93

Man, time is flying by. I can't believe it's already only 93 days left. I am super stoked. I cannot wait. I grow in my love for Allison each and every day. I cannot wait until we are married. Maybe i'll get to see her tonight. She came to church last night and heard me speak. It is a joyous occasion to get to speak and it is a joyous occasion to get to see Allison, but to get to preach while she's there, inexplicable.

Allison, my dear, I love you with every fiber of my being!!! I cannot wait to be your husband!

In Christ,
Derrick

100

That's right, today is the day, the one hundred days left mark. There are only 100 days left until I will be a married man. I sincerely love her more today than I did yesterday and grow to love her more each and every day. I remember when people would boast of their love. I would be so happy for them yet at the same time be discouraged because I had yet to find that kind of love, almost cheapening the love I would one day find. Please, do not cheapen the love that will one day encompass you. Use this time to pray for that one you will one day celebrate "100" with. That being said...I have a secret prize to give to Allison tonight. It's not much but this post will continue once I have given it to her.

Edit:: I gave Allison the secret gift. Here it is...







That's right, we celebrated our 100 days left tonight at 3:TEN (NGBC's College Bible Study).

The above picture is a Kroger cookie cake inscribed with a giant 100.

I am sooooo excited. I hope she is as well. I am pretty sure she is. Also, we have our invitations. I will post a picture soon!

In Christ Alone,

Derrick

5:41 pm

Here I am, sitting at my desk after hours. I am wasting my time really and should be ashamed. I thought, however that I haven't blogged in a couple of days and should do so. Unfortunately my mind is not working too well right now and the blogging will have to wait. I did want to say that I will be blogging on my wedding blog on Thursday. "Why Thursday" you might ask. Well Thursday just so happens to be only 100 days left until I will be a married man. So check that out on Thursday...or Friday, or Saturday or March 11th of next year. I do not really care, as long as you check it out.

Until then...

Derrick
(the pic above was the 10th one I took, I just didn't like the others)

Project Relocation

I hope you enjoyed my post regarding our mission register (if anyone reads this). We went the next day for Leah's Birthday lunch at The Cheesecake Factory and went from there to do some more registering. Notice that I took Williams Sonoma off the registry page because we did not find anything there. So we are now only registered at PotteryBarn, Target, and Macy's.

Enough of all that, I have to tell you about what we did yesterday. It is very exciting and I feel like we've finally accomplished something (regarding our house). We cleaned out our future house to an extent and are going back today to work a little longer. I am so excited because it finally feels like something is getting accomplished. I love the house and we are in a good situation, just nothing has been done yet. I go over there from time to time to try and accomplish something, but my knowledge is limited as to how I am to fix things in a house. But yesterday we were able to relocate some of Mr. Crumley's "treasures" to his "shop." It took most of the evening but it is looking better in what will be our family room. There are still many times left to move but it just felt so good to get it out of there.

I've determined to learn how to do many of the things that need to be done so as to show that I am willing to do whatever it takes to get that house ready by the end of May. Yes, I know that we will not move in until June (atleast I will not), but we want to have a time to try and get Allison settled in before hand.

Anyway, it was cool getting to work right along side my beloved. I love her with all of my heart. We work well together and hopefully together we can get everything ready in our house!

Have a great day!!!

Mission Register

Last night Allison and I embarked on a mission, mission register. We began at Macy's. Special agent Myra was our contact there. With scan gun in hand we began by registering for our everyday dishware (Allison already has fine china). Next we went to the bedding section to find comfort. We registered for two down pillows, oh so comfy. Next we ran into a bit of a problem, our gun stopped working momentarily and would not allow us to register for the oh so comfortable down comforter. After some frustration and banging of the scan gun, another consultant ran to our rescue.
From there we went on to the cookware. It was here that we found the things we will us to ensure our survival. We registered for knives, pots and pans, blender, and other odds and ends. When finished we gave back our scan gun and received some free items as a thank you from Macy's.

From there our hunger began to distract us so we stopped by for some delicious chinese food.

