3mos, 1yr and the most wonderful time of the year..

Back again, not quite returning at full health from the land of the walking dead, but cured enough that I can be a vital part of society, vital enough. My wife is grateful that I no longer have to be quarantined, and what timing. Last Sunday was our day of days, that first of many, our one year anniversary. And the day before that, our beautiful baby boy just turned three months old and oh how he keeps growing and growing, like a little weed . . . albeit an adorable lil’ weed. All of the above going on and I was taken out of the game on account of plague, and I hated being out of commission during this of all seasons. So, why didn’t I just suck it up and plow through, to some degree I did, although I am the first to admit how much of a baby I am when I’m sick. I could have my arm half way torn off and wouldn’t flinch a bit, but give me the sniffles, a headache or add nausea and I am completely useless. Still, I would say my quarantine was a tad selfless, I was trying not to share the wealth of germs with my wife and three kids, beginning a new cycle of suffering that would increase with each new infestation and possibly return with a vengeance to its origins.

However, our day was still one to remember and our little man as always continues to wow me with his growth, not just in size but in personality and dexterity. For a while I thought Davin might slow in his physical progression, but he continues to grow like he was bitten by some radioactive insect. He still has not an ounce of body fat on him, well maybe an ounce, he doesn’t look anorexic, there just isn’t an ounce of fat anywhere to pinch on the kid save his cheeks. Which is funny because I was a fat baby. Hey, I saw that “I’m not surprised” look. I grew up in various stages of portly and concentration camp kid, at least my little man doesn’t take after his old man in either of those extremes, while skinny, he looks healthy. He’s definitely a hybrid of my wife and I. I keep telling her how much of her there is in him and she never believed it until my mom brought over an album of my baby pictures the other day. Looking at my baby pictures, it’s easier to see not only how much of me there is in him, but also how much cuter he is because of my wife.

And while it’s fun to have my little mini me who is a vastly improved version thanks to my beautiful bride, the best times are those few times, lately (due to chances of outbreak), when I get to play with him: to see him laugh over and over again as I clap his hands together and watch as he tries to mimic my faces and in turn witnessing him giggle again at himself or me as he tries over and over to mirror the tomfoolishness in my mug. Lately he’s also been trying to hold his own bottle and he loves to look directly into your eyes as he eats, the intensity of his stare amazes me, the focus he has, and how he loves to take in his surroundings. Not to mention, his innately inherited endless supply of expressions, and how much I love his annoyed look, like my wife, you can tell when he’s annoyed. So maybe you can understand how much it’s pained me to not be able to go to him when he was bawling his eyes out and I was hacking up a lung. I swear someone put some voodoo magic on me long ago, because I cannot get sick without this stupid cough irritating me long after every other symptom dies off.

And then to top it all off, our one year anniversary came in the midst of my illness. My wife and I have beaten the odds, we’ve stayed together through one hellava year and we’ve remained happily and blissfully intact. It’s the kind of thing that she deserved trumpets and confetti and parades dedicated to her sainthood for putting up with this sorry sac of mucus, but all I could offer her was a simple date and my earnest love and thankfully it turned out to be an amazing day together. I won’t bore you with the details, in fact, I keep trying to tell you that we’re truly boring people. It reminded me of our first dates in our favorite park, just cuddling (smiles wryly, which reminds me of the night a police officer asked us to take our quality time somewhere else) and talking the night away and that’s where we ended up on our anniversary, at the end of the night we went to the Disney’s Grand Californian Hotel and sat in the lobby talking, it’s a different kind of intimacy that I love having with my wife. And so, in a funny and twisted kind of way, I am glad I was sick on our first anniversary, who knows if we had opted for the fancy and flashy (sometimes I, well I often go overboard on these occasions, but with the recent purchase of a house and my diseased state we went for the more simple) we would of connected on that little lobby couch in such an intimate way passerby’s would blushed furiously, faces flushing bright red if they happen to gaze upon our fierce interlude. *smiles*

And now tomorrow it will be Halloween: “Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more.” I’ll bring a massive bag of cough drops and pop them like candy whilst I watch my little munchkins enjoy their night of dress up as they frolic from door to door and amass hordes of sugary goodness. Pushing my pooh bear along in his stroller and holding my wife’s hand and thinking about how much fall has become my favorite time of year.

that is all.

Back to the Vacay..

