Ode to the Foxy Lady

The epitome of bittersweet. I'm letting go of the love of my last two years tomorrow. As I write this, Jen has her hand on her hip and the look of death in her eyes. She didn't know she had competition. :)

I spent this afternoon scrubbing the bike down and making her look pretty. Tomorrow morning I'm going to take her down to the shop and give her a new chain and grease her axles, and then she's off to her next boyfriend.



I'll miss her, but this is just another step on the road to Korea. Feel free to comment if you want to wish her farewell with me. After today, I have only one girl. That's plenty.

Blessed Be Your Name

The parents are here for just one more day. So tomorrow we're going to go to Talafofo Falls and spend some quality tourist time together.

We have two more marriage counseling sessions before we leave.

The invitations came in today and there are a couple things wrong with them that we need to get fixed. Jen's so excited.

She had her shower tonight, but I don't know anything about it.

I am now officially unemployed.

In one more week, I'll be officially homeless.

On the bright side, we're finally getting to the point where we have time to work on some of the things we need to do.

And lastly, we have only 57 days to go before the big day!!

Matt Redman wrote a song that my students have always loved to sing. It's called Blessed Be Your Name and it focuses on blessing the name of God in good times and bad times. We have a lot of good times and just a few bad times. We really can't complain about the bad times we have anyway; they're really not that bad. God has been incredibly good to us, and we are so thankful for what He will continue to do.

Thank you for your prayers. If anybody knows an amazing printer that can get us correct response cards by the end of next week, let me know.

Picking up the Parents - My point of view, finally.

My parents came in to Guam this past weekend. Usually that is a pretty uneventful thing. We just go down to the airport (five minutes away) and pick people up and bring them back. It goes pretty smoothly. NOT THIS TIME!

Their flight was supposed to come in at 1:00 AM. So Jen and I left the house a little after 1 to go meet them at the airport. By the time the parents get the bags and make it through customs and all that, it takes about a half hour or so if you're lucky, especially when there are four adults and a baby.

We thought we were getting there in plenty of time. Jen drove her car and I borrowed a friend's vehicle so we could get all the luggage and people in one trip. (I usually can't carry very much on the bike with me, and I sold my Tercel last summer.) Anyhow, we showed up at the airport around 1:20 or so. And we waited...and waited...and waited. We were curious what was taking so long, but I have had problems with finding my luggage here too, so I was willing to wait. 2 AM rolled around and they still hadn't come out the customs doors, so we thought something was up. So we tried calling their cell phones to ask them how much longer. Surprisingly, their phones don't work on this side of the world. Oh well, we'll wait a bit longer.

2:30 comes and goes so I decided I would go up to the ticket counter and see if they were even on the flight. I didn't realize that Continental abandons their posts between 2:25 and 2:35, so their wasn't anybody up there. The lights were on, but nobody was home. We waited some more. 3 AM arrives and we were pretty frustrated, not to mention tired, at this point so I decided to check and see if the hotel had heard from them. They said, "Oh yes, they checked in at 1:30!" HOLY COW!! 1:30?!? An hour and a half ago?! Ten minutes after we showed up at the airport!!

I thought, "Jeez, couldn't they wait a couple minutes for us before they called a taxi?" "Did they run or just walk quickly to the curb?" I was TICKED! I had school the next day! I told Jen that we were going down to the hotel to wake them up and yell at them for not waiting. If I didn't get to sleep that night, they weren't going to either!

We went down to the hotel and found their rooms. One had a privacy placard on it so we banged on that door first. The other didn't, so I called them from the courtesy phone in the hallway. This post is long enough already, so I won't drag it out any longer. I spoke roughly to the folks for a little bit, just to let them know I was mad. Here's why they left early. The hotel had a van sent down to the airport to pick them up. They were standing outside customs with signs that had my dad's and brother's names on them. Naturally, they thought I had set the whole thing up like the thoughtful, loving son that i am. Right. That's why they didn't try to call. So after I was rebuked for not even thinking of doing such a nice thing for my folks, we sat around and talked for a while. We ended up going to breakfast at Denny's and then getting ready for school because we stayed up all night. Needless to say, we were all pretty tired the next night.

