I stink at blogging...

Okay... so I haven't blogged in 21 days. Sad. But lest you think I forgot about you I thought I would catch you up. I have been busy with applying for Student Affairs jobs at NASPA (National Association of Student Personnel Administrators) and universities in the Waco area. We are trying to find a job around Waco so we can stay and Marc can finish at Truett Seminary. I have applied for a few jobs here at Baylor and I am excited to be interviewing for one at NASPA. It is the first round interview so I covet your prayers. I am attending NASPA March 5th through the 11th for the NASPA Placement Exchange (a national gathering for job seekers and institutions to get "matched up") and the NASPA 2008 annual conference. It is in Boston! Did I mention it is in March? Boston...March...

So I have been very busy with applications and my hubby has been very helpful with all of the logistics of applying and all of the crazy busy work of filling out your address and previous employers approximately 50,000 times. It is funny what we do to make more than $9,000 a year! :)

We also recently moved! When I say recently, I mean on Saturday. It was awesome. We had 14 people total moving us and they were so great to help us out. We started at 9:40 and were all moved in by about 11:30! Our new apartment is two bedrooms and two bathrooms plus a bigger kitchen a dining room and a living room! The dining room and living room are one large room, but the dining room has linoleum flooring and the living room has carpet.

I will post pictures soon (or probably during Spring Break). Another thing is that miraculously our cat Oscar decided to be normal and actually drink out of a bowl for a change. This miracle was in conjunction with our move. Since the move he hasn't begged for water from the faucet at all! Divine intervention. :)

Our spare bedroom is great for our computer and my craft stuff. It is fun to have a space for everything. This is the first time in our married life we have had more than one room! What a joy it is!

I am scatterbrained and this post is rambling and I am tired and in desperate need of heavy-duty study time for my midterms next week. I shall say goodnight. May you all know the measureless love of our Lord and Savior more as you travel through the week.

The New Normal...

Pray for contentment in my spirit.

I want to be okay with whatever God has in store for me in this next stage. It is hard not to let pride get in the way sometimes, but I know that God knows what I need and that He called me to this Master's program and it is unlikely that He did that without reason. He will provide just the job I need that uses my skills and talents. I just have to be okay with the waiting.

Last night I ran into a friend who works here at Baylor. We are really that close, just very friendly acquaintances. She works in Campus Ministries and her name is Becky. She said, "You will make it, sometimes you just have to redefine what 'making it' is." I thought that was a good word.

I have been listening to Sara Groves lately and I heard this song and thought of us (both you and me) and our transitional time right now.

The One Thing I Know

And the clouds just parted on a corner of my life
And I can see for miles
And the things I was stuck on
Things I thought would never change
They just broke open wide

This is the one thing I know
You said you won't let me go
You said you won't let me go

And the veil just lifted
I can finally understand
The way you work in me
But even if I didn't
You are still a sovereign God
Who has a plan for me

It 's good to know you work with hurt and broken souls
And that you'll take a soul like mine
And it feels like I've been waking up
Only to fight with the same old stuff
I was caught in the habits of a lifetime
Giving up I could never find the right time
All the indefensible things I would defend
All the million ways that my heart was bent
Then the clouds just parted

It reminds me of how I will feel when it is all over and I can see how His hand was in every moment. Sometimes the clouds are so thick and heavy I feel like I can't breathe or move, but I know that this too will pass. God cares for me and wants my success in life--but I also have to
be willing to surrender what my idea of success is so that it can be replaced with His idea. The funny thing is, I worry that the creative God who had the insight to create the duck-billed platypus and the Northern Lights somehow won't think "big" enough for Carrie Anderson.
Why do I think so little of my God that I believe the lie that He would settle for less than the best for me?

Now I am not naievly saying that I will never go through tough times... I have seen to much evil in the world to believe that lie. I am saying that I must believe that God desires for my good and that His idea of good is much higher than my own. Placing my trust in the hands of a Good God cannot be a bad thing.

Prayers for Kenya and a Request for Help

Friends, if you know me, you know how much I love Kenya and more importantly the Kenyan people who are like family. We have been in contact with them all since the violence started in Kenya, but I recently recieved this letter from our friend Fred. He is so wonderful and has taken in his family's orphans and treated them as his own children. He makes $128.55 a month... (9000 shillings). He has eight children. You do the math. Here is his email.

Dear Anderson

thanks for taking your time and going through your contacts and hence being able to see my email. Am very happy together with my family. I havent yet forgotten your appearance because i can remember the day you were going back to USA you give me some money about 300 kenya shillings which you hadremained with and through that i can still recognise you. These is part of the responsibilty i do hold in the family. I have children who are orphans after their parents who were my brothers died leaving them without mother and now they aregrowing and now three of them are doing their grade 8 exams this year which by next year they need support to join high school or grade 9 asyou call in America. I have sent their pictures though they are on different negatives.

On the left hand up are from L-R top my children MICHAEL the big boy 8yrs small is MOSES 4yrs and our first born girl EVELYN top right corner L-R are JUDITH 15yrs the one who joined secondary school form one or grade 9 and this one i have struggled and enrolled her in secondary which i pay the fees. EVELYN our daughter grade going to grade 7, ESTHER 15yrs grade 8 our necie and the one scorching boy is JAFRED 17yrs did his grade 8 exams last year 2006 and unable to pay his school fees. Bottom left are are nephews and nieces am taking care of after their parent both mothers and fathers died in between 1998 and 2001 leaving them as orphans.

