I Googled my name

So, I googled my name yesterday and found my old Live Journal . My last entry was January 1st 2006. I blogged fairly regularly for a whole year. It's so interesting to read about that year of our life. I started the blog right after I had my surgery on my right elbow and was out of work for awhile. I was just getting into watching Season 1 of 24. Dave went to Seattle for his buddy's wedding and Nicki Loomis and Melissa Cramer (now Meyer) kept me company. We blogged about our fun adventures living in Dubuque and what newly wed life was like. I look back with such fondness although when I read some of my entries, I remember some of the very difficult things we went through. We had a wonderful, solid marriage but we went through a lot together.

The blog begins in IA with Dave attending Emmaus Bible College. Dave graduated, we moved all our belongings to CO, we moved into my parents basement, we spent the summer at camp on Whidbey Island as Staff Directors for our 2nd summer in a row,we found out we were pregnant while at camp, Dave got a teaching job, we bought our first place. I quit blogging 6 weeks before Liam was born. This was most likely due to joining pregnancy message boards where I kept a pregnancy journal.

So, here we are 5.5 years later. . . Our life has been an incredible journey!

The summer after Liam was born (2006) we went back to camp for our last summer as Staff Directors. Dave taught at the Christian school for a second year and started working part time at River of Life as the youth pastor in March 2007. He went full time right as the teaching year ended. 2007 was a great, simple year for us. That summer we found out I was pregnant with baby #2. We also built our home that summer and moved in Dec 2007 and Gabriel was born in March of 2008. Summer of 2008 God told us it was time to start the adoption process (Gabriel was 5 months old). In Oct of 2009 (almost a year and a half later) we accepted the referral for Judah, a cute little 5 year old orphan. 3 months later in February 2010 we left Liam(4) and Gabriel(almost 2) with my brother's family and headed to Ethiopia to bring home son #3. 2011 was a tough year for a lot of reasons. Judah adjusted fairly quickly although the first couple months were tough. I had backed out of youth ministry with Judah coming home and was feeling out of place. I tried other ministry opportunities and nothing seemed to work out the way I had hoped. Dave and I struggled in ministry and through a lot of prayer and counseling we came to a very difficult decision. In March of 2011 Dave told the elders and senior pastor he would be resigning from his job at River of Life and we started looking for a new opportunity to work with youth. God quickly opened the doors to interview with Yakima Alliance church in WA. In May we visited to candidate and by mid May Dave accepted the position as Youth Pastor at YAC. We packed up and moved the beginning of June. We've been here just over 4 months now and it feels like it's been years.

We are so grateful to the Lord as we look back on our life and the many struggles and joys we've come through. Dave and I are approaching our 9th anniversary and I can honestly tell you we have had an incredibly strong marriage the entire time. We've had rough years in life but always stayed close and in love!

GOD IS GOOD!