So I clicked on find people by accident and to my suprise, it gave a listing of "suggested friends" - So it was funny to me that Josh was a 15% match??? whatever that means - just a funny thought.  I think we're a good match:)

Steph

So I realized its been a while since I've written somethign on here, I've tried a few times a work, but I was interrupted and the computer logged off before I could get back to it.

Things are good out here in Raleigh, seems more normal now, though we still miss home very much. Its was very different being out here on Christmas with no family. But we enjoyed the time together - though I think Josh got a little bored while I was working. You can take a look at the pictures - there's one where he's one the couch being all sad:(!!!! I had to work 5 nights in a row, with Christmas in the middle, so I felt terrible that he was here all by himself while I was at work. We survived though - as we always do.

We hope to make it to TN sometime soon, though we're not sure exactly when yet. And we would always love for you guys (girls) to come and see us! I know I can't wait till Amber, Sarah, and Lauren come in March!!! WOHOOO. It will be fun.

And just to verify some gossip that I think has been going around - yes, Josh IS getting a kayak - he's been begging since before we got engaged - and the time is finally here. So needless to say, he's been in a pretty good mood these past few day!

We also have some friends that just moved to Raleigh/Wake Forest for seminary. One of my best friends from high school - and our other best friend from high school moved out here in August. So the three of us are out here in a little random town of Wake Forest, 8 hours aways from Hendersonville TN. Kinda crazy, but I think God knew that we needed each other adn a litttle part of "home" out here in NC.

Love to all -

Stephanie

So we got our first Christmas tree last night. It was quite an experience. We went to this little place right down the road from our apartment and turns out it was a youth group selling trees to go on a mission trip to NYC. We were very excited to help support them (and in turn get a Christmas tree).  There's nothing like a real tree at Christmas. Our little apartment actually has a Christmas smell now, its quite nice. So to follow my old traditions as a child (well, even last year I guess) - we decorate the tree and watch a Christmas movie. We chose Elf probably b/c its the FUNNIEST christmas movie in the world and we both love that movie (even though my favorite Christmas movie is The Preachers Wife - if you havent seen it - go rent it cause its a good one). So now working on Christmas doesnt seem so bad since it actaully feels like Christmas around here.  Hope you enjoy the pictures. Hope to hear from you soon.

Steph (and Josh)

So I can't wait b/c Josh and I are coming home in the morning. YAHHH!!!! I love Thanksgiving more than any day of the whole year. Its just time to sit, eat, and enjoy being with family. We have to do the whole splitting time between the families this year though, which is totally a new thing, but it will be good and I'm definately excited about spending the holidays together this year. We will be in the boro on sat/sun and so we will be at Belle Aire on Sunday morning - Can't wait to see you all.

The job is going well. Just still hating the working nights part of it. Its 0221 and my body says  - GO TO BED - but my job says - STAY AWAKE!!! Its making havoc of my body. My days are all thrown off and I seem to always be exhausted. I was up for 38 hours the other day - I was fianlly in zombee mode. It was no fun at all.  I had my first experience with the death of a child recently. One of our kids that I had taken care of many, many times on my orientation and whom I had grown attached to passed away last week. He had a long fight with cancer and lost here on earth, but I know that he is wtih Jesus now, free from his pain. Its still sad though and it was so hard to watch him die.  He was so scared, as we all are to some degree. He told us one night that he didnt want to die b/c he didnt  know anyone in Heaven and thought he wouldnt have any friends. (we soon reminded him of two of our other kids that passed awwy that he had grown to know during his stay at the hospital.). So that brings me to the point that God has been teaching me about why He has me at this job. Many of the people that I work with are bitter toward the Lord b/c they see so many chldren here suffer and in pain and eventually loose their battle. None of these chldren deserve it, but in the human minds, they can't understand why God woudl put kids through this either. Sometimes I dont understand it. Its kept me up a few nights just thinking why this happens to kids - but them I'm quickly remineded that God is soverign and His character is unchanging. He knows better then we do His big picture. I'm learning not to question that but to just know that that He is God. So I know that He has me at this job to share that message with others and to share joy as well.

