How great is our God!

One week ago yesterday I left for work in a hurry and in the process, forgot to put on my wedding & engagement rings – which are soldered together. When I got home they were gone. Jon and I looked everywhere. We picked through the trash piece by piece, we searched the walkway and driveway outside and also inside my car. I was to the point where I was looking in the same places two or three times. The next few days at work I’d stare all around the ground as I was walking in to see if maybe I lost them there.

Three days later - Friday night - we left to go to the cabin for the weekend. By Saturday night Jon was looking for his wallet and couldn’t find it. Sunday we did a more thorough search of the cabin and car – Jon’s wallet was also gone! When we got home his wallet wasn’t in the house either. The last time we could remember him using it was to get gas at Bergey’s so we called there – no one had turned in a wallet.

After both of these things we were praying hard. God was certainly trying to teach us something but we did not know what.

This past Tuesday (1 day less than a week after I lost my ring) Jon called me at around 9:30 in the morning to say that his wallet was found. Apparently he set it on top of the car while filling the gas tank Friday night, then forgot it there and we drove off. It stayed on the car (probably because of the bike racks) through the pouring rain and high speeds, till we were almost up to the cabin, where it must have flown off and landed on the side of the road. Then some kind man found it and turned it in to the municipal office up there. A lady at the office found Jon’s number on his gun carry permit (which he had just gotten the day he lost his wallet); she left Jon and urgent message saying they had his wallet and he could pick it up anytime. Amazing!

Then, not even two hours later, I went out to my car to take my morning break and noticed a parking space open right near where I usually park. So, like I’d been doing often since I lost the ring, I was looking around on the ground to see if my ring was there. I looked kinda quickly because I had looked a bunch of times already, as I was turning away something caught my eye and I turned back and walked over to it…IT WAS MY RING! Unbelievable! Amazing! God is soo so good!

So, the moral of the story: God is in control of even the smallest little details of our lives, and he cares! He gets all the praise for that amazing day! So many things could have happened to either my ring or Jon’s wallet, but God protected both and worked through the whole situation to teach us to trust Him even more.

Hopefully this story encourages you today as much as it has and continues to encourage Jon and I.

Jons Graduation

Here are just a couple pictures from Jon's Graduation Ceremony.

This is Jon and a few of his friends from school:

And of course, a picture of Jon and I :)

Job Search Status

The week before we left for Cayman Jon finished his online portfolio web site. It looks really great!

Take a look around his site if you’re curious about what Jon went to school for and what he’s looking to do at a future job: www.jpfportfolio.com.

He’s now in the process of searching through job listings and applying for numerous job opportunities. Please continue praying for wisdom and direction for us during this time - and thanks for all the people who have, and are already praying! We really appreciate your prayers.

Cayman Islands

Jon and I just returned from Grand Cayman Sunday night. We had a great time although the trip seemed short. David was sick the day were were supposed to leave so he and Jon's mom stayed home an extra day. Thankfully it only took one day and Dave felt up to flying. Here are some pictures of where we were and what we did.





This is the Friedrich's house:

Jon has a smaller boat down in Cayman that we used often to go out fishing or snorkeling.

Speaking of fishing, we did a good amount of fishing around the reefs and one day we fished off the dock. Out around the reefs was pretty good fishing but we got our lines caught on the reef often. I did more fishing than Jon just because he was always busy putting new bait on my hook or a new line on my rod, or taking a fish I caught off the hook. I just cast the line out and reeled the fish in :). He's such a sweet guy!

Here's two big fish I caught the first day we went reef fishing. Jon also caught one the same size another day.


Sting Ray City is always a fun thing to do in Cayman. The one day we got out there and ours was the only boat there - the sting rays swarmed us! This year I wasn't as afraid of them as I was last year. Jon feeds them squid to keep them near us. I'm really afraid of their tails but I like to touch them. Jon will actually pick them up when he's feeding them.

This kayak that we're on has a glass bottom so Jon and I went out to the reef with it. That was pretty cool but a little scary. I kept thinking we were going to hit the reef because it looked much closer than it was.

Myrtle Beach

Alright, finally getting around to posting some pictures from Myrtle Beach. This is just a few.

Here's our car all packed up on the way down. We got horrible gas mileage with that bag on top, but we fit everything of ours and Nate & Shawna's in our car - except our beach chairs which we gave to Kemmerer's to take down.

Nate and Jon bought fishing rods before we headed down. They went fishing a few days out on the beach and at the spot where we always go crabbing. Nate caught a little shark the one day.



Throughout the week a bunch of people were getting stung by Man of War jelly fish. Neither Jon or I got stung but only for Jon was that surprising. He was in the water a lot. Below is the one time I went in the ocean the whole week - and I made sure I stayed on my Kyack the entire time. There was no way I was chancing a jelly fish sting!

Dave & Ben brought an air mattress down to use as a raft. This is some of the guys playing "king of the mattress" :) Jon actually got on top just a few seconds after I took this picture:



And that's all. I was disapointed with the amount of pictures we took while down in Myrtle Beach. I have to get some pictures from others down there.