Back To Clinton

Hey everyone, Daniel here.
I'm sitting in Phil Jackson International airport in Atlanta right now with heavy eyes. Its so funny how baseball will just move you sooooo quick. I mean I woke up yesterday to a warm smile and kiss in bed from my beautiful wife and this morning I woke up to two middle aged men on both sides of me in the middle seat of a red eye flight! The Mariners informed me yesterday around 3:30ish that I would be leaving that night on a red eye flight at 11:35 that will eventually end up in Clinton, Iowa to rejoin the Lumberkings. When I told Chelsea the news we were both a little bit flustered, but Chelsea really stepped up and got things done. She packed up all our clothing and belongings within one hour and was ready to drive home to California by 4:30. She then drove over to the Mariners complex where I was.... gave me my baggage, then we ran a few last minute errands... said our goodbyes and she was off, driving home by 5:30. I can't believe it!!! She is so amazing , she didn't complain once, just got everything done and was gone within two hours of first hearing the news. I am so blessed to have such an understanding wife when it comes to this crazy lifestyle I dragged her into. I love her so much and I don't think I can thank God enough for her constant love and support. Anyways she will hopefully be rejoining me in Clinton in about a week. I'm excited to get things going again and to get back into the game again. Thank you to everyone for all the prayers!

Great Game!

Hey Everyone!
So Daniel started playing in the Rookie Ball games out here in Arizona. Yesterday they had a game against the AZL Padres and Daniel went 3 for 6! With 3 RBIs- Praise God! The game ended up going into extra innings and in the bottom of the 12th with bases loaded... Daniel drove the perfect bunt down the first base line and the runner on 3rd scored, breaking the 2-2 tie and allowing the AZL Mariners to win!! So that was an exciting game, so just wanted to share it! We still do not know for sure when we will be leaving for Iowa.. Daniel was told maybe sometime within the week. So I'll be sure to post. Hope you all are doing wonderful!

Thumb Update

Hey everyone,
Sorry I didn't get a chance to get on yesterday and post, but great news- Daniel's thumb is all healed up!!! He's going to start playing in games out here in AZ this week and then we should hopefully be back on our way playing in the season again! Thank you for all the prayers, I'll be sure to keep you all posted on here.
Anyways, Daniel wrote an awesome devotional today so I thought I would share it on here (he said it was okay)... So I hope you all are blessed by it, I know I was. Enjoy:

Being a Letter of Christ, Don’t let You’re Ink Fade

II Corinthians 3:4-6
“ Clearly, you are a letter from Christ showing the result of our ministry among you. This letter is written not with pen and ink, but with the spirit of the living God. It is carved not on tablets of stone but on human hearts.”

As Christians, we are messengers of Christ. So if you will, imagine with me for just a moment that you are a giant envelope that is addressed “To: Everyone…From: God.” And that is the way you had to go about your everyday life, with arms, legs, a face and a giant envelope for a body with a beautiful letter inside of you. Can you imagine how many normal people would stare and wonder and ask what is wrong with you. I mean people would freak out and say.. “Hey what is going on ..you have a paper envelope for a body”. Then that is when you would say,“Here, I have a letter from Jesus for you.” That is the way we need to live our lives. As if we were that giant letter unto everyone else in this world mailed by Jesus. Every where we go we have a message to deliver for everyone we meet. It a message of love, that Jesus died on the cross and was risen from the dead for our sins. The Bible says that ‘out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks‘. Christ needs to be that abundance in our hearts everyday so that, the letter of His love and forgiveness in our own lives...written in our hearts… may be told. But ,I myself, have of lately found my letter to be almost non existent, which I’m sure is the case with most Christians. We let the ink of our beautiful letters fade and become a plain piece of paper. How can we as Christians ever let this happen? We are the messengers of the gospel. Now what good is a messenger with no letter? We must ask God everyday to forgive and forget our sins and make the ink of our letter even brighter then the shining sun. So why cant we live like a big envelope with a letter inside? Because we get too distracted! Here is the key; We need to lay everything of this world that doesn’t matter to the wayside and be those blatant unconcealed big letters from Christ in this world…with words that burn like fire through the spirit of the living God. We can never ever let our ink weaken and fade away ever again, we have a job to do. A message to be delivered!


