30!

I've been 30 for almost 3 months now and I'm so behind on even sharing about it.

This year, I wanted an epic birthday.. who doesn't?  It's a milestone!  I'm joining the 30's club!  Anyways, not sure if I was going to have an epic birthday due to life, my amazing husband surprised me!  It wasn't a surprise for very long because I found out about it but I was so excited!

My birthday present from him and my family was a trip to New York.  I finally got to see the family lake house in Schroon Lake.  I've been waiting to go there since we have been together.

Schroon Lake, NY

This view is gorgeous!

It's a beautiful place and I can't wait to visit there again!  It brought back so many memories when I used to go to Mentone, AL every year in the fall.  I love the mountains.  I love creation.  One of my favorite things to do is just sit outside and listen to nature.  I love listening to the wind blow through the trees and the birds sing.  

One of the main reasons we went to New York is for this: Revolution Rail Co.

I saw this cool thing called rail biking on Facebook and shared it with my husband.  Once he figured out that it's in the Adirondacks, that's when he decided to plan my birthday trip.  This place is awesome and I cannot wait to do it again.

Basically, you bike along the Hudson River for about 3 miles.  Then you get to take a break and play in the river (if you so desire).  It's a beautiful place and we really enjoyed being able to play along the rocks for a little bit before heading back.    Here are a few pics from our time there.  The best part about doing this is that two days later we were rafting down the Hudson under that bridge!

On my actual birthday, we took it easy that morning before we went exploring.  I got to see the quaint town of Schroon Lake.  It's an adorable town with some good shops and restaurants.  It reminded me of Gilmore Girls for sure!

Schroon Lake, NY

Schroon Lake, NY

We ended the adventure of upstate NY with white water rafting with the Adirondack Rafting Outfitters.  Y'all, this company is amazing.  The guides are nice, very knowledgeable about the area and wild life there.  Most of the guides have been doing this for over 10 years and have a background in forestry or other water rafting.  Our particular guide was friendly and has been in forestry for over 30 years.  So, he definitely knows his stuff! It was an amazing experience to go down the Hudson River for 17 miles!  It doesn't feel like you have rafted 17 miles, although, you will have a great night's sleep afterwards! 

My favorite part of visiting upstate NY is seeing the family lake house and hearing all the stories of how my husband's family has done fixing up the place.  I also enjoy seeing the photos his grandmother has of the family.  It's a beautiful thing.

The last few days of our trip was spent in the city.  His uncle took us on a little tour of places we wanted to see.  We went to Chinatown, which is my favorite!  I finally had some authentic Chinese food that I had been craving since my last visit home.  We had a great time visiting with his aunt and uncle and exploring. 

Central Park

I definitely thought of 27 Dresses when I saw that house on the lake. Ha!

Leaving NYC - on the plane

Catching Up!

It's been another few months since I have last updated.  It is mainly due to certain priorities that I needed to focus on.  With that said, I will probably being a few posts on certain things that I have been wanting to share.

I should be able to start sharing in the next few days.  This year has a been a great year for me and Sean.  God has been so good and gracious to us.

Raising a Culture

I met with a good friend yesterday and we both decided that we want to encourage each other more in things we want to do... for me it's me posting more blogs regarding my life for friends and family to stay in touch with me.  

I recently read a book called Culture of Honor by Danny Silk.  It's an amazing book.  You should read it... I learned so much while reading this book and I wrote this post below in May and now I want to share it with you:  

May 21, 2017

I have seen so many people traveling lately on social media.  Most of it has been for vacation. I also know quite of few people will soon be doing missions trips over this summer.  

I love seeing people travel. I love seeing their photos and how they see beauty wherever they are. I love how they get inspired of the beauty around them. 

Now I wonder... I wonder if they are changing the world or is the experience changing them, for the better. 

I am sitting here also wondering when will it be my turn to travel the world again.  I miss the adventures of traveling.  I miss the spontaneous feeling you get to have while traveling.  I miss so many things of traveling and yet I am so content of where I am right now.  I am learning how to explore my surroundings in a small town or driving 45 minutes to explore a bigger city.

I enjoy the stillness of where I am and where I live.  There is so much peace here.  I am enjoying the painful experience of the healing that is happening in my life right now.  It’s weird to admit that but it’s true.  I’m learning that I need to reopen myself again to the Lord and to others.  I know that the Lord is enjoying this walk with me.  He wants me to be free of all strongholds.

As I’m going through this process I am realizing that God wants us to build a new culture.  He wants us to build a culture that is seeking after His heart.  I feel that He is doing this in our group so that people who come to visit will take this with them back to their homes.  Whenever we travel we always want to bring a little bit of that culture back with us, hence the souvenirs that we all purchase.  I believe we are going to be a culture that people want to “purchase” part of it to take back home with them.  Except, that this culture will not have to be purchased.  However, there must be a healing process to give up our selfish ways that hinder us from going deeper in our walk with the Lord.  You can’t purchase what God has done for you.  You only have to accept it.

This culture that is being built is also a family that is being properly placed by God.  The Lord is showing me that my idea of what a family should look like is not what He has designed it to be.  I’m allowing Him to show me where I need to make adjustments in my life to see how He has this family chosen and how it operates. 

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As I've been in this season of learning, this book has helped tremendously for me.  It has helped clear some things up for me and it also has helped me re-evaluate how I process my life and certain situations.  I highly suggest everyone to read Culture of Honor.

