Altrogge Family

Recently, Stephen encouraged me to read and to meditate on Isaiah 40. I so need to have a bigger view of God, and this passage has sure served me in that way.

"Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand and marked off the heavens with a span, enclosed the dust of the earth in a measure and weighed the mountains in scales and the hills in a balance? Who has measured the Spirit of the Lord, or what man shows him his counsel? Whom did he consult, and who made him understand? Who taught him the path of justice, and taught him knowledge, and showed him the way of understanding?" (vv. 12-14)

Yet, this God who rules over all loves His children. Though I am "like a grasshopper" (v. 22) compared to His greatness, and He is the one who "brings princes down" (v. 23), the following is also true, "Even youths shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted; but they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint."

He both rules and reigns over all, and cares for His children as a Father for His child. What a good God we serve!

This week the three of us visited the Great Falls. They were only a twenty minute drive from our house and were beautiful. We hiked on a trail, ate a picnic lunch along the falls and enjoyed hangin' together as a family. Charis loves riding on her daddy's back if you couldn't tell from her ear-to-ear grin. As I look at this picture, I realize I didn't do the best job of capturing the beauty of the falls since I was so focused on my beautiful family. You get the idea though. To those of you pc families reading, I highly recommend you visit.

Yesterday, I had the joy of going to school with Stephen. Kenneth Maresco taught on Biblical Fellowship, and wow was I grateful the wives were included. At many points during the day I was amazed that the Lord would allow me to sit under such rich teaching.

At lunch, Stephen and I had an hour and a half, you read that right, an hour and a half, to talk through various applications of what we were learning. Not only was I excited to have this much alone-time with him, but it was very beneficial for both of us. We were able to evaluate fellowship in our marriage, our friendships at home and our relationships here.

I must say, while I loved my time at the pastors' college with him and learned a lot, I know I couldn't attend day in and day out as he does, faithfully working and studying and listening. I've got notes comin' out the wazoo from just 5 hours of lecture! I cannot imagine multiplying that by the number of days he goes to school. On top of that, I recognize that the typical stuff they learn is much weightier than what I heard. I respect Stephen so very much.

Can I also mention that God has answered our prayers and provided a wonderful babysitter here? She watched Charis the whole day while we were away, and Charis didn't cry even once. Not only that, but K said that when she put our little girlie down for a nap, she was so excited (from being with the babysitter) that she hardly slept. How sweet. We are blessed.

We had our first care group with the Ricucci's last night and boy were my socks knocked off. Stephen and I were the first to share our testimonies: how we were saved, how we met, etc. Following that, everyone had a couple questions to answer and two of them are as follows.

What has been the richest experience of God's grace since your arrival? Stephen and I are grateful for the family God placed us with. He sure knew what He was doing. We get along with them well, laugh a lot and have rich fellowship. Specifically, I am learning a lot as I observe L's life, how she trains her children, loves her husband, cares for her home, loves the Lord, counsels her friends and the list could go on and on. My prayer is that by God's grace, as our family grows, I will remember some of what I have learned here.

The second half of my answer is how I have been blessed by the rich counsel and friendship I have found in Betsy. From chats at numerous meetings to a phone conversation to being under her leadership at the ladies' meetings, I have greatly benefited from my time with her already. She is dear and her wisdom is invaluable. Last night I asked her if she could come home with me after our time here is up. Ha.

What has been the richest experience of God's grace in your marriage? This one didn't take much thinking. Since we arrived, let's just say the pace of life has been a tad bit faster than that of our small town back home. Stephen has more demands on his time, we are living with another family and we have a number of meetings with the other students and wives. That said, Stephen has consistently kept Charis and I his priority. He is good about taking time for the three of us to be together each day. He is faithful to talk to me, and he doesn't do any of this solely out of a sense of duty. He forsakes laziness and selfishness and tenderly cares for his family. I am amazed.

On a different subject, the following picture is from Gym Day. Each Thursday, all of the pc wives and kiddos have one big play-date at the church's gym. The children run around (or army crawl around in Charis' case), get all their energy out, and during the last fifteen minutes all the daddies come down and spend time with their families. What a bright spot in my day!

