Faith Tested

Hi all, I hope your weekend was fabulous(does that word coming from me sound feminine?)! Our weekend went by way too fast and for the most part was on par enjoyable. It didn't start out that way, however...

Trouble started out around mid morning. I was at home working on Caleb and Sarah's wedding when Emily came in near in tears and said that while she was out shopping, Temple was being obnoxious (which, if you have a 1 1/2 year old little girl, you probably know what we are talking about. It's not the norm, but she DOES have her moody days). Emily just had her birthday and was really excited about using her gift card she got for $60. While going through the aisles, at some point Temple took Emily's gift card out of her wallet (unbeknownst to Emily) and tossed it. Em didn't find out until she got up to the register and saw that her card was missing. They searched and searched and it was no where to be found. I don't have much doubt that someone saw the opportunity and pocketed my wife's card which is an irritating thought that people are so inconsiderate, but what can you do. Em was so disappointed that she just needed to take a break from the kids so I took over for her for most of the day thereafter.

That's not the half of it...

Then, while Emily is at the gym, she gets an email on her phone that one of our couple's is canceling their wedding with us because of their economic situation (I called them, by the way, and they are definitely in a tough spot and we completely understand why they needed to cancel). This was the first time we have ever had a cancelation and it's not fun in our kind of business. THEN... less than 45 minutes later! We receive ANOTHER email of one of our couples canceling due to a death in the family. At this point Emily and I are both thinking 'Okay, what on earth is going on here!?' 2 cancelations within 45 minutes of each other? And again, both couples had serious and legitimate reasons to cancel; it had nothing to do with our work or our relationships with the clients which were (and still are) in good standing.

THEN... (at this point it's just comical :) we received a call earlier about a photo shoot for a corporation for that night! 'GREAT! some good news finally!' we thought. So I talked back and forth with the Scottsdale Hilton rep to make it happen, draw up a contract, etc. So I go to the hotel and guess what? They hired someone else! :) I was stunned... The rep their said that she never received my contract via email and so she hired someone else because they didn't hear back from me. We go back to her office to check it out, and there it was, my email in her spam folder. At this point, I'm not even mad at all... 'figures' was my only thought. I'm so spent at this point that I start having random breakouts in laughter followed by exhaustion :)

So why and I writing all of this? Because I am thankful for days like this... Let me explain.

Emily and I are Christians (which is a vague term these days. Suffice to say we are followers of Jesus, believe in the Bible, and live our lives according to the principles within the Bible to the best of our ability). On a day like this, I step back and am forced to take a serious look at my security and where I put my trust; within 45 minutes we lost a considerable amount of our future income (not that it broke the bank by any means, but it was a substantial hit), AND certain things that we thought we had the rights to were taken from us without our consent. I got the chance to see what my first flinch was, and I'm thankful that it was 'God, you aren't caught by surprise by all this. If we lost everything, we can still place our trust in you and know that you will provide.' Not that I didn't have my serious moments of doubt and depression, and I don't think many would fault me for struggling, but my overall point of view was 'God will provide, period'. On top of that, I am thankful that I still have my lovely and beautiful wife, my adorable and healthy children, a roof over our heads and food on the table. Their isn't a whole lot in life that we NEED, really, and in this light we are so very blessed beyond what we realize.

This was a really wordy blog post, and if you made it all the way through it, I hope that you are encouraged with it. :) Here's one a picture of Wyatt from Friday. He LOVES Netflix :)