Happy Report

So we have had a great week since our last posting. Danny's sermon last Sunday went great! He did so well and I am so proud of him and excited to see how God is using him to bless others. The church's website is actually down right now, but hopefully we'll find some way to share it with you all. Sunday night we had our first youth group. It went really well. We had a lot of fun and we are really looking forward to growing with this group of kids and developing the program into something awesome for Christ.
Then, on Monday, we bought a new truck. It's very similar to our last one (except the color, obviously) but we know we can trust it to be a great vehicle for us, so we're very excited.

Also, I got a surprise visit from Jessica, Ashley and Isabel on Wednesday night/early Thursday morning. Danny and them had been planning it for about a week. They showed up about 3am and Danny woke me up at about 7:30 am before he left for work to surprise me. It was SOOO wonderful to have friends to hang out with and love from Virginia. We had a great time exploring Bluffton a little bit, playing Pinochle, and reconnecting with Isabel who doesn't seem to have forgotten us, which was great. The girls left Sunday afternoon but we are already looking forward to more fun visits from friends and family.


Then today I found out I got a job! I start working at Pier 1 tomorrow. I applied over two weeks ago and hadn't heard anything so I had kind of forgotten about it. But I was very excited to hear from the manager on Thursday and now I'll be working there. It will be a great job for decorating our new house!
Speaking of houses, our house in Virginia closes tomorrow. So prayers for a smooth closing would be appreciated. After that we should be able to find something down here and be in a new house by late February or early March, God willing.

You shoulda seen the other guy

Well, there he is. This is the van we hit. Isn't that crazy? The body shop told us they pretty much totaled it as soon as it arrived because it was just so destroyed.


I promise we'll stop posting depressing pictures of busted vehicles. It's just crazy for us to see how damaged both vehicles in this accident were and yet, we are fine. God is just so good!
Hopefully soon we will post another picture of a car, but it will be our new car! We've been doing a lot of car shopping lately. Of course we would love to just have our truck back. But we feel that God is giving us the opportunity to reexamine the cars we drive and pick a new car that might be totally different from what we had. Or we might just go back to what we know and trust. So we'll see. There is a lot to think about.
Today though, we have some different things to think about. Danny is preaching at church tomorrow. So he is hard at work on his sermon as you can see below.

And tomorrow night we will be leading our first youth group. So we have a lot going on and we're excited and trying not to be stressed.
Thanks again for all your prayers, keep 'em comin'!

God continues to be good

Thank you so much for all your love and support!!! We are so blessed with such great family and friends. Your prayers are definitely appreciated and it's obvious that God is hearing all your prayers. Things are going much better than we could have hoped. Even though we just heard the news that our truck is officially totaled. The guy inspecting it was not done yet but his total had already reached well over $18,000 so they just went ahead and called it a loss. Poor truck :( I'm quite sad about it but I think Danny is just excited to get a new truck. Thankfully God has been making sure all the details of this work out smoothly. Everything with the insurance companies has been great, way better than expected, and they are not trying to rip us off or anything on the amount they'll give us for the truck which is really a blessing. So we're very thankful that even in this traumatic week things are going well and God is providing. We're healing more and more everyday, Danny's soreness is almost completely gone and my bruises and burns, while still nasty looking are definitely showing improvement. So things are settling down.
Yesterday was Danny's first official day of work at The Church of the Cross. From what I've heard, it went great. Danny definitely has a way of connecting with people and he is already making tons of friends. He will be preaching at one of the two campuses this Sunday which is really exciting (also a little stressful) but we are excited to see how God is fitting us into this new community. I think they post all their sermons online so I'll have to put the link up here after Sunday so you can all hear it too! :)
Your prayers are definitely still appreciated. We have a crazy week ahead of us with the rest of the details from our accident AND we accepted an offer on our house! Which is really exciting but now we are dealing with the home inspection and repairs and stuff from 8 hours away. The good news is the buyer wants to close by the end of the month so it will all hopefully be over very soon!
Below I am posting some happier pictures of life here :) We love you guys!

This is our front yard. It's just one of the many perks of living temporarily at the pool cottage :)

God is so good!

That's really all Danny and I can say after what happened to us last night. Just about 20 minutes after I posted our first blog entry last night we were involved in a very serious car accident. We were introduced to the Hilton Head hospital much sooner than we expected to be. We are just thanking God that we are both fine aside from some soreness and some bruises and burns on me (Mary). When you see the pictures below you'll understand why we are so in awe of God's protection. The photos are not for the faint of heart (or Tacoma lovers for that matter). Although we will probably never drive our new truck again it served us so well in the 10 months that we had it. Had we been in my Honda, the outcome of this accident might not have been as positive.


