The Newlyweds are back...except we aren't really newlyweds anymore, and we aren't in New Orleans anymore, either...

Remember when we were newlyweds?  Remember when we were living in a hotel in New Orleans?  Remember when I (Becca) got my first job?  Remember when the hurricane came?  Remember when I had 32 students?  Remember when Kyle was diagnosed with diabetes?

A lot has happened since then!  We moved to Fredericksburg, Va. in July 2010.  Kyle got a job as a Middle School Pastor at Spotswood Baptist Church.  I wish we had kept up the blog in those days, cause once again, God proved sovereign in our lives.

For example, He got me a job against all odds.  I taught a year at Riverview Elementary School.  I was hired to teach 4th grade, but it changed to KINDERGARTEN at the last minute :P  It was a blast, though!

I found out I was pregnant on the 3rd day of school that year...oops!  Matthew Dean Kelley was born May 3, 2011.  He is now 1 year old, walking, and saying a few words.  Time sure does fly...

We bought a house!  Yikes!

We have made some wonderful friends in Virginia.  God provided them, too.

And now, God has taken us back to the beginning.  Back to that place where we have to rely on him.  It's kind of funny, actually.  I went back to the very first post, $40, and laughed when I saw that the verse at the end is the same verse God is using in our lives right now!  James 4:13-15.  Look it up!

Anyway...the reason I am starting to blog again is because God is taking us on another journey, and we want you, our family and friends, to come along.  We want to praise His name through it, and we want to bring Glory to Him...and we want YOU to see how awesome our God is.  So here goes nothing...

Kyle and I have said since before we were married that we wanted to adopt "someday."  You know...someday?  When we are rich.  Or at least have a little extra.  AND we figured someday we would know how to keep the whole house clean all the time?!  And...SOMEDAY when we had some extra time on our hands?

"Someday" seemed like a safe time to adopt.  But, as usual, God has other plans for our lives.

See, we were reading through Crazy Love (by Francis Chan) with some friends, and God started putting these crazy thoughts in our heads.  Thoughts about adopting.  Thoughts about loving God in a radical way right now.  Not someday.

He kept asking me the same question, week after week.  "What are you waiting for?"

"Well that's pretty obvious, isn't it?  Money."

"I will supply what you need."

Yeah.

"We need more time...we are so busy."

"I will supply what you need."

Um.

"So...what did you have in mind?"

"What are you waiting for?"

Sigh.

And He is right, as usual.  So, I tried to "pray" about how he wanted us to find all this time and money. Have you ever used prayer as a way to put off what you already know God is calling you to?

It didn't work.  The first time I sat down to ask Him the question, he answered before I finished asking!

"I made you a teacher, remember?"

"Yeah, but, what about Matthew?"

"I made you a teacher."

"Sure, but, my baby!"

"You have another baby out there who needs to be rescued."

Are you getting the idea of where this is headed?  So, I called Kyle.  That conversation was fun, too.

"Hey, Honey...Umm, I think God wants us to adopt."

"Yeah, I know"

"No, I mean, right now.  And he wants me to go back to work."

"Uh, I'll have to pray about that."

I'm not sure exactly what happened between Kyle and his Savior, but I know that it took less than a day.

So, here we go.

The funny thing is, when I left my teaching position last year, I was planning to officially quit--you know, the whole letter of resignation thing?  But my principal convinced me to do a leave of absence instead.  To simply take the year off and decide later whether I would come back or not.  I did the leave of absence, thinking all along that I would never go back.

I had to let them know by April 15th that I was returning, otherwise I would have to interview all over again.

God got a hold of us the first week of April.  He has good timing, right??

We have barely begun the process.  We need to decide where we are adopting from, what age the child will be, and whether we want a boy or a girl.  Or more than one...?

So, thank you for joining us.  Pray for us whenever you think of us!  And we will keep you posted :)

Becca