Life Update

It seems like forever since I've posted on the blog, but once you hear about the whirlwind that has been the past few months, I believe you'll forgive me.

My last post was a narrative about a baseball road trip that served as my bachelor party. In that post I gave the impression that I was going to continue writing about that trip, and I'd still like to, but I'm notorious for beginning compositions that never get finished. I've gotten better at that over the past few years, but that might just be because I don't start that many big projects anymore. I did finish a China narrative that spanned three or four handwritten journals, but I still haven't got around to typing it up.

I won't say that the baseball trip was my last ridiculous, completely illogical adventure. I don't think that part of me will die as I grow older (I have a little over 10 more stadiums to get to). But it was a relief from the real-world pressures of a newly graduated, almost-married twenty-something. As of that trip, my search for permanent employment was a little like the baseball trip narrative: unfinished. And I was less than a month away from marriage to a girl that needs food, clothing, shelter--among other essentials--to survive. The next few paragraphs highlight the recurring theme God's faithfulness in the face of my unpreparedness.

About two weeks before the wedding, I got a call from a potential employer in Decatur who wanted to meet with me for a second interview. At this point, I was still entertaining the possibility of heading to Montana to help plant a church with my pastor. I was torn because I didn't want to get sucked into a professional routine that would suck the life from my heart, but I also didn't want to starve, and I didn't want to move away from Georgia without the unwavering certainty of God's call on my life.

Long story short, Montana never panned out. I can't say I felt a specific "calling" to take the job in Decatur, but the definition of a calling becomes more fluid when your choices are either winging it or taking the obvious bet that God provided. My purpose as a married man would be to provide a home for my wife, something I couldn't do by vascillating back and forth between uncertain prospects of employment.

The week before the wedding, I called the man who is now my boss to tell him that I would take the job as an reporter at an Internet-based international business publication called GlobalAtlanta. This would not be slave labor. The pay was competitive for a recent journalism graduate, and I would get to write, interact with the Atlanta international (most importantly, the Chinese) community and learn the tricks of the journalism trade outside the high-pressure environment of a newspaper. Permanent employment? Check.

With that item off the list, there was still that pesky problem of relocating while preparing for a wedding and honeymoon, which at this point were less than a week away. Luckily, my boss had given me until the beginning of July to start working. So, we decided that we would wait until after the honeymoon to find an apartment.

The wedding was beautiful, and only pictures can aptly describe the flower-soaked affair. My bride was stunning and spotless, and I have to admit that I got a little choked up while I stood at the altar and watched her come down the aisle. I sang her a song that I had written for her that week, and we said our vows under a flowery arch at Morningside Baptist Church in Columbus.

For our honeymoon we flew west to Arizona to spend a week in the desert. I don't have time to describe our itinerary in detail, but I will say that we spent much of our time in Phoenix, with visits to Sedona, the Grand Canyon and a one-night stop in Winslow at La Posada, an Spanish-style railway hotel just off old Route 66.

When we returned to Georgia, the world of pine trees and obligations, we used the next week to recover from our gluttony and find an apartment in Decatur. I've now worked three weeks for GlobalAtlanta, and we're still getting settled into our nicely sized one-bedroom. We still have yet to have a single weekend in Decatur. We've been coming to Albany so that I can finish the painting job I started in the spring semester.

We've got a long way to go in more ways than one, but as a wise sage once said, I highly recommend marriage. And Katy Williams and I look forward to discovering our purpose in Decatur and the world beyond our time in Atlanta.