A Servants Heart (Eileen VanDalen)

God brought another amazing person to my heart tonight and I just have to share it! Just thinking about her inspires me to be a better person. She married my cousin Scott over twenty years ago when he had two small girls, and they went on to add two more. She loved and raised them all as her own and I know they are blessed to call her Mom.

I have known many people that serve or have served but when I think of a true servants heart, I think of Eileen.  She is always doing something for someone, and they are not usually things we would call fun! For example, one time she and one of her daughters went to her sister-in-laws house the day before she returned from a long trip out of the country and cleaned her entire house.  They were there for hours!  I think that is an amazingly selfless thing and had to bless their family!!  (And no, I didn’t hear it from her or her daughter!)  She has also done complete home makeovers for people and done such a beautiful job. What stands out the most to me though, is when she and Scott host a family party, she sacrifices her time to bless others by serving them in the kitchen.  She is constantly busy the whole time and doesn’t seem to mind at all! We have been blessed by her and Scott’s support and example and I know many others have too. I am sure those closer to her could write a more detailed and elaborate picture of the amazing woman of God that Eileen is but I do know in the far too infrequent times I’ve been able to spend with her that she is the real deal and a wonderful example of someone who serves her God and her family well. God Bless you Scott and Eileen!

Carissa JOY (such a perfect middle name for her!)

I think one of my new favorite things is going to be blogging about inspirational people in my life!  (So as to not discourage anyone that I have not yet mentioned, I am not doing so in any particular order but more based on who the Lord brings to my mind at the time.)

I had the privilege of having an amazingly long coffee date with my incredible cousin, Carissa last week when we were home for the holidays and I knew in that moment it was the inspiration for my next blog post! To give you some background info, Carissa is my Mom’s brothers daughter and she’s about 4 years older than me. She’s the one I followed around at King family gatherings, eating up any attention she was willing to give me, and God Bless her, she even more than just tolerated me!  If she was ever put out or annoyed by my ever-constant presence, she didn’t let on to it.  She was and still is an excellent role model and I’m very grateful for her presence in my life.  Our paths have not crossed as much as I’d love them to in the most recent years, but I am always encouraged and blessed by the time we have gotten to spend.

On this particular coffee date, we set out to catch up after our families first four months of living in NC, but little did I know that God had so much more in store for me than just that.  I soon realized that our time together was a divine appointment in which He used my sweet cousin to minister to me.  I was struggling with the thought of leaving Lynden and returning home to NC, not because I don’t love my life in NC, (because I do) but because I was focusing on what I was leaving behind.  I know that’s normal and it’s okay to be sad about leaving family and friends, but I think it was more than that for me and I needed to allow God to do some work in my heart before our return to Charlotte the next day.

I wish I could have bottled up the entire conversation we had a play it back so it could remain as fresh in my mind as it was when we were in the midst of it, but alas, my memory will have to do and I pray it doesn’t fail me miserably! What I do know, is that it will be a LONG time before I forget how I felt.  Upon talking about parenting, marriage, other roles/relationships, major changes in life, Faith, lies we as Christians believe,  our dependence on the Lord, etc…I just felt a renewed sense of courage, peace, and strength to press on and continue to live out the life God has planned for me the best I can with His help. No matter where that is!   Carissa’s wisdom and discernment  in all these areas was an incredible blessing!  I love the level of transparency we were able to share and love that after all these years, she’s STILL someone I can look up to and admire. Not just because she’s older than me, beautiful, talented, AND amazing in so many ways, but because she is a woman who Fears the Lord. She radiates His joy, His word, truth and wise counsel, His desires for our lives, and she lives in such a way as to please Him! She is a beautiful woman, inside and out and I’m grateful to call her my friend.  God Bless Carissa and her sweet family for their continued faithfulness, willingness to serve Him and how they bless everyone they come into contact with! To God Be the Glory!! <3

