Hello all!  Signing in from Carrollton, Texas, at my best friend, Liz's house.  She delivered one of the most beautiful baby boys ever (next to my two precious little men) on March 4, 2008.  Here he is exactly one month old:

Good job, Liz and John!  You guys made one handsome kid!  I'll be home soon, but for now I'm going to soak up my baby fix!

Love,

Melissa

Every once in a while it is just good to post an update on our lives. I guess that is kind of the purpose of a blog anyway. So, here is what has been going on as of late.

Rick has been in school all week at Jack Hayford's School of Pastoral Nurture (trust me, pastor's need some occasional nurturing). It is basically about 40 pastors spending a week with Jack Hayford while receiving teaching, encouragement, having dinner at his home, meeting other pastors, etc. This is Rick's second one to attend, and he really enjoys it.

The kids just keeping growing up. Abigail lost her second tooth (she will be 6 in a few weeks), and she is becoming a more mature artist as she regularly attends an art class.  Brennan is taking soccer, and has been learning to be a goalie more than anything. It has been pretty cool having a child in sports. Caleb is still very energetic and loves to explore everything and anything.  He loves to talk too...and talk...and talk...and talk.  Which for me, who likes to be relatively quiet most of the time, is a challenge to keep up with.  He likes to ask lots of questions over and over again, which is really good for his learning, I know.

My brother had another court trial, and he has been sentenced back to SAFP, but this time in their Special Needs facility.  Please pray that this time things change...and he changes.

Rick and I are both taking a running class at the EDGE Fitness Club. This is so out of our element, because neither one of us has ever enjoyed running.  But our church is having a 5K in May, so we felt we needed to build up some cardiorespiratory endurance.  I am still studying to be a trainer as well, and will hopefully be certified by the end of April. We'll see.

I'm heading to Dallas at the beginning of April, because one of my best friends, Liz, just had her first baby, Samuel David Weaver.  I am so excited to hold this new little life and spend some time with some of my favorite people.

Church is doing really well.  We are finally seeing some growth...kingdom growth. That is awesome!  I just continue to pray that God continues to give all of us opportunities to make eternal differences in the lives of others, and that He helps us not miss them either. On Easter Sunday, we set up experiential Stations of the Cross.  It was quite impactful to visibly remember the eternal difference Jesus Christ made when He overcame the power of death and darkness on the Cross and through His resurrection.

So, that is quick lowdown on the Wood Family.  Please drop up us a line and let us know, "What is going on with you?"

Much love,
Melissa

Abigail has been begging me to take pictures of her new battle scar.  On Saturday, March 1, Abigail fell off of a rolling office chair right into the sharp corner of my red computer desk.  She gashed her armpit open pretty badly.  Unfortunately, Rick was in Mexico, and I was left at home for a few days with the 3 kids, so the timing seemed awfully poor.  BUT GOD ALWAYS PREVAILS, because during the time period in which it happened, Chris & Irene Heck and Mike Snelson were all at the house reviewing our CD cover with me.  As soon as Abigail fell, Mike said, "Mel, what do you want me to do?"  I said, "Stay here with the boys."  So, on the very fortunate side of the whole situation, I was able to leave right away for the emergency room to get Abigail stitched up.  The whole 4-hour ER experience turned out to be pretty traumatic, because Abigail was so delirious and upset by the time it came to adminiter some pain meds, that we had to have 3 people to hold her down.  I felt like I was torturing my own child, but was very thankful 30 minutes later when the medicine kicked in.  She was relaxed from that point on.  This past Monday we got the stitches out, so I have some posted some pictures of her new wound (hopefully, you are not eating a meal as you read this post).

On a rather humorous note (to me, but not to Mike), my boys had an adventure at home with Mike Snelson.  Mike had ordered them pizza, and midway through eating Caleb seemingly passes out at the table.  Mike suddenly remembers that Caleb is allergic to something and cannot remember what it is.  So he frantically calls me and cannot reach me.  Then he calls Nori Colton, wondeirng at this point if Caleb might need to join Abigail at the ER.  Nori tells Mike that Caleb probably was just tired and fell asleep at the table.  So he begins to relax some, and Caleb did evetually wake up before bed time.  Thanks, Mike, for toughing it out and helping us out!!  You are a great friend!

Love to all,

Melissa 

We have officially received the $1500 need to finish the CD and have it released into your hands by April 1!  So many of you mailed in checks and wired PayPal money to help, and we are incredibly appreciative.  On Monday, we received a final $1000 check from a very generous uncle to cover the remainder.  Thank you all!  Thank you so much!  God, once again, proved Himself incredibly faithful by using all of you.

Much love,

Melissa 

Yes, this is the name of our new CD that we are trying very hard to have released by April 1.  To do so, we need to pre-sell 100 CD's at $15.00 each by March 1 to cover duplication and printing costs.  If you would like to pre-buy a "Stand Up for Jesus" CD, you can pay $15.00 through PayPal to mjmjoy@hotmail.com or mail me a check ASAP (email me for my address).  Thank you to all who have supported the entire project.  If you would like to listen to some song samples, check them out at myspace.com/melissajoywood.  I hate to beg, but some times a little humiliation leads to some much needed humility which is required for the release of this CD.  Make sense?

Again, thank you and much love,

Melissa