Train, Train, Train…

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I can’t help but look up and thank God for his mercy and love towards me. First He gifted me the perfect wife, and now he gifts me with a new life quickly growing in her belly.

One of my favorite quotes is by boxer Joe Frazier. He said:

“You can map out a fight plan or a life plan, but when the action starts, it may not go the way you planned, and you’re down to your reflexes – that means your training. That’s where your roadwork shows. If you cheated on that in the dark of the morning, well, you’re going to get found out now, under the bright lights.”

I have used this as inspiration for my professional life and personal accomplishments. It wasn’t until this weekend I realized that this also applies to our spiritual life. My brother asked me “are you guys ready for the baby?” I confidently said “yes.” Sarah and I have been training to hit the rounds of parenthood.

We both constantly train to strengthen our marriage. We practice kindness and compassion towards each other and the world.  In order to be strong parents, we must have a healthy marriage. Not a perfect one per world standards, but a biblically healthy and strong marriage.

We have surrounded ourselves with model parents and their kids. We have learned from them how to communicate, mold and discipline kids. Watching eighteen 2-3 year old kids on a Friday night (during church) is no sweat for us!

So are we ready to be parents? Of course not, parenting will be a new school for us.  Our training will be constant and devoted, our love will be patient and kind, and our commitment will be unmovable.

I thank God for my rocking wife and our future baby. I will pour my heart and soul to constantly train to be a great husband and now to be a great dad. I will not cheat on my training in the dark of the morning, I will focus on strengthening our family.

There is never enough preparation for anything we do, after all Mohammed Ali (the best boxer of all time) once said,

“Champions are not made in the ring, they are just recognized there.“

I’m really pregnant

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Even though I’ve been pregnant for 15 weeks now, it just started feeling real. Not talking about it for the first three months kind of made it kind of seem like it was all just a dream.

I started making the announcements last week. First, I talked about it will all my relatives at Easter. I got to swap stories with my three other cousins who are also pregnant right now!

When I got back to work, I had the conversation I was most nervous about – I closed the conference room door and told my new boss.  She offered me a promotion to join her team and I moved into her department  about a month ago. She’s a great boss, but I just didn’t know how she would react. She squealed and jumped up to hug me…so no concerns there!

I told my team and all my cube neighbors the next day. Even though I haven’t been on the team very long, everyone responded with such genuine enthusiasm for us. They’ve been asking me questions about pregnancy, how I’ve been feeling, etc. “Are you going to find out if you’re having a boy or girl?” is probably the most common question. (For the record, the answer is yes, we will find out the first week of June.)

Of course, we had to make it FBO – that’s Facebook Official. On Wednesday night, we used the ticket I made (previous post) and put it up on the Internet for the whole world to read. You can’t get any more official than that!

Before, I could hardly talk about the pregnancy because only my immediate family and close friends knew. Now that everyone I know is in the know, it’s pretty fun to get excited about it!

He is Risen

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It’s Easter and yes, I do love Peeps and jelly beans…but that is not what I celebrate. I’m celebrating the resurrection of Jesus Christ. I think that in the past, I have mostly focused on the salvation that the cross represents. Jesus died on the cross to pay for my sins. And I am so thankful for that.

This year, I’m also thinking about the cross as a visual representation of love.  Love is why Christ died. For me – and for you. He love each one of us so deeply, so completely, so fully that he sacrificed himself to make a way for us to go to heaven.

This kind of love, described in Ephesians 3:17-19, is hard to grasp:

Then Christ will make his home in your hearts as you trust in him. Your roots will grow down into God’s love and keep you strong. And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is.  May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God.

If you don’t know the love and salvation that comes from knowing Christ, please ask Rafael and I about it. We would love to tell you about it!

Super sugary sweets

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Spring has been sweet in the Soriano house!

Rafael used his super skills to create a sweet bridal shower invitation for a very special bride-to-be – my sister, Jennifer. He combined the invitation, recipe cards for the guests to fill out and extra cards for Mrs. Tobin.

I started getting ready for our family’s Easter gathering tonight by making some fun Easter egg nests.

Sugar high!

Opening our home

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I’ve been thinking a lot about being hospitable lately. We’ve had a lot of opportunities to open our home to our church family. In 1 Peter 4:9, it says “Show hospitality to one another without grumbling.” Check. No complaining here 🙂

We started hosting the South House every other Sunday for house church. It is fun to fill up our space with folding chairs and kids and 15-25 fellow Rockers.

