Newest Fairchild

Meet Maggie Mae Fairchild. She is a Maltese-Shitzu mix and is about 6 mo old. My mom's friend raises them and she had been asking us to take her for a few months. We finally relented on Saturday. She was a dirty mess and had mats and so we had to cut her hair really short. But she is still really cute and very very very sweet. Nate is completely smitten and Zeke has been tolerant (we are praying he continues). He ran up to her to sniff her today and thought she wasn't paying attention and she rolled over and just showed her belly to him. She wants to play but knows better so far...She is almost house trained and is very smart. She quickly realized if she goes potty outside she gets a treat and fly's for the backdoor and straight into where we keep the treats. She has picked her favorite spot right next to Nate on his couch and will jump up there thinking it is time for her to get loved on, rotten already. So if you would please pray that she continues to train well and that Zeke does not completely freak out!

It's Fall!

I love fall. I wrote about it just about this time last year...I LOVE IT! We had a fall cookout on Saturday night and invited 11 friends and their kiddos and had a bonfire. We roasted hot dogs and had a pot luck (a ton of food) and smores. We had a great time! The weather was around 70 degrees and when the sun went down it was perfect for the fire. The kids wore themselves out running in our back yard and all played so well together. I will send pictures once we get a computer at home again. We had to send Nate's computer back to his company since he won't be working there for much longer...

We are starting to get some chilly weather at night and I am loving having my windows open. And it is the time of year you go to Brown County and walk around the shops. There are hills all around and the leaves turn beautiful colors. It is crazy down there with all the people but definately worth the trip! I went a few weekends ago with a friend and had a great time shopping and just gawking at all the leaves & people. The leaves hadn't turned all the way yet, but if the weather stays chilly in the evenings, it will be a beautiful fall soon enough!

Nate's New Job

Well it is official. We got the news on Wednesday. He will be working for Lilly! WOO HOO! It is a huge answer to prayer. A little testing of our nerves and trust, but it is all better than we expected. He will begin as soon as his current company's contract ends in October so there should be no lag time between jobs. They will keep him busy at Lilly since his department is being audited. He gets great benefits and a better salary than we were anticipating so that is WONDERFUL! He is very happy and relieved with everything settled. Thanks for the prayers! God is Good!

Month in overview

Well August flew by!!! We had our 6 year anniversary on August 24th. We stayed at home and had a nice dinner. When everything settles down with the job changeover we will be going to eat at Palomino's a nice restaurant in down-town Indy.
As for the job front, we are awaiting the answer from Lilly. He had two interviews last week and has a phone interview tomorrow. He IS the ONLY person they are interviewing so it is just a matter of finalizing things now...and the waiting game.
I have read a whole series of books in a week, the Twilight series by Stephenie Meyer. I loved them and am waiting for the movie to come out on Nov 21! I have changed genres now to Beverly Lewis and the Abraham's Daughters books.
Other than that, nothing major...another back-up of the lovely sewers in our house and we got a hand-me-down fridge from Nate's dad; a really nice BIG one! Painted the bathroom and put up new lights and we are getting ready to start Totally Fit for Life through our church. I am going to the seminar on Saturday. Like I said nothing exciting other than the anniversary. Hope all are well and we'll update when the time comes about the job.

Updates

Update for the Fairchild’s. We are doing alright. Nate’s meeting with the boss went well. There is no non-compete clause that he signed. Now we are just waiting on Lilly to give him the interview. Please pray for God’s will still. I know what I want to happen but I want God’s will above it. He is nervous and I am anxious so we have it covered, but are trying to keep it in perspective. So all hopefully will be sorted out soon. The contract is ending soon, like 3 more weeks I believe…
As for the other situation…Nate & I have always had a heart for adoption. We are starting to pursue this. We have been looking at our options and think we have decided on one. I am excited about it and we had decided a while ago but other things happened and we put it off. Please pray we make the right decision. This is a big one! Please pray it goes smoothly and that this is what we are supposed to be doing. After 2 years of trials, I am ready to have a smooth process. Nothing ever seems easy but as long as it is God’s will I am fine with it.
I know many people have gong through this situation and genuinely feel for them and understand. I am trying to keep a good perspective on everything and not get caught up in the time. I feel like I am getting old and don’t want to be 40 with a 5 year old. I know I am not old per se but feel like it when everyone else I know is several kids into the mix. We are the lone rangers on the two person family front. In Bible Study and with our friends. We love Zeke but he doesn’t count on that…
Please pray for both situations, I don’t want to be anxious about either but it is hard not to.

