BIG things happening in the Anders Home!

Not even sure where to begin....  If you make it through this post you deserve a prize!!!!

It has been a busy few weeks.  As many of you know, our daughter Makenzie has decided to get married.  We just started sending out invites and she is so excited. She started dating Justin her freshman year.  Then they went through a time period where they were best friends and dated other people, and decided after that they were meant for each other.  I married young, so not a lot I can argue with about that.

This past week they put an offer in on their first house and it was accepted.  I bet they drive past it two times a day.  I remember feeling that way too when Jeff and I picked our first house in Nebraska.  They close on March 20th and their wedding is March 22nd.  We are so proud of them.  Justin has saved and worked hard to make it possible for them to start out this way.  They had planned on getting married in October but it has been moved up.  Before I get more into that ( Be warned it will probably be a rant) I will update on a few more things.

I called to talk to Jakes radiologist last week who we ADORE!!!!  I did not call until after five on Friday and they told me he was already gone for the weekend which I expected.  So I was shocked when he called me back ten minutes later.  He received an email to call me on Monday and did not want us to wait all weekend.  He has a sick child and said he knows what it feels like to wait.  I knew I loved this doc the minute we met him!!!!!  There is something on the scan, but he thinks the tumor bed looks clean..PRAISE GOD!!!!!  They cannot guarantee this but he was pretty positive!  So it could all change in 8 weeks, but we can at least have a little more peace about it in the next 8 weeks.  I would like to be able to say I have so much faith that I will not spend a minute worrying about it...but I am not quite there in my walk yet.

On to me........  To be honest I hate to even post about us!  ANYTHING!!!!!!  I feel like people by now probably think here come those Anders.  Debbie Downers!    Do they ever have a time when something is not wrong with them?  You do not have to respond and say that its not how we look at you....I am not fishing for comments like that at all.  But since this is my blog I might as well be honest.  :)  That is how we feel.  I would love a time when we did not have to say we really need prayer...or this is the news we received....or Jeff's work shut down....or.........   I look at our lives and sometimes wonder if we will ever have a chance to pay it forward!  The funny part is we do not spend our days looking at how bad we have it. We sometimes forget until something comes up that reminds us.  Who would have ever thought I would adapt to running on batteries.  And here I am.  So tomorrow I am going to Methodist for a heart cath.  We have to figure out why I am retaining so much fluid.  I will let everyone know what we find out tomorrow when the happy drugs wear off.  They usually knock me out pretty good because I tend to talk even more when they half way sedate me.  Imagine that.  :)  The last heart cath I had in October, I remember the doctor saying give her more drugs. And as I was going to happy land I heard him say she would be a funny drunk.  :)

So back to Makenzie....And my rant....Our daughter might be one of the most God loving, contagious joy people that I know.  She is a servant like her Dad.  I could not be more proud of her.  I know I am beyond blessed to have the great teenagers that I do.  Well, she is technically an adult now.  I can honestly say that I like all of my kids.  If you have not had teenagers you might not know what a major statement that is.  We all love our kids, but I actually like mine.  So the big news...that many already know.....Last month we found out that Makenzie is pregnant.  We have had mixed reactions from all.  My first reaction was this baby is going to have to call me Aunt Amy because I am not old enough to be a grandma!  Jeff is old.....It can call him Grandpa.  I can say we have had friends surround us in ways I have never imagined.  That is not even a true statement.  I am always amazed because our friends CONTINUE to love and support us in ways we have never imagined!  Some other reactions have not been quite so kind.  Or at least not what we expected.

Starting with finding a church to get married in was a nightmare!!!  To be honest Makenzie would have liked to just get married in a big barn but those are impossible to find open and that do not cost and arm and a leg!  Most churches you cannot get married in the church if you are pregnant.  The churches we know and called require premarital counseling with the preacher.  Makenzie of course would not lie to a preacher and say she was not pregnant.  We did find a few who said they would welcome her to get married there with open arms.  The ones we found did not have a date available or quite frankly were just out of our price range.  At one point when we could not find a church, Makenzie asked me if I thought she would ever be accepted into the christian community again.  I told her if she was not then we are in the wrong one!