(Sitting behind two special ladies at house church last week.)

When we moved into our home, we thought it was funny that we didn’t have enough furniture to fill up two living rooms – one upstairs and one downstairs in our new house. That has turned into a blessing because it just means we have more open space to accommodate our guests.

Also, when we got our home, we committed that it would be the Lord’s. That made it very easy to say yes when this opportunity came up. (The saints who usually host are in the middle of a high-risk pregnancy and the mom is on extended bedrest.) We were so thankful to God for giving us our home that we knew we would use it for His purposes.

We have been spending a lot of time around our home lately, so I suppose that’s why I’ve been thinking about it lately. I’ll be looking for other opportunities to open our home and show hospitality.

Our neighbor brough us over some daffodil bulbs and I planted them in the front yard. Hopefully they make it though the late-April snow so the pretty yellow can continue to greet our guests!

Patience and trains

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We went to Iowa last weekend for some much needed family time. We split the time between two hospitals – grandma was in New Hampton, recovering from a stroke, and my sister was in Decorah after giving birth to a beautiful baby boy. Everyone is doing well.

When I woke up Saturday morning at my parent’s house, the house was quiet. Dad had already left for work and mom was sleeping off three nights of taking care of loved ones in various hospitals. My brother? He’s still a teenager that doesn’t much care to get out of bed before noon. I snuck out to the garage and got into my parent’s car. Like usual, they left the keys in the ignition, so I backed out and headed to town.

I took my time driving through the streets I know so well. I grabbed some breakfast then took the side roads to the post office to drop off the letter that had accumulated in the backseat. I actually parked the car, got out, walked inside, said hello to a postal worker and dropped mail into an outgoing mail slot. I drove by the old houses my friends used to live in and continued towards home.

I heard the familiar whistle before I even reached Old 63, the narrow road that leads to my parent’s house. I slowed to a stop…and actually had to wait for a train to pass by.

The ground shook a little as I sat in the car and waited for at least 100 train cars .

I honestly can’t remember the last time I waited for a train. In Minneapolis, trains go under the road and occasionally above it. When I’m driving up 77 or down 35W, I never have to stop for a train. In fact, I didn’t even notice that they run under the road until this past week when I was thinking about writing this post.

Waiting for a train made me reflect on how short my patience has gotten – maybe because I don’t have to wait for trains or general engage in any activity that involves making me wait for something. I expect to drive everywhere quickly; I expect my phone to connect me to the internet instantly; I expect to get what I want, when I want it.

But not so with the train in New Hampton. I had no choice but to wait. I rolled down the windows, breathed in the cool spring air, and asked God to grow me in this area. I have no doubt he’ll have me wait for more trains as he grows me in this area.

Act of worship

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Hello! I’m sorry I have been MIA lately. I haven’t been feeling too well, but more on that another day.

We had house church last night, like we do every second and fourth Sunday of the month. Last night was a little different; instead of our usual location, we opened the doors of our house to about 35 Rockers. At the home where we usually meet, a very sweet woman is on bed rest. She is only in her 24th week of pregnancy – much too early for the contractions to start. Rafael and I agreed to host the South House through the end of the year so that she can get the rest she needs.

We spent much of Sunday preparing for our church family to arrive. We cleaned and moved furniture. We brought in chairs, sound equipment, paper plates and quiet toys. We were efficient and quick. We got done in plenty of time for me to practice the worship songs with the guitarist and drummer.

The message was fitting to what Rafael and I had been doing throughout the day. Our speaker was the husband of the woman on bed rest. He talked about how hard it is for her to be still and not serving, but at this time, it’s her spiritual act of worship (like described in Hebrews 12:1). Her act is doing nothing, except for being still and growing God’s child within her.

When Rafael and I talked after the message, we both were thinking the same thing – getting ready for house church is our spiritual act of worship! This sounds strange, but it is almost fun cleaning toilets and mopping the floors when you know you are doing it for the Lord. Our worship started long before our brothers and sisters arrived and we started singing worship songs. It began when we chose to serve, joyfully, in the way God called us.

I like thinking about Hebrews 12:1 and spiritual acts of worship in this way. Just because it’s not a “traditional” way to worship, doesn’t make it any less valuable. What is your non-traditional spiritual act of worship?

Hey, good lookin’

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I just had to share these cute photos I snapped with my phone –

Here is Jennifer Lila, helping me make noodles today.They were tasty!

These are some cute ones I caught of my sweetie when he was shooting things himself.