Nervous

I am very nervous today. Nate has a meeting with his boss and he is going to discuss Lilly wanting to give him a contract. This is great news except there is like the 1% chance he is not sure if he signed a Do not compete clause. If he did we are in trouble. Lilly really wants to hire him and his contract is ending with them in 5 weeks, if he cannot take the job with Lilly, he will be in the outside office with some not so happy bosses and he will have to start traveling heavily, which he is not happy about. I have been praying all day so far and feel nervous still.

I keep repeating "Do not be anxious about anything but in everything, by prayer & petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to the Lord." Philippians 4:6

This is my mantra lately anyways. I think I dream it too. I just had to unload my nervousness. Nate is going in after work to talk to them, so hopefully they will let him just move directly over to Lilly. They have been making cutbacks at his current job anyways, so this may be a load off. Either way they are losing the contract for Lilly, which means mega bucks gone for his current company and they would have to probably lay off two people or so it is in their best interest to let him go too. I will be nervous till I hear from him tonight. Nate is asking for prayer in this matter and that God's will is done and that it goes smoothly.

Prayer & Endurance

Prayer is easy. Patience comes with time and enduring through trials. I prayed for patience in college and have never prayed for it since. I have learned that praying for it once was sufficent for me. Because God has been instilling it in me since them. The past 10 years have been me praying to not be patient anymore. (I say this in jest, kinda) I have always had to wait a long time (to me) for what I would like. I pray and pray and pray, then pray some more. I have been praying lately for guidence, clarity and strength to endure. There are things in my life I wish for, pray for constantly. One which comes seemingly very easy to everyone else, but not me. I struggle with this very much, especially since it is something I want soooooooo very badly. I want a baby. I am just fine with adoption but I would love to experence this myself. Either way it is not a "quick" thing. In birth there is the gestation period of course that I would have to wait through, or with adoption there is the year or maybe even longer that you have to wait. When you have been trying for two years, either feels like an eternity, as have the past two years.
We had decided on adoption but then other things happen that make me think that God is blessing us with a child of our own, but that is still not so...my body is just messing with my emotions. I have not been praying for patience but lately for endurance; that I may endure with grace the trials God is allowing in my life. I know God will never test us beyond what we can handle, but I feel as if he is really pushing me to my limit. I also know every seeming verse about prayer and patience which everyone is very quick to point out to me. I pray them often...and still do not feel content.
We are the only people of all our groups without children. I think that is the hardest. Everyone has fun kid stories to tell, we have cat stories or house stories. It is hard to find people without children our age to hang out with and if we were to find them they wouldn't be doing what we would want to do. This is a hard age pushing 30 without children. Most friends are at least on their second and even some on their third. Even our new Bible Study is filled with parents. We again are the only ones...
I guess I just need to vent, it was a rough week and sad things happened and for friends that read this please just pray for endurance and clarity for me. Please don't pray for patience, that is the last prayer I want prayed because everytime it is prayed, it leads to something for me to be patient for.

Earthly Belongings

“A certain ruler asked him, "Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?"
"Why do you call me good?" Jesus answered. "No one is good—except God alone. You know the commandments: 'Do not commit adultery, do not murder, do not steal, do not give false testimony, honor your father and mother."
"All these I have kept since I was a boy," he said.
When Jesus heard this, he said to him, "You still lack one thing. Sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me."
When he heard this, he became very sad, because he was a man of great wealth. Jesus looked at him and said, "How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God! Indeed, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God."
-Luke 18:18-25

