but I think I may be on my way to becoming a morning person.  UGH!  I am so NOT a morning person!

But I'm finding more and more that the "key" to me loving my husband well and caring for my girls well is time with the Lord to start my day.  (Who is surprised? Not me!) I need to be able to focus on HIM and seek HIS wisdom before the craziness begins!

I never thought I would say this -but it seems I'm turning into a morning person.  

It's okay, I haven't given into coffee.... yet!

Flashback to February 4, 2006.  The UW-Eau Claire Navs were having a prayer retreat with special guest, Vic Black. Vic leaned over to Katie Hubbard and said, "How could a guy like Noah Haas not fall in love with a girl like Katie Rogers?"

At this point we were not dating, nor did anyone (ourselves included) ever imagine we would.

7 years, 5.5 years of marriage and 2 kids later on February 21, 2013, Noah Haas and Katie (Rogers) Haas gave their first-ever joint talk on dating and marriage at the Illini Navs weekly Nav Night.  

WOAH!!

And to top of this cool story- today Noah and 50+ students from the Illini Navs are in Decatur, Illinois for a prayer retreat featuring special guest, you guessed it- VIC BLACK!

God works in mysterious ways! 

We would appreciate your prayers as students seek to get away from campus (and the distractions of their daily lives) to seek the Lord together in prayer this weekend.  

I am home with the girls (Bringing a 1 year old an an infant to an all-weekend PRAYER retreat just didn't seem like the best idea!)  Thankfully my parents should be here any minute- they've come to help me out for the weekend so that Noah can be fully present at the retreat and not worried about us!

Praise the Lord for His great work in our lives, and the lives of many, many students!

Call us crazy.

We make it a point to discuss issues in the arena of sexuality each year.  There's such a tremendous need for guidance and biblical wisdom in this area -- otherwise it is so easy to be blown to and fro by the changing waves of our culture's opinions.

This year we decided to change it up.  We solicited questions, except the guys directed questions to the female staff, and the girls directed questions to the male staff.

We received lots of interesting and thoughtful questions.  Here's a sample of a few of the questions we (attempted to :) tackle:

• What are appropriate boundaries to have in a dating relationship?
• Why do you want to get married?
• What role should sexuality play in a dating relationship?
• What percentage of guys struggle with various sexual sins?  (ie. masturbation, pornography, fantasy, etc)
• Is it appropriate to be best friends with the opposite sex that you have no intention of dating?
• What is the role of physical appearance in deciding to date someone?

Whew!  Some of these the bible speaks directly to, and others, more indirectly.  But God's Word is relevant for all of life- and thankfully so!  Our students' questions are important and real.

Please pray that God would continue to develop and heal our students' sexualities according to His design, that He would be glorified, and they would be blessed.

-Noah

I've been recalling all week how last Valentine's Day was the first time I got Ellie's hair into a "ponytail", and now a year later her hair is half way down her back! WOW!!

One year ago, I had one Valentine's Day sweetheart, and this year I have TWO!

Ellie has referred to Josie as "baby" since she was born.  This week Ellie started saying Josie a few times!! Josie is SO close to giggling, but not quite. She continues to be a happy girl- loving to watch her big sister!  Ellie is learning her numbers! Today she was stacking blocks and "counting".  Six and ten are her favorites :)  Tonight she would repeat Noah as he counted to 10.  Too fun!  

1 John 3:1
See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! 

Thank you Jesus for showing us what true love is!
Happy Valentine's Day!

As I mentioned awhile back, I'm co-leading a Tuesday morning Bible study with 7 women on campus.  This isn't your typical inductive study, this is a purity study entitled Into the Light.  It is not a replacement for our typical Navs Bible Studies, it is an additional optional study for women who are interested. (They've got to be pretty interested to get up and to the union at 7:30 am!! They are college students after all!)  It's purpose is to help women learn how to invite Jesus into the place of pain and brokenness in their lives. When these dark places are left un-dealt with, they often manifest themselves in the forms of enslavement to different kinds of sexual sin and impurity, anxiety, and depression.

