Happy New Year!

Well, I must say life has been much busier up here than I could ever imagine, for Kristin in particular.  Many times we sit (ha ha, we try to sit) and wonder, " How in the world do people do this?"  After prayers, we are refreshed with God's peace and strength, and we set about the work he has graciously set before us to do. As we begin this New Year, we want to say thank you for everyone who has been praying for us. 

We had a wonderful opportunity to go home (to Houston) for Christmas (Thanks Papa and Mam-maw!).  It was such a great blessing to get to see all of our families and church friends!  As we were leaving to come to Concordia Seminary, and many times since then, we have been told that we were being prayed for.  Visiting Christ Memorial the Sunday after Christmas though, and hearing the congregation actually mention us in their prayers was very special, and almost overwhelming. 

Support for us has come in so many ways, from monetary support to letters and phone calls.  The most powerful though has been the prayer. Through the the good times, and especially the tougher ones, it is very reassuring to feel the power of God's promises through your prayers.  We cannot thank you enough!

I do not normally mess with New Year's resolutions, but I know that I have not been able to keep up with this blog as well as I wanted.  I hope to be able to update y'all a bit more regularly this year though!

I leave you with a picture of two of the greatest blessings in my life.

With Christ's Love,

Matthew

 

Quick Update

Howdy!

Just a quick update, sorry it has taken so long to post! 

Kristin is finally getting to take a break (albeit way to short)!  She is attending a Seminary Wives retreat tonight and tomorrow.  We hope she has fun!

Cate and I are spending some great time together, although we do miss Mom! 

I just finished my second big exam, and my last one before the Greek Qualifier on the 14th.   Unfortunately, I bombed this exam - got a 77. Bleh!

Fortunately, I know where I need to study (principal parts and vocabulary), and my average is still an 88.

We miss all of y'all back home, and hope everything is going well!

 

With Christ's Love,

Matthew

I Hate Houseflies!

We do not have near the problem with mosquitos in Saint Louis as in Houston, but the houseflies are everywhere!  They tend to drive me crazy!  Mosquitos are more prone to biting and cause itching, but at least I can sacrifice myself in order to rid the earth of one of them when they do bite me.

Houseflies on the other hand, are neurotic psycho idiotic pests that just need to be gone.  They come in the house even if the door is open for 5 seconds. They buzz all around the place, and are next to impossible to kill, and are very distracting when you are trying to study Greek!  ARGH!!!

Phew! Got that out of my system.  There is hope though in two things - 1) that winter might freeze them all and 2) that I have developed many strategies for annihilation of any fly that gets into my domain. I'll save that for another post.

For those of y'all who we were able to see last weekend at Mary's wedding - we had a blast, and wish it would have been longer.  For those of you who we did not have a chance to see - Mary's wedding was a blast, and we wish it would have been longer so that we could see y'all also!

With Christ's Love,

Matthew 

Checking in after Ike

This is just a quick blog to find out how people are doing that were in the path of Ike.

We have tried to get in touch with as many people as we could (some lines were busy, people were not home, or maybe phone service has been interrupted in some cases).

Anyway, we wanted everyone to know that we have been and are praying for you and that many of the friends we have made up here are also praying for y'all.

Kristin

Congrats to all who played! =)

The correct answer, a tie between Aunt Harmony (by phone vote due to technical difficulties), Tia Amber and Aunt Sara, was the crib rail!

Be on the look out for your prizes, and please allow four to six weeks for the processing of your prize. No substitution, exchanges or refunds are available, and all taxes are the sole responsibility of the prize winner, payable in full within the next three days.

Catheryn has done very well in her big girl bed. She has only fallen out twice, and true to form, did not wake up either time!

Things are going well up here, Kristin had a good day at work, Catheryn had a great day playing with friends, and dad finally got Missouri license plates for Sally (our Civic).

Orientation starts tomorrow for Matthew, and then Greek this coming Monday. Yah!!!

Hope all of y'all are doing well!

