I Serve at the Pleasure
I serve at the pleasure of the President I’ve been enthralled with the inter-workings of the White House since I was a kid. (No joke, I used to pretend to have a radio show where I interviewed Abraham Lincoln… don’t worry, I know I’m weird) Throughout the series The West Wing, this phrase is said to…
The Top Question Not to Ask Missionaries
Don’t ask: How do you get any money? Can I be honest for a second? This is an extremely passionate subject for me. The reason is that we get asked finance questions A LOT!! It is one thing to be asked about our support raising by people who know us. It is quite another thing…
Learning to Say Yes
One of the great joys of daily life with two toddlers is hearing them say no approximately every two and half seconds. Sometimes more. Not even kidding. My all-time favorite is when they say no without even thinking about the question… and then have to quickly say yes because that’s what they really want- which…
It’s Not You, It’s Me
Confession #1: I hate rural living. I don’t enjoy anything about having to drive 30 minutes to get groceries. Or when the only option for eating out is the hot food section of the deli at the local grocery store. Or when there are more pickled and fried things at the grocery store than produce.…
Just Suffering for Jesus
Someone commented recently that our life was inconvenient. I want to take a moment to dispell the myth that the missionary life, whether abroad or stateside, is all just suffering for Jesus. Are there sacrifices involved in our life? Yes. Do we have to empty our water and sewage tanks? Yes. (Okay, okay, Scott does that…
Coming Home Again
Being back in Tulsa this last week has made me realize how much Oklahoma really has become our home. And not because we are so in love with the state, but because it is where our community lives. We knew we had to come back to Tulsa for doctors visits, but we didn’t realize how…
Gulf Coast Living
We have spent the last three weeks on the Gulf Coast between a week of family time, ten days of support raising, and then a long weekend visiting my dad. This is the part of the country where Scott and I first met, so it is a very fitting place for the next phase of…
Why We Work Across Denominational Lines
We have spent the last four months serving alongside a Southern Baptist church, which some might seem odd for full gospel Bible School graduates to do. I mean, we don’t really believe the same way about everything in the Bible, do we? Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a…
Learning to Say Goodbye
We were sitting down for dinner, chatting about life and things to come like normal. I leaned over and said, “Madeline, tomorrow is our last day at church. You are going to have to say bye bye to the church grandmas.” “No, no bye.” Now life with an almost two year old means that I…
Why We Love Living Small with Young Kids
When most people add another kid to their family, they think about whether they need more space. But we are so grateful that we had the opportunity to move into a smaller space! When Emily was born, we were living in a 850 square foot 2 bedroom duplex. Most American families would consider that living…
World Prematurity Day
This poster was up in every exam room at my ob’s office when I was pregnant with Madeline. I would stare at it every visit while waiting for the doctor. When Madeline was born unexpectedly at 35 weeks, this is the image that haunted me. As grateful as I was for our little 3 lb…
Week 6: Oh the Packing!
We got back to Tulsa this week (made the 8 hour trip in one day!) to pack up our rental house and move everything into storage. To say life is a little messy right now would be an understatement. Besides spending the days sorting through everything we own, we have taken some time to enjoy…
Week 5: The Waiting Game
Have you ever waited for a house to dry out in a humid climate? It is kind of like waiting for a huge pot of water to boil, only way worse. The cruel joke of having hurricanes hit in humid areas is it takes FOREVER for the homes to dry after they have been gutted…
Week 4: Starting to Feel Like Home
When I think of home, all different kinds of images come to mind- places I have lived, people I love, things that make me feel comfortable. But mostly home is that place where I can exhale and feel like no matter what happens, I am safe here. I am home. This week the camper has…
Week 3: The Honeymoon is Over
I feel like if there was a theme to our third week of traveling fulltime it would be “real life has begun.” I remember when Scott and I first got married, there was a point where I realized that this was the rest of my life. It wasn’t a negative realization; just more of a…
Why It Is Important For Us to Travel as a Family
When we decided to travel full time as a family, we knew that we would have some family and friends concerned about our decision. We knew not everyone would understand why Scott doesn’t just travel without us and then come home in between disasters and church visits. There are lots of reasons we want to…
Week 2: To Beaumont We Go
Lesson learned this week: not all campgrounds are created equal. Oh, and toddlers can be finicky travel companions. In the last week, we have stayed at 5 different privately owned campgrounds on our trip from Arizona to the Houston area. The good news is we (and by that I mean Scott) got really good at…
Let Them Be The Reason
“Let them be the reason… not the excuse” So often Scott and I meet people who say they would love to this, that, or the other that God has put on their heart, but they can’t because of their family. It would be so easy to say we could not travel full time as a…