Anyway, thats enough of all that. Things in Raleigh are great - we will see you all on Sunday I hope:)

Stephanie

So the honeymoon is over and we've started back to working and all the things that happen with "life".  Its kind of a sad thing when you realize that one chapter of your life is over. We had so much fun with our engangement and all the wedding festivities - now is on to married life. Which, has turned out to be quite an adventure as well. We're still learning to live with each other and learning more about each other every day. Its a great thing! Josh's teaching has slowed down a bit, especially when he realized it was almost Thanksgiving and then after Thanksgiving, it wasnt much longer til Christmas break. He's done with Cross Country, which means that he can get home earlier in the afternoon now and we can spend a little more time together. My job is still going well though at times I hate it and I want a normal job, with normal hours. The whole working nights thing is still rough hon my body - I really never know what day or time it is. There's no routine in my life.
 We have been able to start going to a small group at the church we go tto here. It was really nice last week, we got to hang out with people our age and feel like we actually have some friends our here. God has definately been teaching me alot about leaning on Him for companionship and for His friendship. Most of the time its just me and Josh and that is much different for us than when we lived in Murfreesboro and seems we always had something to do or someone to hang out with. So this has been a big adjustment for us. And then there's Christmas - oh, I wont say too much cuase I might start crying - at the thought that I wont be home for Christmas this year witth my family. I'm workign five straight nights from christmas eve on. Josh will be here alone and that makes me sad. And it makes me sad that  I wont get to see my family this year. Okay, I'm done. Well, I just wanted to post a little update on how the Carrolls are - so we're great and would love to hear from you! Keep in touch.

Stephanie and Josh

I've posted some of our honeymoon photos- don't worry guys, they're all G-rated. As many of you know, we went to Jamestown, RI. We visited Newport, RI one day which we could actually see from the bed and breakfast we stayed in. We also went to Boston one day which was only about an hour and a half away. The weather was quite chillly - though not too bad if we could stay out of the wind. It was a beautiful place to go during the fall. The leaves were amazing. And so with fall being my favorite time of year, it was definately the perfect place to go for our honeymoon. Our room overlooked the harbor and the Newport bridge which was quite an amazing site at night with all the boats and lights. Anyways, hope you are all having a great day. We miss you all in Murfreesboro!!!!! Please keep in touch. We love you guys.

Josh and Steph Carroll:)

Hey everyone!!!

Thanks to all that were able to come to the wedding!!! It was perfect and Josh and I had a wonderful time. Our wedding photos from our photographer are up on the web now so if you're interested in taking a look, go to www.pictage.com - the event code is "harrell" if it asks for one. Thanks again and I'll post more later.

Stephanie

So Josh and I are getting married in FOUR days! Crazy huh!

So I'm not much good at coming up with titles for these blogs, so I'll just keep repeating til I think of something more clever.

Its been a good week here in NC. Josh and I are counting down the days now. Its only two weeks from Saturday! Things aren't slowing down much here, I'm getting more stressed out as the day nears. I've been able to keep myself cool until now and I'm begining to realize that there are alot of things that still need to be done. So how funny God is, this mornign my quite time was out of Matt 6 in which God tells us not to worry and it was a great reminder to me that if He provides for the birds or the air, He will definately provide for me. Its amazing to me that its the simple things that speak so loudly some times.

Another thing that God has taught me thtis week is about Joy. The church we went to this week, the preacher spoke on Joy and how we have such inexpressible joy as Christians. God began to softly speak to me about the joy in my life. It is clear to me the reasons for inexpressible joy, but why dont we live as joyful people all the time. I have begun to pray that God would make me the mostt joyful person that those in my life here know. I want thos that I work with to see the joy that Christ provides. It has been a rough week at work. THe little guy I was telling you about earlier, Asher, he died this week. It was a sad day and it kinda hit me hard b/c it was the first kid I'd taken care of to die. I want God's joy to shine even through saddness.

I hope you are all doing well. Again, I miss you very much - and I love hearing from you! Keep in touch.

Steph

So the weather here is beginning to cool off a bit, but not as much as I'd like. Fall is the best time of year and I definately wait for some cooler weather to come our way. Josh and I have been going to the Falls Lake often and enjoying the hiking and other things tthere are to do there. Its a great shaded place to run too! THough I must say, I do miss the Greenway - I havent found anything similar here yet, though I'm sure it exists.