After consuming the Burbon chicken, Teriaki Chicken, and Lo Mein noodles we went on to Target. Target also gave nice free stuff as a thank you. It was here that we bought alot of odds and ends. We got all our kitchen tools, and or bath towels and alot of household cleaning items. Oh, and we registered for the boardgame Life and mexican train dominoes.

Beginning at 3:30 in the afternoon and finishing around 9:45 pm, Allison and I accomplished our mission. All we have to do now is register for a few things at Pottery Barn.


Registry:
Macy's
Target
Pottery Barn


Solus Christus

Derrick

Take a look at MY shame

I kissed dating goodbye, so did my fiance. Yet, I feel ashamed. Let me explain. Allison began early on to read books and decide how she was to honor God in her dating life. I'm talking middle school. I, on the other hand, did not realize this need until college age. I had similar thoughts that Pastor Josh Harris held in I Kissed Dating Goodbye while I was in High School, but I would be a liar if said that I was not consumed with girls and trying to get them to be impressed with me, a big liar. As a matter of fact, I was still completely enthralled with girls, they just tended to be my friends instead of random girls. It is from this that I find my shame. Please do not take me wrong, Christ takes the shame. Yet I truly wish that I had held the same views as Allison. I wish that I had held the relationship in such high esteem as she did. I'm not sure of all of Allison's struggles, i'm not sure how difficult it was for her to make these decisions and hold to them. I do know that I did not have the same ones and now feel guilty that I did not pray more for her, all along. I am sorry that I did not always trust God to provide Allison for me.

Allison was always the one for me:

I am either naive enough or just trusting enough to believe that Allison has always been the one that God intended for me. Now that I have found her, I am sorry that I did not trust God all along. I questioned whether He even had someone for me. I questioned the one's He said "no" to (or He allowed them to say "no" to me). I am sorry that I did not trust Him more. I am also sorry that I did not wait more patiently for her. She is exactly what I need. We are perfect for each other. To try and be real and not wanting to be too cliche or movie quotable, she completes me. (I know, I know its cheesy, but its true).

I feel that my impatience was a sin against her and most of all against God.

There's one out there for you:

What I am not saying is that you are in the wrong for liking someone. I just had to go ahead and get that out there. I even think that dating is okay (for responsible 16+) as long as you are honoring God and trying to find out who your future mate might be. But to date around because you think you might like someone, or that they could one day meet your criteria (do you even have criteria?) is no way to honor God in the marriage relationship He will one day give you. The Bible says not to defile the marriage bed, an impatience with God's provision of a mate could be defiling it.

I am a virgin. I have kissed inappropriately (it was all inappropriate because none of those I kissed were going to be my wife, they are all someone else's wife now). But the fact is, I could be very prideful about this accomplishment. I am saying that I am still ashamed and have felt like I let Allison down and God down. (I wholeheartedly believe that we cannot try and excuse any of our sin.). The truth is, God has someone for you. Right now! they may be waiting like Allison did, they may be impatient like me and distrusting of God. They may be doing whatever they please with whomever they please. But how will they feel when they finally meet you and know that you waited for them, completely? Will they see that you cared so much for them to wait or that you were too busy living for yourself.

Calling all middle schoolers and 9th graders:

I am primarily writing for any middle schoolers and/or ninth graders that might read this. I want to encourage you. You might be feeling those deep feelings for someone right now. That's good. God gave those feelings for a reason, yet He does not give us permission to act upon them in an improper way. His call to "be holy as your heavenly Father is holy" still stands. Our feelings do not get to be a valid excuse. In the midst of those feelings, thank God for them. Thank God for the one to whom you want to express those feelings. Pray for them, pray for them to make good decisions and to honor God especially regarding their marriage. Pray for their husband/wife (it might be you, it might not). Pray for your husband/wife. Pray that they are more focused this moment on God than on if you are out there.

We must live for Christ. He must be our main focus. Like someone, that's okay. You can even tell them (as long as they know that you only want to pray for them at this time), just do not make my mistake and get wrapped up in the deep emotion of it and dishonor God. He deserves our all, our future spouse (whom you may have never met yet) deserves our best.

I hope this was an encouragement!

Solus Christus

Derrick