She said yes!

Those were the first words sent to Jeremy's mom after he proposed! That's right, we're engaged! And we couldn't be more excited! :) So many people want to know what happened or how he did it, so here you go:

We went for a walk at the park with our sweet pups Lula Kate and Molly. After about an hour of walking around the park Jeremy asked if we could sit down on a bench by a lake. I suggested we keep walking, but he insisted we sit down. He said his foot hurt and it'd be a nice break.  The bench was quite tall and when we approached Lula jumped up and I took a seat next to her. Jeremy leaned down to get Molly, since her little legs couldn't jump that high, and after he put her on the bench he remained on his knees and in a split second was on just one.

In shock I sat there as he grabbed my hand and asked me to marry him. He said ( in paraphrase) that because he's searched for a woman of noble character and couldn't find another one as noble as me and because I am more valuable than rubies, he was wondering if I'd be his wife. He pulled a beautiful Ruby ring out of his pocket, the exact ring I wanted, and put in on my finger! It was so sweet. Who wouldn't want to marry a sweet, kind, thoughtful man like that!? So, of course, I said Yes! And jumped off of the bench, ran away and screamed "We have lots of planning to do!" When Jeremy finally caught me we hugged in the middle of the woods and prayed to God, thanking him for our relationship, for what He's brought together and praying that we'd continue to follow Him and His will for our lives and relationship! It was a perfect moment: just our family and the Lord! 

Us with our pups last fall at Asbury Hills! 

This morning was fantastic as I woke up and remembered what had happened the day before. My face lit up with joy and I couldn't help but feel like a giddy little girl! I felt like the first thing I should do was spend the morning in prayer, thanking God for such an incredible man, an incredible blessing... and that's what I did. It was a glorious morning of worshiping God, thanking him, and remembering that Christ, and Christ alone, is our foundation! Through God and his love for us we will have a lovely marriage! I look forward to serving Jeremy as his wife and seeing how God works in our lives in the future!

Thank you, everyone, for your encouragement, well wishes, support and love! We are thankful to have such great friends and family! :)

pure bliss!

Let me start by saying how incredibly encouraged I have been since writing my last post! So many people have sent me messages, comments, texts, and calls to encourage my heart to keep on keeping on in the Lord and to trust His ways above my own. As simple as that sounds it brings such relief for other people to also acknowledge how easy it is to struggle with it! So, thank you all for your kind support.

Since returning home I have made it a point to find places to serve. I try to serve my sisters, Jeremy, family, friends, people from church, but I wanted something a little bit bigger. I have found it shocking how difficult the volunteer process can be here in the US. I'll admit, outside of church I didn't have much volunteer time when I was working full-time. In fact, much of my time at work was spent working for pay and volunteering my time to make up the work I couldn't get done in a day. Anyways, my first few weeks back I sent in several applications and emails asking about volunteer opportunities. I was shocked at the number of people who treated my desire to do free labor as a hassle or not worth their time. It really discouraged me and made me think about all the other people who they lose simply because they don't seem to care for the help. That's a completely different story, though...

Yesterday I FINALLY got to volunteer and it was heavenly! I did an orientation with Harvest Hope Food Bank last week and yesterday was my first day. I showed up, was taken to the Emergency Food Bank section, shown how to fill a cart, and then given the reigns to go! I'm not entirely sure how the process works as far as who gets food because I only did the back for a few hours, but my part was humbling and fulfilling! I would take these little slips with peoples names, the number of people in their household, any baby information, or other special information, and walk around this makeshift grocery story (food bank), filling a cart with everything we have for them to take home. There were elderly men and women coming for food, families of 6-10 people in need of food, single mothers, people with babies, bus riders, bike riders, young, old, all kinds of people in one place in need of the same thing, compassion.

But this experience reminded me of one of my favorite scriptures in Matthew chapter 9, verses 12 & 13, that says: "It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. But go and learn what this means: I desire mercy, not sacrifice. For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners."I began to think about the finger pointing and the judgement that's passed on people every day. I found myself wondering about cars in the parking lot, because there were nice ones, and people being on nice cell phones in the waiting room, and having nice clothes, or whatever little judgements we find ourselves falling into of what the poor and helpless look like. And in my head the whole time I was having these conversations between myself and God, begging that I wouldn't be one of those people. That I wouldn't see what was on the outside, point fingers, place blame, act more righteous, but that I would simply do what I had come to do... serve! Every day we get lost in this world, passing judgement, comparing ourselves to other people, but no one really knows our hearts except for God. And since we all sin and fall short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23) scripture tells us that Jesus came for all of us!!