Prayer: Heavenly Father, You are mighty and You are magnificent! You are righteous and unwavering, faithful and just. And for that I give you praise because you solely deserve it. Please Lord, forgive me of my unfaithfulness. I know you sacrificed so much on the cross so that I may live. Please awaken my heart and fill me with Your holy spirit. Please teach me to let my letter of your love in my life be shown unto others. Teach me to be a good messenger and give me boldness. May you rewrite my letter this day, make it fresh and brighter than ever. Start a fire in my heart that no one can put out. Amen.

God's Hands

Hello faithful followers! I can't believe it has been almost nearly 2 weeks since my last entry..

But here I am finally getting it going again....

So it's a little after 7 in the morning here and I'm all curled up in bed still. I was laying here just gazing out the window and am in awe of God's beautiful creation. I can hear the birds singing and see the leaves on the tress moving in the wind... I can feel the warmth beam of the sun hitting our room... I can see the clouds in all its different formations and shapes. How often do we just 'hold still' and look around us and praise God for the unfathomable creator He is? I know I'm guilty of doing it too little. Psalm 95:1‑7 "Come, let us sing for joy to the LORD; let us shout aloud to the Rock of our salvation. Let us come before him with thanksgiving and extol him with music and song. For the LORD is the great God, the great King above all gods. In his hand are the depths of the earth, and the mountain peaks belong to him. The sea is his, for he made it, and his hands formed the dry land. Come, let us bow down in worship, let us kneel before the LORD our Maker; for he is our God and we are the people of his pasture, the flock under his care."

Praise God!

Well we've actually been having a really great time out here in Arizona. I know were here under 'bummer' circumstances, but the Lord has just been showing us more and more that He is in control and we need to let Him be in control and trust in His plans for our lives. It's been a big learning experience; and I'm sure one we will never be able to fully master. Our flesh can be weak and it's so easy to 'doubt' God's plans for our lives, but it's been a huge reminder that our ultimate goal in life needs to always be JESUS. Our lives are in the hands of the CREATOR OF THE UNIVERSE... The same one who made all the beautiful things I see around me with just the command of His voice. How come we forget how BIG and how GREAT our God truly is? I know I put Him in a 'box' way too often, but I am so thankful to know that my life is in His hands, the Creator's Hands. Even if that means His hands are taking us places out of our comfort zone and out of our own plans. I wouldn't want to be in any other hands.

Well we've been loving our time with Will and Lauren. They are so much fun and we've really been blessed by them. Our days have been pretty ritual lately, Daniel and Will leave for the baseball field around 6 every morning and come home around 12 every day. Daniel and I bought an inflatable pool to keep cool in this Arizona heat so we've been in that a few times. Will and Lauren are big 'F.R.I.E.N.D.S' fans and we've officially been hooked! They have all the season DVDs, so we've been watching those. And I've been able to cook alot since we've actually been stable at a house. (during the baseball season, we're always in and out and getting home from games by 11 at night or are on road trips, so it's always hard to cook meals). So it's been fun to have some 'stability' these last few weeks, but I am getting excited to get things going again with the season. I think it will be a bitter-sweet feeling though because I am going to miss being here in AZ, but I am also just so excited to see what God has in store for Daniel and I. Daniel goes in for an X-ray today and we'll be able to find out more of the game plan and when Daniel should be back playing again (& I'll be sure to post the results).

Well I hope you all are doing wonderful and having a great day!!
I'll be back to post later after Daniel's Dr. appointment.

Memorial Day

The American Hero
by Roger Robicheau

The American Hero always comes through

To capture our hearts with a spirit so true
Some proudly are soldiers who march in harm’s way

Insuring our freedom, courageous they stay
While others come forth as civilians so brave

Determined in purpose, so steadfast to save
We should always keep clear a place in our heart

For each has a value beyond precious art
Their duty to country will not be surpassed

Please honor their courage, for some it’s their last
We live in a world which can be hard to bear

Thank God for these people, how greatly they care
Do ponder new heroes and what they will face

And pray for their safety no matter their place
Our heritage brings out the best, we all know

Our great book of heroes is destined to grow

I would like to honor the men and women who with bravery and sacrifice have fought/or who are currently fighting for this country... Thank You!

