After the initial excitement of telling my family that we were going to be moving to Utah, Bonnie retreated to the bedroom to call her parents and have a good cry. Though she was excited about the move, she was sad at the same time and it was important for her to feel that grief. […]
My Story
So, I’m in the process of writing my first book. The working title keeps changing, so I’m simply calling it “My Story” for now. It’s a memoir style book, meant for my daughters, filled with stories and lessons I’ve learned over the years. I’m about 45,000 words into it and to keep my momentum going, I’ve decided to release an un-edited chapter every week here on the blog. What follows is raw, un-polished, and un-finished. Your feedback in the comments in always welcome! If you’d like to receive each chapter in your inbox as soon as it’s released, just drop me your email right here…
Chapter 30 – Moving Home
In the summer of 2013, Bonnie, Lexi, and I made a trip to Utah for our annual family reunion and my Dad’s 86th birthday. As Lexi hadn’t even turned one yet, this was the first time that the family had been able to interact with her walking around. Needless to say, everyone had a blast […]
Chapter 29 – Fatherhood
Let me just say, Bonnie is a Super Hero. She thrived during her entire pregnancy. She was running four-milers up until she was eight months pregnant and she never complained about anything. Not even about being my designated driver for an entire nine months! But it wasn’t until she gave Lexi a 100% Natural, Underwater […]
Chapter 28 – Bonnie’s Pregnant
People would often ask Bonnie and I if we wanted kids and our answer was always the same: “Well, we really want grandkids…” As I was only 27 years old when Bonnie and I first started dating and Bonnie was only 24, I figured we had plenty of time before we had to start thinking […]
Chapter 27 – Teaching
My hope was that not being a classically trained teacher would be an advantage in a community college setting, but I wasn’t so sure. Yes, the format is completely different that a traditional high school or college, but it was still an educational institution and I was coming from the corporate world. I quickly discovered […]
Chapter 26 – Getting Fired
It was Thursday, April 29, 2010. I knew the day was going to big because it was to be my second to last day at my part time teaching position and I was scheduled to have a meeting with the Executive Director (E.D.) of the non-profit that afternoon. In our meeting, we were supposed to […]
Chapter 25 – Leaving FBC
Once we had settled in to our new life back in St. Pete, Bonnie and I knew it was time to address our “church” situation. In 2006, when I first started attending the First Baptist Church of St. Petersburg, I was a different person. My understanding of my role in the world was different, my […]
Chapter 24 – Starting Over
When we got back to St. Pete (Florida), we had no where to live, no jobs, I hadn’t worked in over two years, and what was left in bank account would soon be gone. Bonnie’s Aunt was gracious enough to let us stay in her garage apartment until we were able to regroup and get […]
Chapter 23 – Not Moving to Costa Rica
In the Fall of 2009, after spending the summer in Costa Rica serving with 6:8 Ministries, Bonnie and I decided to return back to Florida. Our plan was to get our affairs in order, raise $24,000 of support for our first year in Costa Rica, and then officially make the move in January. Since I […]
Chapter 22 – 6:8 Missions
When Bonnie and I first heard that our Young Professionals group at church had selected Costa Rica as the destination for the group’s Mission Trip, we were kind of bummed. Out of pure selfishness, of course. Being that both of us are world travelers, we were hoping for a more exotic location like Africa or […]
Chapter 21 – A Small Wedding
When the time came to start planning our wedding, I told Bonnie that I would do whatever she wanted, but that I had already been through the whole “have a huge expensive wedding” thing and I had learned a couple of valuable lessons from the ordeal. In general, my experience was as follows: ## 1. […]
Chapter 20 – Wedding Proposal
Bonnie and I had been dating for eleven months when I seriously started thinking that I might actually be willing to give marriage another shot. I knew without a doubt that I loved her, but considering the amount of baggage I carried with me from my first marriage and subsequent divorce, I was gun-shy to […]
Chapter 19 – Malaysia
After our two weeks in India, we headed to Malaysia for a 6-week stay that we assumed was going to be much of the same. Imagine our surprise when our hosts dropped us off at the Chinese Boarding School and we were informed that we were going to be teaching English for the next six […]
Chapter 18 – India
Right after we finished our Caribbean tour, Bonnie went back to St. Pete and I headed to training in Kentucky for my very first international mission trip. While I had traveled to Asia before, I had never done so on a mission trip with a group of strangers, so this was bound to be a […]
Chapter 17 – Caribbean Cruising
It was Superbowl Sunday (2/3/2008) and Bonnie and I were hosting our First Annual Superbowl Party at my apartment. The place was full of good food, good drinks, and a ton of our friends. It had only been a month since my last day at TI and I was still enjoying the freedom of being […]