So an update on how things are going in the lives of Josh and Stephanie. We're under 4 weeks now!! Can you believe it! Its seems like just yesterday we startred dating. When Josh said the ohter night that it was four weeks away - it hit me, "oh my, I'm almost married!!" It hasnt seemed to close until now. My job is going well. Last night was my first night on my own, I'm no longer on orientation. So things are offical now - I'm a full-fledged nurse. Quite scary. I was quite nervous lastt night going in there knowing that I was responsible for two of these really sick kids. Oh, and if you would say a prayer for the kids on our unit. We are going through a rough spell and mnay of our kids are going downhill quickly. On in particuler, his name is Asher and he is very sick. He hasn't been given long to live. I've taken care of him a few times and he is the sweetest little child. His mom and dad are having a hard time. On another note, Josh's job is going well. He is still enjoying coaching. His team had their first race this past weekend and they did better than expected. I think now Josh expects more out of them:)

Another continued prayer request as Josh and I conintue to find a church home here in Raleigh. We are also praying for some people in our lives to help us with accountability and in growing in our relationships with the Lord. We appreciatte all your prayers and can't wait to see some of you soon. Josh and I will both be home the weekend of Oct 1 for CHris andEmily's Wedding. I am not going to be able to make it, sadly. The ladies from my parents SUnday school class planned a shower for me at the same time. But Josh will be there! I'm sure he will be glad to see you all. Please keep in touch!

Stephanie

So we're just over 5 weeks now untitl the big day! I must say I can't wait! It has been so amazing to me as i've been thinking lately about all the things in my life that God has orchestrated together to make this day happen. God had it all planned from the beginning and so many times I tried to rush things or make things happen on my own agenda. As I've sat back and watched God unfold His plan in Josh and my life, its been incredible! To all the girls out there that need encouragement - Just put your trust in the Lord and lean not on your own understanding, but in all your ways - Acknowledge Him and He will make your paths straight!!!! It is totally worth every heartbreak and heartache and frustation when you see God's plan unfold in your life and see what an amazing man God has picked out for you!

Work is going pretty good, though I got stuck on three weekends in a row - which was quite dissappointting since Josh has off on the weekends and thats when we usulaly see the most of each other, but I must suck it up for now since I'm still on orientation and must follow someone else's schedule. The kids there are great! Many of these kids have been in the hospital for months now and the attitude that they have is amazing!!! They are so sweet their smiles make the 13 hour days bearable!

Josh's job is going well. He started practice last week. He had almost 40 middle schoolers come out for cross country!!! I think he was quite suprised that he had that many show up. Thats a lot to kids to keep up with I'm sure, but I know that he is doing an amazing job with them. I think he's getting the hang of teaching too! He has to spend quite a bit of time on his lesson plans an such, but it will get easier as the school year goes on.

Please continue to pray for us as we are still seeking out where God wants us to join a church. We love you all very much and would love to hear from you anytime! Keep in touch!

Steph

So I just got back from Tennessee - it was a short trip - too short to really make plans to do anything. But I did get to see a few of you M'boro kids!! Thanks to you that came to the shower Josh's mom had for me and Josh. My mom kept me busy the whole weekend, doing all kinds of wedding stufff - which is fun to an extent and now I've just come to this point where I'm just ready for it to be here. Some details just dont matter all that much and all that really matters is that Josh and I are together. So my advice to all - A SHORT engagement.

Anyways, so I'm sittting here in our new office/desk chair. We are definately movnig up in the world. I decided to use a gift card we got to buy us a desk chair to use while we are at the computer. THis may not seem like a big deal except that we have been using an amp with a blanket over it to sit at the comptuter. This isnt that bad for someone of my size, but Josh's height poses quite a problem with that. And even more ironically - he was typing a power point for his keyboarding class the other night about ergonomics when typing. When I realized that, I decided to get us a new chair!!! So a washing maching and a desk chair - you can see I'm having fun spending money over here in NC. Hopefully one day I can actually buy something fun.

I hope that you are all doing well and we hope to see you all soon. Keep in touch.