These are hard words to swallow. “It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of God.” Rich or poor we seemingly cling to what we have here on earth to keep us safe. The US is a very “stuff” minded society, the more we have the better house we have the better we feel. Personally the thought of a house bigger than the one I have now is daunting since I hate to dust and vacuum... My husband & I have always strived to live within our means and not put ourselves into dept, however we do have several friends who have. The trouble it causes them is very sad; but they did choose to do this. In this passage Jesus is reminding us it is only “STUFF”, insignificant in the scheme of things. Some days I do wish I could just leave and go live with the Amish. I think they have the right view on how possessions are to be used. They share…could you imagine a community coming together for dinner or sharing their possessions? They hold loosely to the things of this earth and really only have what they need. We get caught up in mortgages, car payments, credit card dept, cell phones and I-pods.
We recently went to see Wall-E. I always love going to see Disney movies. It was depressing though if you really think about it. The only reason he exists is to clean up after the mess we have left on earth so we can come back to a “clean” planet. This is a big bold statement by Disney I think. But it is true...we do use things up, discard them and get the bigger better version of it. While the poor little robots on the screen clean up after us, we are getting lazier and lazier on this ship that was supposed to be temporary. They float about instead of walking while drinking food from a cup because they have become to lazy to eat and all the while they have a computer screen in front of them to talk to the person who is actually right next to them. It was sad. The cute part between the two robots is only for the kids I think…the bigger picture is that this could be us if we continue to keep holding on to possessions and not taking care of our environment. I am by no means one to talk, I am trying to be better; but there is a lot to do. I am drifting today from one thing to the next but all in all it just reminds me of this passage. Its all stuff, it is nothing compared to Jesus and the place he has prepared for us in heaven.

In Struggles continued apparently...

Okay, so I was reading my book, Light From Heaven by Jan Karon today and came across a quote about suffering & struggles. I think God is telling me something huh?

If the trials of many years were gathered into one, they would overwhelm us; therefore in pity to our little strength, He sends first one, and then another, then removes both, and lays on a third, heavier, perhaps, the either; but all is so wisely measured to our strength that the bruised reed is never broken. We do not enough look at our trials in the continuous and successive view. Each one is sent to teach us something, and altogether they have a lesson which is beyond the power of any to teach alone. – H.E. Manning

I think I am going to have to take my trials to heart and go back and remember how God had pulled me through previous trials and remember exactly how trustworthy our GOD has been with all my other trials and tribulations. He is orchestrating my life according to His will and when I accepted Jesus I agreed to let Him have control.

So even as I was writing, (it takes a while since I am at work) I was reading in a daily devotional a friend and I are going through; I posted about it yesterday; it was also about trials. As if I didn’t think the Lord wanted me to consider these things more he gave me even more about it in today’s reading. I am getting hammered with this! This part of the book said “Once the lord has given us great faith, He has been know to test us with long delays” by John C Shairp. It goes on to quote from Alexander Maclaren, “Christ sometimes delays His help so He may test our faith and energize our prayers. Our boat may be tossed about by the waves while He continues to sleep, but He will awake before it sinks. He sleeps by the never oversleeps, for He is never too late.” I really think I need to listen since he is really speaking loudly to me about this. I feel like He had been silent for so long about so many things that now that I am finally hearing something, it is really loud and clear. Now comes the hard part of submitting…

In Struggles

“The burden of suffering seems to be a tombstone hung around our necks. Yet in reality it is simply the weight necessary to hold the diver down while he is searching for the pearls.”

– Julius Richter

I really have related with this quote lately. It was in my daily devotional Streams in the Desert. In my struggles and suffering I need to remember that I have to stay down and submit to God and I will find the blessing at the end of it all. It may seem dark along the way but if I relay on Jesus, he will keep my path straight and guide me. If he feels distant I have to also remember it is not he who is distant but me pulling away. He might not speak much along the way but if I draw close to him I will fell his company along the way.

Micah James Turk is HERE!!!

Born via C-section 2:30 on July 1, 2008

Weighing in at 7lbs 13oz 21in long

Welcome to the world little one. We are excited to be God Parents!