I left you last with a flashback of my first airline experience in approximately 12 years. Let’s do that again. “Four in the morning, Ugh.” At least my monkey is still sleeping, that or my saintly wife got up once again with him while I slept so soundly that in the old days I’d probably be well acquainted with the term, “saved by the bell.” I’m up now and so is the monkey, might as well feed him while my wife stirs and is up and at em stepping nekkid into the shower, hmmm, maybe a little early morning delight. ‘Waaaahhhhhhh!’ OK, maybe not. “Shh, I’m here little man.” It’s going to be a long day.

Flash forward.. the kids are ready, the bags in the car the night before. We’re off: on the road and no traffic. Our pre-dawn launch is paying off and it’s smooth sailing as far as the eye can see. So let’s skip this chapter of our Vacation DVD and get to the good stuff.. The monkey is wailing and we’ve got one more exit till were in Barstow. A good a place as any to stop and feed the chillins, a bathroom break wouldn’t go amiss either. Time for our greasy spoon pit stop.

“No way!” Bob’s Big Boy and they have a breakfast buffet (man, they are coming back with a vengeance). It’s the perfect place to begin our vacay right. Double time.. The food was good, the monkeys fed. “Let’s pay and get going.” The obvious being stated, I went to find their facilities and on my way back I asked my wife about the check and she said the waitress said it was taken care of, and thought I paid it already. “Wha? It’s taken care of? Maybe she meant she’s getting it.” My wife went to go confirm the waitresses’ definition of “taken care of” and came back not being able to pry out of our food dealer more then that an anonymous party had paid our bill and said, ‘Jesus loves you.’ That He does, but wow, Jesus bought us breakfast. Did we look like a rag-a-tag band of heathens? Or were we just some random strangers to bless? The world may never know.

What an embarkation to our expedition. I remember my first trip with Aly, the weekend I whisked her away to ask her to marry me in the most romantical way ever . . . and to commence that quest of true love, she shut the car window on my hand right after we left her driveway. That’s the usual preface I’m used to with Aly and I in these little getaways. Anyways, “Sweet, let’s go kids. VEGAS BABY!”

Fast Forward through the boring stuff.. Wait a minute, back it up a bit..

   ”Did you hear Nate, honey?”
   ”No”, Aly replied looking at me puzzled.
   ”What did you say Nate?” I called back.
   ”Wah wah wah threw wah wah wah,” he mumbled.
   ”He sounds like Charlie Brown’s teacher, I have no idea what he said.”
   ”I can’t hear him either,” Aly concurred.
   I looked back once more a bit concerned from his tone, but still couldn’t tell what he was saying, “We’re almost there Nate, hold on.” And after a few minutes of driving, probably much less, my mind decoded the secret Ovaltine message, possibly with the help of my trusty super-smell decoder ring. “Honey, I think he said he threw up.”

Several miles out from the Mecca of Sin & Debauchery so we trucked on as the smell started to permeate the car. The smell was the only evidence I had, from what I could see as I peered into the backseat everything was status in quo, but the smell told another story and so did Dean. We pulled into Vegas’ outlet center and pulled in front of the Disney Store. And Buddha, Nietzsche, holy cows of India – call the exorcist! Nate threw up . . . on everything BUT the seat protector. My lovely wife went to town on the car (there are some things my wife does that always causes me to be eternally grateful for, this is one of those things), and I took Dean and the baby into the Disney Store to find a five dollar shirt. Normally that would be impossible with Disney merch, but this is their outlet and there we have it, Camp Rock for $5.99.

The rest of the day consisted of your normal Vegas experience: blow, gambling and hookers. Hehe, not really, we are rather boring people. I did play the slots out of obligation, won forty bucks and took my family to the Hash House a go go. A must see, taste, love, digest, relax, poop experience about four miles off the strip. Words cannot express the awesomeness of this restaurant. We were in the promised land and heaven’s mana was laid out before us and ‘that’s all I have to say about that.’ And that being said, go to the go go, Yum.

That’s my amazingly gorgeous wife patiently waiting for her amazing griddled french toast dipped in banana cinnamon cream w/ pecan maple syrup.

The rest of the day was your clichesqe blur, picture the airport movie montage: getting checked in, the scanning of shoes and other airport silliness. Seriously though, they scanned my shoes and then let me take on about 25 DVD’s and CD’s and all other kinds of things that could be turned into highly effective weapons, but deny that evil bottle of water in my possession. Not that I have terrorists tendencies, but those things are so much more dangerous in my mind than water and nail clippers. Nonetheless, I’ll shut up now before the government catches on and were flying the friendly skies in our underwear.