Love,

The Hardaway's

What's Missing?

It is contest time!

The first person who can tell us what is missing from this picture gets a private phone call from the star of this photo!

We Made It!

Howdy!

It sounds so good to say that - I have not heard it once since coming to Saint Louis! We know y'all (another phrase not heard often around these parts) have been wondering how things have gone since we left Houston. We hope this blog will serve as one tool out of many to help all of us keep in touch!

First off, let us give a deep, heartfelt Texan "Thank You!" to all of our family and friends and church families back in Houston. Your generous offers of prayer, fellowship, emotional and financial support have been greatly appreciated, and a wonderful blessing as we begin this new journey that God has led us to. We hope and pray that this blog finds you as wonderfully blessed as we are!

Our move went very well. We had more than enough space on the truck, and the loaders did a wonderful job - nothing was broken on the move. If you have not done so in the past, I highly recommend hiring people to load your truck! What would have taken me a day to do, they did in three short hours, and I know that if I had done it a few things would have broken for sure!

On the way up we only experienced a minor hiccup. We were on the Arkansas side of Texarkana needing to find gas. We we blessed with a new Garmin GPS system that we thought would help us out in finding the nearest gas station. It did, unfortunately no one had told the Garmin that the gas station had been closed for a good fifteen to twenty years! Same with the second and third gas stations! For a minute I thought that Arkansas had figured out a way to completely go green! God was with us though, we got gas and had what will probably be our last meal at Whataburger for a while, and we were off again.

Our new apartment is wonderful! Space is fairly limited, but we do have a basement, which is a wonderful place to store things. We are surrounded by a gorgeous campus, and a strong community of other seminary families. God has blessed us with a new family friend, one who we met when Christ Memorial (our home church) sent us to visit the seminaries back in March. They are a great fit with us, as they have many shared interests and a daughter who is a month older than Cate. It has truly been a blessing to be so close to others who are sharing in our adventure. The ability to fellowship is so easy here, I know this is why God led us to Saint Louis.

Micah (our dog) found a great new home, then the next day ran away. It seems like he explored Saint Louis for a week, then was found by a local shelter. They took a week to get in touch with his new owners, and it seems like all is well. I will admit, having to give him up has not been the easiest for us, but God continues to be gracious and comforting at this time.

Kristin hit the ground running the day after we got to Saint Louis setting up her new classroom. She is teaching in an ABA classroom. ABA stands for Applied Behaviour Analysis. It is a really neat tool to work with students who need more structure in their learning environments than what is typically offered. Her kiddos started school last Thursday, and it seems like things are getting off to a good start. I will let her say anything else about that when she gets the chance.

Cate is adjusting pretty well. She talks about all of her old friends everyday, but she has also made many new ones here as well. One great thing about where we live is that it is basically in a park. She has found out that she looooooooooooves playing in the grass (something she could not do at our condo in Houston), and wants to be outdoors as much as possible. She is definitely turning two in October, the little tantrums have already started. I can't help but smile though, usually all she does is cry out and lay face-down on the ground. It is more cute than anything else, but mommy and daddy know not to give into it.

I have started tutoring with our family friends mentioned above in Greek. Yesterday I finally got the Greek alphabet memorized! Lets see, there's Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta - okay, I won't bore you with that now, but if you want, give us a call, I can recite it on the phone for you! Orientation starts next week, and then classes the week after. For the first quarter I will only be taking Greek, as it is a prerequisite for seminary. I am excited and nervous all at the same time, but I know this is where God has led me and my family, and that will always be a source of peace for me.

I know this has been a long post, but shouldn't the first one always be? I can't promise how often we will be able to blog, but I think a good goal for us will be two to four times a month. Feel free to comment if you like, or we accept all forms of other communication as well!

Thanks again for all of your prayers and support - words cannot express how grateful we are to be "surrounded by a cloud of witnesses" (Hebrews 12:1).

With Christ's Love,

Matthew