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So it's been about a week since my last entry.... We are still in Arizona and Daniel is continuing to go to the field everyday. The trainer told him yesterday that he should be out of AZ sometime between June 23rd thru the 26th. So that's exciting! We are currently living with our dear friends Will and Lauren, which has been a total blessing and alot of fun! Last week we were unsure of where we would stay and the Lord totally opened up the door for us to live with them while were here in AZ. (He always Provides). Anyways Will is with the SD Padres and is currently rehabbing himself. They are an awesome couple and we are just so happy it worked out for us to stay with them! Will and Lauren have the cutest French Bulldog named Piper and they've also been taking care of another minor league couple's Lab, Freddy. Plus our little Pixie is here too, so we have all 3 dogs of all different sizes. It's been fun to see them interact. Anyways I'll be sure to keep you all posted and updated on Daniel's recovery process. Thank you again for all the prayers :]

Back in Arizona

So I realized today that I have been to 6 states in the past 7 days... Illinois, Iowa, Colorado, Washington, California and now Arizona. Pretty crazy. But Seattle was absolutely amazing! We both loved it there! Our last night there we went to the Mariners/Red Sox game and it was such a blast! Great game for sure! Ichiro hit 2 homers, Elsbury almost hit the cycle.... so exciting! M's ended up winning! Such a neat experience!

Were still praising God that Daniel didn't end up needing surgery, that was such a surprise to us because he was already scheduled for surgery. He also didn't end up needing a cast either like we had thought. They ended up just giving him this cool looking sprint to wear on his thumb. Daniel refers to it as a 'transformers' looking thing. Thank you all for the prayers, this is truly an answer to prayer! The doctor said Daniel should be back playing in 4 to 5 weeks! :)

Well were here in Arizona now and I almost didn't make it here...

I flew into Cali on Saturday while Daniel flew straight to Phoenix. My parents are allowing us to borrow one of their cars while were out here in Arizona so we can get around while were here. So my plan was to fly to Cali and drive the car out here Sunday. I left around 10 in the morning yesterday, accompanied by our little puppy Pixie, and had a pretty smooth drive until I was about 15 minutes away from Peoria where I was meeting Daniel. I was driving on the highway and was about to switch lanes, but noticed last minute that there was another car in my blind spot that had been switching lanes at the same time at a very fast speed. I quickly tried to move back into my lane, but ended up losing complete control of the car. It was moving uncontrollably between lanes and my car ended up spinning completely around in a 180 degree circle until it came to a stop. And when it finally stopped, I was facing the on coming traffic. I am seriously praising God because they was no damage to my car or any other cars. The cars behind me were able to stop in time without hitting my car. It was seriously one of the scariest things I've ever experienced, but I know God had His angels around me. My car was in complete lock down when it stopped, but I was finally able to re start it and pull off to the side of the road. A very kind lady witnessed it all and pulled over to make sure I was okay and called the cops for me (she even said that "God must be with me".) Of course, I was very shaken up, I was very close to hitting the center divider. But was unharmed! Thank you Jesus! This lady stayed with me and comforted me until the police officer arrived and once the officer got there, I was fine enough to talk to him and let him know that there was no damage done or anything. I was able to drive off completely unharmed with no damage and I really believe that to be a miracle!

So in the midst of the tough times Daniel and I have been facing lately, there sure is a lot to be praising God about! Its amazing to think your life could end in any instant and at any moment. We all need to make sure that we are ready to stand before the face of God at anytime. I know it's easy to live in the moment and think death is only something in our future, but it is sure true that death can face us at any moment. Would you be ready to meet Jesus today?

No Surgery

So the results are in....

No Surgery is necessary!! Praise GOD!!

The Dr called this morning and told Daniel that they looked over the CT scan and have determined that surgery will not be necessary! We know the Lord has been hearing all those prayers and has been healing Daniel!! He said Daniel was very 'lucky' that the break didn't happen closer to his joints. But we know that God was watching over him and that it was not just a chance of 'luck'. Daniel will be getting a cast put on his thumb tomorrow and the recovery process should take about 4-5 weeks. He will be rehabbing in Arizona. We realized it will actually be a lot better for Daniel to rehab there because he won't have to worry about getting his treatment around game schedules and road trips. And he will really be able to rest and heal. So he should be back playing in no time. Keep the prayers coming please. We know Jesus is hearing them and answering them. He truly is FAITHFUL!!

Anyways, I love it here in Seattle! It is absolutely beautiful here! Daniel and I took a walk around Safeco Field today and it was so exciting! Were hoping to catch a game tomorrow night when the M's get in town. They're gonna be playing the Red Sox too!! Should be a good game!

SEATTLE

(View from our room: Safeco is RIGHT THERE!)