Conviction

Please take a few minutes to watch this video.



If that doesn't convict you, I don't know what will. I have been struggling with this issue a lot lately. Like most Americans, I love "things". I love shopping and buying useless stuff. Since Matt & I took this job at Girls and Boys Town, we are more financially secure than we ever have been and ever thought we would be at this point in our lives. With our housing, electricity, cable, internet, and food being provided for us, the only bill we have is our car payment (which we just bought), car insurance, cell phones, and a storage unit. That leaves a lot of $ for "stuff". Living in New Orleans is tempting in itself. There are designer stores, boutiques with $300 dollar shoes and expensive coffee shops--all on the street we live on! I am SO tempted to walk down the street and splurge on a designer dress, or shoes, or things for our new home. I need to remember that it is God alone who has blessed us with these finances and I need to honor Him with them. I am not saying that it is wrong to splurge every once in a while, but my priorities need to change.

So what do you think of this video? Are you as convicted as I am? Or am I just completely of the world?

Pretty pumped!

So, I just found out about this free Christian concert/festival in the ATL on September 1st. A bunch of awesome artists that are gonna be there but I'm especially pumped about Mandisa, Needtobreathe, and Brandon Heath. Oh man, I'm excited! Matt & I are definitely using a vacation day to go to this! AND since it's in Atlanta, I think all our SC friends should come too and we could meet up. That would be fun! Check out the website: www.celebratefreedomatlanta.com and let me know if you wanna go!

Hornets and such!

Last night, Matt & I went to the New Orleans Hornets (formerly the Charlotte Hornets) Draft Party. Our friends and the Friendship House have connections with the Hornets and were volunteering for the party. We were lucky enough to go with them and help out. We had lots of fun passing out flyers and hanging out with old and new friends. We took some cool pics but currently lost the cord to our camera. I'll post them as soon as I can.

We have been in New Orleans over a week now and the reality is beginning to set in that we are staying here. We love living here but greatly miss our friends and family in South Carolina/North Carolina. It is quite a change going from living with our best friends (and having one dog, four cats, a rabbit, and fish) to just having us and the girls in our house. We are living out our dreams and love it here, but it is still hard to know that all of our family and friends are 11 hours away. I can't even think about it/talk about it without crying. I think it's time to invest in some waterproof mascara. :) Please continue to pray for us.

Guess that's it for now, we have a busy day today with our supervisor coming by this morning and then an all-staff meeting this afternoon.

Oh yeah, we have this awesome shop across the street called Bath Junkie. The basic idea is you make your own bath products--you pick what you want such as lotion, bath crystals, fizzy balls, etc. and then choose the sent and they put it together for you. They have amazing products and it's affordable as well! Check out their website: http://www.bathjunkie.com. If there's not a location near you, they will ship to you!

Everyday life

Here are some things that we have experienced so far in our life in New Orleans:

*We have a really nice bakery across the street from our house that makes delicious chocolate cheesecakes!

*We have a Whole Foods Market 3 blocks away from us (so excited about this)

*There are about a million and one coffee shops on our street (I'm in heaven!)

*The nearest Target is about 30 minutes away ::tear:: BUT it's a two story Target, which is fun!

*We have a Wal-Mart nearby (5-10 minutes away) BUT it closes at 9 pm! How crazy is that?!

*There are Winn Dixies everywhere--what a change from South Carolina!

*The roads here are really bad...we'll be getting our car realigned quite often!

*Public transportation is everywhere and I LOVE it!

*We also live 4 blocks from Audobon Park (the largest green space in the city) and the zoo!

*Have I mentioned that there are coffee shops on every block?! Ahh, bliss!

I'm sure there are a million other things we have experienced but that's all for my list for now.

John Piper SALE!

I just found out that John Piper is having a sale on his books on his website (www.desiringgod.org). All of his books are marked down to $5! That is an incredible discount. I just bought 3 books for $15. Holla! :) The sale ends today though--so if you're interested, get on it!

and some more

Here are a few pics I stole from Kelly. Enjoy!


$1 daiquiris at Cafe Maspero


Best friends in the French Market


In the flag store (which was WAY overpriced)!


My feet + Matt's feet on Magazine Street (our new home)


I'm in red beans & rice heaven!

Hello, Goodbye.

Kelly & I decided that the Beatles song "Hello, Goodbye" (the one in the Target commercial) was very appropriate for this time in our lives. While we are saying goodbye to so many friends and family, we are saying hello to our new lives and our new friends and family here in NOLA. Saying goodbye to Kelly & Paul and my mom was one of the hardest things I have had to do in a long time. (Okay, I'm tearing up now). Kelly & Paul were our first married friends and have been in our lives though so many good and bad times. I will always cherish their friendship. So, hello New Orleans, goodbye South Carolina.

Today was our first day of work with the girls (by ourselves) and it went pretty smoothly. For the most part, they were cooperative and very helpful to us. We had shrimp & hot sausage (with okra and tomato sauce) on rice tonight for dinner. Despite my distaste for shrimp, okra, peppers, and onions, I ate it. It wasn't too bad--couldn't eat the okra though. Okra just makes me gag. Hehe. Tomorrow one of our assistants will be working with us, so it will be nice to have her around to help out and answer any questions we have. We are so blessed to have gotten this job and to be able to impact these girls in such a huge way. Please continue to pray for a smooth transition.

If you want to see all of our pics from our life in NOLA so far, you can go to our picasa web album here: http://picasaweb.google.com/mattjparks

a few pictures from the swamp tour!

