Good news! (non-adoption)

One of these days I won't have to put a disclaimer in the title... ;)

Last week Mark received his temporary license as a PT! He was hired a few weeks ago and went through orientation and training and so on, but he wasn't able to see patients until he received his temporary license. That involved sending documents to the Missouri licensure board, which was no big deal, but it also required verifying every professional license he's ever had whether they are current or not, related to PT or not. This meant he had to send forms to both Michigan and Texas to get verification of his teaching licenses. After the forms not being returned to Missouri and lots of phone calls, he finally had to send another one to Michigan and the Texas one finally arrived at the Missouri office. He has spent weeks tracking down the right people to sign these and make sure they made it back to Missouri. They finally did and he's been granted his temporary license! He'll take the licensure exam in August so there'll be lots of studying between now and then. Today is his first day to see patients and I can't wait to hear all about it (without breaking patient confidentiality laws, of course). There's other good news on his job front as well but I'm not at liberty to disclose that yet, so just say a happy prayer of praise with us that everything is going so well for him. Prayers for good studying are welcome too!! :)

This past Saturday we attended a marriage conference at Concord Church where we heard Dr. Gary Chapman speak. He is the author of The Five Love Languages, which we both really like. I think we've gone through it 3 times now. The conference was wonderful and a lot of fun. He had some great constructive ideas for building your marriage. Don't get me wrong--Mark and I have a fantastic marriage. The point of attending marriage conferences is that we want to keep it that way! And in any marriage, there are always things to work on to bring you closer together and closer to the husband and wife God has designed you to be. I personally have been struggling a lot with knowing I am not the Godly wife I would like to be, and that is something I am working on. In particular, I really want to strive for this:

"Instead, it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God's sight." 1 Peter 3:4

I have been reading 1 Peter, and this verse in particular really hit home for me. I don't think he's referring to being meek, but being humble and gentle, calm and secure in the knowledge of my place as God's daughter. This is what I want to be, and it is most certainly not in my nature. I am doing lots of praying and thinking about what this means and how to enact it in my life. I am trying to consciously fight my aggressive nature and focus on the idea of being a gentle and quiet woman. The mental picture I have of that is so beautiful, and I hope that one day I can come close to the woman I see in my mind's eye. :)