The Shack

I just read The Shack by WM Paul Young. This is one of the first books I've read all the way through since - I honestly don't know when. I'm not much of a reader, but I really want to start writing, so I figure to become a great writer, I should read what other great writers have written. I have a stack of books that I have been given or have borrowed over the last couple of years, and this was at the top of the pile. I started it on a Monday - just read some while my boss was at lunch and I didn't have anything to do - and Sunday night on the plane back from Atlanta (which was our connecting flight from the wedding in San Antonio) I was finished. Then Taylor took it and started on it. He is only on chapter two now, but he has studying to do as well, he can't devote all his free time to reading like I am able to do. I did want to share some about the book. Don't worry - I won't ruin it. I am not a huge fan of when people tell you parts of a movie, a TV show or a book - no matter what they tell you - it ruins a part of it for you. I say that to reassure you that I will not give anything away.

I would highly recommend this book though. I will say there were parts of it I struggled with. The summary on the back of the book reads: (DO NOT READ if you feel like it might give something away)

Mackenzie Allen Philip's youngest daughter, Missy, has been abducted during a family vacation and evidence that she may have been brutally murdered is found in an abandoned shack deep in the Oregon wilderness. Four years later, in the midst of his Great Sadness, Mack receives a suspicious note, apparently from God, inviting him back to that shack for a weekend. Against his better judgement he arrives at the shack on a wintry afternoon and walks back into his darkest nightmare. What he finds there will change Mack's world forever. In a world where religion seems to grow increasingly irrelevant THE SHACK wrestles with the timeless question: Where is God in a world so filled with unspeakable pain? The answers Mack gets will astound you and perhaps transform you as much as it did him. You'll want everyone you know to read this book!

(AND BOY IS THAT LAST LINE TRUE!!!!)

I struggled with this book because there is not really any scripture to back up what is being said in the book. I am sure that if I knew scripture better, and as well as I should for somebody who calls them self a Christian, I wouldn't have been as uneasy about some of the statements in the book. But then it did occur to me that most people who are reading this book probably don't know scripture all that well either. I do not mean to complain about the book at all. I am just saying that I struggled with parts of the book because there was not any scripture to back it up.

The struggling was good for me though. I prayed a lot about what was written and just prayed that it would encourage me to dive into the Word and find the evidence that those statements were true. I can say that this book made me think about loving in a completely new light. I realized that sometimes, the way I treat people that I say I love - isn't always loving. I'm not sure that makes sense - and maybe this is too much information for some of you, but I think that if you were to read the book, you would understand.

I hope that many of you WILL read this book. It is an easy read, although I did have to reread a couple paragraphs, but that is because some parts are very deep. You will more than likely cry AT LEAST one time. I cried multiple times, but that is not a surprise to anybody that knows me. I don't think that it will be hard for anybody to get into either. It isn't a book that starts slow and then speeds up - it is intriguing from the very beginning. I also hope that once you read it, you will let me know and we can discuss what you thought. I am very interested to see what others got out of the book. No matter who you are, what you believe, where you are in life, just give it a try. I can just about guarantee you will find something in this book that will teach you or change a part of your life. Like I said, it taught me a lot about the way I love, and I hope that it is helping me to actively change that.

If you would like to read more about the book you can go to The Shack's website: www.theshackbook.com

I am now reading "Same Kind of Different As Me" by Ron Hall & Denver Moore with Lynn Vincent. I will let you all know how it goes! If you have any suggestions that I should add to my pile, let me know!

Love you all-

Kauffman Krew

Quick Life Update

I just wanted to give everybody a quick update on what is going on with us and what blogs you have to look forward to!