Now they are growing and they can be able to take showers on their own. Now what is worryng me is how they will get their high school education. the fees is ksh 24800 ($354.22) per year without the stationeries and uniforms. The rest are still in primary level so their school fees is mainly needed in 2009 for three of them That Esther, Dennis and Moses who are doing tyheir grade 9 in 2009 and with salary of 9000 ($128.55) kenya shillings per month you cannot feed , cloth them and be able to save for them for education. I remained alone in the family with my small sister who has 3 children and her husband too doesn't have a job after all our parents also died due to oldage. My father died in 1994 and my mother 2004 leaving alone. God willing the group from Baylour University will be coming to Kenya by May this year, my request isthat please see how you can help me even if it means looking for some clothings for them or any way you see can help. (But Baylor isn't because the violence makes risk-management think it is too dangerous).

Standing JUDITH and JAFRED and scorching L-R DENNIS 14yrs grade 7 MOSES 14yrs grade 7 the lady standing is my wife Salome the picture was taken after being baptisedin 2002 at Naivasha where our Bishop baptises church members and anyone willing to be baptised.otherwise am fine i will send one whole picture of the family together when the family gets together

Thanks and may our ALMIGHTY GOD give you wisdom and strength so you get sponsors for this family

Looking forward to hear from you
Fred kuboka of Gracia Guest House

Breakdown:
I would like to send him at least $1,000 or more to help with his expenses.

I don't like to make people feel compelled, so please do not feel compelled. I want you to give to this only if you feel that God is tugging at your heart. However, I do know Fred well enough to know that he is one of the strongest men of God that I have ever met. Your money would be met with joy and heartfelt appreciation from Fred and his family. If you feel you are compelled to give a little or a lot, email me at carrie_anderson1@baylor.edu

We will be coordinating the money efforts in the next few weeks or so to try to get it all figured out. We have other friends here who also are helping Fred with getting Judith to school currently so we will be talking to them too.

If nothing else, pray for the violence to cease and the tribal warfare to stop. This country is such a beautiful place and it is beautiful because of the love the people have for one another. The idea of tribal warfare is literaly ripping apart families and neighboorhoods and communities. Pray for them.

I'm Stressed Out

Pray... This job search/trust God/take one day at a time thing is really hard. I am so frustrated!

Christmas Eve at our House

The fun has just begun... here is installment one of Christmas Eve! The stockings come next. :)

"Christmas is a feeling in your heart." -Johnny Cash song (not so theologically correct, but funny none the less).

Ham ham ham ham ham ham ham! That was for you Dad!

Cheesy potatoes!!! They aren't on the diet, so we took a hiatus from the diet for one meal. Corn!!!! (Not like Jim and Phyllis's, but still great.)

POP! :) Diet Dr. Thunder to be exact. :)

This next part is simply uncalled for but hilarious. The cat kept meowing and so I pulled out the chair because that seemed to be what he was wanting. Before we knew it we had a table guest. I might add that he sat there very politely and quietly throughout the rest of the meal and meowed mournfully when we left the table to do dishes. Our cat is insane... and we probably are too.

STOCKING TIME!!!

Smoke Signals...

Okay, so our apartment smells like smoke. Our downstairs neighbors are smokers... no... CHAIN smokers. I have a lot of tolerance for smokers as long as they don't smoke near me or my things. They have a right to smoke. I have a right to breathe. So lately (since July) we have been smelling their nasty bi-product on a daily basis in the bathroom and occasionally the living room, but it just crossed the line last night when it intruded into the bedroom too. So I have been struggling with anger today. It doesn't help that I was by myself all day since Marc was at work. I just feel out of control and taken advantage of. We tried to call the management but they are on vacation for Christmas. So then I checked on my emails and got this from Henri Nouwen.com.

"Life is unpredictable. We can be happy one day and sad the next, healthy one day and sick the next, rich one day and poor the next, alive one day and dead the next. So who is there to hold on to? Who is there to feel secure with? Who is there to trust at all times?Only Jesus, the Christ. He is our Lord, our shepherd, our rock, our stronghold, our refuge, our brother, our guide, and our friend. He came from God to be with us. He died for us, he was raised from the dead to open for us the way to God, and he is seated at God's right hand to welcome us home. With Paul, we must be certain that "neither death nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nothing already in existence and nothing still to come, nor any power, nor the heights nor the depths, nor any created thing whatever, will be able to come between us and the love of God, known to us in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Romans 8:38-39)."

It is humbling and a good reminder despite the fact that I am still very angry. I feel frustrated and yet amidst the craziness I am reminded of the joy of those who have no home at all. Having seen what we have seen in Kenya it is hard to reconcile my anger over our situation with reality for so many individuals.

A Break from the Craftiness

So I have been crafting up a storm in the last 24-48 hrs, but I decided to take a break and tell you about some great music you probably already know about (because I am always the last one to hear about great artists out there). I am currently loving (click and you can listen via YouTube):

1. Leslie Feist

2. Madeleine Peyroux

3. Eisley

4. Jem (no not from the 80s cartoon - although I thought of that too) :)

Here is a picture of the 80s cartoon for those of you who are confused. :)