Beside our families, friends and church, there is something Stephen and I greatly miss about home: the Steelers! Oh how we took for granted those Sunday afternoons when we cheered on black and gold in our cozy familyroom. Not so much anymore. The games don't regularly play here. However, this Sunday they played on prime-time. I enjoyed the first half of the game with Stephen, but fell asleep for the second. Cuddling on the couch like the good 'ol days.

Fortunately, at my baby shower, M.B. hooked us up with some suh-weet Steeler baby wear. Here, Charis styled her pretty-in-pink outfit, and as you can see, she's real enthused. GO STEELERS. For this year, M.B. has given our girly a black and gold cheerleader outfit. Pink was fine when we were in Steeler territory, but now that we're in MD, she's got to wear the team colors so there's no mistaking it.

To celebrate Stephen's book and God's faithfulness in leading him, I planned a fun night out for the two of us. We took the metro to Georgetown, which is a chic, historic town that I highly recommend you visit if you're in the area. After much thought and research, I chose a Turkish restaurant, Cafe Divan, for us to try. We ate lamb for the first time, and though we enjoyed our meals, we didn't love the taste of lamb.

Transportation was another story. If you ever plan a trip that involves large distances of walking, first I recommend you not pack a heavy purse. You can really do without the pepper spray. Second I recommend you wear tennis shoes. No matter how fancy, shmancy the dress: tennis shoes! Finally, let me inform you that the trip to the Cafe is all up-hill. Hence the sweat on our foreheads. Be forewarned. I don't know how to avoid the last one.

All joking aside, Stephen and I had a wonderful time and felt blessed to have money to enjoy a night like this. Thank you, dear caregroups who lavishly blessed us.

One theme that God has been impressing on my heart over the past two weeks is that He gives grace to the humble. Most of what I am saying, is a paraphrase of Betsy or from Scripture, no original thoughts whatsoever.

At our first ladies' get-together, Betsy said something that struck a cord with me. There is only one result of humility: grace. The amount of grace that I desire must be matched by my humility. Let no sin go un-confessed. No question unasked. There, God will meet me. He will make me more like Christ, reveal Himself to me and increase my love for him. I am encouraged to jump into this year and live as an open book.

Of course that sounds fine and dandy, but I know my pride tempts me to mask my sin, crave to appear without fault and live independent of the Lord. My prayer has been that God would do a work in me, make me humble.

Now is this all depending on my effort? my doing? my determination? Certainly not. There is hope for me this year because of who He is. He has died on the cross so that I may find forgiveness of sin and grace to help in my need and the Spirit to work to change me. That is where my hope lies.

What rich friendships and counsel I have found, in the Lord, fellow pc wives, roomies and leadership!

I can't believe I'm saying this, but Happy 1st Birthday, Charis! Whenever dad and I found out I was pregnant, we had no idea how much joy you would bring us. You, dear filled our little family of two with so much more love. Even last night as we were reflecting on your birth one year ago, we were brought to tears, overflowing with gratefulness to God.

Some of my fondest memories of the past year are seeing your sweet, little face for the first time in the delivery room, hearing you whimper as a newborn, cuddling in bed with you and dad on Saturday mornings, our first Christmas together, waking up to your cooing and babbling each morning, seeing you learn to dance and receiving your open-mouthed kisses on my cheek. I could go on and on.

Your name means grace. That which affords joy, pleasure, delight, sweetness and loveliness. Of the merciful kindness of God. A gift of grace. I can scarce think of a name more fitting. I love you, pumpkin.

Since we moved, we have been the recipients of lavish kindness. First family friends had a birthday celebration for Charis last weekend. As delicious as the cupcakes were, Charis still hasn't developed a sweet tooth like mine.

Second, this morning L got up before the crack of dawn to decorate and to cook a birthday breakfast feast, so that we could all celebrate together before Stephen left for school. She even made homemade banana and cinnamon pancakes...mmm. Charis loved 'em.
It sure is hard to get four children to look at the camera and smile at the same time.