Early Morning Visitor

So...you know how sometimes you get caught up in whatever you are doing and forget to do something that you normally do without even having to think about it? (Don't even make me feel like I'm the only one out there that is like that...you know that you have done it yourself :) Well...that is what happened last night..and believe me I will always remember this mistake. LoL To give you a little background...last night we were coming home from church...it was a good service and we had met some new friends and we were pretty pumped about how the night went. So of course we are discussing this as we roll up in our drive way. We proceed to get out of the truck still telling each other about our different conversations. I was heading to the back about to get Ian out when I realized my hands were full...so I asked Wes if he could grab him. Being the great father and husband that he is...he had no problem with this and quickly came around to help me out with him. We made our way into the house and put Ian to bed...Wes studied for a class that he is giving the soldiers today and I watched a little TV. Then we headed off to bed where we both quickly fell asleep. And let me tell you I was sleeping very well...and having a great dream. Although right now for the life of me I can't remember what it is..but I know it was good. :) All of sudden I'm startled awake by the dogs running out of our room and to the front door barking quite loudly...and all I could think of is they better not wake Ian or I will kill each and everyone of them. OK...maybe not kill...but severely hurt! So Wes jumps out of bed to try and calm them down and sends them back into the room...when all of a sudden this extremely loud banging is heard on our door. Oh...and the doorbell is being rung...but since our doorbell is half dead..it really was just a sad pathetic noise that was overwhelmed mostly by the banging. So there are many things running through my head right now. Who the heck would be knocking at our door at 340 in the morning???? Could it be our neighbor...maybe something was wrong with her mom...but no...surely she would have called instead. Would a burglar really knock on our door before coming in and killing us? (seriously...it's amazing what goes through your head when you are startled out of deep sleep) So I tell Wesley to grab the gun before he opens the door...of course he didn't really need me to tell him that...he had already grabbed it...I was just trying to be helpful! Well...this has taken probably a good 30 seconds...but it seems like forever before Wesley gets to the door and whoever is at the door will not stop banging!!!! So now I'm thinking I'm going to kill whoever is at my door if he wakes up Ian. So I'm trying to hold 4 dogs back while Wesley answers the door of this very impatient impostor...this is no easy job for me let me tell you! Wesley yells "who's there" (can you tell we don't have a peep hole...which we will be getting before Wesley deploys I have now decided). Whoever is there can knock loud...but his voice isn't very loud...so Wesley finally opens the door after asking twice and still not understanding! So I am in the other room and all I hear is "I'm from the Oak Grove Police Department"! What in the world!!!! I'm imagining someone has died or our house was on fire or something...I swear this guys fist must be black and blue from almost banging down my door, sureley this was a sever emergency! So Wesley walks outside and shuts the door...what seem like 10 minutes has gone by (when in reality it was like 1 maybe 2) Wesley comes back inside! I'm waiting anxiously to hear what he wanted...what was the emergency! Yeah...our door to our truck was open...in all of our chatting that night on our way inside the house we had forgotten to close the truck door. The police officer was nice enough to close it for us...but then wanted to make sure that we were alright! I guess there had been several break ins in our neighborhood and he wanted to make sure that no one had broken into our house! You know...honestly I didn't get mad. I was actually touched that he cared enough and took the time to make sure we were ok. It meant a lot to me because as most of you know my husband is rarely home and it's nice to know I have someone watching out for me when he is away...patrolling our streets and making sure we are safe! So thank you to that police officer out there...whoever you are...for making sure we are ok...and also for giving us a good laugh...and possibly saving our battery so Wes could go to work this morning! :

Life's purpose

All of my life I have been use to serving...that's the life of a Pastor's daughter I'm told...and that is exactly who I am. So when you grow up and leave the house you have to actually look for something to do so you can serve others. Not everyone is like your dad and finds something for you to do whether you want to or not. :) And growing up there were times when I just didn't feel like always serving...and if that makes me a bad person...then there it is...I am human...go figure. When we asked if we had to do something my dad's motto was always..."you don't have to...you get to". My sisters and I have joked about that a lot growing up but now that I am grown I find myself repeating that to myself quite often...and I'm sure if you asked my husband he will let you know that I have repeated this saying to him on more than one occasion...which I'm sure he loves as much as I did when my dad said it to me. :) So now that I am an adult and on my own it seems I am fighting to find a way to serve. And somehow thankfully the Lord has blessed Wes and I and we have found a way to use the abilities the Lord has given us to serve since we have been married. But it seems the last year or so we have been fighting to feel like we are being used to help others...we've prayed that God would please show us what to do. And you know...it's amazing how something can be staring you in the face for so long...but you never see it. There is a couple in the church we had been going to who runs a place called the Eagle's Nest. It is a great ministry that caters to the military...the main focus on single soldiers who have no family and live in the barracks...but all are welcome to come. This older couple have been serving the military and the community for several years and keeping this wonderful "home away from home" open all by themselves for the most part. And sadly Wes and I have known this couple for 2 years...and it was only about a week ago that we actually came to each other with the same idea...maybe they could use some help. It's amazing how God does that. Wes has been gone for several months off and on and we had not talked about it...but God had been dealing with both of us and as soon as I told Wes how I felt like I should see if they could use our help he said God had been dealing with him about the same thing. So we asked them to put us to work any way they needed...and did they ever. :) And what is amazing about it is I have gotten more blessing out of it then probably what I have been putting into it. Yesterday was my first expericne at the DZ (Drop Zone). This is where the soldiers that are jumping from the chinooks land and after they land the Brockmans serve them hot dogs, hamburgers, cookies and sweets, and drinks. Yesterday we were there from 1000 until 600pm for 5th groups reunion jump and served over 700 hot dogs and hamburgers to the soldiers and their families that were out there! It was such a blessing to give back to the soldiers that are giving up so much for us. I was amazed at how much work went into it and realized that this older couple usually do this all by themselves...no complaints! Let me tell you...God dealt with me for not helping sooner...but I can't live in the past...but what I can do is look to the future. I am so excited for what God is going to allow us to do with the Brockmans in the next few months. We have so many new ideas that we are talking about to get the name out there so more people will know about the Eagle's Nest and hopefully bring more people to Jesus, which is our #1 main goal. God is so good to allow our family to serve. Just in the last week we have been so busy but our life has been so much happier. It is so visible...I see the huge difference in Wesley...it's nice to know that we have a new purpose in life! And already I am about to face my first big challenge in this field... Friday pizza night without Ms. Martha. (she is taking her mom up to stay with family for a while) I'll let you know how I survive that! :)