Idaho Falls here I come.

That is all.

Leaving on a Jet Plane..

Flying on an airplane, for what’s got to be the one hundred quintillionth time. Even though the last time was over a decade ago. And for my children, it’s the first time they’ll ever remember flying. Nate is sitting to my left asking a quadrillion questions (I figured I’d stick with the super big hyperbole of numbers). ‘Are we going backwards,’ his little voice quivers with excitement as he also states every obvious motion of the plane. Ahh, give the kid a break, it’s his first time and this is big time. Likewise his older brother, Dean, is just as exuberant, even though he once flew at six months old. Nevertheless he’s a born again virgin in the world of aviation not being able to recall his earlier experiences as he nervously tries to hold Aly’s hand as she’s trying to feed the baby, refusing to look out the window. Nate, on my other hand, is curiously looking out the window and trying to take in everything at once.

And now for an announcement from your friendly stewardess (I know what you call them). She starts and from the start bumbles through the information no one would ever recall in the slightest during a real in-flight emergency, I tell my boys the one true safety measure everyone must know: how to pop your ears for take off. And of course as kids will be kids: Dean all of a sudden gets ornery and starts yelling, ‘I don’t want to pop my ears!’ You may think he’s being naughty, really, I just think he took me a little too literally as most kids with his condition tend to do, I say that now, but at the time, I wasn’t as superdad to think so logically. Yet, as fast as any truly sarcastic dad would, I calmly replied to my crazed little man, “then they’ll explode.” Dean’s eyes almost popped as he stop dead in his tracks and starting opening and closing his mouth and swallowing like mad. Crisis averted. Now, you may think that was mean, but I fell asleep once during a touch and go and it felt like my ears did explode.

Anyways, all this hoopla made me reminisce about old family vacations with my parents and oh how the tables have turned. We didn’t often fly on these wondrous vacations. They usually consisted of mind numbing hours stuck to the horribly hot vinyl seats of a station wagon and pit stops at your local greasy spoons. “Did the plane’s tires actually screech trying to stop going at a speed slower than a golf cart taxiing down the runway.” Yikes. For some reason, Aeroflot comes to mind. Well, I didn’t see any patches on the tires and at least it’s not snowing, at least I think it’s not where we’re landing. The stewardess continues to drone on in my memory, her constant fumbling of her “vital” speech haunting me, thinking about budget no frill flights and hoping the no frills aren’t skimping on the vitals.

We’re still taxiing into place to take off and Dean abruptly looks up and asks, ‘Are we going to drive to Idaho?’ My wife laughs agreeing that it certainly feels that way. Then just as unexpectedly, were kicked back in our seats and Nate literally screams in delight crying out, ‘We’re going fast!’ Ahh, my little captain obvious. He gets it from his mom. Some people however never see the obvious. Like the girl who was sitting next to me at the beginning of the flight who was flirting up a storm. I tried several tactics to avoid this very thing the moment she sat next to me and gave me that come hither look. It’s got to be the glasses. I tried to make my wedding ring more noticeable as I plugged in my iPod and only placed the earbud only in my left ear all the while trying to send a few picture texts. She still insisted on talking to me and kept on keeping on until my wife, God bless her soul, called me honey from across the aisle and I finally unplugged the iPod and conversed with my wife and three kids. I think it took a second or two to sink in and the girl finally got the hint, then the obvious was instantly more than obvious and she went exit stage left rather quickly at that point, citing that there were plenty of empty seats in the back. Now my wife is not a jealous woman and trusts me explicitly, so I wasn’t worried of any consequences of this woman blatantly flirting with me right in front of my beloved, it’s just when you have a goddess sitting to the right, right next to you, mere mortals lose their flavor. No, I’m not kissing up, my wife rarely reads these things. Well, more now than before, but still. And yet this was nothing compared to the Costco incident, when I was hit on by a guy who asked me out to a movie I don’t even think was in production at the time.

The engine continued to roar and I dosed off next to Nate, much better company than an over zealous stranger. Bang, boom, “Would you care for a snack or drink?” Wha? Oh, drink service. Strange, I’ve never been on a plane where the snack cart was filled with such sugary like goodies, am I in a Harry Potter-esqe train? still dreaming? Then I quickly noticed the money stuffed into a cylindrical container and my split-second internal dialogue ceased. “I’ll just take an apple juice for the little guy and a Diet Coke for me.” The evilly sly stewardess waited till I popped the top on the juice and said, ‘four dollars please.’ Wha!?! Damn, she got me. I shelled out a twenty and got back my change shaking my head. I think even Aeroflot gave first drinks free. Hmm, that seltzer water wasn’t much of what I would call drinkable, it was wet though.