Aunt Julie

Do you ever think of someone and all they have been through and think, “that’s too much for one person…I don’t know how they do all that?”  I have.  And then I’m instantly put to shame when I think of what an incredible person they are and how they have so beautifully handled each situation God, in His sovereignty, has allowed them to be in. I’m not sure I would have the strength or courage to do the same. I suppose one day I may find out, but until then, I will be grateful that I don’t know thus far. Anyway….my Aunt Julie is one of those people I was referring to. She has endured so so much in her lifetime.  I dare say more pain (physical and emotional)  than most experience in their entire lifetime (and she’s a young ‘in!) Yet she is one of the most joyful, courageous people I know.  I’m sure those of you that know her would have to agree.  I did not ask her permission to share her life story in this small tribute to her, so I will not give any details but sometimes I just think about people and what they’ve been through, how God has brought them out of it, and how they’ve remained faithful to Him as He has to them through it all.  A song by Mandisa is constantly in my mind, “He is with you.” If you’ve never heard it you should look it up. It just reminds me that no matter what happens to me, or any of my loved ones, HE is here and He is with us and will carry us through. And we will be better people for having gone through the tough stuff.  Our challenge is to thank Him through it, without knowing the end result… not just for what we receive after the fact (patience, endurance, understanding, compassion, etc….)  That is true Faith. God Bless my Aunt Julie for being an example of Courage, Joy, and Faith. She is an inspiration to me and one of the most courageous people I know. (She also raised two very courageous children-they got it from her, no doubt about that.)  To God Be the Glory!

Company!

Not much to say except we’re getting super excited to have some family come stay with us in the very near future! First my parents are coming and surprising the kids! They fly in on Wednesday night and Thursday is Emma’s 6th birthday! What a fun birthday surprise. This morning when asked what she wanted for her birthday (via Skype) she said “a hug” as one of her wishes! She mentioned she’d get it when we’re home for Christmas and it was SO hard not to say anything! I can’t wait to see the look on their faces Thursday morning! They will be with us for a week and then sometime around Thanksgiving, my brother will be joining us here for a few days! It will be fun to show him around and spend some time with him as well. Also for Thanksgiving, my cousins Lindsay and Jeremy might come down from Boston, MA! They recently moved there and it will be great to see them and see how the move has been.  I had no idea we’d get to spend our first Thanksgiving here with family! It’s gonna be a busy couple of weeks I think! Before we know it, we’ll be back in WA for Christmas! It’s so surreal that Christmas is right around the corner. I heard Christmas music today for the first time this season and it was really strange. This year has flown by faster than any other year I think!  I will be sure to post photos of our adventures and as soon as I find a link to the newsletter article I mentioned in my last post, I’ll post that too. Hope all is well and thanks for checkin’ in! I’ll leave you with a few pics of the kiddos!

My cute little monkey! 10.5 months old

My four year old wearing exactly what he wanted to! Someone asked me if he was Tom Cruise. Sure! haha…

Rapunzel with her new “birthday wig” from Papa and Grandma who let her open it early so she could wear it for Halloween! She LOVES it as you can imagine.   Can’t believe my baby’s almost 6!!

Settin’ up shop!

Well, we did it. We moved. Again.  For the 6th time in seven years! Very curious as to how many more times we’ll be doing this, but that’s God’s business. For now, we are getting settled in, unpacking boxes, hanging curtains and photos, and setting up shop. Quite literally actually!  Justin and I decided that opening up a salon in our home would be the best option for us here. The other two options are: work for someone where they set your hours and prices and you make a fraction of what they’re charging people BUT you start making money right away and usually get paid just for being there whether you’re servicing a client or not.  Or, option B: Rent a booth somewhere where I would pay close to $1000 a month for full time rent, keep my flexibility as far as hours and pricing goes but don’t start making money until I service enough clients to pay all my overhead costs and then some!!  I think you can see why we opted for option C: Work from home and incur very little overhead costs while maintaining flexibility!  Now I’m just hoping and praying the word gets out so I can start working again! Oh how I’ve missed it! I miss my clients, the creative outlet, the cash flow (not gonna lie!) the adult interaction, and so much more! In case you didn’t see the photos on facebook, here’s what it looks like:

Justin was awesome and helped me get it all set up and I’m so happy with how everything turned out.  I think it’s my favorite room in the house but that may be due to the fact that it’s the only room that’s completely done! The rest of the house still has quite a bit of work left to do. Here’s a photo of the outside.

We went without a washer and dryer for a week as we didn’t realize the house didn’t come with them. We found some on Craigslist for $250 delivered and installed so we went with that.  The very next day we got a check for $250. God’s timing is so perfect.  If you’ve been following our story you’d recall this is not the first time this has happened! I just love how God works. We couldn’t have planned that if we’d tried. Really. Amazing.

I was asked to write an article for our churches “Women of Life” newsletter. It won’t come out until next month and then I’ll post my “testimony of the month” article on here per my Mom’s request in case anyone wants to check it out.   Hope and pray this finds you all doing well and enjoying the changing of the seasons. Sorry if that means a lot of rain for ya’ll back home. We’ve been getting some here too.   Blessings.

