On May 15, 2008, Halle and I took an exciting trip to the Fairwood Pet Center.  Here, she picked out and purchased her very first (real) pet.  She chose “Goldy” the goldfish.  Besides Goldy, we picked out a fish bowl, food and a couple other needed supplies to support this little life.  Halle had saved up her birthday money (as well as her “first tooth loss” money) in order to purchase this great little fish.

On May 16, 2008, Goldy was proudly displayed at Sunshine Mountain Christian School (Kindergarten). Halle brought her new friend to “Pet Day.”  In fact, Goldy won first prize for Best Swimmer.  Halle received a keepsake award to remember the great prize!

For the last few months Halle (and quite often Daddy) fed her little fishy twice a day.  Twice a week we (okay, this was always Daddy) would change the water and clean the bowl/rocks.  The pet store employee said keeping clean water would give Goldy the best chance at a long life (even up to months or years).  

On July 26, 2008, Goldy was found “resting” at the bottom of her little bowl.  Elisabeth discovered the body and quickly came down to tell me.  We were entertaining Joe and Shelly Heider… Joe’s advice, “go get a new one before anyone notices.”  Deciding not to re-enact every sitcom I had seen growing up, we decided to go ahead and talk to Halle (who was in bed, but not yet asleep).

Elisabeth and I told Halle the news.  At first she didn’t know how to react, she made a joke about the music she was listening to.  We spoke of our options as to what to do with the little fish.  She eventually asked for us to come back in five minutes so she could decide what we should do with little Goldy.  

We waited the five minutes and returned to one of the most precious and heart-wrenching scenes of this little six-year-old life.  Halle was sitting on the end of her bed with the “Best Swimmer Award” in her hand. In the soft night light glow we saw her; she was softly crying as she read and re-read the words on the award.  We spent a few minutes talking and comforting one another.  She told us she had gone into the bathroom and had seen Goldy at the bottom of her bowl (we wondered if this was part of the reason she asked to be alone, so she could go look on her own).  This was all part of her healing process.  She even cracked a joke saying, “she looked funny, her belly just sticking straight up.”

Halle will experience joy and sorrow throughout her life, I am thankful for the way she handled this loss. I was blessed to see how tender her heart is.  We’ll miss you Goldy (but I’ll be honest, I won’t miss the cleaning of that bowl and the rocks… at least for a couple weeks before we probably get a new fish!).

Grace,
Brian

We were on our way over to my parents house the other day to drop off the girls for our anniversary.  Here is a dialogue worth remembering:

Halle: Are finger prints the same on every finger?

Daddy: Nope, I don’t think so.

Halle: Why not?

Mommy: Because God made them unique for each finger, just like He made them unique for each person.  Did you know that NOBODY else has the same finger prints as you?

Audrey: I want someone else to have the same finger prints as me.  I do.

Daddy: Audrey, you don’t want anyone else to have the same prints as you

(here is where I knew I could confuse her, but wanted to teach her about CSI or something… great wisdom on my part huh?)…

You see Audrey, let’s say someone else did have the same finger prints as you, and they came over and stole two cookies out of our cookie jar.  And the only way we could find out who took the cookies was to test the finger prints.  The test would come back and because you have the same prints, you could be blamed for stealing the cookies, even though you didn’t.

Halle: Daddy, we don’t have a cookie jar.

Point well taken Halle, point well taken.

Normally, 21 is my favorite number.  However, for the day I am going to reverse those two digits and make 12 my favorite.

Why?

Because today is our 12th anniversary!  12 years ago today (10:30 AM Mountain Time, 9:30 AM Pacific) Elisabeth Stimer and I became man and wife.  We were married at Shove Chapel (pronounced like “show” but with the v at the end) in Colorado Springs, CO.

My parents are going to take the girls for the afternoon/evening and we’ll take Will on an adventure to Pike Place/downtown, enjoy some coffee time, and a nice dinner out!  The weather looks like a perfect match to that in Colorado 12 years ago (only we had huge thunderstorms in the evening).  

Besides salvation and a relationship with Jesus, Elisabeth is the best gift I could have ever received.  I am thankful for these 12 years and the many more to come!  I love you Elisabeth!

Here is a pic of Shove Chapel!

