Rick Beeman

I am finally starting to feel better after a two week bug, or parasite, or stomach virus whatever you call it. To top that off I also had the flu. So there I was during my “honeymoon” sick as a dog. It must not have been very fun for Jennifer. But I promised her a lifetime of honeymoons. So our “honeymoon” consisted of flying to Houston to go through my old stuff to throw away, showing her around the town that I lived in. Other than my children, Houston does not hold a lot of happy memories for me. Then we were off to Dallas then a cross-country trip to Raleigh, NC. Even though I was sick, we absolutely had a great a time. She really is my best friend and we have so much fun together…she absolutely gets my sense of humor which is amazingly obscure. She is a good road trip partner to boot. I really did choose well. But that’s just reminds me of one more thing she’s better than me at…She chose even better than me ;o) Oh before we left Houston I felt somewhat compelled to meet...

Im sitting in the Zain Basketball Arena in a district called Um Al-Hassan watching Muharraq battle it out with Isa Town in the playoff round of Bahrain’s Professional Basketball League. Muharraq is coached by my roommate Pat. They have a 10 point lead led largely by the three point shooting skill of Big man, Lamond Murray. OK enough of the sportswriter talk. Actually at one point in my career I wanted to call professional sports or write about them as I did in college. Im so glad I didn’t go that route. Im still an avid sportsfan but it just seems like there are so many other things I can sink my teeth into. Sports are a fun diversion but I still want to change the world. I had a phone call before the game from a dear friend. We caught up about the marriage and the trip to the U.S. and then she told me she met a boy. I was happy for her as this particular person is a beautiful inside and out and has a heart for God. She deserves to find the perfect match for her and Im sure ...

I got to JFK last night. A hard night turned out to be a little easier when they upgraded my flight to Business Class. It was only a 12 hour flight, compared to the normal 17 hour but still it was a great perk. Im getting spoiled in Business class. I tried to sleep a little bit, but I kept awakening at my own snoring. Im a little congested. Even though it was a great two weeks with Jennifer, I was sick the last week of it. But, now that I have health insurance I was able to see a doctor and come back with loads of medicine. I even have around a year’s worth of insulin. I would have had to buy everything full price here. I got to the Dubai airport and then it hit me. I was alone. I had been in the Dubai Airport before with 6-8 hour layovers and I was alone and in no relationship then. But this time, I was alone but lonely. But it was a good kind of lonely. Now that I’ve tasted what it felt like to be loved again, it just made me crave it all the more. I had adjusted to ...

Im flying over Raleigh North Carolina at the moment, somewhere over my beloved new bride’s Jennifer’s house. It’s a weird feeling leaving your wife not knowing when we’ll be able to be together again. We both love each other dearly and our few weeks together has done nothing but confirm that. What Jennifer and I have decided to do is quite unconventional by the world’s standards or at least by the U.S. standards. Most would consider it prudent to wait a few years so you know…well both Jennifer and I did that the first time around and that didn’t work. Really the sudden courtship and marriage really wasn’t a difficult decision at all. In fact it was one of the easiest ones I had ever made. I’ve found the closer you get to God the easier difficult decisions become. It just becomes crystal clear, a very natural choice. I had more of an issue of deciding where to eat dinner last night than whether or not to marry Jennifer. Not because I didn’t seek God, but rather He was so clear...

So here we are, at my parents house. Finally in my bed. Well, sort of. I get this bed "my bed" as long as my sister and her husband are not here. Usually when i am here, they are too. I wonder how things will work out now that I am married again. I guess I will find out at Christmas this year, if I am even around. The more time Rick and i spend together, the better we get along. We are learning more and more about each other and it is only bringing us closer together. We both have the same favorite Classical Musician. That is pretty cool. I still have no idea the names of the bands he lists, but i seem to know all the words to most of the songs. Some how. We are very good road trip partners. We made it from Dallas to Birmingham on Monday, and then Tuesday we made it to my parents house, which is only three hours from my own home. We could have made it all the way home, but I really wanted to see my parents and stay here, and rick was ok with that. We had dinner, hung out, sha...

