Reason for delay this week

I usually try to write a new post on Monday morning each week but I did not do that this week because I was waiting for some news to share. Now I can go ahead and tell...our son, Adam, has been notified that he has been accepted into the U.S. Secret Service! Merilyn and I are extremely proud of him. He's worked hard to achieve this goal. I've never seen nor heard of such a process for screening applicants. It has taken 15 months and has included numerous face-to-face interviews, two grueling polygraph exams, writing pages and pages of answers to questions, an extensive background investigation, and a rigorous physical examination. Adam will report to the field office in Oklahoma City on June 7 for several days of orientation, then to Washington, D.C. headquarters for a few days, then to the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center in Glynco, GA for several months, then to the Secret Service training facility in Maryland for several more months, and then back to Oklahoma City around the first of February, 2011 to begin work. He's excited and we are all overjoyed that the process is complete and he has achieved his goal!

This has kind of overshadowed everything else that has been going on in the past week or so, but we have received many excellent blessings from God in this time. Merilyn and Sarah came down from Arkansas and Adam came up from College Station this past weekend so we got to spend some time together and celebrate his news. We had an excellent worship service for Easter Sunday with nearly a 50% increase in our attendance.

Sarah and Blake are doing well. He is on day shift now with his police patrol and likes it better. He had his picture in the Springdale paper recently with his police car in a story about how Ford is going to quit making the Crown Victoria, which has been one of the more popular police cruisers of the past 40 years. I think Ford is going to start outfitting their Taurus for police work now. Sarah is enjoying her work at Decision Point and is looking into getting into a Master's degree program in social work through the University of Arkansas.

This is my week to go to Arkansas for a few days. I will leave tomorrow morning, have our Bible study group tomorrow night, and enjoy some time with Merilyn before returning to Ennis on Saturday afternoon. By the way, the bluebonnets are just starting to come out nicely so I will try to get out into the countryside and take some pictures to post next week. Have a great day! God bless!