I just LOVE looking at the title of this post :) I still can't believe it's happening. I grew up in a Christian home, going to church every Sunday, living life. I am so grateful that my parents taught us what's right and wrong. I remember giving my heart to Jesus when I was 9 years old and getting baptized a couple years later. It's been a Journey for sure. Teenage years were fun, of course we all thought we knew everything about everything and our parents didn't know much of anything, right?!?! Or was I the ONLY one who thought that?!?! :) Haha. My parents NEVER gave up on me, which I am so thankful for. My dad continued to encourage me to do what was right and he'd let me make my own choices even if they weren't the right ones and I didn't realize it until (after) everything was said and done. But I am thankful for those mistakes because it's showed me a lot. I didn't have a great relationship with my mom, we budded heads alot, but she never gave up on me either, she has taught me a lot and she's listened to me whenever I needed someone to talk to when Caleb and I first got married, so thankful for her encouraging words :) Our relationship is tons better and I am so thankful she's (MY) mother. She was right beside when I was going through my first miscarriage, she was holding my hand letting me know everything was going to be ok. She is going to be an awesome grandma one day.
When I was younger and heard that Lowell & Cheryl and Nate & Maggie and their kids were going to the Dominica Republic to be missionaries, I was soo excited for them and thought it would be so COOL to be a missionary one day, I always begged my parents to let me support a child who needed help in the different countries, and they let me support this one little boy for a while, he set me letters and pictures, it was so awesome. I knew one day that I wanted to be a missionary. I was in high school and I remember telling my girl friends that boys were gross and I was NEVER getting married, I was going to be a missionary. I dreamed of going to Africa and working in an orphanage with little kids. That was (my plan) but little did I know, God had other plans for me :)
The fall of 2005 I met this REALLY SMOKING HOT guy named Caleb. He was 19 and I was 16. I turned 17 a month later :) And I just knew I was going to marry this guy :) We dated for two years and got married winter of 2007 :) He has a sister who lives in Belize and she was working down there as a missionary, I thought that was sooo COOL. She's still living there, she married a guy from El Salvador and they have two precious little boys. When we were dating we didn't really talk about mission work or anything and our first 2 years of marriage we didn't either, we had our jobs and we loved what we were doing. Three years ago God was speaking to Caleb about 'mission work' but Caleb didn't think it was a good idea, he loved farming and he thought maybe if he got involved at our church that would be good enough, well it wasn't and he continued to fight back & forth with God about it. Well at this point I had no idea what was going on, Caleb was working up in Galeburg at a Target Warehouse and plus farming, so he's working like 100 hours a week doing both jobs.....It was a horrid time during our marriage and it lasted three awful months. Finally he decided he couldn't fight God anymore and talked with our Pastor. He had a couple meetings before he told me what was going on. We were driving up to Kalamazoo one night after his meeting with Don and he told me everything. He said he was pretty sure that God wants us to be missionaries. I was shocked and didn't know what to say or think. He said Don thought it would be a good idea if we went on this mission trip to the Dominican Republic with a group from our church, that was the first step, figuring out if we wanted to go with Students International. After that trip we knew we wanted to be with SI but we both didn't feel like the DR was where we were suppose to be and at that time Lowell was talking\dreaming about starting SI Nicaragua. So we waiting and prayed. God did some amazing things in the DR, Caleb was a new person. We waited for a couple months and they told us SI Nicaragua was a go. We started the process and filled out the applications and had our interview. We were accepted, I think that's when it felt 'REAL' for me. I knew I needed to prepare myself for a ton of CHANGE, this girl does not like change.....at all......We went to new staff training in January and a couple weeks later drove to Colorado for 5 weeks for Language & Missionary training, and that experience changed my life. I am so Blessed to have went through everything there. And than we were home for two weeks before we left for the MISSION FIELD. I am living one of my biggest dreams as a little girl. God is soo GOOD :) He's taught me soooo much these past 3 years & He continues to teach me new things.
I am soo Blessed to have a husband who encourages me and helps me understand things I don't always understand. He's on fire for God and loves telling people about it.
I could go on and on......This shall do for now.....
THANK YOU to everyone who has partnered with us for these next two years and for all the amazing prayer and support. We are sooo thankful.
