Life Unexpected

This week I have found myself challenged in my wait. This past Thursday I found out that a good friend of mine, Belinda, died of cancer. She was only 33 years old and had been doing mission work in Thailand. I had met Belinda when I traveled one summer for Youth in Missions to Sydney, Australia. Belinda and I had lived in the same house for the summer and quickly became good friends. A year later, she and her friend Melinda came out for our wedding which was awesome. Over the past 10 years, I have had the privilege of reading her updates of all the ministry opportunities she has had and have been blown away by her servant heart. She was truly one of the most compassionate people I have known, and I have often referred to her as a "modern day missionary." As I received the news Thursday morning, I was shocked at my own reaction. I could not stop crying. It seemed strange, because we had not seen each other for 10 years, but for some reason, her death hit me like a tho

It's been several days since we finished the Cupcake Madness. I haven't blogged yet, because my Mom asked if she could "guest blog." I said, "yes," of course and was excited for her to share her perspective. But before I share, I have to say, "I have the most amazing Mom in the world." She poured everything in her being into this fundraiser, we got a total of 12 hours of sleep in 4 nights, and she never peeped one complaint...all because she loves Nate and I, AND her grandchildren to come. So, thank you Mom, and without further ado, here is the post from Grammy... “Be Careful What You Pray For…!” Hi, Readers…It’s “Grammy” of “Grammy’s Cupcake Obsession”! Andrea has graciously allowed me to be a guest writer on her blog and finish “the rest of the story of “Cupcake Madness.” And I have to share my version of the beginning of the story… As Andrea mentioned in her last post, I was a “little” discouraged at the order of “just” 500 cupcakes a week

I am sure that most of you know we have officially entered our second "Cupcake Fundraiser" during this year long wait towards getting our referral. It's called a "Fundraiser," but what we really mean is..."Cupcake Madness!" I know this, because last year, at this very same time, my Mom and I found ourselves in the middle of the madness as we attempted to fill orders for over 1000 cupcakes. It was crazy and you can read all about it in last years posts on my blog! People loved the cupcakes last year, my Mom loved making them, and I or course, loved sampling them, so we had to say yes when she came to us wanting to the do the fundraiser again. So, here I am typing away at 11:24pm, all to share with you the first day of the Cupcake Madness... My week started when my Mom called me Sunday night, worried because she didn't think we had enough orders. We had around 500 and they were still rolling in. Within a couple of days, that number had practica

This morning I sat across from one of my best friends in the world, Jenny Nielson Shafer. Jenny and I met in the 10th grade at Nazarene Youth Conference because we were forced to be in the same breakfast club table (that's a long story). Little did I know, a couple of years later we would wind up at the same college, playing on the same volleyball team, and start a friendship that would be for life. Our friendship didn't stop there. We followed each other out to Seminary to study ministry, I took a job in Maryland as a Youth Pastor, and several years later Jenny's husband got a job 45 minutes from where we live! It's pretty crazy. As I sat across from Jenny and spilled my guts about being antsy in the waiting process, being frustrated in not hearing anything, and stressing about the Cupcake Weekend (trust me, there will be several posts to come in the wee hours of the morning!), Jenny did what she does best...listened a lot and encouraged even more. She has suppor