Monday, June 20, 2011

My first Father's day...

So hello all you amazing people that we know!  If you haven't heard yet, you might be able to deduct from the title above that Jessica and I are parents now!  We found out a few weeks ago that Jessica is pregnant and couldn't be happier.  Since this is me, Jesse talking I will let her share more of her experience some other time (or you can email her to get the direct scoop).  She has been doing wonderful, I don't think I have seen a new mother eat more healthy than she has been doing.  She has been super healthy without any morning sickness or nausea, she get's a little tired in the middle of the day but that is it, woohoo!!! It was a little surreal waking up this past Sunday and realizing that it was Father's Day, and that I am now a father.  The due date of Little Baby Skinner is in January.  I'll save the rest of the story for Jess to tell.

Whew...It's been awhile since we last updated.  We finished our first year at the ministry school we were attending and plan on doing another year.  Jess is hoping they will let her attend as long as she is able, whether she graduates or not that is yet to be determined.  Jess isn't that concerned with graduating, but she does want to be a part of the class as much as she can.  We have the summer off and plan on doing some traveling.  We leave for England on June 29th.  We will be ministering at a church in Chiswick (near London) with an amazing couple, Chad and Julia Dedmon for a few days then we'll head north to Harrogate in Yorkshire where we will be helping out an amazing couple, Tim and Sue Eldridge with a conference their church is putting on.  Mixed in there somewhere we will be hanging out with some friends from school who live in England (Catherine Pedley and Dave and Katrina Stevenson and maybe others).  I had a dream last October that we would be invited by the Dedmon's to London to minister with them, then just a few months ago, Chad and Julia asked us to go - it didn't take much thought to see that God was setting us up for something extraordinary.  This trip will nothing short of phenomenal, we are going to call the trip, Encountering Jesus Tour.  We are getting our expectations higher and higher ever day. 

One last thing to note, lately I have been getting really excited about seeing my dreams (the kind you plan to do in the future) fulfilled.  I wrote out a list of 75 dreams that I want to see fulfilled.  I decided that this can't be a list of "pipe-dreams" that never come to pass so I chose one of the dreams and started working to achieve it.  My first dream I chose was to take Jessica flying in a helicopter.  The last time I flew was for the Navy, almost four years ago.  I honestly didn't think I would ever fly again, though I knew I wanted to some day.  Well, after 10 hours of getting training and getting checked-out in a little civilian Robinson R-22 Helicopter, I took Jessica up for an hour long tour of Redding and surrounding areas.  We had a blast and even had the doors removed for our flight.  If you haven't fulfilled a dream of yours lately, it might be because you think you're too busy, or maybe you just can't think of any dreams that you have.  I encourage you to take time to start dreaming and begin a dream sheet, make a list of your dreams and start working on getting one accomplished.  The bible says that "hope deferred makes the heart grow sick, but a desire (dream) fulfilled is a TREE OF LIFE."  When you have a dream fulfilled in your life you literally are injected with liquid hope, and hope is like "Rocket Fuel" for your life.  Just watch what happens as you begin to dream...

Love you all

Jesse