya right now. If you have a moment, pray for peace, not only in Africa, but around the world.

Posted byMike Fennema posted 10:54 PM 0 comments  

I just thought that I would share with all of you a map of our favorite running route. I'm going to try and run this route 3 times a week, so pray for me! It's so easy to say I'm going to do it. It is another thing to actually do it!

Posted byMike Fennema posted 10:37 AM 0 comments  

New Year's Resolutions
Tuesday, January 1, 2008

One can not really be considered a "blogger" unless they blog about their New Year's resolutions, can they? I think it might be number 6 or 7 of the Blogger Ten Commandments: "Thou shalt not let a New Year's Day go by without blogging about thy New Year's Resolutions."

This year, I haven't made a ton of new resolutions because my resolutions rarely make it out of the first week of the New Year. I am renewing some old resolutions though. Once again, I am resolving to read the Bible through in a year. I've only officially done it once, although I've resolved to do it every year for the past however many years. This year, I have a partner in crime: my beautiful wife Stephanie. In order to bolster the spiritual aspect of our marriage, we are going to be following the same track for our devotions. This way, we can share with each other things that we are learning in the passages that we are reading. We can even read some together. How about that? Reading the Bible together.

I've also resolved--in a vague, unquantifiable way, which is usually tough to resolve to do--to be more reflective. My journaling and blogging have been down in the past year. I was looking back at some of the blogging that I have done, and it is mostly pictures and "this is what we did this past weekend." I know that my family likes to see the pictures, but I've gotten away from really reflecting on life like I have done in the past.

2008 looks to be a year with big changes in the life of Stephanie and I, and I look forward to writing about it. So to those of you who used to check up on the blog more often than you do right now, come back often. I hate to disappoint people, so if you haven't heard from me in a while, call me out!

So, to all our family, friends, and people we don't know who might stumble across our blog: we love you all very much. May God bless you all in 2008.

Posted byMike Fennema posted 10:30 PM 0 comments