Not long after that, I felt the plane lurch and we immediately started our decent. Nate was already opening and closing his mouth and squeezing his eyes shut a few times, then went back to excitedly looking out into the darkness and the spray of city lights, as I sat back in my chair, that I never did figure out how to recline, and thought, “Ah, survived another flight.” My before nerve wracked wife telling me it was a given with five babies on board, a theory I often told her on the way to Vegas, that we had our own little insurance policy: since Davin was traveling with us the plane couldn’t crash. And yet, I’d have to agree, with five of them in flight, they’d have to be the future Hitler’s of America for our flight to of gone down.

What a drama free beginning to our vacation. Wonder what adventures await our arrival to the slow paced life of Idaho Falls. In Bill Cosby like fashion, all I have to say is, “I’m on vacation!”

That is all.

Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, B, A

Most games have their moments of ferocity, a level so difficult that even the programmers of said game go, “let’s give them a break”, and therefore add a cheat code to the game. Back when Nintendo was just a wee child, they placed in certain games one of the most famous of these: the Konami code. Gradius was the first to receive this code of video game ease, followed by Contra and so on in a long illustrious line of video games that implemented this lifeline, sometimes to be entered backwards. Not that you care, just a bit of geek trivia. Many of us old timers still remember the almighty sequence to this day: Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, B, A.

If only real life had its own cheat codes as well and if you think about it, there are. Man often tries to implement his own cheat codes into the system, one type being monetary such as the lottery, I have tried this code on more than one occasion and I have yet to figure it out. When it does work it is met with varying degrees of success and usually never the desire effect. Wealth is always a nice cheat code to find when it works properly. However, I find the most important cheat codes the Master Programmer gave us are found in each other. How very kum by ya-y, let’s all hold hands, of me. Here, let me illustrate.

The song Aly and I danced to at our wedding was entitled: The Day Before You both by Rascal Flatts, and one of my favorite parts of that songs is:

‘Oh, but Heaven knows those years without you
Were shaping my heart for the that day I found you
If you’re the reason for all that I’ve been through
Then I’m thankful for the day before you’

Our experiences shape who we are, they bring us past the beginning of the game into much harder levels that we learn to pass with an affluent expertise. So where in all this is my point? patience people, seriously. The point is that the things you’ve learned, the “levels” of life you’ve passed have given you those type of “cheat codes” wherein you can return to and demolish that level with elitistic (you know, they say geniuses make up their own words) skills, and while that isn’t always much used to you, it can be a literal lifesaver to another.

My wife has been through a divorce, and we’ve both been through a miscarriage just to name two of these horrible type scenarios that we’ve gone through before and after our own martial bliss. Two places I absolutely never want either of us to return to and yet the strength imbued into our characters because of such events truly is immense. I have seen my wife use those circumstances and the fortitude she’s gained from other hard times in her life as well to impart an enormous “power boost” to others. And how grateful they are to get that inspiration from someone else who has been there and can truly feel their pain. I was in the customer service industry for a long time and let me tell you, for the most part that’s all people want, to know that you feel their pain.

Now in the midst of a trial, that is not the thing you want to hear nor anything I would tell anyone during their tumultuous nadir. Those troublesome times are when I would most like someone to come and give me their Konami code instead of telling me I’ll figure it out on my own or to buck up. See, it seems as if I’m going off on a tangent and then it all comes together. Strange how the mind works, or maybe that’s just me. Anyways, if you are going through something rough at the moment, know that you’re not alone, and if you’ve been there, don’t be afraid to share that cheat code where needed (if wanted).

That is all.

Stuck on Stupid

Aly and I had a fight last night. More I was being a jerk and she went to bed and we didn’t resolve it until this morning when I swallowed my pride and texted her. And when we saw each other again we were back to our old selves. Now what caused this Male PMS that I lost a whole night of quality time and closeness with my beloved. I could be truthful and say I don’t really know and I could be just as truthful and say I had good reason and yet if I were going to be entirely truthful I would say sometimes we let our own issues and perspective cloud our judgment. I said entirely truthful, not entirely forthcoming.

