Happy Birthday David!

Many of you might be quick enough to say, "Hey, she's a day late wishing her husband happy birthday!" However, we in the Fox household unanimously decided that we would celebrate on the 20th this year.

We have not posted about any of our ministry obstacles here because we really wanted a light and fluffy chronicle of our lives. However, it seems the time has come to share just a bit. You'll find the reason below. (You have to keep reading! I'm pretty tricky like that.)

The short and not-so-sweet version is that ministry here in Janesville has been nothing short of tumultuous. It seems like whenever there was a small step forward, it was quickly followed by a large step backward. Battle after battle after battle. And without sharing too much, David and our youth pastor discovered that our another staff member was acting immorally. That sounds pretty benign, but you'll have to take our word for it. It's bad news. We handled things a certain way and it seemed like our efforts to help the church (and him) were thwarted at every turn. To say it neatly, the last several months have been horrific. Recently we discovered that someone who we thought was our biggest supporter was concocting nasty lies about David, questioning his integrity and character.

The interesting thing is, we had already resigned. For those of you a bit out of our loop, David is now working full time for a web development firm here in town. AND LOVING IT! He volunteered to lead worship on Sundays for a few additional weeks to aid in the transition process. And it has been during this time that the problems have only escalated.

In the past three days, David has had approximately 8 hours of meetings (aside from his day job) that revolve around the ugliness happening in our church. Painful. And sad. We think that the leadership involved are now willing to take some necessary steps toward healing. But we are done. This Sunday will be our last (unless the most unlikely of miracles should occur). I can't tell you how excited I am about our future. Is that weird? We have been painfully attacked in the last few weeks, yet I'm sitting here, nearly giddy with anticipation.

So, the reason for the sharing? I just have to take a moment and tell you about an amazing man I call my husband. He has handled the last four months with the utmost integrity. At every turn, he has sought God's direction, desiring to do the right thing. We have had moments of tears, panic, fear, betrayal, yelling, and even a few curse words (although we're trying not to make that last one a habit). But as we near the END, I just have to stop and tell my husband how proud I am to be his wife. There were days that I held him up and days that he did the same for me. But through it all, David has walked like a soldier, not looking right or left (too much), but heading forward into the place God is leading. For the past two years, David has been a full-time worker, a full-time student, and a full-time dad. And for the past year he has had TWO jobs, college, and young children. And he always made time for me.

On his real birthday, David spent approximately 10 minutes at home between 8:15 AM and 8:30 PM. So we're pretending today is the day. And next week we start the next phase of our lives. There's no one I'd rather stand beside.

Happy Birthday babe. Love you.