Meeting With God At Wal*Mart

After dinner tonight, we made a spur-of-the-moment decision to hit the toy department at Wal*Mart - we needed to buy a set of 100 plastic balls for Nolan to play with (thanks to Grandma Sue, as part of his birthday present). After we found the set and got it into the cart, we headed off through the store to find a few other things. A man, whom we had seen near the bicycles, made eye contact with me out in the main aisle and asked how my evening was going. I flippantly answered that is was going fine. Then he asked, "Is there anything you need prayer for?"

That stopped me in my tracks. It was probably a little rude, but I didn't answer him at first. I was just so surprised to be asked that...in public...at Wal-Mart!

I got kind of a funny smile on my face and told him that, yes, there was something we needed prayer for. I called to Kimberly to come back to meet him, and another younger man who was with him, because she was up ahead of me a little. Once we were gathered up they explained to us that they were on some sort of "Treasure Hunt." They were at a prayer meeting at their church and felt led to travel to Wal-Mart to offer to pray with people. The younger man, Will, told us that one of the signs God told them to look for was a little girl wearing a pink shirt near the bicycles. We all looked down, and sure enough, Lauren had chosen to put on a pink shirt just before we headed out for the store. Rich, the older gentleman, asked what our need was and we explained to him the whole situation with losing my job, not having any local opportunities and our apprehension about possibly having to sell our home and move.

The next thing we knew they offered to pray with us right there in the store! So, our little family, Rich and Will all bowed our heads in the main aisle as they prayed over us out loud. I could tell that Lauren was moved by the moment because she reached up in the middle and grabbed a hold of my hand. Not only was it an amazing gesture, but the prayers they both prayed for us were exactly what has been on our hearts. It was definitely a "God" moment and I still look back at it and am stunned that it even occured.

If you think of it, pray for Rich and Will after you read this. Pray that God will bless them for their boldness in following His leading and that they will know what a profound impact they had on our family...on what we expected to be a very ordinary night at the local Wal*Mart.

100 Posts

I was going to jump on and write a short update on my job search, when I realized that this is the 100th post on this blog that we have made as a family in the short 2 years since it was started. Wow!

The risk in having a blog is coming across as being self-indulgent. I mean, a whole website dedicated to what is going on in our lives? It isn't exactly a philanthropic use of cyber-space. But, I think this has been a fun way to keep friends and family apprised of what has been happening in our life, especially since we are so far away from so many that we are close to. But it also serves as a permanent record of sorts, and it is a tremendous tool to track the goodness and the blessing of God in our life as well. I would hope that the casual reader couldn't follow this blog without being overwhelmed with how able God is - not that Kimberly or I are able, but that only God is. If you have started following us lately just zoom back to the beginning to see where we were 2 years ago and you will see God's fingerprints all along the way.

"Then Samuel took a stone and set it up between Mizpah and Shen. He named it Ebenezer (stone of help), saying, 'Thus far has the LORD helped us.' " -- 1 Samuel 7:12

Quickly I want to say how proud and impressed I am with my wife who was the one who thought to create this in the first place, who has been faithful to update it, has made it look pretty cool and who has made herself vulnerable enough to make this meaningful. I couldn't wish for a more dedicated and passionate wife and mother.

We'll get back to our story in the next post...

Nolan's 1st Birthday

As I typed the title of this blog, I had to pause for a second...it's hard to believe my baby boy is already 1. I know everyone says that the first years go by so fast, so I'm not stating anything new. But, it is seriously crazy how quickly he has grown up! We are absolutely loving our little man - he has such a fun and sweet personality...smiley and snuggly and always on the go. He is very strong-willed, though, just like his mother. :) But, we are truly enjoying every minute, even the trying ones!

We were blessed to have Ryan's parents come into town for the weekend to celebrate his birthday with us. He just loved showing off for Grandma and Grandpa! He wasn't a big fan of the cake, but really liked the homemade vanilla ice-cream. He got lots of really cool "boy" toys, which we had NONE of...so now he isn't forced to play with Polly Pockets and My Little Pony's, which makes Ryan very happy. :) Here's some pictures of our sweet Nolan on his big day:

Dream Job?

I thought I would chime in real quick to update people on my job search. My strongest lead to date is the Lenox job that I spoke of before, and I will fly up to Springfield, MA on the 10th to interview for that position. I also am in the beginning stages of interviewing for 2 other positions within Newell Rubbermaid. The first is in Chicago at Sanford working with art supplies and the second is in Atlanta focusing on baby products with Graco. Of those, the Graco job interests me the most.

But, something new has come to light. My former VP at Rubbermaid put me in touch with a recruiter last week who was looking to fill a Pricing Manager position with Remington Arms Company. Pricing isn't my thing, really, but I have done a fair amount as part of my career so I thought it might be interesting to talk with them. The day before I was to have my phone interview Remington posted a new position that was much more appealing to me: Brand Manager - Law Enforcement/Military Firearms

Now, if you know me at all you will know that next to being a Brand Manager for BMW automobiles, this job at Remington would be the absolute coolest job I could ever have. Mix my 10 years of Marketing experience, 12 years in the Army, 6 years in law enforecement and you get a guy who is geeked about the possibility of working on Rifles, Carbines and Shotguns for the greatest consumers in the world!

I don't want to get ahead of myself - I still have a lot of interviewing to do before I know if this is really a strong possibility. The cool part of the story is that before my phone interview the VP of Brand Management and New Product Development saw my resume, called the recruiter off from talking to me about the Pricing Manager position, and just yesterday called me himself to interview me on the phone (not scheduled, he just dialed me up). I am hoping that he calls me back for face-to-face interviews the 3rd week of March. For those of you who are familiar with this world, the job would be managing all LE/MIL firearms for Remington, Bushmaster and DPMS-Panther.

I'll keep updating everyone as things progress. Please be praying with us as we seek God's direction as to what He would prefer me do and where we should live (here or elsewhere). And, thanks to all the people who email and call to encourage us. It has been so good to be surrounded by friends and family who truly care!