Steph

So, I'm sittitng here at the computer, trying to stay awake as long as I can - which, if any of you know me very well, you know that I'm a morning person, NOT a night owl. Well, then - you might ask - "why are you trying to stay up so late??" Well - I start my first string of night shifts (tthat is 7pm to 7am) for my new job. I've only worked two night shifts in my life and I'm not a fan. I'm terrible at trying to stay awake at night - so I'm trying to stay awake as long as possible tonight so that I can sleep most of hte day tomorrow. Hopefully by then I will be ready to work all night long. So after three nights of that I have EIGHT days off!! That, my friends, is the best things about working 3 days (or nights) a week. And so since I have 8 days off, I'm flying home for a few days to see my family and get some of the wedding stuff squared away!!! My mom has been doing alot of it since I moved - which has been a lifesaver!! Aren't moms the greatest!

SO just an update on how Josh and I are - we are doing good. We both had the weekend off so we decided to go hiking yesterday. But it was quite HOT and miserable out. We went with another couple that we know and we had alot of fun. Josh and Nate got off the trail (of course, boys do that, right!) and told us they would meet back up with us. So Megan and I kept hiking and occasionally we would yell at them and follow their voices to where we thought htey were coming from. Well, we thought we were getting farther away, but they kept telling us to follow the trail. So we kept going. Well after a while we felt something fall from a tree and Megan was like, "what in the world", but we were in the woods, so we just kept walking, then it happened again, and again and it was fishing bobbers - or whatever you call them!:) and next hting we know, we hear laughing. We look up and there are Nate annd Josh up in the top of this HUGE tall pine tree!!! It was quite funny however watching them try to get down. Funny - and scary - when it comes to stuff like that, I'm such a mom - I kept telling them to be careful. So that was the fun for that day.

Oh, but before that - we had our first real purhase as a couple!! We are the proud owners of a washer and dryer! So you know you're getting old when you get excited about a washer and dryer - but you just can't imagine the difference it makes to have one in your apartment!!! Just wait, your time will come when you will understand. Lets just hope that the next thing we buy is something fun tthough (Josh wants to get kyakks???)

Mr. Carroll (or Coach Carroll as he preferrs to be called) has startedd his job and is enjoying it - he finally has students at the end of this week. He had open house tonight. I went up to his classroom one day last week to help him get it ready for students - he had a lot of work to do!!! I think he's made progress though! Josh also starts seminary this week. We are really excited about it and I know that God is going to challenge us a great deal, as he already has begun to do here in our lives. Please continue to pray for us as we decide on joining a church. It is probably one of the most important decisions we can make right now and we just want tot be where God wants us.

So I hope you are all doing well. Email us anytime and let us know how you are doing! God bless

Stephanie

So i finally have a day off and just thought I'd update on how things are over in NC. Josh started his job yesterday - but still won't have students for another week. Now that August is here and everyone is starting back to school it reminds me that I'm an "adult" now, which isn't that great - bills, bills, work, bills, ect - well you get the picture. But life here is still good and Josh and I are enjoying the many things to do in a new city. As he wrote on his page, we went to the beach a few weeks ago - we're only hours away!!!!! There's also a state park a few miles from my apartment where we've gone running - not together of course ( I think Josh ran 10 miles and I ran 2!). There's also a lake nearby that we have been wanting to go - and Josh is dying to go kyacking. Big suprise, I know. We've also found some good places to shop with just about any store that you can think of. However right now, we're both BROKE - so shopping isnt all that fun. So there has been plenty to do to keep us busy. As I wrote before, we've been going to a church here and are really enjoying the teaching and worship. The people are so nice and you can definately see that God is at work there. We continue to pray that God will lead us in the decision about where to get involved and where He wants us to be. There are alot of people in my apartment complex that go there and so it has opened up doors for us to meet people. We miss you guys so much and hope to keep in touch! I'm sorry I havent gotten to respond to your remarks you've left - once I figure out more how to use this thing, I'll get better about it - but know that I enjoy getting them and I read each of them! God bless you!

Steph

Hello to all Belle Aire youth (and graduates). I've finally had some time to download my pictures from the last night I was there. I would love to keep in touch with you all. I will try and write on here how things are going over here in NC. So far, things are going pretty good. I've gotten all moved into my apartment and have started my job - which I love:) and its nice now that Josh is here too. He's starting his job next week and seminary the week after that. God is continuing to work in us and guide us as we seek out His purpose for us here. We are looking for a church right now and have found one that we really like. Please pray that we will follow God as He leads. Thanks, and keep in touch:)

Steph