Life Unexpected

This past week was a big one for me.  I got my first tattoo (that's a story for another blog post), our kids started school in a brand new school system where we really don't know anyone (yet another story for another day), and I had my first opportunity to preach on racism in the church. I've never been a person to shy away from speaking on the things that I feel deeply about, or more importantly, the things that God has laid on my heart.  At the same time, I've never really enjoyed conflict.  I'm not an avoider of conflict, but it definitely isn't on my list of "I hope I get to experience that today."  Sometimes, we shy away from conversations that God is calling us to have as the Church, because we are afraid of the conflict that might rise up, myself included.  We all love accolades, affirmation and amens.  The problem is, sometimes God asks us to do hard things, things that cause tension, things that leave you feeling vulnerable, things that may e

I've never been a super patient person.  I'm not sure what parent to blame that on, but for as long as I can remember, I've not been a fan of waiting.  I was always the kid on the road trip asking my parents a million times over, "How much longer until we get there," five minutes into the trip.  It only got worse the older I got, as I impatiently waited to find out if I made the volleyball team, waited to see if I got the job I applied for, or waited for my now husband to propose to me.  I never liked waiting. Our infertility journey was a "wait" that at times almost broke me.  There were so many days where I felt like giving up on God (start at the very beginning of this blog journey), giving up on the dreams and desires I believed he had planted inside of me, and giving up on the idea that he had a plan and the plan was good.  Years of struggling with infertility and 25 months of waiting to be matched in an adoption process has a way of testing your le

It's been three weeks since moving our family to a new city, a new church, a new "temporary" house, and far away from what was familiar.  It's only been two weeks working my actual job.  I'm not sure why, but yesterday everything kind of caught up to us.  We had just had a great day as a family visiting our new favorite donut shop (shout out to the Yum Yum Shop), shopping at a discount grocery store that is like a dream world to me, and stopping at the local Walmart for the kids to spend their allowance.  It was a low key family kind of day.  As we drove home, the kids got quiet and Biruk said, "Mom...I miss my friends." You know those moments when you're supposed to be the "parent" in the situation and remind your kid that it's all going to be ok?  I kind of failed at that, because the truth was, my emotions from the past couple of weeks of leaving one place and starting new in another and found away to surface.  My response to my chil

Photo Creds:  Josh Yoder It's been over a year since I've written a blog post.  In fact, when Nate just asked me what I was doing and I said I was "blogging," he exclaimed, "You're blogging?  Good for you babe!"  Truth be told, there have been many times that I've wanted to write, but have struggled with words, motivation, or have succumb to the reality that some of life is hard to process when you find yourself smack dab in the middle of the hard stuff.  The past 2 years have held a lot.  Challenges, disappointments, inexpressible joy, walks through the wilderness, surprised silver linings, moments that have shaped, moments I thought I would break, sorrow, laughter, new found friendships, deep questions, honest doubt, and the constant reminder that God is still in this, no matter what chapter you find yourself in. This past October, we made the hard decision as a family to follow God's call and move ourselves to Lansdale, PA, where I would take