I hope this has encouraged you as much as the experience and reminder encouraged me! I am so excited about my next opportunity to serve and look forward to seeing how God uses me in that place! xoxo

My unexpected life.

You know the Cinderella movie that came out featuring Brandy as Cinderella? The one where she sings this pitiful little song turned cheerful in the kitchen of the house she slaves away in all day? It says "In my own little corner, in my own little world, I can be whatever I want to be." And it goes on to turn her little life into this great, grand life. Anyways, I was thinking of that song the other day, just feeling kind of alone and like I have nothing. Maybe that song has nothing to do with my life right now, maybe I'm getting the gist of the song wrong, but I feel like right now I can totally relate to her (of course I would relate myself to a Disney Princess...anyways) I gave it all up, basically, to follow God to Uganda to teach me and mold me and I came home to nothing. Or so I thought. To be honest I've been battling a war ever since I got home. My blog posts have stopped, I have spent many days wandering around God but not going to him, not embracing his presence, but instead I've been dealing with these lies that my mind keeps trying to get me to believe.

For those who are wondering: still no job. (or ring... sorry Jer, people want to know :D) I think that's the hardest part. I had a conversation with Jeremy just the other day about nothing being like I had wanted or thought it would be... selfish statement, right? I know. And I keep falling into those. I don't know if it's hard because I live in this wonderful country where we can make anything happen for ourselves or if it's fear and I don't want to admit that I'm not grasping on to God with all that I am, but instead, I'm holding on to him with my arms and leaving my feet on the ground to do my own walking. Who knows. I've been battling whether or not to write things about my life back in the US or just wait until everything begins to look like how I wanted it to.

Yesterday at church something interesting happened to me. My pastors wife was doing the childrens sermon and needed to find the scripture she was using in a hurry. As the choir filled the choir loft she was scrambling to find it and looked up. Usually I'm not behind her, but today I was. She asked if I happened to know where the scripture was that talks about while we're all still sinners Christ died for us and I said try Romans 5... and there it was. WHAT? She got so excited and I was hit with a 2x4 across the face. I thought how did I do that? I can never, never, never for the life of me remember where a scripture comes from... never! Even if it's my favorite verse. As I sat there it hit me that God gave me that answer and I just exclaimed praises to him! It made church so much more worthwhile, but it also reminded me that I need him! In the place I am right now, with so many things uncertain, I am certain of the best thing in the world- I live for a Savior who loves me, who has great plans for me, who wants me to trust him with all that I am!

Instead of embracing this life filled with grace, love, encouragement, and support I've been given right now, I'm living in this make believe world in my head, constantly beating myself up for not feeling good enough, smart enough, cheerful enough, experienced enough, or whatever other qualities I don't have to get a job right now. Honestly, I think this blog post will hold myself accountable to the 30 people who follow me, which is probably another reason I never wanted to do it! Each day that passes I am reminded how precious life is, how great our God is, and how He called me to serve him in good times and bad, rich times and poor, on a full stomach or empty stomach, all the time, in everything that I do! I hope this has inspired you today to trust in him! It's easy not to when we live such busy lives. We have plans, hopes, dreams, to-do lists, but God has it under control if we will just trust him, jump into his arms and let him direct our paths!


What have I been doing the past month, you ask?
*My baby sister, Kimberly, got engaged to a lovely guy, Rod!
*Jumped right back into teaching arts and crafts and prayer at Wednesday night church and choir at church
*I started at Pier 1 to help with the lack of funds coming in
*Living by the grace of my sister and brother in law! I am the cleaning lady at my sisters house, since I have no way to pay her rent, so I clean day and night getting ready for baby Olivia to come and do other odd jobs for her since she's preggers!
*I apply to jobs every day. I could probably write my job information in my sleep!
*I start volunteering at Harvest Hope food bank and Habitat for Humanity this week, so I'm excited about that!!
*I've started putting all those pinterest pins to work: cooking food and doing crafts constantly!
* Traveled to visit family, nothing compared to Uganda, but still fun!
* Visiting friends, although I will admit, I'm not a great friend! I often overbook time, forget, or just don't call. It's not that I don't love or care for everyone, it's a learned habit and I'm trying my best!
*I decided to go to grad school. Details to come later!
*And my favorite, I've been catching up with my sweet boyfriend, who has shown nothing but love, grace and patience with me as I adjust back to life in the US. I have never been more grateful to have him!

Thank you to everyone who requested more blog posts! I'm so excited about being in such need of him to provide and I look forward to keeping you posted on where He moves me, how He provides and how He loves!

"But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us." Romans 5:8