Leaving Comfort for Courage…

Comfort. Such a small word but means so much. To all of us. I think I lived for it in some ways. I didn’t know it until I thought about it being gone. I love being comfortable.  I think that’s probably true of most of us. And if we’re not careful, it can become an idol. It’s no wonder why. It can be defined as  “a good feeling” or “a sense of physical or psychological ease, often characterized as a lack of hardship.”  Sounds really good so far!!  Who wouldn’t want that?  Synonyms for comfort include: abundance, cheer, contentment, convenience, pleasure, plenty, satisfaction, warmth, enjoyment, relief, luxury, gratification and repose.  Yep, still sounds really good.  We complain if we’re too hot, or too cold, or in some cases, too wet. We complain if our house is too small, if our clothes don’t fit right, if our food doesn’t taste exactly how we think it should, if we don’t make as much money as we want to, and the list goes on. All because these things cause us to be UN-comfortable. It’s not a pleasant feeling.  More so than even physical discomfort, most of us dread the thought of leaving our emotional comfort zone. As in relationship changes, job changes, locations changes, anything that is risky in any way is just plain scary for most people.  Why rock the boat? I’m comfortable here! That’s definitely what I thought. There was one definition of comfort that stood out to me among the rest that I know is NOT good: complacency.  Yikes.

There was a time in my life (within the last seven years even) that I would tear up just THINKING about the POSSIBILITY of moving away from home. No joke. Justin has talked about going back to school for several years now and I just couldn’t even think of it. I had grown so accustomed to living near family (immediate and extended) and had never left my small hometown for ANY significant period of time and was not comfortable even thinking about doing such a thing. In fact, I would question people that did! I just didn’t understand how anyone could just up and move away from everyone and everything they knew! It didn’t make sense to me. I mean, your whole LIFE changes drastically and #1, how do you make that kind of decision? And once you do, #2 how do you just start a whole new life somewhere else?!  After the last few months, I think I get the answer to #1, but I’m still figuring out #2!  God has already taught me SO much throughout these last 5 months yet I know there’s still a ton more for me to learn. It’s been an amazing journey so far though and I’m excited to see where it goes.

A good friend of mine sent me this blog excerpt before we moved. I thought it was perfect and wanted to share it with you.

“Leaving comfort for courage makes me want to wrap my arms around every ounce of safety in my life – hoping if I hold on tight enough that I won’t have to taste the pain of the leaving what I know is inevitable.

Moving from comfort to courage will…
cause you to question your decision.
It will cause you to look around for the safety bars, seatbelt, and any kind of security button.

Moving from comfort to courage will…
cause you to doubt your abilities – you will look at everything that you have failed at in the past… failed relationships, failed financial decisions, failed leadership calls, – and you will wonder will you repeat those patterns and are they indicators to go out and look for comfort again.

Moving from comfort to courage will…
cause you to doubt the author of the calling on your life. Thinking that God is too busy to take care of your little fear.

Moving from comfort to courage will…
cause you to be jealous of your neighbors who seem to be perfectly content with their lives – you will wonder if you are some sort of crazy person that has a unhealthy propensity to live on the edge.

Moving from comfort to courage will…
cause you to look for the easy way out.

Moving from comfort to courage will…
cause you to pray like never before… wonder if you know any scripture to cast out the inner demon of doubt.

Moving from comfort to courage will…
cause you to white knuckle yourself around anything that feels secure and semi safe – even though you know earthly security and safety is a mirage and the place where Jesus is, is most where you want to be.

Moving from comfort to courage will…
Cause you to feel weak in the knees – a good indicator that you should stop standing up and get ON your knees..

Moving from comfort to courage will…
Cause others to question you… especially those that have found security to be a bedrock to build their lives on. You will be misunderstood, questioned, and perhaps even seen as foolish.

So today God I feel every one of these fears. I am terrified…  I am calling out to you to be a voice of truth and freedom. Tell me to settle down, to trust you and to release every one of these fears into your arms of faith. I know it is impossible to invite others into a life of obedience if I am unable to live it myself – so today I am re-upping my commitment to obey and be faithful.”

