Rich, Heather and Alana’s Blog

If a picture is worth a thousand words… how much are these worth!!!???

Shall I say more? :)  Thanks to the Holritz’s for the AMAZING pics of my wife!!!

I’m going to be a DAD!!!

Hey everyone! Yes, we’ve been in sunny South Florida for a week and haven’t blogged once. That doesn’t mean we haven’t had anything to write about… it’s because we’re packing our days with so much fun! I’m writing this one about my experience going to the Calvary Fort Lauderdale Christmas Eve Celebration for the first time, but when Heather gets some time, she’ll write more about what we’ve been up to. We’ve enjoyed saying up late and sleeping in. The weather so far has been wonderful. No hurricanes yet and in the 70’s the whole time!
For anyone who reads our blog and doesn’t know… Calvary Chapel Fort Lauderdale can safely be defined as a mega church. With 20,000 people who attend, I believe it’s the 8th largest church in the U.S. Having so many attendees, they have 4 services each weekend. But a couple of times each year, they get get everyone together as a church body. But to get everyone in one place, they have to rent an indoor hockey stadium. This is the first year that they’ve actually outgrown even the stadium and have done two “celebrations”!

It was a cloudy evening when we were arriving for the celebration service, but as you can see in the picture below, the clouds opened up and this ray was shining directly on the stadium. How cool is that!? Thanks to Matt Hickman for capturing this picture!

The stadium is where the Panthers play. It’s huge. Even with two performances, the place was nearly filled to the brim. Here are some pics from our seats.

During one part of the evening, they sang a song called “From a Throne to a Manger” when hundreds of people dressed in almost every imaginable garb from every country in the world came to the manger to worship the King. When it was over, all these people were up worshiping Jesus and the “angels” were singing and dancing around. It was really breathtaking how well they captured how it’s going to be in heaven!

They also did the most amazing presentation of “Little Drummer Boy” that I’ve ever seen. Done in a “stomp” style, I couldn’t believe it they didn’t hire professional people to do it. Everyone was either a volunteer from the church or a student who attends the school (Calvary Christian Academy, where my mother-in-law works and bro-in-law goes to school).

Then we had a candle lighting! EVERYONE had a candle and it was an amazing sight.

Then Pastor Bob came out and we sang Happy Birthday to Jesus! How cool is that!? Thanks to Matt again for capturing it on video. Click on the video to watch!

Calvary Chapel Ft. Lauderdale “Happy Birthday Jesus

Then we all did “the wave” around the stadium three times (one for each person of the trinity). It’s hard to see very well, but watch the video anyway!

Calvary Chapel Ft. Lauderdale “The Wave”

It was so much fun but it was balanced with the seriousness of the coming of Christ. Pastor Bob gave a wonderful presentation of the good news of the gospel and hundreds of people came forward to give their heart to Jesus!

This past Saturday, the 18th, we got to go over to my oldest brother’s beautiful new home to celebrate our youngest nephew’s 1st birthday! This kid is so cute he should be a baby model and I have the pictures to prove it.

Randy and Susan recently moved from the Nashville area back down here to Chattanooga. It was a pretty hard move because they couldn’t get into a house for the longest time and when you don’t have an address and are simultaneously trying to get kids into new schools, it can be pretty stressful. But after going to their new house, I’d have to say that the wait was definitely worth it for them. It’s an incredible house that will suit them for well for years and they’ll be able to build out the upstairs to nearly double the livable square footage. Niiiice!

Now on to the pics. I got so many great photos of Luke and the kids that I don’t know if I’ll be able to post all of them!

Here’s Luke waiting for his very first birthday cake. Look at him striking a pose!

How can you resist a face like this:

Woody proudly decorated Luke birthday cake:

After a little help from his big brother Jake, Luke really REALLY enjoyed his cake!

Here’s Jake helping out with the birthday cake.

Next came presents and boy did Luke rack ‘em up! Since both sets of grandparents came and many of the aunts and uncles, he had more unwrapping than he knew what to do with. Thankfully, his brothers and cousin didn’t mind helping out.

Here’s big brother Ben scoping out the new toys in the room:

Heather got to spend some time reading to Luke about Thomas the Tank Engine:

Here’s the last picture of my beautiful niece Alex while she and I were playing around.

Well, there you go! All of my nephews and niece — just in case everyone who reads our blog hasn’t met them yet! Congrats Luke on your first birthday! Hopefully in a couple of years you’ll actually be able to read this!

Today (the 14th) is mine and Heathers two year anniversary. Definitely the most amazing two years of my life. My wife is indeed the most amazing girl that God has ever created. The way she loves me is astonishing and so humbling to me. She sacrifices constantly for me and always puts me before herself. I love her SO much and I want the whole world to know!

There is truly no sunset that is more beautiful than her. No chipmunk that’s cuter than her. No light brighter than her. There no one that is quicker to forgive and to understand. She’s always consciously bettering herself as a wife by being in the Word and learning at the feet from wise women and men such as Beth Moore, Nancy Leigh DeMoss, Shaunti Feldhahn, Focus on the Family, and Family Life Today. She really wants to attend “Weekend to Remember” so that we can just in another way grow in our marriage. She learns from wonderful women around her that live godly lives such as her mom, my mom, Christi Engels, Lisa Hickman, Kathy Johns, Valerie Moon, and so many, many others. She’s an amazing friend to others and a perfect best friend for me. She’s frugal. She’s generous. She’s compassionate. She’s caring. She’s loving. She’s strong, wise, humble, modest, meek, brave, disciplined, honest, selfless, patient, constantly growing, and encouraging. She sets the example for so many kids in our youth group and every person that she comes into contact with. She is beautiful beyond any words. She’s the only person I know that can be downright cute and downright sexy at the exact same time.

I’m constantly humbled by her love for me. She makes me want to be a better man. My love for her stretches the very capacity of my heart until I sometimes feel like I’m going to burst and scream about my love for this woman. My heart still races around her. My passion for her grows every day. I ache when I’m not with her.

I’m the stubborn one. I so quickly get into a routine. My days run together. I forget how precious each day is. I forget to tell her too many times what she means to me. She, on the other hand, is quick to teach me about the word “special”. She makes me know that I’m the only guy for her. She makes my chest puff up. I’m proud to be with her and be seen with her. She doesn’t hold a grudge and is so quick to forget my faults. She really is so Christ-like in all her doings. She tangibly gives me small examples of how Christ deals with me on a daily basis.

How can I NOT love this woman!? She truly is incredible. She truly is the only girl for me. She is irreplaceable and extremely precious to me. She truly is a princess… a daughter of God and so often I don’t treat her as such. But she doesn’t look for ways to be offended at my shortcomings since she’s so busy loving me!

Two years. Twenty years. Forty years. I will always feel the same! Babe, may we continually look toward Christ to fill our hearts with love for Him. Our infinite Father and our infinite Savior that has infinite love for us! Constantly and continuously drawing us closer to Him creates ways for us to reflect His love infinitely in us and beyond our capacity.

I love you, sweets! Happy Anniversary!