Additional Blessings...

If you're looking for truly momentous news, see the next post. If you're looking for just plain awesome news, keep on reading.

I've posted before that I have some back problems, occasionally debilitating back problems. A couple years ago when I had insurance (man I miss those days) I started working with an osteopath, and I was told I have a short leg and that difference in length has been messing with my back for years. So I started wearing a lift in my right shoe to compensate for that short leg. The hope was that the lift would eliminate the periodic episodes I would have wherein I couldn't walk as my back freaked out.

Well, I had my two most serious episodes (to the left is a pic of me standing up as straight as I can in my last episode. Please forgive the horrible MySpace-esque pic in the mirror. It was the only way I could get the picture where I was.) within the last year, and I decided the lift wasn't doing me any good so I stopped wearing it.

Now I've been working with my buddy Dr. Tim to correct the problem for good, and even though he was giving me a phenomenal deal on the adjustments, I don't have any wiggle room in my budget for this kind of treatment. A couple weeks ago Tim presented me with an 8 month corrective care plan which should bring my spine back to where it is supposed to be for a normal 29-year-old. The plan involves three times a week of therapy and adjustments, x-rays, special weights, and pretty much everything else I will need for 8 months of care. I could split the cost into monthly payments (which was still incredibly affordable, but would mean I would need to have a decent amount of extra work monthly, especially as Mandi and I are going to be saving up for our wedding), or pay the whole thing at once (with substantial savings, but still a decent chunk of change.) I knew I couldn't afford the all-at-once plan, so I had pretty much decided to pay monthly for the care and figure it out as I went.

My dad likes to be in the loop on these sorts of things, so I called him to let him know what was going on. We both agreed that I can't afford not to do this, especially if I'm going to head into the field and can't afford to be grounded for weeks at a time by a bum back. So he decided then and there to pay for the whole thing at once without a thought of repayment aside from continuing to follow where the Lord is leading me. Wow. I feel incredibly blessed and am astounded that Dad would do that for me. Please pray that he and Mom will be blessed richly for such an act of selflessness.

I just got back from another adjustment and feel blessed all around because of it. God is just so good, is he not?!

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The Biggest News [UPDATED VIDEO LINKS]

Hello, my quasi-abandoned readers. As is my custom, accept my apologies for neglecting my post. Things have been a little crazy around here.

So, it's been coming for a long while now, with hints and whispers of its arrival, but now it's official: Mandi and I are engaged. To be married. To each other. It seems like so many things have been hinging on our getting engaged, it's a bit of a relief to have crossed over into this whole new world, a dazzling place I never knew. But now from way up here, it's crystal clear, that now I'm in a whole new world with her.

So now begins the fun of putting together a whole wedding event with very little budget. Huzzah! Actually, I am quite confident it will be the event of the summer. Or at least the day.

Now we get to start talking in concrete terms about our future together overseas, which is nice. It's been a lot of tiptoeing around the idea of going out into the world together, but not being engaged invited a lot of questions we weren't prepared to answer with confidence. We need to get Mandi to Orlando for Pioneers' Candidate Orientation Program (COP) at some point so she can learn the ins and outs of Pioneers, and we can finally work together to raise support. When she is able to do that, it would be great for me to go along and work with the communications people there for a week. Right now the plan is to be ready to head overseas in early fall of 2011, which seems like an eternity from now, but it will be wiser to be married here for a year before changing everything else in our lives.

Right now we're going to need a lot of prayer as we try to juggle work, church, pre-marital counseling (we haven't started that yet), working through a Perspectives course (we had a huge blessing the other day when we found out with some extra work we could both go despite having no extra income! Thanks Kevin and CJ and The Well!!!), moving forward with Pioneers, and all sorts of other things. Wow. Thanks for your prayers.

Just for me, I just had an interview with Portland Public Schools (again) to join the Ed Assistant sub pool, something I'm not super excited about, but I need the money. I may also have opportunity to do more videography in the near future, which would be even better. Please pray for opportunity to do more videography. Thanks.

If you're wondering about the engagement story, please see the video below. Celebrate this momentous news with us! Thanks.

(If you have trouble watching the video below, click here for a YouTube HD version. If you still have trouble watching the video, click here for a YouTube SD version. If you still have trouble watching the video, do your very best to imagine what the story could be like and let us know what you come up with.)

Dayn and Mandi's Engagement Story from Dayn Arnold on Vimeo.

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