 

This weekend Taylor's dad & stepmom were coming to see us (Tim & Betty), but very sadly, Betty's mom, better known to all as Murkart (I probably did not spell that right, sorry!) passed away on Tuesday night. She went very peacefully. She had a heart attack and then did not wake up. Her viewing will be this Sunday and her funeral will be on Monday. Please keep the Eckharts in your thoughts & prayers. We are sad we won't get to see Tim & Betty, but we know there are many weekends in 2012 that they will be able to come see us! :)

 

We aren't sure what we will do this weekend. We might just print out our WEDDING photos and frame them! We are so excited that they are here! I posted almost all of them on Facebook last night, and they should be up on our photographers website soon so you can look through ALL 1250 of them if you'd like! Ha! I will let you all know once they are on there. You will need a password, but I can give you that in an email, text message or phone call - no big deal at all. I hope that you all have been able to check them out on Facebook. I really do love all of the pictures! Erin did a great job on the photos of just Taylor & I. I know that we will treasure those forever. She also did a great job fitting our whole wedding party (yes there were 26 of us in total) in pictures. I loved the shots she took of us with our friends. I also just love the family pictures. Those will be framed and kept for a lifetime. Everybody looked so wonderful and it is so great to have all the family in one place at one time. I do wish we could have tried to get a picture of all FOUR...well SIX of our familes all together. That might have been a little difficult though. :)

 

My job is going well. My boss resigned last Friday, so this next Friday will be his last day. They are in the process of replacing him, so just be thinking and praying about that. I just hope that they find the right person who loves this job and won't leave as well! My current boss had only been here for 1 year, so like I said, hope they find somebody who enjoys this. Other than that, I am really liking my job. We are still growing our business which means I am growing and learning how to be a saleswoman...it is work for sure. But it is going to be so great to have this experience.

 

Taylor is doing really well in school. He has had some homework due these past two weeks so he has been busy reading a lot and working on that. He has a test next Tuesday! His first grad school test. So even though I just mentioned we would be working on pictures this weekend, I think I will work on pictures and Taylor will be studying. :) Taylor met with his advisor this week and now he is working on coming up with ideas for his Thesis. So crazy that he is already starting to work on that, but Taylor really wants to get his Masters within 2 years, so he is determined. Once he knows what he is going to focus on, I will definitely let you all know! I bet I am going to learn a lot over the next couple of years - and I cannot wait! I love to listen to Taylor talk about his school and his work - he is just so passionate about it all and knows it all so well.

 

Other than that, we are not up to much! In the near future I will be posting about my 25th birthday (yes it was almost a month ago - oops), The Hill Wedding (our friends Stephanie & Preston got married October 8th and we were blessed enough to get to go!) & a book review! I read the book The Shack and I want to make sure EVERYBODY I know, reads it as well. So now you can look forward to little book review on it from yours truly. But don't worry - I will NOT give anything away.

 

Don't forget - we are dying to have visitors so come see us! Even if it is just for the weekend, we would love to see you! Thank you all for reading. I checked my blog stats today and I was so surprised to see how many page views this blog gets each day. It is so encouraging to know that so many read our blog. It really makes writing a little more worth it. Hope you all are having a great week! Check back soon for our new blog posts! & don't forget to pray for Marli Ruth and check out her care pages!

 

Love you all!

-Kauffman Krew

Prayers Please!

Howdy all of our dear readers! I have been meaning to share this story with you all for a while. We all know the power that prayer has, I especially know. Right now is a time that we need many prayers for dear friends of ours. I have known Kevin McDonald since I was in high school. He was on the board for Medina Children's Home while I lived there. I would see Kevin at some of the benefits dinners and while his family was on Medina's campus. While I was in college, I would return to Medina Children's Home with the Aggies for Christ, and during those years Kevin was the CEO of Medina, so again I would get to see him then. As long as I have known the McDonalds they have been servants to Medina Children's Home - which is pretty special if you ask me. After all they have given to me (through giving to Medina), now it is time to try and give back in any way we can. Kevin & his wife had a beautiful baby girl on September 22nd, 2011. A short 5 days later, their sweet baby had brain surgery to remove a brain tumor. Taylor & I have been able to keep up with Marlie Ruth (their sweet baby girl) through her family's care pages. Below you will see his most recent post that I have copied and pasted from those care pages. Below that I have included the link to go to her care pages. You do have to become a member to read their posts, but they don't send you any annoying emails, or any junk - only updates when there are new posts, and I think you can even opt out of those. Whether you decide to keep up with this story or not, I do ask that you pray. Anytime you think about praying, just mention her name, I promise God will know what you are asking for. Thank you again for following our blog, and thank you for reading this post, and thank you in advance for your prayers for Marlie Ruth. She says thank you too!

