Today was a great day.  I really enjoy my family, all of them.  I am really blessed to have a mother who loves me so much.  In addition to my mother I am equally as blessed to have “new” family as well.  This new family I am referring to is the one I gained when I married Jennifer.  This month Jennifer and I will celebrate our 8th year of marriage (June 30th)!  I know, I can’t believe it either, “Jennifer put up with Jake for 8 years!”

It was about 10 years ago I had the honor of first meeting Jennifer’s side of the family.  The first group I met besides her Dad, Mom, Brother and Sister was Team Wulz.  I met them the summer of 1999 when Jennifer, Justin Spargur and I were road tripping it to Michigan to work for the summer.  I had just received the news on my birthday that my father had died and the very next day I met the Wulz Family, May 29th 1999.

They are loving, compassionate, fun, light hearted, active, generous, and so much more.  They are a joy to be around.  Richard, RoRo, Eric, Rachel, Emily and Lauren.  Yeah, I know they can make up a team for court volleyball.  I am very honored to have gained them as family and friends.  It is funny to see the circle of life in things.

The second time I met Team Wulz was in Enid, Oklahoma at Grandma Schmitz’s house for a Christmas celebration in 1999.  Imagine around a 1,500 square foot home and over 27 people living together for a week.  It was totally chaos filled with joy.  Anywho, Rachel, Emily and Lauren were around 6, 3, and 3 years old (respectively) and full of energy.  They would use me as a jungle gym and I would chase them though the house.  They would dog pile on top of me and it was a “hoot” to say the least.  Now, 10 years later I have a 6 year old daughter, Madison, so adores Rachel, Emily and Lauren so much.  And you know what?  They love Madison too!  It brings so much joy to my life to know that I was able to play with Rachel, Emily and Lauren when they were young and now they in-turn are having so much fun playing with my children.

My intention tonight was to write an insightful blog about what I am reading and how it is changing the way I relate to the Gospel and Jesus but I felt moved to share with you how much this family, Team Wulz, means to me and my family.

It is my hope that you too have family out there who, like the Wulzs’, brings you great joy!

I am off to bed.  Tomorrow is day 10 of the Rasmussen/Houchin summer 2009 family vacation.  We have descided to say an extra day here in Plano Texas.  This means we will be hitting the road on Wednesday and getting home, we hope, on Thursday.  Until tomorrow…

Again I am reading more of Mark Driscoll’s book, Death by Love.  It has been a super good read thus far.  Focused on Jesus whole heartedly and it has been good to catch this side of Driscoll.  He is very pastoral and compassionate, yet leading with Jesus and calling people to Jesus.  Good Stuff.  We are almost to Plano Texas.  We will be staying there for a day or so then home to Tucson.

It was cool to check out Epic Church online today until their feed went down.  I am excited for the near future of Epic Church.  There is a lot of work to be done but one thing is for sure, we cannot loose sight of Jesus or the power of the cross.  We must all be willing to submit to God’s authority and repent of our sin and wickedness in order to be conformed more to the image of Jesus.