Before we moved, I had several people tell me they “could NEVER do what I was about to do.”  I just smiled and laughed a little on the inside remembering when I had thought the VERY SAME THING about someone else. I am real careful about using the word “never” now as it seems to be a common theme in my life that whatever I say I will never do, is the very thing God calls me to do shortly after saying it. The one thing I don’t ever want to do though, is disobey God.  I thought of Jonah several times throughout the moving process and wanted to learn from his mistake and not the hard way!  It’s been a great conversation piece among the kids, particularly Emma, my almost 6 year old who often asks why we moved to NC.  I always ask her about the story of Jonah and I think she gets it.

While there’s still so much to share, I think I’ll save it for another post.  What I’m learning for now, is that comfort is fleeting, overrated and not at all what God wants us to strive for.  Trusting in the Lord, obeying Him and living in His peace and presence is SO much better.  To God Be the Glory.

 

It is Well.

Well, It’s already been over a month since we left our small town and moved across the country to pursue what God’s called us to do. I often get asked if reality has set in, or how we are adjusting, and I’m amazed I can say that reality has set in, and by God’s grace, It is Well!  We’ve had two birthdays celebrated, a double ear infection, the flu (or something that mimics it?!) a few bouts of homesickness, tons of touring the area, meeting new friends, a broken down Jeep, amongst other ups and downs and through it all, God’s peace and comfort has prevailed. We are so grateful.

Before the move, God sent so many confirmations to us at just the right time to help guide us and give us peace about our move and I always wondered if those would stop once we got here, but I’m so glad they haven’t! I honestly thought it was possible that I would spend the whole first month here in tears. Having never lived further than 2 hours away (and coming home every weekend) I didn’t know what it would be like to live so far away from everything (more like everyone!) I’ve ever known and/or loved.  Don’t get me wrong, I do miss my friends and family! A lot! And I know I’m missing out on monumental life changes, like pregnancies of sisters, nieces walking, and nephews’ first days of preschool to name a few…and I am sad to miss out on those things.  But I know God has brought us here for a reason and so I look ahead to what He has for us here, not back at what I’m missing out on.  I’m learning a lot about life and perspective!  I’m trying to teach my kids the same.  Contentedness, being thankful for what we have, not focusing on what we DON’T have, but thinking about what we DO have. And it’s quite a lot actually!

To share one confirmation: Remember the broken down Jeep I mentioned? Oh yeah, it needed a lot of work. About $1200 worth of work in fact. That’s a chunk of change. However, about a week prior, we received a check in the mail for $1300~a refund from selling our house that we didn’t even know we had coming!  Thank you Lord.

I met a new friend at the park today.  Kind of a new experience for me.  Can’t say I ever did that back home, kind of sad to say.  I probably thought I didn’t need anymore friends. I probably would have had to go out of MY comfort zone to make a friend. Notice I’m not saying anything about the other person….maybe someone at the park needed a friend.  Maybe someone at the park just moved to the area and didn’t have many friends yet.  Hmm….I’m enjoying being on the other end of things but having a hard time swallowing how comfortable I was and how okay I was with that back home. Growing and learning~I know that’s a huge reason we’re here. I’m looking forward to it! Trying to embrace it!

Anyway…I’m sure Justin will post again soon! But for those of you wondering, he is LOVING school a lot and is learning a ton already. I am thankful for that. Very thankful.

There’s a house we’re looking at renting in Cornelius. It’s about double the size of the townhouse we were looking at. The very day we looked at the (fairly small!)  townhouse, Justin called a new friend of ours from church per our Pastor’s recommendation, and his response was, “funny you should ask, I just got a call THIS MORNING from one of my renter’s saying she wants out of her lease early.”  Interesting. We’re still looking into it, but seems like it would be near perfect and plenty large for, ahem, visiting family or friends perhaps!? Oh, and it has a neighborhood pool. And remember that friend I told you about earlier, the new one from the park? Oh yeah, she lives RIGHT around the corner from that house. Yay!

Well, if you’re reading this, thanks for sticking with me through this scattered and looong post. God Bless you!   And shoot me a facebook message or leave a comment and let me know?!  I LOVE hearing from everyone~I know it’s helped with the transition to have contact via facebook/Skype, texting etc…with everyone back home. I haven’t forgotten about ya’ll. Uh oh…did I just say that!   I love the South.

Aww….

The Birthday Boy!

Emma, Jaden & The “other Emma” at our Labor Day bbq/Mini birthday party for Jaden

Chuck E. Cheese~SO much fun!!

Destined to be Jett’s favorite game at Chuck E. Cheese!