Nothing But Smiles...

This is what my face has looked like for the past 36 hours. Yep...even when I am sleeping. Though it is not the most flattering picture of me, I think it best represents what I have been feeling.

Ryan has returned from Malawi! It has been a great time of talking (me in my man voice because I have a cold), laughing, and even some dancing (because we went to a wedding yesterday!!)

Ryan has adjusted well to the time change. He has been sleeping through the night...like a big boy...sorry I just couldn't resist, as soon as I wrote that it sounded like I was talking about a newborn baby!

I am so glad to have him home...if this picture doesn't tell you all the emotions I am feeling then I don't know what else will!

God has been so faithful! I will write more about it later, but right now i am going to go enjoy the fact that I can talk face to face with my amazing boyfriend!

One Week...7 days...

That is right...7 days. Ryan will be home in exactly 7 days! I am so pumped. I have been enjoying my count down for the last 16 days! You see, I did not allow myself to count down the days until Ryan got home until the month of May. I did not want this 9 month trip in Malawi to be "counted down" in a sense. I wanted to be thankful that he was there. I wanted to enjoy hearing stories and knowing about Malawi on a deeper level than I would if Ryan didn't go.

So I haven't been counting. I figured once May happened it would be pretty much impossible for a numbers girl like me not to know how many days it was until he got home. I mean when it is the 3rd of may...of course he is coming home in 20 days. My mind would not be able to write the date without doing that simple calculation. So here I am...7 days away from him coming home.

Sometimes I just can't wrap my mind around the thought that he is coming home, and other times when I am going some where like watching my students in a choir concert and I have to leave early and walk a long way to my car in the dark...I just wish he was already home. You know girls are freaks because we just can't walk any where in the night without looking over our shoulder constantly and when we unlock our doors checking in the back seat before we get in. I want Ryan to come home because always looking over my shoulder for an attacker gives me a crick in my neck!

My students at Bryan High also have been counting down with me. They constantly ask me when "my man" is coming home. The new phrase they started on Thursday was, "your baby's daddy", which I had to quickly inform them that Ryan was NOT my baby's daddy...I didn't have any babies. To which their reply was..."well when he gets home then you can have some babies", to which I quickly, awkwardly said, "that is not going to be happening until we get married!" Teenagers say the craziest things!

But my favorite thing that happened on Thursday was that I was passing out the homework and one girl just said to me, "you got 8 days Ms. Eaker". Like we weren't even talking about Ryan. I was a little confused at first, but then I realized she was talking about Ryan coming home. I was like, how do you remember that! They can't remember 12 + 4 is 16, but they know how soon "my man" is coming home!! It made me laugh...and then feel a little special because I know they care about me.

7 days until I get to hear his voice and see his face at the same time, 7 days until I get to see his smile and give him a big hug, 7 days until I get to have long conversations with him without a delay or saying, "wait, it cut out, what did you say", 7 days until I get to hear him play beautiful piano music (well...he probably won't be doing that the FIRST night he comes home, but it sounds better), 7 days until I get to ride around with him and close my eyes because he always knows how to get places and I never have to worry about getting lost, 7 days until I get Ryan back!!

Alright, well that might have been too much for all of y'all, but I just wanted to share my excitement! Unfortunately, for most of you who read this, he will not be back in college station for a bit, so your count down isn't 7 days! Sorry! But I know we are all ready to hear his fingers play wonderful piano music...and he will be back to do that real soon!

May 23rd here I come!!

Divorce Rings

So today I was giving the ever pleasant TAKS test...so I actually had time to read the newspaper.


I read about the new developments in the CPS case versus the polygamists Mormon ranch in San Angelo, I read about bone chips found that could be the missing Prince Alexius from the Romanov family, and I read the always enjoyable comics.


Then I fell upon an article that was truly disturbing...


"Divorce Rings".




Yep, that's right, American jewelers are now marketing a ring to celebrate America's new favorite pastime, divorce.



Seriously, I think my blood pressure rose about 100 points (or whatever the units of blood pressure is) when I read this article. At first I thought this ring was so that people could be like WHOO HOO!! I got a divorce! That made me really angry, but the more I read I realized that was not what it was about. But in actuality, the more I learned and the more disturbed I got.

It turns out that the ring was first created by a woman who had been through a divorce and wanted a ring to signify her survival admits the deep pain of divorce. She wanted a ring to remind people there is hope.

Now I am all about hope. I love hope. I think every person has hope in every situation, but I only believe that because I believe Jesus Christ is our only hope and he came for everyone in every situation.



But this whole thing just shouldn't exist. God NEVER designed marriage to look this way. God never designed us to have to deal with the agony of a broken marriage. Marriage is suppose to look like Him and how He loves the church.



If you visit this website you will see that the first thing they did for every ring was break the symbol of the never ending circle. Marriage is symbolized by a ring because the bond was not designed to be broken. God did not design us to enter the intimate bond of marriage and then just break the bond whenever things got tough. That is not how His love is and it is not how we are suppose to represent his love through marriage. Divorce is painful and horrible because God never designed it to happen.



These people are JOKING themselves if they think that their ring can help "build self-esteem one person at a time", which is the company motto. The only thing that can build us up admits this kind of deep pain is the love from a father that is never ending.



It pains me that God has been so removed from marriage that we can think that we as people can put back the pieces of a devastating event on our own, through building self esteem.



It devastates me that these rings even have to exist. It pains me that 50% of people who say "I do" will know a some point the pain of "oh no, wait, I don't". It pains me that Christians will know this pain in the same rate that lost people do because our marriages look no different.



Seriously, this is one of the craziest things I have ever heard of! What do y'all think? Did you know these existed?



p.s. I am sorry that I have been such a blog slacker. I have a bimonthly blog updating goal, but I have failed april. April went by without a flash...