Grace,
Brian

Shove Chapel, Colorado Springs

I have enjoyed my first three weeks of blogging, much has happened in my life in these three weeks.  From time-to-time I think I will have a post entitled, “Looking Back.”  However, today I am starting a new series called, “Looking Forward (with a subtitle as well).”  Every now-and-again, I’ll post a few things happening in the next days, weeks, months or even years which get me pretty excited.  And before you go verse quoting on me, yes, I am aware of the verses which speak about not worrying about tomorrow, etc… these are just fun dreams so don’t be a party-pooper!

So, here’s the first with the subheading of “Halle”

(ALL of todays “Looking Forward” pertain to Halle)

In the next…

…hour I am looking forward to going in our kid pool with Halle and hearing her giggle and practice her “eyes in” (going under water).

…day I am looking forward to Halle telling us what she learned at her Sunday School class.  We are checking out our third new church and she is quite the trooper.  She normally can recite about everything the teacher has said (so be prepared if we come visit your church!).

…week I am looking forward to a daddy-daughter date with Halle to just spend some one-on-one time with her.  I think we’ll do either Baskin Robbins or Coldstone, these seem to be her favs right now.

…month I am looking forward to taking Halle camping to Lake Kachess.  She and her sister will head up with me (and my dad, brother and a few others).  I can’t wait to see her explore the woods, splash in the lake, hike the trail and read by the fire!

…year I look forward to her first grade year with Mommy as her teacher.  I think she is going to learn so much and her creative juices will never cease to amaze me.

Father, I am so thankful for my family and I pray your blessing upon Halle today!  Thank you for the gift she is to me, Elisabeth, Audrey, Will and so many others!  

Perhaps you’ll take a minute to lift up my daughter in your prayers! 

Grace,

Brian

Halle Grace!

This Sunday is the official “first Sunday” of our church shopping expedition.  This is the first time since I was 19 years old that I/we have gone looking for a church to attend; all other churches I have been a part of I have been hired.  This should be a unique experience.  

Some have asked, “why not stay at BPPC?”  We truly love the people at BPPC, but it is usually not a good move to have an outgoing pastor stay at the church when he moves out of the pastorate there.  For Eric’s sake, he needs room to make it his own; to build the team he will work well with; to make the changes he needs/wants to make and not feel the pressure to make it like Brian, Miki, Doug, Bill or Tom had it! Blessings on Eric and Miki as they move this group forward!

Our plan is to take the next several weeks of the summer to visit 4-5 churches just once each, then in the early fall (and after the regular church stuff is back up and running) we will narrow the field to 2-3 churches which we will visit a few times each.  We look forward to the blessings we will receive in seeing many churches this summer and we look forward to plugging into a body again too!  Your prayers are appreciated!

Grace,

Brian

So, this blog is not only going to be about the adventures of Brian, or the adventures of Youthmark… it is also about the family.  While I was on my baseball trip and Elisabeth was playing the role of “SuperMom” (which she plays even when I am home) she sent me a very cute email.  Here is part of her emial to me:

Okay, here’s the note Halle wrote to me yesterday (I’ll type everything exactly as she wrote it):

“Dear Mom, Thank you for signing us in for swiming lessons.  I’m really exited about learning   to swim.  i’m also exited to learn how to duck my head underwater.  i think that swiming  lessons is really fun.  I love you. Love, Halle (in fancy letters) xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo (and on and on)”

Then, later in the afternoon (after lessons), she asked if she could be alone in her room for a while… I noticed Halle had her Bible and a little journal.  She gave me this twenty minutes later:

“Dear Heavenly Father I pray you would help me in swiming lessons to duck my head under
water without holding my nose.  Thank you for the beutiful earth you made.  I pray that you  help me to grow in knowing and loving you in Jesus name i pray.  Amen.”
Wendsday praer.  HGA

The Lord answers these prayers.  Yesterday I took Halle and Audrey to their 4th swim lesson.  Halle went under water 3 times without any freak outs!  It was awesome.  Below is a pic of my girls at their lesson.

May we all thank the Lord for the lessons He is teaching us and may we all pray to grow in knowing and loving Him!

Grace,

Brian

Ready to take the plunge!