It has been so long since I have written a post that I feel like a complete stranger on my own blog! So much has happened these past 5 months and I am way overdue for an update/re-introduce myself.

Hello, welcome (back) to my blog!

My reason for blogging in the first place is that I love writing. I first discovered this in high school when I took a class in Romantic Literature. I fell in love with Walt Whitman and old classics like Bram Stoker’s Dracula (I’ve always had a thing for vampires). Before this class, my writing assignments felt more than a mathematical equation I could never solve which miraculously transformed into something equivalent to learning a new dance. It felt like a whole new world had opened up to me. Then I gave my life to Jesus in ‘94 and at once became an avid journaler and a writer of short stories about God’s grace. Journaling and storytelling have been a way of processing theological truths and life ever since.

Prague in January

 

My husband and I took a trip to Prague this last January for IVF (In-vitro Fertilization). Our trip to Prague was completely magical but in the end heartbreaking. Having tried to conceive for almost 3 years (5 years if you count the years just being off birth control) we decided to pull all the stops and try IFV. For the most part, our time was spent wrapped up in warm jackets, sipping mulled wine, and walking through the ancient streets of Prague & Cesky Krumlov. But then there were the two shots a day in the stomach, in the clinic every other day, retrieval, and so on and so on. The clinic did everything they could for us but after the dreaded two-week wait, I had a chemical pregnancy. No baby. Only memories of a beautiful place. We took time to grieve but I haven’t lost hope. Currently, I am focusing on balancing my hormones through acupuncture and we are in prayer for our next steps. More blogs to come about this.

One Year of Seminary Down (& many more to go…)

My first year of Seminary was quite the adventure, especially when it came to learning Greek. It felt like a freight training tearing down the side of a cliff at times. I literally failed my first mid-term and cried my eyes out! Yet miraculously I still got an A in the class. God has certainly carried me through this year and I trust that this is where I am supposed to be. I am only attending part-time so my program will take a bit longer to finish but I am not in any rush. I want to really soak in what I am learning.

Celebrating my 1’s and 10’s!

In June, I will be celebrating one year of being on staff at my church Bread & Wine Communities. It has been an absolute delight to be living out my calling to serve the local church vocationally. Over the past year, I have been using my gifts in organization and administration to bring clarity and structure to different parts of the community. I have planned events, implemented leadership structures, preached one Sunday morning, and even cleaned graffiti off the church truck! I’m looking forward to seeing what God has planned for this next year.

 

In July, my husband and I will be celebrating 10 years of marriage! This feels like such a huge milestone and frankly, it doesn’t feel like 10 years. We have been through some pretty major stuff in our ten years but thanks be to God, He has provided us with the tools and grace we needed to navigate each season with resiliency and enduring love. Here’s to another 10 years!

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I am so thankful to each one of you who have followed me on this journey (and multiple blogs) of discovering my own calling. I pray that the following blogs and Memory Plans coming this summer will be a source of encouragement that will anchor you to Jesus. Till then, let me leave you with this:

For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever.

Amen.

Ephesians 3:14-21