Arms Wide Open

It is amazing how quickly life can change. In just three short days, our household has been turned completely upside down by a furry little 3 month old named “Wubzzy”. Here are just a few of the changes to come our way:

• All bedroom doors must now be closed due to socks, slippers, pillows and towels being the object of Wubzzy’s oral fixation.
• The phrases “Wubzzy No!”, “No Wubzzy”, “No Bite”, “Down”, “Kennel Up”, “Good Boy” and “Potty” can be heard at any time.
• I am now a morning person out of necessity and not choice.
• Each of the members of our family appear to have gone 10 rounds with Edwards Scissorhands from sharp teeth and claws
• There seems to be a rather interesting pile of shopping bags tied in a knot accumulating in our trash can.

All kidding aside, we are head over heels in love with the “Wubster”. He has fit perfectly into our crazy lives and is bringing all of us great joy. He has responded very well to training and is taking to his cage training perfectly. While the nipping is a little tough on the hands and scary for the kids, it’s all a part of having a puppy. I also anticipate plenty of material for this blog. As I type this he is sitting at my feet, barking….

Time to go. Wubzzy calls….

I would like to introduce you to the newest addition to our family. This is “Wubzzy”. He came home tonight to 3 very excited little ones (2 grown adults were pretty excited too). He is a Basset Hound/Chow mix and 3 months old. I swore I would never do this again, but the older I get the more I am learning to never say never. Ever since our youngest was born she has been drawn to animals and especially dogs. She loves soft and cuddly things and Wubzzy is all of that and more.

We got off to a little bumpy start because he is a puppy and puppies “nip”. The youngest is afraid of him, but that will pass. He is currently crashed right beside me on the floor. I’m sure he has never seen as much activity as he experienced this evening. We adopted him from the Capital Area Humane Society and I recommend their services highly. He’s been well taken care of and we feel blessed that we found him. It’s funny how these things happen, but it reminds me of one of my favorite lyrics:

Every new beginning comes from some other beginnings end   –Semisonic

So we begin a new beginning tonight and we’re excited to have him. He is sure to add some stories to this blog and our lives. Welcome home “Wubzzy”, welcome home.

Great messages in this video.

I cannot WAIT for this one. The excitement has been building now for several months. On April 24th, my wife and will travel to Nashville, Tennessee to participate in the Music City Half Marathon. While visiting Nashville for the first time will be exciting by itself, there are so many great stories heading into this race. These are just a few:

1. It is going to be my absolute honor and privilege to finally meet up with a guy that has become a very close friend through the web. We connected originally through our friends at Thomas Nelson Publishing and have built a brotherhood that is just awesome. David Schroeder and his wife have opened their home to us for the weekend and he is going to be our running partner for 13.1 miles. It’s going to be great.

2. My good friend Jeff is also headed to Nashville for the weekend to run the race. He was one of the fortunate people that signed up to run it with TobyMac (see video for more). While helping a good cause, Jeff will also get the opportunity to meet one his favorite artist and share the journey with him. I’m thrilled for Jeff and can’t wait to hear how his weekend went.

3. Our friends Rachel and Matt Wojnarowski (whose blog you should really follow) are also headed to Nashville to run the race. Their reason and story are an inspiration to us all. Please check out her post on why they are running 13 miles to celebrate 13 years.

As Jeff and I discussed our excitement about the race, I found it so interesting that we have totally different reasons for running and going to Nashville, but the excitement is the same. There are several other people headed south that weekend to run. I can’t wait to get there and to share the story with you afterwards. Until then, I’ve got some training to do!

WARNING!! This post will probably be all over the place. It more or less represents my thoughts the past few days. I told my wife the other day that I just could not seem to get focused. I would walk in a room to get something and totally forget what I went in there for. I typed words that were totally not what I meant to type. The funny thing is that I have complete peace. I really do. Thanks to many, many prayers and friends, I have traveled the waters of the past week really, really well.

So as I sat down to the blinking cursor tonight, I could only come up with one phrase…”Where do we go from here”. To anyone that reads these words and has been in my shoes, you have probably said the same. I keep saying it, but it has just been surreal. I spoke to a friend today that lost his Dad several years ago and he said he still feels that way. As I flew to Houston I kept thinking that I was soon going to become one of those people that says “I lost my Mom back in 2010″. Strange. It still feels weird to even type that.

So where do we go from here? For me, I have chosen to emerse myself in the wonderful memories. I am drenching myself in the great stories of a woman committed to people, to breaking the cycle, to restoring lives and extending grace. One place I will go from here is to challenge myself each day to do the same. I have the road map. I was given a first hand lesson. I have camped out on some of my favorite mom “ism’s” growing up. Things like:

“Do us proud”

“Better your best” (when competing in anything we did)

“Sugar!!” (the closest my mom ever came to a cuss word)

“The thing you fear most NEVER happens”

“Psalm 139″

“Somewhere in the World” (in reference to this song by Wayne Watson. My mom prayed it for years)

One other memory I had the other day involved the old Atari. This will shock your socks off, but when I was growing up, I wasn’t much of a real talker. Believe or not, there are times when I still enjoy silence. However, my mom was determined to get me communicating. She found her answer in playing Atari with me. I’m here to tell you that we had some fierce battles. Pacman and Pinball were the games of choice and before you know it, I was telling her about my day, my fears, my hopes and dreams. We went through many Atari joysticks playing those games. I’m not sure who broke them more trying to get that pacman home, but it worked.

I still think she practiced while I was at school so she could beat me at pinball when I got home. This also became a regular instance of hearing her say the word “Sugar!!!”.

I warned you this would be all over the place. I think my point was that it was weird to blog about anything right now. I’m sure there will be a time and a place for that. Hang with me awhile. We’ll get back to blogging soon enough. I’m going to go find that Atari….