I apologize for the delay in writing the blog. Thanks to all the readers that have encouraged me to keep going with this. I’ll probably be more faithful writing when I return to the Middle East. Right now, Im just spending all of my time with Jennifer and having a wonderful time. Even as I write this, I don’t feel like Im sacrificing anytime with her as she is busy writing her blog. So here is the big news…Yesterday Jennifer and I officially…and legally got married. At first Jennifer wanted a small ceremony but when she thought about the logistics of planning in the midst of her full career and trying to finish her dissertation it just seemed quite overwhelming to her. I could go either way, but I preferred a small affair. It is the second wedding for both of us. It seems like second weddings should be small. It’s like we would be saying “Hey never mind about this first one, this is a do-over…we’re really serious now.” Plus another thing…I hate..is when people say they found ...

I want to apologize to the faithful readers that I have. I’ve been MIA for about a week. I should have forewarned you a little better. Im in Raleigh, NC now and have been here all weekend staying with Jennifer. Life is pretty darn wonderful for me right now. Everyday I spend with her, Im more convinced that she is indeed the one that God has for me. She has such a fiery personality and that is one of the many things that I love about her. What also excites me is that I have the temperament to handle this strong personality. We were talking to a counselor a few weeks back, and he said Women get into relationships hoping to change the men, while men get into relationship hoping the women won’t change. I think that is case with us as well. Im really having a great time here. Jennifer has a beautiful home in a very wooded area in North Carolina. Her two dogs (children) also are a lot of fun. Ellie, likes to go to the park to play soccer. You kick the ball to her and she dribbl...

Its getting harder and harder to write in this blog. I have a lot of information that Im not really privy to share. That doesn’t mean there is nothing going on. Actually it is quite the contrary. I still feel like Im in the absolute middle of God’s will. I’ve never experienced this much peace and confidence in my life. It just doesn’t make any sense, the bigger the storm, the more peace I have. I keep referring to how I relate to Joseph, how a lot of unfair things happened to him, but he still kept the faith. One aspect of the Joseph story that isn’t really taught is the beauty of silence. Sure God spoke to Joseph, but that didn’t give him license to sprout it out so soon to his brothers. Of course they took action. Because of Joseph’s impulsiveness he made life a lot harder on himself than it needed to be. The same holds true with me. I do mention several of the things which God speaks into my heart but not all of them. If I were to share everything there would be some...

We had a real nice group for our positive living group tonight. There were only three of us, but that proves to be very intimate with more heart to heart talks. The topic of the night was the right associations or be careful who your friends are. A friend can influence you faster than anything. My buddy Wayne says “Show me who your friends are and I’ll show you what your destiny is.” That can work both for the positive and the negative. I was a little bit tired today after watching the Oscars at 4am. I love watching the telecast. For the longest time I believed I’d win one someday. Now that Im a bit older my goals and dreams have changed somewhat. I still have some very big aspirations. But what I want to do more than anything is following the plan that God has for my life. I have a general direction where I want to head (that is the “Man Plans his ways” part). My general direction is to have a loving relationship with my children, be a good husband to Jennifer, use my cre...

If a picture is worth a thousand words consider this a complete blog tonight. Im posting pictures from the waterpark on Saturday. It was truly a special day. I hope that comes through with these pictures. It was a really big day today. We just got confirmation on one of the largest contracts ever at KSDi. We’ll be doing a pretty big biography. That is going to take up a majority of my time at work for the next few months. Im headed out to the US next week to spend a week with Jennifer getting to know her friends and family and meeting her parents face to face. I think my parents even might fly out to meet her. They really like her. Oh…if I didn’t mention it ahead of time, I did ask Jennifer’s father permission for his daughter’s hand in marriage. He did say yes. Im not going to have time to write in the blog later. Im off to play Darren Squash at the British Club, then Quiz night at JJ’s, then I plan to wake up at 4am to catch the Oscars. In between all of this I have t...

