"The Proposal"

Today was such a wonderful day. My brother, Adrian, propsed to his girlfriend, Tamesha, at church today. It was one of the most beautiful propsals ever. She had absolutely no idea. I wish my mom was here to witness the event. All of our family made it, both grandmothers, my dad, my uncle Eric, aunts: Dee and Valencia, my cousins: Deneshia, Grainne`, and Rynd, Tamesha's parents, Taurus and I, and a host of friends. It was such a wonderful event.

Because both Adrian and Tamesha are in the choir and love to sing, it only seemed fitting for Adrian to propose to her as the choir entered the platform. After all, it is where they first met. He worked things out so well. The choir normally enters the sanctuary and takes their places on the platform to get us ushered into the presence of the Lord. Adrian also is one of the key people who does our video announcements.

Well, everyone entered the platform except Adrian. He went to the entrance of the sanctuary to await his cue. Adrian went through the weekly video announcements and at the end, he said that he wanted to take the opportunity to tell Tamesha how much she meant to him. He then asked her to "be his queen". As the video played, Adrian walked down the center aisle and then onto the platform, arriving just after the video ended. He then took the microphone and said so many wonderful things about Tamesha. My eyes welled with tears. He got on one knee and formally asked her to marry him. It was so romantic. She had no idea. She said "YES" of course. They kissed and the whole church was cheering. Then Pastor Kelly had everyone stretch out their hands toward them in agreement as he prayed a blessing over their engagement and their marriage.

Make Your List .... Check it Twice

This is the time of year when children write their letters to Santa of what they want for Christmas. They write those letters expecting to receive them under their Christmas tree on Christmas morning. They have an expectation and no one can tell them they won't get what they are asking for because they believe they will receive. Santa Claus is a person the world made up to replace God. He is the One who gives all gifts and He gives them freely to all who ask. If a parent knows how to give good gifts how much more is God able to give?

I challenge you today to sit down and make out a list of everything you want: things that you want physically, spiritually, financially, and personally ~ leave nothing out. When the list is complete you need to anoint it, pray over it, and then release everything on that list to the Lord. Come to Him just as your children would come to you with. When you write these things down believe that you receive them and wait expectantly for them. He will give all things to those who believe and expect them to be fulfilled.


God desires to show up, show off, and receive all of the glory! Children wake up Christmas morning, unwrap their gifts, and then brag about what they received to everyone. All of this for a person that was made up to replace our God. It is now time for God to be bragged upon, not some make believe person! He desires to do all things for each and every one of us - we just need to believe and trust in the One who is the giver of all life.

Merry Christmas

Here's our 2008 holiday card

Update on Mom

Mom is doing great. I spoke with her tonight. She's finally adjusting to the 9 hour time difference. The first week she was only getting 1 hr. of sleep a night. Her body is finally starting to adjust and she's gotten at least 4 hrs each night. She says all is well. She usually goes in at 6 am and doesn't get off until about 10 pm. She's working a lot. They sent the right person though. If you have a job that needs to get done, Gail is the person to do it. I've always admired that about her.

She said that the living arrangements are not bad. She has her own space. She said that the food was not bad either. In fact, when I asked her what she had eaten, she told me that she had a turkey wrap from Cheddar's that they have on base. She's pretty safe too. All of the work that she is doing is on the army base where she's staying so she's pretty protected. I thank God for that.

Dad and Adrian are fairing okay, I guess. I have to check on them and make sure that they are eating, especially dad since he's diabetic. I try to cook for them at least once a week. You know how men are. They'll eat fast food everyday. Adrian's been on his own and is a pretty good cook but he's been so busy these days, he hasn't much time for cooking. Dad can eat cereal anytime so I have to make sure he's eating a well balanced diet. He calls me the "warden". I wear my badge with pride.

We're sending mom a package tomorrow so that she can have a few comforts from home for Christmas. I sure wish she could be here for Madison's 1st Christmas but duty calls. She should be back stateside on January 10th. Continue to keep her in your prayers. I'll give ypu more updates soon.

Trinity in her new glasses

King Family Update

I just thought that I'd write to give you a brief update on what's been happening in the King family.

Ms. Trinity had her 1 yr. follow-up appt. from the eye surgery that she had last year. Her eyes have healed perfectly and there is absolutely no sign of eye turn so the surgery was a success. However, upon further examination, it was determined that she has astigmatism.

If you're not familiar with it, astigmatism is a very common vision condition. Most people have some degree of astigmatism. Slight amounts of astigmatism usually don't affect vision and don't require treatment. However, larger amounts cause distorted or blurred vision, eye discomfort and headaches. Trinity has been having lots of headaches and a bit of eye discomfort so, she will be wearing glasses. She's not too thrilled about it but we picked out some really cute purple wire frames and she got to pick out a Hannah Montana case. If you speak to her, please encourage her and let her know how cool she looks in her new glasses.

Trinity has also been having some asthma related issues, coughing & wheezing, so she now has a nebulizer at home and we're giving her breathing treatments twice a day, at home to keep her symptoms under control. She thinks it's cool so she doesn't mind at all.

Ms. Madison is doing well. She just had her 9 month check-up and she is a whopping 23.4 lbs. Yes, that's right. She's also 28 1/4 inches long. She's wearing a size 12 month clothing and even some 18 month clothing. She's really growing but the doctor says she's just fine considering she was nearly 9 lbs at birth. She's eating solid foods and we're starting to cut back on the amount of formula she's drinking. The transition from breast milk to the bottle was a pretty smooth one so I'm hoping this next transition will be as well. She drinks well from her sippy cup so we will be transitioning to that instead of the bottle very soon so that she will be off the bottle by the time she reaches 1 yr. old. She's taking more steps daily (none w/o holding on yet). It's fun to see her develop. She has her 2 bottom teeth and her upper gums are swollen so we know that her top teeth will be in soon.

Taurus and I are well. The Lord has given him a vision to start his own online magazine to empower African-American fathers. President-elect Barack Obama has really inspired him. He has lots of great ideas and is getting favor with a lot of people to help bring this vision to pass. The process has begun and it is so exciting. We are praying for advertisers to get on board so please stand in faith with us for this. Look for an email in the next couple of months when he officially launches the site. He hopes to be up and running by February, black history month.

I am thankful for all of God's many blessings. We ask God for peace and prosperity for all of you during this holiday season. May the Lord continue to richly bless you.