Post from Care Pages by Kevin McDonald:

What a journey Marlie Ruth has been on since being born just 18 short days ago. She has already undergone several significant medical tests and treatments that are usually only utilized on much older patients. After seeing how happy she is now, it is hard to believe she underwent major brain surgery for over 6 hours when she was only five days old. Marlie Ruth has also spent over two weeks in the NICU at one of the top pediatric hospitals in the country. Now we prayerfully prepare for her to be the youngest chemotherapy patient currently at Texas Children's Hospital.

We have enjoyed spending three wonderful days with Marlie Ruth at the Ronald McDonald House in Houston. While we have been extra-careful to stay away from germs and keep Marlie "quarantined", having time getting to know our beautiful daugher away from the hospital, doctors, monitors and needles has provided much needed joy to our hearts that we will always cherish.

Marlie Ruth is not only beautiful, she is sweet, funny, fiesty and tough. Obviously and thankfully, she takes after her mother. We love her so much and are having so much fun getting to know her better each day. My favorite moments have been when she smiles at me as I sing to her. If you have ever heard me sing, you know that she is either laughing at me or making extraordinary efforts to let her Daddy know how much she loves him despite his inability to carry a tune.

Before being released from the TCH NICU on Friday, Nathalie and I were given a tour of the Texas Children's Cancer Center where Marlie will be receiving her future treatments. The tour was informative, the facility was impressive and we saw the staff that is ready to care for our daughter. Walking through the cancer center, however, made everything about Marlie being a cancer patient even more real and immediate. The tour was a very emotional experience for both Nathalie and me. We continue to request and cherish your prayers that we may have peace, strength and comfort as we continue this difficult journey with our sweet baby girl.

Tomorrow is a BIG DAY for Marlie Ruth. We report to Texas Children's Hospital at 6:00 a.m. Tuesday morning so Marlie can be prepared for her 7:30 a.m. surgery to install a central line where her chemo medicines can be administered and blood can be drawn and given. While she is asleep, her doctors will also perform a spinal tap so that her spinal fluid can be tested for malignant cells. Once Marlie Ruth awakes from these procedures, she will be admitted to the oncology floor of Texas Children's Hospital as an in-patient and preparations will begin for her chemotherapy which will begin either late Tuesday afternoon or sometime Wednesday.

We will find out tomorrow how long Marlie Ruth's first round of chemo will last and when we can expect to return home to Kerrville to be with our entire family. We are really missing Maycie and Coleman more every day. We will also find out more about the full plan for Marlie's chemo including how many rounds she will receive and what the planned timeline looks like.

Marlie Ruth and her Mommy and Daddy enjoy hearing from you via messages on the Care Page, cards, emails, etc. We have started a beautiful journal for Marlie Ruth so she can look back and see all the friends she had while she was in the fight of her life as an infant. The doctors, however, have requested that Marlie Ruth not accept visitors while hospitalized for her treatment in order to minimize her exposure to germs that are minor occurrence for most healthy people, but may be life threatening to her while at this time.

Our main prayer is that God prepares us to accept and find glory in His plan for Marlie Ruth, whatever that plan may be. We additionally request specific prayers for Marlie Ruth and her care providers including -

* That Marlie Ruth will tolerate the chemotherapy well and will not significantly suffer from side effects of her treatment.
* That the doctors will select a treatment plan and medicines that will eradicate all malignant cells from our precious baby girl.
* That Marlie Ruth will not have any dangerous infections while her immune system is significantly suppressed.
* That Marlie Ruth will experience complete and total healing and become a healthy and happy child.