Baby Micah's Room

It is finished. The room was complete finally on Friday. Here are the pictures:

Alison's Baby Quilt

I have known Alison since we were about 6 years old. She and her boyfriend Logan had a baby boy, Leland, in January...yes, I know this is really a late gift but hey I have been working on a whole baby room for my other friend at the same time. Zeke of course had to help with the quilt and I don't think I am allowed to lay anything on the ground without him to help. He is always such a big help... I was really pleased with this quilt. It is my fifth quilt. I am almost finished with the sixth and will add it soon. I have to finish it by Friday because the baby shower I am throwing is on Saturday. I will add pics of the whole room though since I made the curtains, dust ruffle, crib bumper and the quilt too.

Cabinets and Dressers

We bought some dressers several years ago when we first got married from my old boss in Albuquerque. We loved the nice wood but like a darker wood. There was potential so we just dealt with it for a while.We finally decided that our bathroom needed updated so instead of painting the cabinets white we decided to try to stain them. We were very happy with the result. They were a oak color and it was pretty dried out looking. We sanded them and re-stained them a mahogany color. There was plenty of stain left over so we started on the dressers. I wanted a before and after picture of the dressers since it was such a big difference. We bought new hardware and really like the way it looks now. It was a lot of work but very worth it. As for the bathroom we are re-staining the medicine cabinet too and painting the walls soon. We also bought new lights for the bathroom and are excited to get them up soon too.

NEW CAR

I will post a pic soon...we just bought a PRIUS! It's really neat! It is used and they just got it on the lot yesterday along with three others and they sold two yesterday and the other two today; one of course ours. It is exciting to have a hybrid. It will be nice to see the savings in gas!

Home Projects

Well we are at it again. We have a home project. Last weekend we painted the small area on the back of our house that is wood. Just painted it about the same color it was previously. This weekend it is the bathroom. We are painting the cabinets white/cream and going to peel off the wallpaper border and I am so excited! In the next few weeks/months we will replace the countertop, medicine cabinet and the lights. It will be a brand new bathroom by the time we are done. Ultimately we are replacing the tile in there too...but that will be a little while. We want to do the kitchen tile too. It will be another busy weekend at the Fairchild house!

Heaven

I have started reading the Heaven book by Randy Alcorn. It has been very interesting so far. I am meeting with a friend every two weeks to do a review of the book. I will be writing more about it soon I am sure. So far I highly recomend this book and think it helps give us a renewed interest in our eternal home.

Labor Day Weekend

I am so excited about a long weekend. I have no new news to post so I am just stating that I am happy that this is a three day weekend! I have kept praying that today would magically turn into Friday, but that hasn't happened. God has moved time twice but I don't believe he will move it for this; unfortunately. Hope everyone has a great long weekend planned. We have plans with friends and a Indianapolis 500 party on Saturday night. Other than that it is supposed to be a beautiful weekend and I plan on taking a nap at some point. Hope eveyrone else has a good time too!

Plumbing Fixed

After many issues...the plumbing was fixed. Nate did a GREAT job on getting it finished! I was so proud of him! We had two days no water but some friends of ours were kind and shared their shower so we could go to work on Monday. Nate finished it up on Monday night. We went out for Ice Cream to celebrate!

Plumbing Woes!!!

Yesterday I walked out into the garage and I heard a pssssssss noise. I thought it was the heater. I was wrong. I heard it again later that evening and noticed there was water leaking. We pulled out our car and noticed there was alot more water. We thought it was the water heater at first but that was wrong too. It was actually the mainline pipe coming into the garage. We did without water for the night and today Nate started working on it. He had to shut off the water from the main water line in the front and it won't fully shut off! He is trying to sauter it wet. So we talked to my dad and got some other ideas. I am praying it works! I don't want to have to call a plumber and spend all that money! Plus I really just want a shower! I was working in the yard today with my dad. My parents came up today with a garden till so we didn't have to rent one; so we could save money that we apparently were supposed to spend at Lowe's & Menard's. We have made 6 trips to Lowe's and 2 trips for me to Menard's & 1 for Nate. So now he has a special coupler that clamps the pipes that he can sauter to the valve and get the water to stop flowing up as he is trying to sauter the pipes together. AHHHH!!!! PLEASE LORD LET IT WORK!!!