Wow as soon as I say I’ve run out of things to say, I realize I have many more things to say. I was in Fuddrucker’s just an hour ago. You might remember that I befriended the manager at the Fuddrucker’s in Juffair, where I used to live. He liked watching Prison Break, so I lent him the first two seasons. I hadn’t seen him for a couple of months. So I went to the Fuddrucker’s in Adaliya near my new home. He was very excited to see me. He told me he went to Nepal for his month vacation and recently just got back. He invited me next year to come visit him in Nepal when he goes on his next vacation. I have invitations like that to about 15 different countries. This is a pretty amazing place for that. Then something a little unexpected happened. I was watching this overview/documentary on LOST they were talking about the music and they played a 20 second music clip. The music is the same that I used in my engagement video so as soon as I heard the tune, the association kicked i...

It was a very special day today on a couple of levels. First of all, God has really been speaking to me lately. Just to put it out there as a matter of faith I’ll tell you about it. First of all…meeting and becoming engaged to Jennifer was an absolutely called shot by God. Now we have to work out the details. My career, her career, her dissertation, when exactly to get married, where to live, what to do with her dogs, her house, which way to roll the toilet paper over or under..etc. So while I was with Jennifer I felt like God told me that everything would get sorted out in a spectacular way in two months. That word was around the middle of Feb. (I forgot to write the exact date down). So its going to happen somewhere around Mid-April I believe. God is so cool when he gives me these dates. They always come to pass. So this week God told me that to prepare for the future and for guidance I was supposed to fast for two days. Just a short little one, and Jennifer did too. We a...

As you might have noticed, I’ve cut back on the blog. There a couple of reasons for that. I used to write habitually every night. I couldn’t sleep if I didn’t post something. Maybe it was an addiction, since I have an addictive personality. But I don’t think it was an unhealthy addiction. Writers write. The more you write the better you get at it. Plus it was a calling…me writing this blog. Many times I’ve felt led by the Holy Spirit to say certain things. So Im sure God is using this. One quick example comes to mind and I’ve mentioned this previously. One local Muslim started reading this blog (I have no idea how he found it) and he disputed my views of God. So we went out to dinner and I shared my faith with him and he with me. We’ve been friends ever since. He has also been a regular at my Monday group…I love having his perspective. He has just finished reading Purpose Driven Life and is now reading Your Best Life Now. So I guess that is one tangible example of God ...

I was so confident yesterday. My confidence was born from God’s absolute faithfulness. I don’t think I was showing off, but perhaps I was. The confidence was certainly tested today. It seems like I was struck from both points of the globe. Starting this morning at 5 am with a body blow then an uppercut a few hours later at 10am. I was stunned at first but not knocked to the canvas. I might go into details in a few weeks but for now, just the generalities. The first thing I did when the crap hit was give it to God and acknowledge that He is control. So when all seems upside, I just praised God thanking him for being in control. I prayed against the fear and the fear went away. So I don’t think it was a coincidence everything hitting all at once. First with Jennifer leaving two days ago, then everything earlier today. I think…no, I know that it was a test. Im feeling pretty positive that I handled it in the right way. It is going to be a pretty momentous 7 weeks. So I wa...

It was the first day back at the office without Jennifer. Getting into a routine is good for me. The first and most important part of the routine is getting back into my devotional routine. I slacked off a bit as everything was focused on Jennifer. I don’t necessarily think that it is a bad thing. Ecclesiastes tells us that there is a time and purpose for everything. So my pursuit of Jennifer was totally of God. It was nice though to have someone to pray and do devotions with. So I feel more empowered today. I am so joyful lately. It feels great being in the direct center of God’s will. I feel like I can overcome any obstacle. It has been really rough go at work the last few months. There are several psychological reasons for that, that I may explain someday, but for now, I shouldn’t go into specifics. But even with all the negative going on, I still have such an amazing peace. Its kind of appropriate that the theme of tonight’s living group was Faith. “If you believe a...