I was a bit intimated to help co-lead this study, but just three weeks in, I am already so grateful for this opportunity! It is a blessing to be a part of a small group Bible study on campus (as I haven't been involved in this capacity since the semester Ellie was born!) I also am so glad to be getting to know these women in a deeper way and able to love them as they process their pain. 

We have seen the Lord use this study in so many people's lives over the past few years.  We've had the privilege of watching students experience total life transformation, not just attempts at sin and behavior management.  The Lord is doing a redeeming work, and we are so grateful to be a part of it!!

The final question of this weeks study was "Identify one way in which you could cultivate non-sexual intimacy skills" 

One girl answered, "Discuss situations face to face"

While this may seem like a simple, 'duh?!' statement,  this was very profound.  

We are finding more and more each semester the need to help teach and train students to cultivate real friendships. We are seeing the need to help students live in the real world, face to face, not just screen to screen. These students so desperately want to be known, but find themselves hiding more and more than ever before, buried under shame, self-hatred, and layers of pain. In turn they are looking for something to fill their pain, this void that they are feeling. 

As each woman each shared what she was desiring, this is what I heard from the seven women around the table.... A desire....

-to be secure
-to be recognized
-to be good enough
-to be someone that people are proud of 
-to be accomplished
-to be wanted
-to be needed as a true companion

While we are living in a world where it is very tempting to live life behind a screen,  these women are aware that they need more than that. They need a deep and vibrant relationship with God, and they need each other.

One of the woman said it well, she said she was in this study because she is looking for "freedom from temptations that consume."  This freedom is only going to come through Jesus.

Thank you for partnering with us so that we can be here sharing Jesus with our students face to face .


-Katie

Growing up I remember my dad telling lots of people "Having one kid is playing house, two kids is real life"

I finally get this!

Ellie was like my little doll- if we were out and about she always had matching outfits, with accessories (hair bows or cute shoes).  The diaper bag was neat and stocked. We were playing house.

Now with Ellie and Josie - we're in real life!! We're in "get out the door while they are both happy even if it means the house is a disaster and all of supper is still on the table" stage.  To best describe what I'm talking about, I feel the need to post about our trip back home from WI yesterday.

(Times Approximate)
1:25 Arrive at McDonalds
1:26 I change J's diaper and go to the bathroom 
1:28 Noah orders ice cream for us
1:29 They don't have bibs for Ellie (and we don't have one either) so she uses a plastic bag tucked into her shirt to keep ice cream off of her
1:30 Katie feeding Josie
1:33 Ellie's spoon falls on floor, I give her mine. I don't need ice cream anyway.
1:35 Josie spits up- I try to clean that up
She spits up more
I go to feed her again
1:36 Josie has blowout diaper
1:37 I'm back changing her diaper AND her outfit
1:40 As I go to walk out of bathroom Josie spits up again- all over me and the floor
1:42 Ellie is done with ice cream
1:43 Noah goes to change Ellie's diaper, not possible in men's bathroom
1:44 I tell Ellie to wait, I'll change it later. Still feeding Josie.
More spit up.
1:45 I continue to feed Josie and try to keep Ellie from running away while Noah goes to the bathroom
1:46 I decide I do want a few bites of ice cream, but I don't have a spoon.


I'll spare you from continuing this-- but I'll just say, we ran out of clothes and burp clothes for Josie, Ellie knocked over the "Caution/Wet Floor" sign, I went into the bathroom 6 times?? And it took us over an hour to make a quick stop- just feeding Josie and getting a little ice cream. 

2:35- Finally back on the road

 I told Noah, we have a great marriage, a relatively very well behaved 1 year old, and a content baby, what would this be like if those things weren't true?

All I can say, is we are living REAL life!   
And as crazy as it is, I love it!

-Katie