Welcome to Guam Mom, Dad, Justin, Becca, and Josh. I'm glad you're here.

A Few More Pics

Jr./Sr. Luau at Top O' the Mar.

This picture was taken after a 12 hour day of painting and a 1 hour ride around the south side of the island. Excuse our mess! :)

Just a Few Pics

Popping the Question - Again, Jen's point of view.

Don't worry, I'll write something from my perspective at some point. :)

There is an overlook down South that I came upon 2 years ago. I had been searching out God's will about whether or not to stay in Guam for another contract. When I stopped at this Vietnam Veteran's Memorial I wrote in my journal that I thought it was the perfect place in Guam to get married - mountains on one side and ocean view on the other. Cory read that page in my journal one day and somehow knew where it was. I thought nothing of it until a few weeks ago.

We had a special day for the entire school on Friday, April 20. It was a long day and we didn't leave until 5:30. Both of us were tired and smelly - or so I thought. Cory wanted to do something "fun" so we went our separate ways to shower and clean up and he was supposed to pick me up. Ordinarily he takes a while to get ready - so I took my time. Next thing I know he's ready to pick me up and head out - and my hair is still wet! I quickly finished getting ready and off we went to catch what we could of the sunset on his bike.

As we got further down South I thought it seemed we were missing the sunset but there's a restaurant at the marina I thought we might be heading for. As we passed it by, I realized he must have someplace in particular in mind. We passed a familiar white truck not long after that, but I figured it's a small island. No big deal . . . And then we stopped at the infamous overlook.

I wondered what was up, but had been told I had at least a month to wait, and I knew the ring we had looked at wasn't ready yet. So we talked and he suddenly announces his need for a restroom. How romantic - and I think that's what I told him. That kept me facing the mountains and when he came back he had a guitar in his hands. (Those don't usually fit on motorcycles unnoticed.) I started thinking maybe we have company. It turns out that a friend of ours had dropped the guitar off for him (the guy in the white truck) and hidden it according to where Cory's map indicated "I'll go to the bathroom here." He played me our song - I'm Yours by Jason Mraz and then a new one - from the Wedding Singer, I Wanna Grow Old With You. I melted. :)

After that we talked about how our relationship had developed and grown so quickly over the past few months. Then he told me he had 2 things to tell me. He had never said he loved me to that point because he thinks it is overused and often said without real meaning attached. So when he told me loved me for the first time, I knew there was much attached. He then asked me to marry him and I, of course, said yes!

The Big Beginning - Jen's point of view.

It all starts 3 years ago. Well, at least it dates back that far. There was a new group of teachers in and one of them has become much more to me than just a co-worker. This past fall I was praying about whether or not to return to Guam after my 5th year here teaching. I had been offered a position in Elkins, WV near my parents and was seriously considering it for this next year.

As I prayed through the decision a co-worker and I talked about our plans for next year. He, too, was considering moving on from Harvest. In the late fall we did a few things together one on one. Students or other staff members would see us out and ask questions, but we always told them we were just friends. And so we were.

We began to enjoy doing things together and in December were able to help out a friend who was doing some repairs and renovations to his home. I was able to help out with simple tasks like painting but there were more skilled jobs that needed done. I asked Cory if he'd be willing and so we were able to help out a friend in need. We spent most of our break getting up early in the morning, stopping by McDonald's for dollar sausage mcmuffins, shopping at ACE, and working many hours together. Cory got to see the best and the worst of me during Christmas break - sweaty, tired, grumpy I'm sure. But I wasn't worried about impressing him, and the feeling was mutual. We made time to do other things for fun after working long hours and enjoyed each other's company.

In January Cory "made a move" - and apparently I "shot him down." At this point I was making plans to leave for the States in June and figured he had no real intentions beyond friendship. Ever since I've know him he's been uninterested in dating or marriage. I wasn't interested in a short lived relationship but as it turns out, that was not his intention. We continued spending quite a bit of time together and it was obviously becoming a more committed relationship.

In February, just after Valentine's Day (conveniently enough for someone who had no idea what to get his prospective girlfriend) we began dating officially. We knew our time was short and we would have to make some big decisions. It seemed the Lord had brought us together in such a unique way - and neither one of us had been looking for it.