Flawed Logic

This morning I read two different stories regarding the issue of forced marriages of underage girls to men. (Finland) & (Spain) In addition to the obvious reasons to be offended and frustrated with these stories add to your list the logic of the parents. In both instances they claim that this is strictly a cultural issue not a moral one. This is the social norm in their former countries and therefore it is Western Europe that has the problem not Islam.

Even if this statement were true, which I do not believe it to be, their reasoning is bias. If we run out their argument then I should be able to live in their former countries and drink a beer or look a woman in the eye and have a conversation with her. My wife should be able to walk around with her head uncovered. However this is not the case because they would claim these cultural differences were moral issues. I would be subject to the laws that govern their country. In most instances Islam would be the law that governed the country, which I think helps to make my point.

These people are not trying to integrate into the countries they now inhabit….they are trying to conform them to Islam. Sometimes it is subtler than others but it is almost always the root issue of conflict between Western European countries and the Muslim population. They do not ultimately desire equality and freedom of religion. They want Islamic Republics governed by Sharia Law.

I share these things with you not to “get you all riled up” but rather in hopes that we will be moved to intercede on behalf of an already large and rapidly expanding people group that is, for the most part, unreached. I hope that our hearts will break for little Muslim girls that are forced to marry grown men AND their parents who think it's ok. The gospel is the only remedy for these problems. Because it values life (all are created in the image of God), it allows for submission to local authorities (God instituted them, He is sovereign) and because it is the power of God for salvation (which, from what I hear, is a pretty sweet deal).

I would love to hear your thoughts…..all 2 of you who have persevered through our blogging inconsistency.

the kitchens’

I would like to think that at some point we will get better at blogging regularly but that probably just isn’t going to happen. However we do intend to continue to blog and hope that you will continue to persevere through our inconsistency.

March has been a busy month just like all the other ones. Allison and I had our one year anniversary which we celebrated while Allison was sick. Conveniently about the time that Allison got better I got sick…..with the same thing. It was eventful to say the least. To celebrate we went to a nice restaurant called Lambert’s that Saturday night (which was good but took forever) and then to the Dallas Museum of Art Sunday afternoon (which was fun but you should probably take it in through multiple visits). It wasn’t quite on par with our honeymoon trip to Hawaii last year but we had fun and are extremely blessed and thankful for the last year. Also of note, we did yard work for the first time today in order to avoid becoming “those people”.

Upcoming we have Allison’s graduation…..6 weeks and counting. She will then officially become “educated” and able to answer questions effectively, per her father. We are also finishing up our travel plans to France this June. We are looking at spending more time in Marseille than we had originally planned due to various articles and trends that we have read about. If you think about it pray for this to be a fruitful trip. We are not really sure what it is supposed to look like and have found it difficult to set up meetings with folks over there.
That’s all for now boys and girls. Until next time

the kitchens’

Bathroom humor

This is what happens when you assume that the peanut butter crackers that you are about to eat are not tainted. You have to move the couch in front of the bathroom door.....for obvious reasons.

CORRECTION and UPDATE!

Hi friends!

Thanks so much for praying for sweet Jonathan and his family. First I have a correction to what I originally told you- he is Cooks in Fort Worth, not Dallas, so it is only 15 minutes away for the parents.

Secondly an update:
- the mom has been discharged from the hospital and is doing much better- I mean I can't imagine though, healing from both Pneumonia and a C-section!
- Today Jonathan will be having his first open heart surgery at 8 this morning! Please please please continue to pray for this family! This will be the first of many surgeries, and this journey is just beginning for them!

PLEASE PRAY!!!

Hi all!
Two days ago, one of our friends who was 38 weeks pregnant went to the emergency room because her fever had reached above 102 for the second time that day . When she got there, they automatically hooked her and their precious baby to heart rate monitors. As the the nurses continued to give her fluids, they began realizing the baby's heart beat was erratic, so the doctor decided to perform an emergency c-section. Yesterday, Jonathan (the baby) seemed to be fully healthy and doing great. The mom on the other hand apparently had pneumonia, so she would have to stay in the hospital a little while longer to let her lungs get to full capacity.
This morning I received a call from a friend that Jonathan was rushed to Cook's Childrens last night because they discovered one of the ventricles in his heart was not fully formed. Today this sweet baby will undergo a major surgery, while mom is stuck in a Fort Worth hospital where they delivered Jonathan. And the Dad has two places to be at once that are an hour a part.

Please pray with us for this family. We know God is Healer, and we know God does everything for his glory. Best of all He is fully sovereign, and has not and will not miss a beat with this family.

We love you all! Thanks for praying!

Valentimes

Allison and I spent our first married Valentimes (intentionally misspelled as per the Stewart tradition) with some of our friends from Midland. Now neither of us makes a big deal about this particular holiday and because we knew we were having people stay at our house we didn’t make big plans. However, now that all is said and done I think I have to put Saturday in my top 5 Valentines Days of all time. Although watching Sweet Home Alabama, in the theater, with one of my roommates in college is pretty tough to beat. Our day consisted of the following:

• A large home cooked breakfast
• Josh and I went to the gym while the girls went shopping
• Outstanding lunch at Central Market
• Josh and I played Tiger Woods Golf while the girls put up curtains
• We all went to dinner at Blue Mesa Grill
• Josh and I played Tiger Woods Golf while the girls hung pictures and decorated our house
• We all played Jenga and went to bed

Good Times.

Crazy January

Hi Friends! So as my dear husband promised, I am blogging. It is not because I do not want to blog that I don't. I feel like I sometimes even think in blog, so currently I have about 4 blogs circling in my head. My problem with blogging is I would rather spend all of my time with people than in front of my lovely little computer. So for now I will work on what I am going to call "the discipline of blogging".

All of that said, the blog that is to follow these words will be a bit lengthy, not in words but more so in pictures. It is our crazy busy Chistmas/January from the view of our camera!

ENJOY!

Our first Christmas was a blast! We spent Christmas with most of my family at my Dad's ranch near Austin and then spent the weekend after Christmas with Justin's mom. Christmas was wonderful!

Do you know what this is? It is my ticket to graduation. It came with a letter saying that I am good to go and I will graduation in MAY!!!!

And I turned 23!! so fun! It began with breakfast at Mimi's with Justin, and then ended with a party at the Burgers'. So fun!

So maybe my birthday was January 8th- National Championship Game day as well! Go Gators~ The guys cheer 'em on!

All we had was Titus' 4 year old candle!

So Justin suprised me with a trip to Bass Hall and tickets to the Symphony that was in town. Really Bass Hall is AMAZINGLY gorgeous, everyone should go sometime. We had a blast, but the show was real short (like maybe 45 minutes) A few weeks later we received a letter from Ft. Worth giving us a set a free tickets because the show we had gone to was too short.

So we decided to go to the Ft. Worth Stock Show and Rodeo... partially to fulfill my desire to go the carnival at the stock show. We also went to see the animals in the Stock Show, and what do you know, they were no where to be found! Really, we walked the whole ground, never found the stock show animals!