Here's the play by play from our perspective for those of you wondering the details.

We were driving down Rt. 278 which is a major road in the area, 3 lanes each way. We were in the far right lane driving 45mph (which is the speed limit of course). We were approaching the intersection with Rt. 46. As we approached in the intersection we both remember it being wide open with a green light, hence, no reason to slow down or be concerned. About halfway through the intersection I remember seeing a white utility van right in front of us, like right in front of us, coming from the other direction turning left across our path. I screamed, of course, and just kept screaming because I think I figured that as long as I was screaming I was alive. At that moment millions of things flashed through my mind, I thought I would lose Danny or something terrible would happen, like never being able to walk again. I kept my eyes closed because I was afraid of what I would see when I opened them. Although apparently my eyes weren't closed all the way at some point because one of my eyes got burned by the airbag. Then I heard Danny yelling at me to get out of the car. I opened my eyes to see two inflated airbags. I was suddenly reminded that airbags save lives! I guess I forgot about them as I was screaming and I don't remember it hitting me in the face but it definitely did because I have the marks to prove it. I really am just amazed at how fast those things exploded and saved us from launching forward into the windshield. If you don't have a car with airbags, I highly recommend one. I got out of the car and looked around and saw that Danny was okay. There was another car that was slightly involved in the accident as well. They were sitting at the traffic light on Rt.46 and our car tapped theirs after the impact with the van. They came right over and helped us and made sure we were okay. They were a young couple, probably 18. They let us sit in their car since my knees were pretty banged up and I couldn't really stand. Soon after that the ambulance arrived and the EMTs started helping me, put me in a neck brace, put me on a back board and cut up my pants to check on my knees (which I guess I'll get over, but those pants were such a great deal from Ann Taylor!) Next thing I knew I was put on the ambulance without Danny who I later met up with at the hospital. He was brought over by a member of our new church which was just awesome. They were so amazing, it such a blessing that even though we are in this new place we have an awesome community of people who love us already. At the hospital I had tons of x-rays taken, my neck, my chest, my ribs, my knee and everything came back okay. Nothing was broken, thank God! Danny also got some x-rays and got his neck and back examined. He also got the same good report. So we are both doing fine, very sore, but fine. And we are more thankful than ever for each other and for God's amazing protection. We are just stunned at how God protected us, He is amazing.

This is my seatbelt "burn" which also contributed to the lifesaving. The EMTs and doctors kept asking if I was wearing a seatbelt and I was like "Obviously!"

Thankfully the accident was not our fault so we are confident that God will work out the details with the police and the insurance companies and a new vehicle for us. Please keep us in your prayers. As if moving to a new state and starting a new job was not enough stress, now we are dealing with a lot of soreness and logistical issues. But we are very very grateful and feel more confident that this is where we are supposed to be because clearly satan does not want us here. But we're fighters, as least Danny is, and we'll be fine.
Thank you all for your love and support. We love you all.

From South Carolina!

Greetings from Bluffton, South Carolina. We made it here safely on Tuesday with the help of our wonderful parents (Gonzalez parents that is). The caravan involved a 22 foot Penske that we stuffed to the brim, it's amazing how much stuff we aquired in just the two and half years we've been married. All that stuff is now safely living in a storage unit while we live in a "pool cottage", which is actually an awesome 2 bedroom 2 bath house that we are so blessed to be hosted at. We have privacy, cable and no rent! So until we sell our old house and buy a new house it is where we call home. I'll have to put some pictures up of our temporary place.
Anyway, things have been good since we got here. Danny starts work on Monday, the 14th. So we have until then to get settled without any other responsibilities. We are excited to be where we are, but we will definitely need prayer as we adjust to this new town and new state. I started job searching today and hopefully will find something soon. AND, big news- we got an offer on our house! It was not an ideal offer but it was good and we are still negotiating with the potential buyer. So hopefully God will work out the details of that and our house could be sold by the end of January. We'll be sure to keep everybody updated. But for now here's some fun pics from the past week.

Last time in front of our first house on Dana Drive :(

Danny with the massive Penske!

Us in Savannah, GA after dropping off Danny's parents at the train station.