P.S. We have some great new photos of Marlie Ruth that I will try to post to the Care Page before we leave for the hospital so be sure to check for them.

And as promised here is the link to get to her Care Pages:

http://www.carepages.com/carepages/MarlieRuthMcDonald/updates/3146281?client_code=default&ipc=mur

You can read all of their posts since they started and you can see pictures of Marlie Ruth in all her preciousness. Thank you again.

Love you all!

-Kauffman Krew

Happy Friday!

Just a short post to say HAPPY FRIDAY!

I hope that you all have a wonderful weekend! Taylor & I are off to TEXAS tomorrow morning! I can't wait to tell you all ALL about it!

And yes I am posting this at 2:22 PM in the afternoon - my awesome boss let us all go early today! We did not have a thing to do, so he sent us home! Thanks & Gig'em!

Again - HAVE A GREAT WEEKEND! Love you all!
-Kauffman Krew

October

As I said in the previous post, Taylor & I have some fun weekends ahead of us! We are actually going to some good friends' wedding this weekend in San Antonio. We won't be there for long. I didn't want to take off work so we are flying in Saturday morning (Leaving at 6:00 AM - be praying for Taylor starting now ha) and then flying home on Sunday afternoon. We are just so excited that we are able to go. We will get to see a lot of our Texas A&M friends! Hopefully we'll make it back to Texas again next month and get to spend longer than a day! This will be our first wedding since our own! I am so excited to go to a wedding with my husband and listen to their vows, and see all the traditions that we shared at our wedding!

Our friends who are getting married - Preston & Stephanie
This was taken at the Rebel Ranch Christmas Party 2009!

And then next weekend, we will have our first visitors!!! Taylor's dad, Tim & step-mom, Betty, are coming to visit! They saw our OPEN APARTMENT and jumped right on it! I'm so glad to see that it worked! Hope more will come soon! They are only staying the weekend, but we are so happy to have our first visitors. I hope they don't mind that they are the first, we will get to test out our hospitality tactics on them. But they shouldn't be too worried, I learned from some of the best! (My Grandmother & my Mrs. B).

And then at the end of the month we are going to have a little get together with some of Taylor's work friends at the apartment. Just a little halloween dinner party! I am very excited to find some fun recipes that are Halloween themed. And who knows, by that time we might have even MORE friends to invite! Oh and yes costumes will be a must! These are just a few of our best costumes so far!

And that is about it for October - for now! That means we have one open weekend this month if anybody wants to come see us! And of course we have November & December and then alllll next year!!! So pick your date and come on!

Love AND miss you all!

-Kauffman Krew

Weekend Update!

Well, as usual the fall is here and we are starting to feel busy! We weren't sure that time would ever get here, but we are back to normal ha. Most of you know this summer was a whirlwind for Taylor & I. We had weddings, showers, wedding festivities, etc almost every weekend this summer. We said that after we got home from the honeymoon we didn't want to travel that far again for a very long time, and so far we've stuck to that. The farthest we had gone before this weekend was Gulf Shores (about 1 & 1/2 hour drive - NOT bad compared to our Louisiana, Texas & Arkansas travels). This weekend we went a little further, not much - a full TWO HOUR drive ha. Again, it was so nice to only drive two hours and be at our destination.

Taylor & Madeline

 We went to Taylor's younger sister, Madeline's soccer game. Madeline is really great at soccer and plays on what we call in Texas, a club team. She has played on this team for years, just moved up in age group. That soccer team is full of really great girls and a lot of Madeline's best friends. Taylor & I have met most of those girls a couple times. Two summers ago, most of their team came to A&M's soccer camp so Taylor & I got to go watch them play and then Taylor drove some of them back home on his way to Dauphin Island. They also all came in town for Madeline's birthday last year and went to a soccer game that Taylor & I got to go with them. SO needless to say we get to see familiar faces anytime we get to watch Madeline play.

