Happy New Year!!! STILL

Happy New Year!!! Or, well, Happy Chinese New Year! A fun festival in town filled with dancing dragons and everything reminded me that I had yet to greet the New Year on this poor, lonely blogspot. And so, I admit that my goal to manage this blog as a constant, informative site on the "goings on" of Hawaiian life has been seriously neglected. Do please forgive me. And, do know, late as this update is...that things are going GREAT here in the Islands!
I was so blessed to return from a wonderfully refreshing trip to Texas to find a home waiting for me in Hawaii! I was afraid that my time in Hawaii was drawing to a quick close as financial situations disagreed severly with housing opportunities. I came back expecting to sell my car and move on within the month, much to my chagrin, but have been overwhelmingly blessed to live in a beautiful house with the Gnauck family. Melanie, Andreas and 8 year old Spencer and I are enjoying a great family life in Hawaii...so much that I sent Andreas to Texas to visit my family. He is presently living in my old bedroom at my parents house...since i live in his, it was only fair! Actually, my Texas pride has overflowed so much that I have convinced them to move to Texas with me, and since we can't bear the thought of parting, they're considering it! Okay, maybe not just because of me, but they really may more to Texas...you all must meet them, and don't worry, Andreas doesn't always look so perplexed, (top right) just usually. :)
I am working at night for Andreas, the "man of the house," in a night cleaning business, which allows me the days free for study, learning, talking, writing, reading and adventuring!
It is so good to have time to dream and enjoy life...life is too precious to be missed! I walk around each day and see people walking around who don't seem to know what it means to be alive (so usually i try to tell them, which sometimes goes over better than others:). Seriously though, the more strangers i talk to and befriend, the more I am convinced that people are oft times waiting to be invited to live the life they long for. To dream beyond they hand they have been dealt. it is the most amazing thing I know of to watch someone become vulnerable to the reality of "MORE" and begin to chase after it. It is a vulnerability, for surely with dreams come disappointments, but...that's LIFE..and life is meant to be lived, and disappointment is an instrument used to dig great wells for joy to fill!
So, i'm seeking the Lord, wishing more and more for greater discipline to fully embrace the opportunity I have here, and I am daily coming closer (i hope) to an understanding of "what's next." that's the title of all my future chapters...what's next...I don't know what it means...exciting, isn't it??? As a young, older man encouraged me the other day, "uncertainty is the adventure of life!" I so agree with him...life itself is an adventure...and the sooner we realize that, the more content we will be. Life is hard. Life is not fair. Life is painful. Life is good.