I will give you this: we all see the world through our own little distorted piece of coke bottle (Sorry Pepsi, but I have to drink diet now, and hands down, Diet Coke tastes better). Invariably misunderstandings come into existence based on simple misconceptions; misconstruing events happen with the help of someone’s perception or bias or dare I say it: by virtue of their own narcissism. Get out the dictionary kids, here, let me save you some time: ‘inordinate fascination with oneself; excessive self-love; vanity.’ Hey, there’s no shame in not knowing, everybody has to look up a word for the first time sometime. And if you did know, I still find it’s best to look up words, you’d be surprised how wrong you can be on the exact meaning of a word.

Anyways, as I was saying, people ruin perfectly good relationships of all kinds: from personal to business, because of something they perceive in their own minds. And often the mind distorts one’s perception of reality as a result of some fear of commitment, a self-involved loathing, random rumours, etc.. The mind is constantly plays tricks on your perception: all of the sudden a nose is 100 times more crooked, an ear a 1,000 times more ghastly, routine like habits precipitously and unbearably annoying and an everyday deed abruptly villanized ergo we feel ourselves slighted by the dumbest things…

…I can see your little wheels turning, wondering, curious to what brought out that blue little monster within (why blue? because I like the color, cookie monster blue especially).

*Laughs and takes a swig of my Diet Cherry Dr. Pepper* Variety is the spice of life.

And as I always find myself saying, back to the matter at hand (Yes, I just ignored your silly inquiries). How do I stop myself from dwelling on the random thoughts of badness or like Mom always said, “stop being stuck on stupid.” My mom really never said that but I’m sure somebody’s did. My only answer is something that brought me out of my funk this morning, a little too late after I kissed my wife on the cheek like a heel and went out the door in a huff. I started to let myself swim in the vast experience of goodness that is my wife and let go of the infinitesimal nothingness I had a death grip on. Or as the Beatles famously intoned, I just ‘Let it be, let it be, whisper words of wisdom, let it be.’ And not long after that, my wondrous wife texted me this, ‘We are coming for lunch at noon. The world is not right when we are not right. I love you.’ And as I closed my phone I could feel that old cliche about to leave my lips, “What were we even fighting about?”

Hence Philippians 4:8 turns out to be good advice after all, ‘Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things.’ It’s hard to stop yourself midstride as your riding that colossal roller coaster, stuck on stupid, but if you can, life is so much more grand.

That is all.

I was holding my little guy last night..

And I was thinking he’s not so little anymore. I could hold him in my two hands when he was born and he fit inside them perfectly. He is a bit over a month old and he has already grown so much.

Anyways, as I was saying, I was holding my little guy last night and he was cuddling into my chest grabbing onto my shirt with all his might, something he just likes to do, and I was thinking, man he has such a grip. Davin is amazingly strong. Aly was showing me today how he likes to push himself up on his legs already. She put him on the floor on this thing with a pillow to help him get used to pulling his head up and pushing his feet up and he almost flipped himself over. We’re going to have to watch that little monkey. He’s going to be such a climber like his old man.

Nevertheless, as I said before, I was holding my little guy last night and he felt so warm and I was thinking how peaceful Davin is: he truly is a tiny zen master. Nothing ruffles his feathers for very long. Once when he was barely two weeks old we went to the doctor so they could test him for jaundice and they basically cut his foot so they could take some blood and he cried for all of two seconds and then went back to his normal calm demeanor. He gets fussy from time to time, but who wouldn’t with a belly full of gas or an empty stomach. These things are to be expected.

Notwithstanding, to say again, I was holding my little guy last night watching him look around and I was thinking: pondering what he must think about. Much of the time he looks around with wide eyed wonder even though he cannot be able to see much at this point. Still, he is inexorably curious. To watch him learning new things is like witnessing a miracle.

Howbeit, to say once more, I was holding my little guy last night and thinking how much I love this tiny infant with his bountiful head of hair and angelic face full with an endless supply of expressions. And I remembered a story Aly showed me about a couple who along with another family member abused their baby in unspeakable ways resulting in the baby’s death at only 5 months old. I look at Davin and wonder how damaged a person has to be to want to hurt something so innocent and helpless. And truly, it makes me angry. I can understand why God said it would be better to tie a millstone around your neck and throw it into the ocean then hurt one of these little ones. He is so very precious: I kiss him on the forehead, hug him tight and say a prayer that God would be there to protect him from this crazy demented world when I am not.

I was holding my little guy last night. That is all. I was holding my little guy last night.

