Hi there,
I started this blog when we found out we were expecting our first child a couple of years ago. We wanted a place to chronicle our journey and keep the grandparents informed on all the latest developments (no pun intended ;) My consistency in updating/writing has ebbed and flowed along with my hormones and energy levels! I'm in my mid thirties and now staying home with our spunky little toddler boy while my husband teaches ESL to adults in our community. As I write this, we just celebrated our three year wedding anniversary. I know three years doesn't seem like much, but to us we really found ourselves feeling like we've accomplished something as we thought about our first three years of marriage. Maybe that's because we've managed to buy a 60 year old fixer upper, fix it up, have a baby, and now we're in the throws of planning our first overseas trip to Africa together all in three short but very fast paced years. By the way, I wouldn't necessarily recommend living your early married life at this pace by any means. :) We've had a fair share of relational bumps and bruises along the way and are more than thankful for the older wiser people in our lives who we can turn too when things get shaky to give us honest wise counsel when we need it. One of the quotes I hang our to from some dear friends ours is, "Marriage is designed to grow you into the person God intends you to be." I'm a Texas girl and he's a North Carolina boy. I grew up on the gulf coast of Texas with plenty of heat and humidity to go around. I didn't know what snow chains for your tires were until about three years ago. Just being honest. I almost failed the written portion of the NC drivers test because of it! I got my degree in elementary ed/early childhood and spent about six years working as an early intervention specialist. That's a fancy phrase for working with babies with special needs. I absolutely loved it. I would make weekly home visits to teach parents how to help their little ones with specific issues such as language delays or learning issues. I ended up working with a lot of children with autism spectrum disorders which was very difficult and rewarding at the same time.
I worked up until about a month before I had Samuel and have been home with him since. I would not trade one second that I've been able to spend with him for all the money in the world. I am so thankful for the opportunity to get to stay home with him and pour into his little life all day every day.
Tyson and I met in 2006 although we didn't begin dating for six months or so after that. We dated for 10 months before we got married. I think we have a pretty cool love story and plan to write it out soon.
Here's a little teaser: Don't ever let someone tell you God won't bring your mate to your doorstep. He can and he will! I'm the practical planner in our little family and Tyson is the optimistic, believes the best about everything (so not practical) fun loving, spontaneous one in the clan. Not the we don't have the ability to drive each other nuts, but we can't say it's ever boring or predictable for that matter. Like someone once told us, those little things that drive you nuts at first, can over time become the qualities we most love about the other person.
If you read a few posts from the beginning of our blog you'll see we chose to go the road of natural childbirth. Now that we're on the other side, we can both say it feels like one of our biggest accomplishments ever. Tyson jokes that it was the hardest thing he's ever done! Watch it buddy. No really, it's something we quickly became passionate about and still are. There's no other way to put it except that it's one of the most difficult and most exhilarating experiences one can have all at the same time. It's a definite marker on our journey together.
Now we have our little Samuel and he amazes us on a daily basis. As I write this he just turned 18 months old and we're having a blast with him. What most people comment on are his verbal skills. The little guy can talk! This blog is full of pictures and stories about daily adventures with him. He's teaching us a lot more than we're teaching him I'm sure.
A common thread that was woven in both Tyson's and my heart when we met was our love for serving overseas. We'd both been on several trips to serve in various ways. He's spent time in South America and Africa. I've been to Mexico and the Middle East. Long before we ever met we knew individually that overseas service was something we felt we were made for. We know there are many many ways we can serve right in our own neighborhood and we love that too. We really do, but we both have that still small voice saying, "go" that we can't ignore. Come July we are planning to spend about a month in Africa serving with some folks who are there on a more long term basis. We'll keep you posted as the journey unfolds.
This is a little glimpse into our lives as it is this moment. Hopefully we'll always have a desire to live life to the fullest, always loving, always hoping, always trusting, always believing.
"To Him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we could ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work within us..." Ephesians 3:20
