100th Post!

Here it is! The 100th post on The Inside Flap!

The first question was - how much time will pass between posts? Well, it's been less than a month since the last one, so I think that's great progress on my end! :-)

The last question was - will anyone read it anyway? You'll have to let me know that in the comments.

And the middle question was - will I have anything BIG to write about?

Well, I'd hate to disappoint my readers, so of course I have some big news for big 100! It involves the end of an era, an exciting first time, the beginning of a new opportunity, and the anticipation of something exciting coming in October...

For starters, the end of an era...

After 2 1/2 years of teaching many many Sundays in my wonderful ladies Bible study class, Pink Armor, God prompted me that the time had come to pass the teaching torch. While I fought to hang on for as long as possible, the realities of preparing lessons on such a regular basis was getting a little too trying (I was beginning to watch my children grow up from behind my laptop, and let's just face it - Canaan is too short for me to see from behind my laptop!) :-). Not to mention, Sunday mornings were growing more and more difficult. Since Jason is "on" every Sunday, it's all up to me to get myself and the boys to church. That's not a big deal when things go smoothly, but if one child is sick, it throws the whole process into panic mode. To confirm this decision, the last three Sundays I taught (after I announced my "resignation" to the girls), one Sunday was spent with me teaching with sick Canaan on my hip, the next Sunday I balanced prayer, announcements and teaching with sick Gideon right by my side, and the third Sunday we had a blowout on the way to church - right at the very top of the huge Beltway 8 overpass. It was all good though. My sweet friend and teaching partner was just a few minutes behind me on the freeway, so she came to my rescue. Plus, we could see the cross the whole time - no worries there.

So until God tells me otherwise, I'll be teaching/speaking in other avenues. Which leads to the second big news - an exciting first time...

The last week in February, I spoke at my very first ladies retreat! (Other than retreats held at my parents' lakehouse, that is.) Our church held a huge ladies retreat at Moody Gardens in Galveston, with almost 400 women in attendance, and I was given the awesome opportunity to lead a breakout session. I always pray that if God wants me to do anything like that, He'll just open the doors, and I am so glad He did! It was a great learning experience that taught me a lot about speaking in avenues like that, and I was able to do it without the pressure of being a "keynote" speaker or anything. I have no idea if it's God's timing for me to do any more of that, but I know that He'll just open those doors if He ever wants me to walk through them. But one of the perks of speaking at this particular retreat was getting to serve alongside the wonderful Laurie Cole - which leads to the third big news - the beginning of a new opportunity.

For those of you who were at my wedding, Laurie Cole is the wife of Bill Cole - the minister who performed Jason's and my wedding ceremony. She is an amazing Bible study teacher, and has written several study books and has spoken to ladies all across the U.S. Several years ago, she founded Priority Ministries, and the ministry puts out a monthly eNewsletter to almost 5000 subscribers.

Well, to make a long, strange story short, after a few random emails, Laurie asked me to go to lunch to discuss joining her staff as the Executive Editor of their eNewsletter (called You Glo Girl!). I will get to edit any articles that the other staff members write, ghost write a few, and even write my own articles when I want. So... for those of you who remember "Devos by Emo" from eons ago, you might see some similar articles surface over the next few months. (I'll post a link when on here when the first issue goes out.)

I'm still getting my feet wet with the ministry, but I am very excited so far. Everyone on staff has been so welcoming and encouraging; I think it's going to be a fun experience. It's nothing so major that I can quit my day job of course, but at least it's a chance to write on deadline, and other than my articles for the church magazine and teaching lessons, I haven't done that it quite awhile. Plus, the author/dreamer in me is thrilled to be able to share my book with the subscribers of the newsletter because many, many of them are in women's ministry positions at their churches and may be able to use it for the single ladies in their own ministries. And there's the added bonus of building my "platform" so that when God finally allows my schedule to open up again so I could actually write another book, that will be that many more people I'll automatically be able to market to.

But, I don't think He's going to be freeing my schedule any time soon for that next big book project because of the fourth and final big news for this 100th post - something exciting coming in October...

Yes, friends, we're having another baby!!

Jason and I have been blessed once again, and baby Ryan #3 will arrive sometime in mid-October. I'm almost 11 weeks now and right in the midst of morning sickness, which is always coming at night this time around. I'll spare you the pregnant woman whining for now, but just know that two kids + working + serving + nausea + exhaustion = not fun.

And to answer the question most people ask - no, we're not hoping for a girl. In fact we're so comfortable in boy mode around here, the thought of a daughter kind of freaks us out. (Which we've come to figure means that we're destined to have a girl because let's face it, when does God like us to be comfortable?) :-) So, we'll just sit content not knowing for now and figure it all out sometime in May when we get to find out what we're having.

But if you'd like to pray for something specific, (other than the expected prayer of a safe and healthy child), I do have one weird suggestion. My actual due date is 10/16, but with me having to have a scheduled c-section, they'll likely do it a week or so early. Well, I really, really, REALLY want this child to be born on 10/10/10 because that would be just plain awesome! Typically with my situation that would be a perfect time for a scheduled c, except that it falls on a Sunday this year and they don't do scheduled surgeries on Sundays. So, it will take a miracle for this to happen, but I am confident that it is small potatoes to God and He could so easily make it happen if he wants. So, please pray with me! (Our child will be a perfect 10 regardless of when it is born, but it would be so much cooler if it could be a literal perfect 10 too!) :-)

When we told Gideon that "Mommy has a new baby in her tummy," he just gave us a blank stare and finally asked, "Well, what's its name?"

I guess he wanted to know if we were going to take his suggestions or not because at one point or another he's said he wants a sister named Sister and a brother named Moses...

Veto to both.

And that's finally all for the big 100th post. Here's to 100 more...