Remaining thankful

I found myself wondering, "What would the world be like if everybody had her mind-set?"  She just reconfirmed for me a million times over that it's up to us to choose contentment and thankfulness now -- and to stop imagining that we have to have everything perfect before we'll be happy. 
Joanna Gaines

I have thoroughly enjoyed reading The Magnolia Story.  If you haven't read it, I highly recommend it. It's such an easy read and you feel like you're listening to Chip & Joanna speak to you, rather than reading it.

I love hearing people's stories of their life.  We can all learn something from each other.  Joanna was learning what it means to be content where she was in her life at that time and it made her be creative with what she had.

Sometimes I feel like it's hard to stay content and thankful in life.  It's especially hard when you are not where you want to be.  Making the effort to stay thankful is challenging but it's worth that fight.  Sean and I decided that we will make that effort to be thankful.  We have written down "I am thankful" statements and we read them daily.  Since we have started this daily ritual, we have been tremendously blessed by things that God has done for us.

When you start thanking the Lord for what you have or for what He has done, it shifts the atmosphere around you.  It's also okay to start saying that you are thankful even if you are in crabby mood.  I heard someone teach on that a while ago and it truly shifts the atmosphere as well as your mood.  If you have never tried it I highly recommend it.

Perfection can be an evil thing sometimes.  I strive for perfection and it has caused me some issues.  I've been learning that I don't need to be perfect since I can't be perfect.  I have learned to praise God during the times that I can't get something right.  I'm really learning that I can't have everything perfect right away while we renovate our house (my patience has been tested).  I want everything done and my house in order.  I know it will come so I just praise and thank the Lord for our home.  I thank Him for providing everything we need and what we have done.  It's been a great learning process for me.

For the Lord is always good and ready to receive you.  He's so loving that it will amaze you -- so kind that it will astound you!  And he is famous for his faithfulness toward all.  Everyone knows our God can be trusted, for he keeps his promises to every generation!
   -Psalm 100:5 (The Passion Translation)

Planting Roots

It's been a little over a month since have lived in our fixer upper home.  I'm still in awe that we have a house.  This home is our miracle home.

Three weeks before we left Florida we found out our housing fell through.  When I got the news of our housing had to change I honestly didn't know what to do.  My flesh wanted to panic, cry, and complain but instead I had peace about it.  I knew it was Holy Spirit giving me that peace.  So instead, I took a deep breath (maybe more), talked with Holy Spirit again to help stay calm and trust, and called Sean letting him know what happened.

Naturally, we started hunting for another rental property.  We looked for a few days and could not find a decent property that we liked or in the price range we wanted to stay in.  So our real estate friends suggested we look into buying a home and we decided to go down that route.  They were willing to go visit any home we wanted to "see" to make sure it was suitable for us and that nothing else was wrong with the house.  I don't think we even really "looked" at many houses.

We saw this house online and I immediately fell in love with the outside.  As we looked at the property details I knew this was going to be our house.  I told Sean that this home was going to be ours.  Our friends went to go look at this house and we put an offer on it within the next couple of days.  We never saw the house in person until after the contract was pending... That's God!

This home is a miracle.  The Lord orchestrated every part of this process.  I had moments of worry and doubt but I reminded myself to trust.  It's hard to trust when you are walking by faith and into the unknown territory.  By trusting and remaining faithful of God's promises to us we got this beautiful home.

This house has so much potential and we are excited to live here and make it come alive.  There are lots of updates that need to happen (every room) but we are so honored that we get to do it.  It's wonderful to know that the Lord has entrusted us with this home to make it our own and to know that His love will resonate here.  This home has been consecrated back to Him.  This home belongs to Him.

Transition

Transition seasons can be tough.  They can also be fun.

This transition has been an adventure for us.

When we lived in Florida, Sean and I could not do much.  We were always busy with work and working at the church.  I do not regret being so busy but we did not take vacation time or do much around town.  We also could not financially do much.  We know that our time in Florida was training for this next season for us.

Since we have left, Sean and I have done more together than we ever have.  It's been amazing.  It's been so nice to do things together and just spend leisure time together.  God has blessed us to do things.  We have gone to Waco, TX for Silobration and I've been able to go home (Alabama) 3 times to see family and friends.

It's been great to have the flexibility to do what we want to do but also to serve people throughout this time.

There were some hard parts during this time because we solely have to trust the Lord.  It's not always easy but in those hard moments I would just say, "I trust You, Lord."  It's been a great time of growing in my faith.

We know that the Lord is going to be doing some great things for us soon.  I can't wait to share the great things He does for us when that time comes!

In the mean time check out some of our photos from the Silos. :)

We saw Chip!

Birthday/Going Away Shindig

These people in these photos and some that are not in these photos are the ones I miss dearly.  These lovely people became our family.  These are not all of the photos from that night but we had a great time fellowshiping and loving on each other before Sean and I left.

I hope to share more about each of these families who have impacted our life and I can't wait to see them again.

I'm so thankful for Angela and her husband, Jim, for letting us always party at their home.  They have an amazing home and peace permeates it.

the best group photo we could get :)

My dear sister, Ana, & her little one, Micaela

We love this family! 

Global Esther's Ministries family. This group right here.. I will always be thankful for them.  They have helped mold me, they invested in our marriage, & I will never forget that.  God has brought this family to us forever.