Enlarging my borders…

The next step always used to be a great concern for me. It was about two years ago and I was sitting alone in my fortress of solitude long into the wee hours of the morning. Much as was the norm back then, staying up till three, four sometimes past the hours when most people would be arriving to work. I had a job I was ready to leave, an abode though no home and many past great deeds yet no up to date occurrences of which I was extremely proud. Life was at a stand still and I had no idea where I wanted to take it from there: you could say my stagnant pond that was getting smaller with each breath.

Another midnight had come and gone and the nightlights in the sky were already fading into a glorious yet all too bright breaking dawn. The sequence of nocturnal events that occurred that night had been a blur of movies, computerized carnage, random musings and strange forum discussions with a kaleidoscopic of motley misfits. I had to work in a few hours and sleep was merely a nostalgic feeling to see an old friend last since past.

So, stumbling from my computer chair, I went to the kitchen to get some kind of substance and then went to bed. I knew I was past tired and wouldn’t even attempt to sleep so I turned on another movie and lost interest all too soon and so added some music to the mix.

“I really should sleep,” I mumbled to myself wondering why I needed so much noise, leading to other thoughts. Thoughts not all to important nor is the fact that i was talking to myself as I often do when alone and trying to separate, form and coordinate the chaos I consider to be coherent thought. It was several minutes into this internal dialogue when i spied with my little eye a little black book I hadn’t rifled through in quite a while. It certainly contained numbers, but only as a point of reference or well the name of one of its books.

Two of my favorite books in the Bible are Samuel and Kings, well I suppose you could say four, although I already read those countless times and decided to read through Chronicles. And at keys points in my life this always seems to happen, I read through a passage I know I’ve read through a thousand times before and find myself surprised to find something I swear I’d never seen before and at the same time swear I have. Once it was Zephaniah 3:17, but this day it was 2 Chronicles 4:9-10: “Now Jabez was more honorable than his brothers, and his mother called his name Jabez,[a] saying, ‘Because I bore him in pain.’ And Jabez called on the God of Israel saying, ‘Oh, that You would bless me indeed, and enlarge my territory, that Your hand would be with me, and that You would keep me from evil, that I may not cause pain!’ So God granted him what he requested.”

I’m not going to go into some “name it and claim it” spiel and if that’s what you take away from those verses, you’re missing the point entirely. And without getting into the theological ramifications that hit me like Jack’s Mack Truck, I realized a simple truth I had already known but never really put into practice. God indeed wants to bless us and He wants us to ask for His blessings in our lives, really, sometimes I think He’s waiting for us to ask. It’s such an astonishing, simple truth hidden in such a boring chapter of scripture.

Jabez is a man I could relate to, especially at that time in my life. now, I’m glad my mom who had reason to name me Jabez with the two hour contraction she had when I was born decided not to go that route and named me Daniel instead (a tremendously wonderful name, i highly recommend it), but seriously, I think this is a man who was simply looking for the next step in his life. He wanted something more, he wanted God’s blessings and he asked God to bless him. You can see from what is said of him prior to his request and with how he made the request that it was not a request made out of greed and scripture never goes further to tell us how God enlarge this man’s borders, just that God granted Jabez’s request.

At that moment, I didn’t get down on my knees and no halo of light surrounded me, however I did ask God to bless me and enlarge my borders. I had no idea how he would grant my request nor even if He would, still I prayed with faith and hoped with the substance of my belief that He would find me worthy of such blessings. Of course i’d like to say that I was ever fervent in my prayers, making supplications known to God day and night for myself and my friends and family. To some point, I suppose I was, I did from time to time remember and in some midnight, early morning random chats with God I would add this request.

Since then, and again not for any saintly determination on my part, He has answered my prayers in some amazing ways. I started working for a library not that long after that night. It’s a job I love going to, so I am thankful for that. Three months later I met my wife and 8 months later married her (of course). We never thought we’d be able to buy a home any time soon since at the time I married Aly my credit was in the low 600’s, however in the last year we acquired a wonderful dog (at least i think he’s wonderful, my wife doesn’t always agree when he has an accident), a new house and had a beautiful baby boy the day we closed escrow. Now I have three amazing boys. I did have to buy a new car after totaling our matrix not too long ago, but it all worked out. I find, life is full of unexpected blessings. God has definitely enlarged my borders in ways, merely two years ago, I’m not sure I could have imagined. I am extremely excited when I consider what He has in store for us next.