New Year, New Job

Hello dearest friends, I hope everyone had a good Christmas! We were both struck down with head colds so didn't enjoy our time too much. We are feeling better now, and are extremely excited to leave on our Mexico vacation! We're going to Secrets Capri, which is where Angie and Aaron went on their honeymoon. After seeing her pics again i just can't wait!
So if God has placed us on your hearts recently, there's good reason... and here's why! Chris interviewed at my company a couple weeks ago, had a second interview, and was then offered a programming job here. It offered more money than he's currently making and would have been a huge financial blessing for us as we hope soon to have little Akers (human children) running around the house. So, Chris went into his boss and let him know about the offer. His boss took a few days to think about it and made an offer to Chris earlier this week. The offer, strangely enough, wasn't for more money... right away anyway. His boss told him that Chris had been put on a short list of people they wanted to start a new company. This new company is still in the planning stages but is about 3-4 months out from being formed and funded. There is a slight chance that the company may not be formed, but a very good chance that everything will follow thru in the next 3-4 months. When the company is formed, Chris would be a partner (they are looking for the other half who would be a sales/marketing person who is tech saavy). We asked the right questions and found out that Chris was actually the only person on this 'short list' but they were waiting until later to mention it to him... that was their plan anyway. So, ends up Chris has decided to take on the challenge of a new company. His job will be drastically changing and he's taking on a whole new roll in the business world. Last night he started creating the business plan, which is completely new to him. It's a fresh start, it's a risk, and it's an adventure that he's really excited about. So please pray for us about this new company! Chris is feeling very confident about his decision but scared at the same time as much of what he will be doing in the next 3-4 months is completely foreign to him.
And now that all of that is over, I'm really ready to get away from it all!

Violet

Hi girls,

Thank you so much for all your well-wishes and prayers during the past few days. I have been thinking about you all so much. It's so wonderful to be able to share a part of this with my sister-friends. Although I do wish you all could stop by!

I wanted to share the website link that Adam made for Violet:
http://www.violetann.tv/

You can see some pics and videos that were taken right after she was born. We'll try to keep updating it on a somewhat regular basis.

I love you all so much and will try to write more when my head is a little less foggy. Violet's been practicing her Sapphires poses and she can't wait to meet all her loving aunts!

:)

A little bit of news

Hi girls,

We just got home from our doctor's appointment so I thought I would share the latest. I'm dilated to 3 centimeters (up from 1 at last week's appt.). I'm having mild contractions that last about a minute -- they get more regular when I'm active. My doctor said she could come pretty much any day now, or it could be up to another week.

I keep picturing her in there, packing her little bags and getting ready to come out. I'll let you all know if there's any more news!

Love you girls!

relieved

Hey girls. Jamie, once again, very happy to hear you guys were out of harms way yesterday. We were also relieved to hear that Jared (my cousin) and his family made it to safety. Holly was already in her car and drove by the gunman. But Jared was still in the building and had the girls (Elle and Myra, 4 and 1) with him. He walked into the foyer to see the gunman shooting and ran somewhere with the girls and some other people to barricade themselves into a hidden room. He was in lockdown there until about 4 or 5pm. For a long time they thought there was a second gunman on the loose and then they thought there were explosives on campus. So we were not breathing easy until Jared and holly were reunited and got to go home Sunday evening. We are thanking God today for the protection of our loved ones, but also praying for the families who lost loved ones. It's a really sad situation and our hearts go out to New life and the families impacted most intimately by this tragedy. I saw on the news today that the two victims who have died at this point were 16 and 18 year old sisters. My heart breaks for that family. I'm also praying for the YWAMers affected Sunday morning in the other shooting. I've spent a lot of time on YWAM bases and have done a lot of missions with YWAM, so that shooting hits a little close to home as well. There is just no safe place anymore. It's becoming a scary world, especially to raise children in. But we do serve a great God and that is a huge source of peace. Anyways, hope you all are good. Love you all!

Drama

Hi all!

Just wanted to let you know first that we are safe and were not at New Life when the drama broke out. Nick and I were at Panera when we got a phone call from a friend to find out if we were ok. So far we aren't sure what the whole story is, but we do know that all of our close friends are ok. The gunman opened fire in the parking lot about 1pm. Three girls were taken to the hospital with wounds and one person died on the scene. Our pastor seemed shaken during the press conference. Pray for him and his family.

Other than that, I just wanted to tell you how much I love you! This thing at New Life today, and watching what has been unfolding at ORU, I'm thankful for the friendships I have in you. Have you seen the outpouring from the president of Mardel? This man has come forward and wants to give the University $70 million. This money would get the school out of the $50 million debt and pour $20 million in to school. He gave this money, because Richard stepped down. God works in wondrous ways. :)

One last things... I need all of your address!! I realized that everyone as moved around a bit this year and I don't have current address. :)

I love you girls so much and pray for you daily. Kim and Liz... I've been praying for you lots. I can't wait to hear how you are doing. Steph, Jen, Julie and Angie... send pictures so I can keep scrapbooking this year.

new niece

Hi Ladies! Just wanted to announce the birth of my new niece, Sophia Lynae Newman. Sarah had her on Thursday night, 11/29/07 at like 7:30pm. Sophia was 6 pounds and 19 inches long. She's really tiny! She looks a lot like Owen. She's healthy and doing well. The birth was kind of crazy though. They gave Sarah her epidural and broke her water and she was about 6cm dilated. The nurse shift changed and the new nurse didn't check Sarah when she came on. Sarah felt kind of a wierd pressure and had Ben kind of look under the blanket to see if he could tell if there was a change. And Sophia's whole upper body was out! Ben went running down the hall to find anyone who could deliver the baby and the nurse ran in, got sterile, and delivered Sophia. But the doctor never made it. She got there like 60 seconds later in time to deliver the placenta and that was it. She was just down the hall waiting for Sarah, but it was all crazy and she missed the birth, mostly because the nurse wasn't really staying on top of Sarah's progress. When you have an epidural, you can't really feel the pressure and urge to push like normal. So it can be easy to miss it if you're not being checked regularly. Just a note of precaution for you pregnant girls who plan to be good and drugged for your labor and delivery... =) Anyways, that's our exciting news this weekend. Hope you all are good! Liz you've got to be popping out by now. Send us a picture of your baby bump sometime! Love you all!