The Grey Family

My Family has been such a source of strength and encouragement to me through the years. So I thought I would share some of my favorite moments throughout the past year.

If you want a duo to crack you up, these two would be it. They are so different but so amazing. Austin is mechanical and meticulous. If you want to know something, ask him. He has an amazing amount of useless info stored up. Tyler is athletic and fun. He has a very compassionate heart that reminds me constantly of God's grace and love.

Emerson is such a ham. Who could ask for a better baby brother? He's such an easy going little kid. If there is a way to make a profit off of something, he will find it. I don't think that his brain ever shuts down.

My sister and my best friend. She has taught me so much, from the good to the bad :) She has such a passion for family. Our parents always taught us to date and marry high, she definitely did. Jason, my-brother-in-law, is a great husband and brother.

My big brother has been such an example to me. He is a coach at Azusa Pacific University in LA. He has a deep passion for the kids and for his job. I think God wants all of us to have that sort of passion for what we do.

My parents....they have raised six children who love the Lord and want nothing more then to serve him. They have poured their lives into their thirty year marriage, their children, and their ministries. You can tell too. There passion to be examples of Christ shines through every aspect of their lives.

Brittney's Wedding- August 2008. The end of a God blessed summer!

Washington DC- October 2006. I can't believe grandpa died two years ago. That was a beginning of a year of loss and grief as he was the first of three grandparents to pass away. However, I think this picture captures our family at its very core. No matter the distance we come together to encourage, love, and support each other. And through it all God will remain strong in our lives and we will find something to smile about.

Christmas- December 2007, I love spending the holidays with my siblings

St. Louis- May, 2008. This was about a week and a half before my wedding. What a great blessing to spend time with my family right before I got married.

Our New Car

Tony and I have gotten a new car. It is a 2001 Chevy Malibu. We got it for 2800. What did we do w/ our lovely 85 Parisian (Ok thats way off on the spelling)? We sold it back to the same person who sold it to us. God really is good isn't he. This car will be much safer for kids (when we have them), gets double the miles per gallon, and looks SOO much better. God really is awesome!











The trunk is HUGE!!! Tony's tools and groceries will fit!



Tony wanted me to take a picture under the hood. He said Dad would appreciate it...so Dad this is for you!



Can you believe this number? I couldn't. We are hoping to be able to add a 2 in front of this.



I want to thank my father-in-law for taking time off work to take Tony to the auction. We couldn't have gotten a new car..especially one this nice with out you!

Count Your Blessings

I was talking to my mentor before Tony and I got married. She was talking about how awesome it is seeing things in your life that God has come in and taken control of. She then mentioned Pastor Ed (Senior Pastor at Grace Church) taking rocks and putting them together as blessings. Well, I went back to the dorms that night and started talking with Tony about this concept. We decided to start visually counting our blessings. On our honeymoon we found a cute bowl. Then we took river rocks and every time we can clearly see God's working in an event or area of our lives we write it on a rock.

I have come to realize several things from this. The first is how incredibly blessed we are. Another is that one blessing by its self is easy to push off as nothing or only important for a time. However, when the blessings are put together the dish starts to get full. Our dish is not full yet but every rock makes the pile a little bigger. The last thing I've realized is it has become a lot easier to trust God. When I know we need money I can pull up a particular rock and see where God blessed us before. I have so much more faith that God is going to do what he promised he would do.

This is something we plan on doing with our kids. I can't wait to see what they see as a blessing. I have a feeling my eyes are going to be opened up even further to God's amazing grace through my children. Tony said one day we are going to have rocks all over our house. Imagine how incredible that would be. To see God working in our lives that much.

God really truely has done some amazing things in our lives. Check it out:

Preciousness of Marriage

This weekend my sister got married. Tony and I got married only two months ago but something was so different about watching a marriage after you've already been married. As I watched my sister come down the isle and my new brother in law shed tears of joy I was struck by the absolutely beauty of marriage. I remembered walking down the isle to my soon to be husband and being overwelhmed by God's goodness. The pastor who married them talked about covenants and how sacarced they were and how they were not to be broken. And I watched my sister vow to forever be w/ this man who she loves so very deeply. It just hit me how meaningful marriage is to God. Its something I've always known and its something that I took very seriously when I got married. However, it was such a great reminder to see God through their marriage. And thats what it really was. Brittney and Jason were so focused on God and committing their lives together to Him that when they said their vows you could see and hear God in every word. It was so nice after the ceremony to go and hug my husband and just be renewed and reminded of how wonderful God is.

So I decided (and I guess I will tell Tony later) to create a blog. I have been reading two of our goods friends blogs. One is Dave and Marianne Gross as they journeyed through the process of adopting their daughter and the other is Joash and Delia Tiarks as they serve the Lord in Africa. Even though Tony and I are not going through what either of these amazing couples are expirencing I figured it would be fun to chart our journey through our marriage and our lives. I don't know how often we will be on here blogging (probably not very often) but we will try to keep it up-to-date. We hope that this will be a way (ok, I guess I do...seeing that again Tony doesn't know about this yet) to keep up with our family and friends. God Bless!