Chapter 16 – Relationship Rules
Over the first couple of weeks of our relationship, Bonnie and I were spending a lot of time together. I had such a crush on her that it was starting to scare me a bit. Though probably too soon, I couldn’t help but start the DTR (Define The Relationship) talk. “So, exactly what are we?” […]
Chapter 15 – Bonnie
The first time I met Bonnie, we’re standing in the parking lot of the church waiting to carpool to a Tuesday Night Young Professionals service called 97 West. “So, what do you do?” I asked. “I’m a potter.” she responded casually. “I’m not exactly sure what that means…?” I continued. “I’m a ceramic artist. I […]
Chapter 14 – Quitting Corporate
As I began to imagine and pray about the specifics of Story that God wanted me to live, the possibilities were endless. Should I become and international missionary? Maybe I should teach or work for a church? Perhaps, I could start a non-profit? Shamefully, no matter how God-centered and good the story started, it always […]
Chapter 13 – Get A Better Story
It all started in February of 2007 when I saw Donald Miller speak at the Fusion / Right Now Conference in Orlando, Florida. At the time, I was working as an Account Manager at a Fortune 100 Company, I had a six-figure salary, and I was a year removed from my divorce. Money, materialism, and […]
Chapter 12 – Leaving the Catholic Church
After surrendering my life to Christ, I had so many questions. I started to read the bible feverishly and learn as much about the Gospel as I could. I would would listen to podcasts and watch sermons on TV and read all the books I could. The more I learned about God and His ways, […]
Chapter 11 – Salvation
It was Monday, February 6, 2006. She had officially moved out of our apartment the day before and I had spent all day simply trying to hold it all together. In trying times, I had heard it said that you “just have to take things one day at a time.” Unfortunately for me, each day […]
Chapter 10 – Divorce
We had lived together for three and a half years before we actually got married. We should have figured out in that time what we were getting ourselves into. The problem was that we each had very defined expectations of what life would be like after we said our vows, but they didn’t really line […]
Chapter 09 – Texas Instruments
When I first accepted the offer to join the TSA (Technical Sales Associate) Program at TI (Texas Instruments), I wasn’t exactly sure what I was getting myself into. As an engineer, my perception of sales guys was that they were slackers who over-promised and under-delivered. But that was before I got to see how the […]
Chapter 08 – IBM
I was only 19 years old when I was hired at IBM for a summer internship as a software engineer. Though I hadn’t even finished my freshmen year of college and I was no where near the top of my class (due primarily to the intense focus I put on my social life), I was […]
Chapter 07 – Playing Married
It was the beginning of my Senior Year and my goal was to finish my college career strong. I was going to study harder, work harder, and party harder than I ever had before. And that’s when “she” came back from Spain where she had studied abroad her Junior year. Before she had left at […]
Chapter 06 – College Boy
After completing my pledgeship and becoming a NAK, I was riding high! It was the end of my freshmen year and as challenging as the year had been, it all seemed to be working out wonderfully. My grades were solid, I had been accepted into an internship at IBM (thanks Inroads / Fernando!), I was […]
Chapter 05 – Freshman Year
Like many things in my life, I found my college-move-in experience to be very different from the traditional stories that most of my friends tend to tell. Apparently, some people have parents that help them move in and decorate their rooms. They take them to the bookstore to load up on school gear and make […]
Chapter 04 – Stanford Rejection
From the time I was eight years old and my older brother got accepted to Stanford University, I knew I was going to go to Stanford too. Then, when I was in 6th-grade, my older sister was also accepted to Stanford. By then, I knew I was definitely going to get in. So, you can […]
Chapter 03 – High School is Bullsh*t
By the time I entered high school in the tenth grade, my desire for acceptance was turning to resentment. After spending my ninth grade year at a newly built junior high with a much more affluent population (which didn’t include any of the poor brown kids I usually hung around with), I was pretty worn […]
Chapter 02 – Junior High Identity Crisis
My family had just gotten home from our annual trip to Mexico the night before my first day of 7th Grade. (In Utah, Elementary School is from Kindergarten – 6th Grade, Junior High is from 7th – 9th Grade, and High School is from 10th – 12th Grade.) As it was a long travel day […]
Chapter 01 – Growing Up Different
It wasn’t until I started kindergarten that I realized how different my family really was from the rest of the community I lived in. Because I grew up in a more rural country setting as opposed to a neighborhood, I never had the chance to play with other little kids. All of my time was […]
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