Paul, Kelly, my Mom, Matt & I went on a swamp tour yesterday. Here are a few pictures from our trip. I'm going to try & put together a video of it later.

William Coman Parks

Our nephew, William Coman Parks, was born on June 7th weighing 7 lbs, 10 oz and measuring 19 inches long. Congrats to Michael and Amy! Here are some pictures of this precious baby!

Life in New Orleans!

My mom & I at a rest stop, taking a much needed break.


Our beautiful aqua house on Magazine Street.


The front of our house.


Our front porch (with a swing)!


Matt & I standing at the front door of our apartment.


Our apartment.


We have lots of stuff!


So exhausted!

U-Haul fun!

This is how you don't back in a 27 foot U-Haul on Magazine Street in New Orleans. The funniest part is at the end when Matt yells, "STOP! STOP!"

Home, sweet, New Orleans!

Don't have much time to update...we're exhausted but we're at our new home on Magazine Street in New Orleans! It is my dream come true. We live a few blocks from the zoo, the park, Whole Foods Market, and there is a coffee shop right across the street from our house! Can't wait to put some pictures up soon!

Wonderful friends!

I have some wonderful friends (Paul & Kelly) who put together this wonderful video for us. God has truly blessed us with their friendship!

Location: Opelika, Alabama

Here we are at an Econo Lodge in Opelika, Alabama. We got a late start today (I was hoping to leave around 11 am and we left at 3 pm), but it's all good. We're almost halfway to NO. Matt's dad, my mom, Kelly, & Paul all came with us...we are enjoying making memories with them. Here are some random quotes from our trip so far...

"That milkshake was so good when I burped it up it still tasted good!"~Me

"Do you have any tweezers, Mrs. Wackey?"~Kelly

Next time I update, we'll be at our new home in New Orleans!

exhaustion.

We're moving tomorrow.

I'm exhausted.

We still have work to do.

Can't wait until the move is over.

I'm still excited though.

55 hours

55 hours and we'll be back in the Carolinas.

It's so bittersweet.

We're ready to be back, ready to move to New Orleans, but not quite ready to say goodbye to everyone.

We have really had to branch out these two weeks, being in Nebraska and spending two entire weeks with people we don't know but we have to eat with, share a car with, spend 8 hours of training a day with, etc. We have met some great people but it makes us realize how blessed we are to have our friends in Rock Hill. It's going to be a challenge when we move, since we will be working 5 days a week (24 hours a day). We're going to have to be brave and step out of our comfort zones in order to meet people and make friends.

We're ready for this challenge, but continue to ask for your prayers as this is one of the biggest changes Matt & I will ever have to face in our lives.

Fun at Boys Town

We are finished with our first week of training and it flew by! This is by far, the most intense training we have ever experienced, but we are SO thankful that we are learning how to do our job to the best of our abilities! Every day, we are more and more impressed by the Boys and Girls Town organization. They have a heart for hurting kids and faith in God. We are excited to be a part of their team.

Yesterday afternoon, we went to the Taste of Omaha festival in downtown Omaha. It was lots of fun--we ate good food, heard good music, and even meet up with some of our friends from training. This morning, Matt & I attended the Protestant church service at Boys Town. It was a wonderful experience to worship with some 500 children and youth that live at Boys Town. We're spending the rest of the day relaxing and preparing for the week ahead. We have a test tomorrow morning on Corrective Teaching and Crisis Teaching. We're looking forward to another week of training and then heading back to Rock Hill for a few days before we move to New Orleans.

Thank you all for your continued support and prayers. We can feel God moving in our lives and are so blessed to have this opportunity!

Here are some pictures from Boys Town & the Taste of Omaha festival...

*If you want to see all of our pictures, go here: http://winthrop.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2037133&l=4dec4&id=45500189

We're in Omaha!

Here we are--at the home campus of the Girls and Boys Town in Omaha, Nebraska. We arrived on Sunday evening and have been non-stop since then. We have training every day from 8-5 and then have homework to do for the next day. We are learning SO much about how to care for the at-risk youth we will be working with. And the campus is beautiful! We took a short bus tour of the campus on Monday, but haven't had the chance to get out and walk around yet between seminars & studying. We should get the chance to do that this weekend. We don't have internet access where we are staying--we drove to Panera tonight to check our e-mail and study for our test tomorrow. Hopefully we'll get the chance to update at least once more during our stay here.

Here are some pictures of this beautiful campus:

Leaving on a jet plane

Matt & I leave in a little over the hour to go to the airport to catch our flight to Chicago and then Omaha. We'll be in Nebraska until June 15th doing intensive training for our new job. I'm not sure if we'll have internet access, but hopefully I'll be able to update at least once or twice during our trip. Once we're back in Rock Hill on the 15th, we'll go see our nephew Will (who will be induced on the 11th if he isn't born by then) for a couple days and then pack up and begin the move to New Orleans on the 19th. The whirlwind of our life will continue for a little while longer. :) We'll try to keep this as updated as possible.

In other news, Matt & I bought a car last night! We traded in the Sentra and got a 2006 Hyundai Sante Fe. It is beautiful! We are also giving back the Lumina to Matt's parents because Michael (Matt's brother) needs a new car since his truck is eating up gas! In other words, we have one family car now--our Santa Fe. We actually will only need one car in New Orleans since we'll be working together and will be provided with a 15 passenger van for our girls. We are pretty excited the Santa Fe. It will be a great famliy car when we get ready to have kids!

Okay--I need to go finish packing and get ready to head to the airport. Once again, thanks for all of your prayers and support. We know we are greatly loved. Please continue to pray for us over this trip to Nebraska and the move to New Orleans.