10-26-07 From Kevin

On Thursday, Oct. 25th we had the huge, monolithic, concrete slab foundation poured for our mountain dream home. We've been looking towards this day for many, many months. I've literally worked my butt off, I can't even find it anymore. I think my hair has grayed, I've lost 5 pounds and in the evenings I have the kids drop cinder blocks on my shoulders to help bring my shoulders down from ear level.

But it's done. Finished. Now, we can start building UP! I'm building a house. Now Teri, she did the majority of the initial work of plans and permitting and financing. A HUGE undertaking that would take more than a mere blog to detail. But since we've hit dirt, I've been doing the majority of the work. Not all...but a majority. I'm building a house to protect and bless my family.

Yesterday and today, Teri began building a h-o-m-e. Very, very different thing. Not to diminish my house building, but it's walls. Without purpose, love, care, compassion, meaning, faith and God, it might as well be a tepee. While I was deep in concrete yesterday, fretting, shoveling, nudging...Teri was in her Bible. She and the kids wrote specific scriptures on papers, rolled them up, and plunged them down in the concrete. Forever more, those scriptures will be floating beneath the surface of our home.

Then today, while I'm making sure the concrete guy is getting the final finish on the surface, and trying to do some work to generate my income (something I have to do occasionally...), Teri is etching scripture into stone. Literally. She's on her knees on this mammoth concrete slab, etching verses out of her Bible, into the concrete. Talk about permanence. She spent many hours in her Bible to find the perfect verses. I wish I had each of them listed here, as they are important enough to put in the concrete floor of our home...they are worthy to be shared. We'll do that soon, or feel free to email us.

This...is making a home. Anointing it. Dedicating it. This is how God made women. The heart. And yet, the heart is useless without the skeleton to carry and protect it! But who wants just a skeleton? It's purpose is merely...to safely hold the heart! What a perfect union. Neither of us matter without the other.

Oh...if I could only keep that on the cuff of my sleeve, instead of my selfish feelings that scream for "Me!" Stepping back to truly see her heart...is to step back and see God at work. I wonder if Moses 'Burning Bush,' was in reality, just seeing the heart of his wife.

God help me...to see the You in my wife, as she's showcasing You in our earthly home. I know I'd see it more clearly if I could just escape the barrier of my own flesh...