The Journey to Here

For a while Jim and I wondered if this would be our last year in Woodland Park, heading to Africa the summer of 2009. That all changed back in November, and I was quite comforted early this year knowing there was still one more year to tie up all those loose ends and get ready. Yesterday was our last MOPS (Mothers of Preschoolers) meeting of the year. I will continue to serve our church through MOPS next year, but my position is changing, and the team is changing as well. I was caught off guard suddenly during the meeting a few times, holding back tears. I didn't think I'd have to cry until next year!

A really wonderful mom I have served with over the last two years is moving to Las Vegas next week. This came on somewhat suddenly this last semester, and it was hard to say goodbye yesterday. At the beginning of this year, I wondered if it would be me saying goodbye on the 19th of May, and I wasn't sure if I would be able to handle it. It has been good to talk with JoAnna through her process over the last several months, gain some of her insight, and see her handle this transition with prayer and grace.

We are asked pretty often about how we reached this point of being appointed missionaries to the Rift Valley Academy. I have felt incredibly blessed lately to be filled with peace that we are where the Lord wants us to be and we are going where He is clearly leading. I cannot believe the journey we have been on over the last five years. It hasn't been ANYTHING that we expected, or even thought we wanted, yet we have been so blessed.

Five years ago, Jim and I were getting ready to be married in July. We had talked about all sorts of things we were going to do as young married "kids". I was going to get my master's and become a teacher with Jim, we would travel and explore and be adventurous on our summer breaks. We wanted to stay in Woodland Park for three years or so, and then go teach overseas in a third-world country for a few years, then we'd get back and have some cute kids and raise them in the same place until they left home.

These plans and dreams were turned upside down pretty quickly. My twenty-first birthday present in September was a positive pregnancy test. Life went fast and we grew up fast from that point on. Faith was born six weeks early, another unexpected turn of events...we were not ready at all! (If there really is a "ready" when it comes to having kids!) I worked on convincing myself that this was God's plan, and I didn't know what was going to become of our hopes for serving a community overseas. We quit talking about it because we weren't sure how it would fit in. Life looked so different from what we had planned.

Fast forward three, sometimes long, years: all sorts of adjustment, a serious bout of postpartum depression, another cute kiddo later, God began to place events in our lives again that showed us our next steps. It was a struggle believing and trusting that God created me to be a mom to Faith and Joel during these years that we never thought would have the pitter patter of little feet in the mix. Through the gift of friendships and MOPS, I learned that everyone's world gets turned upside down by that pitter patter sooner or later, and I have come to absolutely ADORE being mommy to these precious souls. This feeling of truly belonging to motherhood and wifehood was a search I needed to complete before we ever jumped on a plane to some remote destination.

After Joel turned one and Faith turned three, we began to think about our future again, this time with a little more life experience under our belts. We noticed a school in Tanzania that could use Jim, this school led us to Africa Inland Mission, who we began interviews and applications with in May of 2008, we attended candidate week in November where we were led to the Rift Valley Academy.

It is amazing how much our lives changed in that first year of marriage, and now in our fifth year. To have the gift to look back and see how God has been preparing us all along, is such a treasure and an affirmation of his hand in our lives. I can't imagine these five years any other way!