Madeline & some of her friends at the A&M Soccer game last fall.

 The weather was so perfect. The game was at 5:00 so the sun became tricky at some points (couldn't really see the game on one end of the field, just small figures kicking a ball), but even with the sun out, it felt great out! Madeline played a lot of the game and she even played a new position. *Side Note* Most of you know that I have never played soccer, so I am still learning a LOT about the positions and rules and this thing they call off sides???* Madeline's position that she plays most is a defensive position - I don't know the real term, BUT I do know that she is awesome at! I think that if I played, I would want to play that position. But during the second half, Madeline played forward. And once again, she did GREAT! I forgot my camera at home - of course - but I was able to take a couple with my phone. During the game we sat with Taylor's mom, Sherrill and just caught up.

Only had my iPhone, so this was the best photo I could get.

I must include the ending of the game, it was pretty intense! The Rage was up 2-1 when time ran out, but when time ran out the ref called a foul (? I think you can call those in soccer) and it was in the box from what I was told so the girl that was fouled on their team got to take somewhat of a free kick. I mean she stood right in front of the goal, nobody in front of her but the goalie. So again, from what I'm told, this was a sure thing that they would end the game tied, and nobody wants to tie - they want to WIN! The girl kicked the ball STRAIGHT to the goalie and she blocked it! It was incredible, I couldn't believe it. So the Rage won! The girls were really excited to win, but apparently this was their hardest competition so they were even more excited. They hadn't ever beat this team either, so again, victory was sweet! But The Rage played really well, so I wasn't surprised they got the W. (not so much can be said about my Aggies - which you will see that I am leaving out of this post minus this)

Madeline in action!

Afterwards we went to dinner at Chickfila (YUM) with Madeline and Sherrill. It was so nice to get to sit down and just catch up for a little while. We hadn't seen them since the wedding, so we had lots to talk about. We got to hear about Madeline's birthday (September 24th) and her Homecoming dance that she went to the night before. Madeline still has some soccer games left this fall, so wish her luck with me! Good luck Madeline!

Sunday was a basic Sunday for us. Lots of football of course. Taylor's fantasy team won again so he is now 4-1 (whoop!). We did more decorating and some rearranging of furniture - well I did some decorating and Taylor did the rearranging ha. Sweet husband, I know. We also did our normal Sunday cleaning & laundry. I just love having Sunday afternoons to get that all done. OH I almost forgot to mention our Friday night! We went bowling with FRIENDS! I was so excited! Taylor came home and said that some people from the lab had invited us to go and he asked if I wanted to....I said....ummm YES PLEASE! It was so fun. We bowled three games, of which I did not get last EVER! I actually got 2nd twice and 4th the third game - I was not very good that last game, I blame it on my arm being tired - but that's embarrassing too ha. I know this post has been lengthy but I must mention here that I used to LOVE to bowl. Don't get me wrong, I still really enjoy it, but we rarely do it. It is really hard to find a bowling alley that is up to date and not sketch. (this one was sketch BUT it was NO smoking - a miracle!) When I was much younger, my Aunt Leigh worked in a bowling alley and my Aunt Leigh was my best friend, so needless to say, I was at the bowling alley a lot. To be honest, I'm not sure if I bowled as much as I ate the food and watched my Aunt work & bowl, but I loved it. So it was really fun to get to bowl again, and I'm hoping that when my Aunt & her family (The Gibbs Gang) comes to visit we can go again and she can show me a thing or two...or ten ha. Taylor bowled really well, which is no surprise because he good at just about anything he tries. He got 1st all three times, which again I expect, but he wasn't doing so hot the second game so I got my hopes up and thought I could beat him...I didn't. :(

Ok so this post was really long, sorry if took a long time to read, but you should be used to it by now. I LOVE to write and I LOVE details. And I'm hoping that you LOVE to read and you LOVE to know all the details. :)

LOVE you all!

-Kauffman Krew