What about Matt?

Matt was pointing out that his presence is not so felt on the blog..and it is, after all, mattandjennygo, not just jennygo. So he was hoping that I could provide an update on what he's doing too. Well, he's not slipping down stairs or traveling to conferences. But he IS a very busy man.

Work has been going well for him in Grand Rapids. My mind just does not wrap easily around the responsibilities that he has, but I know that his bosses absolutely love him and are pleased with his work. For those of you who don't know, Matt is the senior network engineer for the City of Grand Rapids...so in essence, he's quite the I.T. guy (but not the snotty one you see on Saturday Night Live, thankfully). I hear the words "firewall," "switches," and "troubleshooting" a lot, along with a whole alphabet soup of acronyms, like "VLAN," "IP," and "CISCO." So I've concluded he must be a genius.

And then he's Mr. Calvary Baptist to boot. As always, his servant's heart has landed him in many roles at church and he gives with such a cheerful heart. He's been helping with the soundboard during some of the Sunday services, helped with the 11-year-old boys during Vacation Bible Time, and teaches the junior high boys at Awana on Wednesday nights. Furthermore, on Tuesday and Thursday mornings he gets together with a handful of guys for fellowship, accountability, and bagels before they all head to work. This Saturday he's helping with a youth group event too (it just happens that one of his accountability partners is the youth pastor).

AND THEN (no, I'm not done!), he's been helping a friend with a side business. It's kind of an interesting business and merits some explaining. Remember V-man (referring to an earlier post)? V-man is an engineer by day and runs an adult diaper distributing business by early morning/night. Here's how/why: V-man has a good friend from college who has spina bifida (spinal birth defect) and has to wear adult diapers. Several years ago, V-man and his friend were on a trip in Europe and the friend ran out of his diapers and had to buy more. The ones that he bought, evidently, were of way better quality than what he has back at home. Unfortunately, these diapers were not available in the United States. So he set out to change that, got in cahoots with the company, and set up a distribution warehouse out in California where he lives. V-man also set up a distribution warehouse here in Holland, and he ships these adult diapers for the east side of the country. It appears that there is more of a demand for these undergarments than one would realize, and the business is actually quite busy. So Matt's been helping him fill the orders and package them for shipping, like one morning a week. Well, V-man went on vacation a couple of weeks ago to California to see this friend, and then as soon as he came back he had to head to Korea for a week on business. So Matt's been doing all the packaging and distributing for the past couple of weeks and it's been a pretty sizable job. He's been getting up at 4am to do the packaging, then meet with his accountability group, then head to work for a full day. It does make for a long day, but of course Matt's giving spirit doesn't complain.

We've both been battling colds for the past few weeks and have been given to violent fits of coughing (I'm really not exaggerating there), so I think Matt'll be ready to not get up at 0400 next week; he'll get to "sleep in" till 0445, when I get up!

So that's a peek into the life of G-man. I'm so grateful to God for a husband who is so giving and kind, and willing to step into others' lives and give until it hurts and then some. Matt, thank you for being such a hard worker and demonstrating an uncomplaining spirit, and setting such a good example for the other men around you. And thank you for humbling yourself to God and other men for the sake of our marriage. You truly are a gift!