Adventures in Our Home & Hearts: "Thank You, Lord, for blessing us with 5 years of marriage!"

*I am enjoying catching up on blogging. Since I have several months still to do, please take note of the date (month) in the blog post title rather than the date I posted. Also, you'll notice I tried to write like I would have at the present time of the post rather than writing like it was many months ago.

Giving God Glory
When God is moving.... - Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us, to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen. Ephesians 3:20-21 We have only been in our new home for about a month, and already the Lord has blessed us with conversations in which we have been able to share the gospel of Jesus Christ and testimonies of God's work in our lives with many of our neighbors! (Frequently, our miscarriages were the topic that led into spiritual conversations, so we thank the Lord for using our trials for good and His glory!) During our 5 years of living in Falcon, we had a few of these kind of conversations with our neighbors and encountered many hard hearts. So, this kind of situation of it being so easy to share the gospel and to have many receptive heart kind of responses has been amazing! When God is moving in people's hearts and drawing them to Himself, it makes all the difference! John 6:44 states, "No one can come to Me [Jesus Christ] unless the Father who sent Me draws him..." Amen! The Lord calls us to be faithful, and He is the One who moves in people's hearts and saves or sanctifies them. Wes and I have been blessed with such joy to be a part of God's work in our neighbors' hearts and lives, and they often tell us how we are a "God send" and that God has blessed their lives so much through us. We are humbled to say the least and continually give thanks to the Lord for His confirmation that we are exactly where He wants us to be. Part of our prayers during the time our previous home was on the market was, "Lord, please don't sell our home unless Your time for us to witness to our neighbors has come to end and You have other neighbors for us to share the gospel with." During our home search, part of our prayers continued to echo this desire, "Lord, please lead us to the neighborhood that You have for us to be a light for Christ." He has definitely answered these prayers far above and beyond what we had asked or imagined! Three of my neighbor friends are going to my women's Bible study, "Idols of the Heart," with me. I've never had anyone join me for Bible study, let alone 3 at the same time!!! Praise the Lord! One of them started coming to our church on Sundays too. We look forward to seeing how the Lord continues to move in our neighbors' hearts and lives!

What's on the Harrisons' Hearts
Making Our New Home "Our Home" - Matthew 25:14-30 - "His master said to him, "Well done, good and faithful slave. You were faithful with a few things, I will put you in charge of many things; enter into the joy of your master." (V21, 23) After we returned from Lake Powell, Wes still had a week of vacation remaining, so we got right to work in beginning to make our new home "our home." We had a lot of fun painting and purchasing! :) The Lord is growing me in holding my "strong saving desires" somewhat loosely because not every season of life you can put a significant amount towards "savings" - whether it be saving up to pay cash for our next vehicle, paying down our home, etc. We are in a season of increased spending out of our extra income in order to invest in our home. We continue to seek wisdom from the Lord in how it looks to be a good and faithful servant with all that He has entrusted to us during different seasons with different financial goals and priorities. It would be fun (but not wise) to go all out and buy/do everything we want asap to our home! The Lord is helping us to have discernment in prioritizing projects and remembering it will take time to get our home exactly how we desire. We thank the Lord for blessing us abundantly above and beyond what we had asked or imagined with this home, and we look forward to being good and faithful stewards of it.

The Lord keeping Wes safe as he painted our tall walls * Daddy & son painting

In no time Noah "rolled" himself ;)

Our skilled painter * Double rolling it is much more efficient! * "Painting" his chair

Daddy & son drilling it up * Cheers!