We finally gave up on a church.  I do not want to get into an argument about doctrine with anyone.  I know there are scriptures and reasons behind everything, but the last few weeks I have had a lot of questions.  People tend to judge a little harder when your sin is on the "outside."  It would be interesting if each Sunday we walked into church and had to stop at a table to pick up a sign and write our sins on it to wear for the day.  Would we treat each other differently?  Would we judge less?  If I am honest with myself ,we would probably need to write the word Liar on our signs because we would not write our true large sins in fear of being judged.  How would our churches look if we loved people once they were on the inside.  We work so hard to bring them in, but then do we love them once they are there and mess up?  We preach being the hands and feet to the world.  We need more footprints being left behind from  loving our brother and sisters in Christ inside the buildings.  And we wonder why people are not in our churches?  They may feel safer in the world. If I am stepping on any toes I am sorry, but most of the time when I write I am also stepping on my own! We had a preacher from a church we called on the North side tell us he would marry her outside of the building but not in it.  I had to laugh. I guess to my eyes I wonder if God is everywhere, and will bless a marriage outside of the church, why would it matter if they are inside the church.  Like I posted before, I am not up for any debate on the whys of this.  I am frankly too tired.  I just kept thinking of what an opportunity to reach the unchurched.  When they call and say can I get married in your church and we said yes because we love you and so does Jesus!  We want to know how to get people in our buildings...open your arms and love the ones we are guilty of labeling unworthy! I kept thinking how thankful I am that Makenzie had a foundation so strong of knowing God loves her that she did not let this shake her faith. Makenzie  herself decided to be removed from leading her small group of teen girls.  We knew before hand she needed to do this.  She felt like she had not led by example, so it was best for her to do that.  She was blessed this last year to serve with the group Leader she had.  So she does not regret one minute she was able to spend helping in that small group.

These are some of my favorite responses from the news!
The texts have been the best.  Here are a few.
We are so sad to hear this sad news.
She has so many talents and it is so sad God will not be able to use her now the way he had planned.
We never thought in a million years Makenzie would do this.
Maybe this happened because you have been so sick and she was acting out.  ( on a side not I laughed out loud at that one)
I think the one that put me over the edge was the "no" rsvp to the wedding because of her circumstance they could not be a witness to it.
And Jeff and I had the advice given to us that we should no longer have any of our youth bible studies or lead anything because our own house with our kids is not in order.  I hate to disappoint this person, because our house is full of kids and I do not think they are going anywhere.

NOW..... I need to stop here with the responses Before my friends who hate church and everything about it get all excited and think I have finally seen the light .  :)   Nothing could be further from the truth!  For every bad comment we have received, there have been ten people there loving her and picking her up.   The church is FULL of people who will love you and cheer you on even in your sin.  I have the real friends in our life who would love me even if I had that sign around my neck and my true sins listed.  They know most of them.  The scary part would be if I let them fill out my sin sign for me!  :)  That would actually be quite funny! As soon as I told a few ,people went into action.  Makenzie was going to get married in October but did not want to start off that way.  One friend bought her a baby sleeper, sent her baby books with names, and nice notes.  They surrounded her and loved her like Jesus would and DOES! They were excited because any baby is a miracle! So many have stepped up to help with this wedding that I just kind of feel like I am the traffic director.  There are no words for the love we feel.  This is what the true hands and feet of Christ REALLY look like!  If you are not experiencing that, find a new church or call me and we will send you to a Great banquet event.  I guess my entire point is ,if you have hypocrites judging you move on.  Or just ignore them.  They are everywhere. There are true people who want to love you!  I saw a post today that said; Not going to church because of hypocrites is like not going to a gym because of out of shape people.  Do not let the few bad apples ruin it for all of us out there who love you regardless of your visible or hidden sin. We certainly are not going to let that happen to us!

We never did find a church.  Our friend who lives in a manufactured housing community, that has a very nice clubhouse, was kind enough to rent it for us. We are doing the wedding and reception all in one place.  We are going to eat and dance and have a great time.  I told Makenzie that it is going to be so great all of the girls will want to be like her getting married in the trailer park.  :) So many RSVP's have come in that we are seriously not even sure we can still fit in the building!  We have to call today to see what the capacity of the building is, and if we cannot fit PRAY we can find a new location in less than three weeks!  That is a great problem to have!!!!! To know our daughter is so loved speaks volumes for what an amazing person she is.  I cannot wait to see how God is going to use her to shine and attract people to him!

I have to admit my favorite response was that God knew we needed another miracle this year and sent it in form of a baby.

Now to the best part of this entire post!  We got to go to an ultrasound last week and see this Miracle of God.  So if you have made it this far, here is Aunt Amy's baby waving hello!