I didn’t get to sleep til about 5a last night. I guess I didn’t want to face the fact of waking up alone again, but its inevitable for the time being. Jennifer woke me up about seven hours later in London. We spoke for a few minutes then she had to board her connection for another seven hour flight. Fifty years ago, this relationship simply would not have been possible. Now, half world away, by images and voice, we were able to find each other. Of course since it was God’s ultimate will for Jennifer and I to be together, Im sure we would have happened upon each other some other way. I mentioned this before and it bears repeating, because its kind of funny. If its God’s will for Jennifer and I to be together now, then why didn’t we just get married the first time around and to have each of us avoid our respective divorces? Well I don’t have the definitive answer for that. Maybe its as simple as God wanting to create three beautiful kids. The complicated answer is when I got ...

It’s 2:20 am and I just got home after dropping Jennifer off at the airport. The past day was a fitting conclusion to what is arguably the best two weeks of my life. Jennifer is everything I hoped she would be and a little bit more. I know that I know that I know that she is the one that God has made for me in this time in my life. We finished off the trip in grand fashion. My mother graciously offered to put us up in the Ritz Carlton hotel for our last night (now Im sure my sisters are jealous, especially Shari thinking…Where’s mine?) But before you go thinking anything, Jennifer and I have spent a lot of time together and we both agreed to wait for appropriate actions until we are married. Ohterwise I’d just be a big hypocrite (as others have accused me of being.) So far so good. It hit me yesterday around 3:00 PM, my life has come full circle…finally. It was September 2005 and I was at the San Francisco Airport about to board a flight for Saudi Arabia. It was clear that Go...

The reality hit us both earlier today. We only have four days left together this time around. It was a strange feeling that swept over both of us. We were sitting a five star Indian restaurant and we started crying. It was bizarre, we are so in love with each other yet the reality of our lives were hitting home. We’re not sure when we’re going to see each other again. We are totally committed to each other and long to be with each other again, we just don’t know when it will be. Jenni has to finish her dissertation, get a new roof on her house, take care of her dogs, figure out a job situation and I need a bit more resolution on my career. So there is so much to figure out over the next couple of months. I think I heard God tell me the other day that everything would be resolved in two months. Im not sure if I heard him correctly but it gives me something to shoot for. So that would be around April 23. I can manage until April 23. Even though Jennifer and I will be separat...

It was December 2008 I believe or somewhere around that date. I blogged about it. I had a few people even comment (AJB among others) to ask me what it was. I had just met Reji and we hit it off immediately. Which is rather strange since English is not his strong suit. Im constantly having to ask him to repeat himself. He doesn’t really open his lips when he talks. That said…His English is much better than my Hindi. So Reji had a connection because he used to read John Osteen’s books (Joel’s father) in fact he like John much better than Joel. When we found out that we were both believers with a connection with Osteen, we both became very excited. How does this happen half-way across the world? Well it happens with God and divine connections. So Reji felt like he had a word from God. He told it to me and I got really angry. He told me that I’d be reconciled with my family. I was finally over my emotional pain and now he told me that I’d be reconciled? I didn’t want to sho...

I want to apologize for not posting the blog lately, but my priorities were in a different order. I wound up going to Dubai with Jennifer. What a great experience that was. Jennifer Im finding is a truly different and wonderful girl. She has a genius level intellect, almost beyond genius. She is like rocket scientist type of smart. When you compare that to her quirky sense of humor, love for God, athletic body, and breathtaking smile you don’t have to look far to why I fell hard for her. But with like most super-geniuses they have their set of quirks. Jennifer is no different. We all have our little quirks. I think its God plan to match us with mates that help us deal with our own quirks. I know I have mine and Jennifer is helping me with them. The more time I spend with Jennifer the more I realize that she is the perfect one for me. She will be a little higher maintenance than most, but the performance will be that much better. I liken her to a Ferrari. I’ve told her th...