Praises & Prayers
Friend in CO Springs - Please continue to pray for the Lord to provide the income they need and to guide my friend in His will for her as she desires to work elsewhere.
Tami - Continued prayers for the Lord to give my dad and other loved ones His perspective and that God would heal Tami, but ultimately that His will would be done.
Brett & Kate - Praise for the Lord blessing them with the arrival of their healthy and precious baby boy, Truett.
Our Family - Praise for how the Lord is working through us to share the gospel with our neighbors. Continued prayers for the Lord to guide us to the doctor He has for us to pursue if there is a possible medical cause for my miscarriages.
Wes - Praise for the Lord giving Wes time off of work to be able to get settled in our home as a family.
Christina - Praise for God leading 3 of my neighbor friends to join me for women's Bible study at my church. Prayer for the Lord to give me faithfulness and wisdom to continue to boldly speak the truth in love to these friends and for the Lord to continue to grow them in their relationships with Jesus Christ, whether that be beginning a relationship with Him or growing in it.
Noah - God would graciously save him at a young age and lead him to walk with the Lord all of his days, if that be the Lord's will. Praise for the Lord helping Noah to transition and adjust well to our new home (ex. sleeping, making new friends, etc.) and helping him to not be afraid of the neighbors' dogs anymore! Noah even asks for the other dogs and wants to go up to them and pet them on his own initiative. Prayer for wisdom in teaching Noah how to forgive others - Ephesians 4:32 - (ex. when neighborhood boys hit) and teaching (more of a reteaching) him to come when called (he likes to "hold out" or take his sweet time).

Marriage Memories

Celebrating 5 Years of Marriage - Wes and I are grateful for the Lord blessing us with 5 years of marriage bliss - most days anyway. :) We enjoyed celebrating and reminiscing about buying/selling our 1st & 2nd homes; road & "air" trips to visit family in WI; mission trip to Japan; God's gift of our precious son; miscarriage trials; memories with loved ones; & our various outdoor adventures. What a joy it is to share life with my love & best-friend!

Family Fun

Our fam on Father's Day

Daddy & son reading the card Noah picked out - "Daddy, you're so good to me! * Smooch

Don't mess with Wes! - With having 2 weeks off of work (for vacation at Lake Powell and time to get settled in our new home), Wes had fun growing out a beard. He was pretty proud of it and said it made him feel a lot more manly. :) Wes also had a lot of fun tickling Noah with it. Noah thought it was great and would ask for "the beer" to get him aka. tickle him, to go with us to the park, to eat with us, you name it!

Looking manly! :)

ABEFC "BBQ & Bikes" - During the summer, our church has a variety of special services and activities on Sunday evenings. We enjoyed watching Noah bike around our church's parking lot with the other children. He kept up pretty good with the others and even attempted to ride over into the older kids' territory. ;)

Noah found a girlie ride * Cruising on his "bike" - he became known as "frog legs" because he worked that bike and kept propelling himself with his cute little legs :)

Blessing others through blessing their bellies - The Lord gave us many opportunities to bless families with meals for a variety of reasons...heart surgery, celebrating the arrival of a baby, or grieving the loss of a baby. We are thankful for this tangible way to show others Christ's love.

Noah News
Age - 2
Number of Teeth - Holding at 16 until those 2 year molars arrive
1sts - painting
Cute Communication - learning neighborhood children's names

Latest Loves
*Our new home! - tons of neighborhood friends below age of 5 and many boys :) ; stairs; play area on main level & in basement; his bedroom; park nearby; running in the hallway upstairs; sandbox instead of rock box in backyard; throwing his animals, blanket, pillows "overboard" over our balcony
Playing outside - especially with his new friends!!!
Sierra's poop ;)
Water - pouring it on things outside to turn them a different shade
Swimming at the pool
Not wearing a bib anymore
Riding his "low rider" bike
Hiking on his own
"Reading" independently

Noah having fun climbing in Sierra's kennel * Sierra doesn't know what to think * "I fit!"

Noah "reading" by moving his finder along the print and jibber-jabbering :)

Memorable Moment of the Month
Noah's passion for Sierra's poop - Noah has a passion for Sierra's "business"... wanting to see it every chance he can get, finding and telling us about any of her "landmines" in the backyard so that we will dispose of them, standing out on the cement pad in her kennel and narrating to the neighborhood about her poop... It is quite entertaining!

More Memories
Pics of our new home - Here are photos of our new home before we moved in, so everything that you see is the previous owners' possessions.