tides and nerds

6 years ago I walked the halls of the west columbia stake building with a man similarly built to my own frame who was a few years ahead of me. His name: chris lincoln. chris has been like a brother since I was 18. I remember he nearly shed tears when I left for the dominican republic and we departed ways with his giving me some ammodium, he said I'd need it. Before I left he issued a statement: "jacob, if I'm not married by the time you get home...(I cant remember how it ended)" and to me, the statement didn't make much sense. 2 years of quality missionary time later, I return to find a single chris lincoln. my first year home was chris's last year in school, and we never saw each other. he seemed to be married to his school work and always working, and again like before, I didn't quite understand. Chris graduated, I attended an honorary recognition for his achievements and he was off to a new place. Around the same time I became friends with a man slightly larger than myself. His name: brad terry. I was a couple years ahead of him. We had been like brothers. I remember when he departed ways for cambodia, I nearly shed a tear and issued an all too familiar statement: "brad, if I'm not married by the time you get home...(I cant remember how it ended)" and to me, the statement that chris had issued earlier, made perfect sense. Brad returned some 2 years of quality missionary time later to find a single jacob edwards. (note: brad got married quickly after returning) With brad home, I have found myself dying over school work, and always working in between and suddenly I caught an understanding of why chris made like a character in a cheap edwards brothers film and disappeared, but rarely came back. I think it's funny how I've been on both sides of almost the exact situation and while on one I couldn't quite understand and the other, I could see everything. Interesting. Anyway, I am currently battling for excellence in 19 hrs worth of classes and wake up at around 3:30 am to get to work in the mornings. Never have things been so challenging...however, I'm passing every class right now and have an A in one of them (big deal). I pray for a miracle almost everyday and I see at least one everyday, the other day I got hit with three in a matter of hours. three! I find myself praying everyday now to see the miracles, and ideally as it may sound, I'm seeing them with ease. moral of the stories- pray to see things, pray for miracles, pray. and after you pray-praise. like a familiar mc hammer ballad: "you've got to praise."

I guess I should provide an update since the last post which happened a while ago:
since then, I've fallen madly in love with brittany and we're engaged to be married on july 29th. Brittany is the driving force in my scholastic's and largely the reason I can bare waking up on sometimes only 3 hours of sleep to go to work and then follow it with school all day long. the ford focus exploded due to edwards luck and its former owner. I lost thousands over the whole deal. Will was nice enough to buy a car and give me the one of dad's that he had been driving, for me use, and allow me to get by with the rest of my funds for wedding and married things. I'm driving a 95 corolla with over 306,000 miles on it, and it drives better than most porsche's I believe. My miracle counts tends to be higher than normal folks because it cranks each time I get in it. amidst ample stress, no sleep, and driving all over south and north carolina, I'm happier than I've ever been in my life. I hope the same for you.

ps- in case you were wondering chris lincoln is on the marriage path as well, I guess we'll be trying to understand raising kids simultaneously.