Hello Again
SO MUCH has changed since I last wrote here. I have a lot of thoughts that have been whirling around in my mind, but it doesn't really seem right to just jump back in without at least giving a brief synopsis of the last year or so of my life, where I have been MIA from the blogging world.
I do wish I had shared more often in the midst of all the changes, but sharing in retrospect will have to suffice. Sometimes it seems meaningless to me to just spit out details like this into the unknown, but if God has taught me anything, it is that He has a reason and a purpose in the way he writes the story of each of his people. Even if I do not have anything truly profound or moving to share today, I hope sharing my backstory will at least give a little better context to my future posts.
Kevin and I got married in November of 2012, and at the time both of us were working and heavily involved at Bell Shoals Baptist Church. It was through our mutual involvement there that we became friends in the first place, and our love for one another and for ministry mutually grew as we served alongside each other in the student ministry. In the spring of 2013, through some restructuring in the staff of the student ministry and through our desire be better equipped for future vocational ministry, it became clear that God was leading Kevin to enroll in Seminary sooner than we had planned. We visited the campus of Southern Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky and absolutely loved the faculty, the campus, and the city, and felt a lot of confirmation that moving there would be the right next step for our family.
For a long time I had been feeling the need to move away and to be able to start somewhere "fresh" with Kevin... somewhere where I wasn't constantly surrounded by memories of Jake and by people who remembered me as "Jake's..." I knew it would be hard to step away from the strong support system I had in Florida, but I also had a strong sense of peace about our move and almost immediately felt at home in Louisville.
Shortly after moving, Kevin and I joined Sojourn Community Church. If you live anywhere in the Louisville, Kentucky area, you should visit! We loved pretty much everything about it there, and our campus pastor, Lisle Drury is a hidden gem, one of the best preachers I have ever heard. The year we spent at Sojourn challenged me to apply Gospel truths to every part of my life, and to appreciate the grace of the Gospel message more than I ever have before (hello, I am a huge perfectionist, who struggles greatly with a works-based mentality). Kevin and I were both so refreshed as we were able to step back from vocational ministry for a while and were able to learn from men and women much wiser than ourselves. It was also a very humbling experience for me personally, to serve in a body of believers who did not know who I was, and did not automatically admire me because of what they had heard about my story. It was a difficult, but much-needed lesson in humility.
Just a few months after we'd moved- about this time last year- Kevin and I found out that I was pregnant. I'll admit that my first reaction was more of fear and trepidation than it was elated joy. I all-too-often have a hard time accepting the good things in my life and spend a lot of time just waiting for heartbreak to happen. I am definitely not proud of this tendency, but I suppose this is fairly common for people who have had a significant loss before. Time passed and my pregnancy was fairly uneventful. Throughout that time Kevin and I continued to work full time, he at Verizon and me at State Farm, while he evaluated potential job opportunities that would allow me to stay home once Hudson was born. He interviewed with a several churches and about two months prior to Hudson's due date, Kevin was extended the call to become a youth pastor at a church in the Atlanta area.
At first, the idea of moving yet again, only a year after we had moved to Louisville seemed very strange, but over time God gave us increasing amounts of peace about it. Kevin's new job would bring us closer to family, and because Kevin had been taking night classes and not seeing much of the esteemed faculty we had moved to Southern Seminary for anyway, he could continue classes with more or less the same experience online. We were grateful for the friends we made in Louisville, and our time away from the familiar was incredibly good for our marriage, but we also knew from the beginning that Louisville would only be for a season, and we were excited to start the next chapter of our lives as parents and Kevin as a pastor a little closer to home.
This summer was a whirlwind as we made preparations to transition at work, prepare for a new baby, and prepare for another state to state move shortly thereafter. On August 16th, Hudson was born (11 days late and after about 50 hours of labor, but that's a story for another time), and 6 days later we made the move from Kentucky to Georgia.
Kevin has been loving serving as the associate youth pastor at First Redeemer Church. It has been such a blessing for him to step back into full-time vocational ministry. The Lord has already blessed him with many opportunities to speak and teach, and we are loving getting to know the students and families here. It is such a joy for me to be able to sit under his preaching and dream with him about what God can do with this ministry.
Hudson is now three-and-a-half months old and he is such a joy. He is tall like his mommy and daddy and loves to be standing up. His favorite things to look at are Kevin and I, and the black and white silhouettes that I've painted of us and hung over the couch. His smile melts my heart, and I am so thankful that he has his daddy's relaxed temperament. I am currently staying home and playing mommy full-time, which has been a huge blessing. I don't have specific plans for returning to work at this time, and we are trusting that God will make that plain if it is wise for me to do so in the future.
I am filled with gratitude as I think about how the Lord has guided and walked with us over the last couple years and am excited for what He has planned for our future.
I feel exceedingly and abundantly blessed.
Grace abounds.
Diana
I do wish I had shared more often in the midst of all the changes, but sharing in retrospect will have to suffice. Sometimes it seems meaningless to me to just spit out details like this into the unknown, but if God has taught me anything, it is that He has a reason and a purpose in the way he writes the story of each of his people. Even if I do not have anything truly profound or moving to share today, I hope sharing my backstory will at least give a little better context to my future posts.
Kevin and I got married in November of 2012, and at the time both of us were working and heavily involved at Bell Shoals Baptist Church. It was through our mutual involvement there that we became friends in the first place, and our love for one another and for ministry mutually grew as we served alongside each other in the student ministry. In the spring of 2013, through some restructuring in the staff of the student ministry and through our desire be better equipped for future vocational ministry, it became clear that God was leading Kevin to enroll in Seminary sooner than we had planned. We visited the campus of Southern Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky and absolutely loved the faculty, the campus, and the city, and felt a lot of confirmation that moving there would be the right next step for our family.
For a long time I had been feeling the need to move away and to be able to start somewhere "fresh" with Kevin... somewhere where I wasn't constantly surrounded by memories of Jake and by people who remembered me as "Jake's..." I knew it would be hard to step away from the strong support system I had in Florida, but I also had a strong sense of peace about our move and almost immediately felt at home in Louisville.
Shortly after moving, Kevin and I joined Sojourn Community Church. If you live anywhere in the Louisville, Kentucky area, you should visit! We loved pretty much everything about it there, and our campus pastor, Lisle Drury is a hidden gem, one of the best preachers I have ever heard. The year we spent at Sojourn challenged me to apply Gospel truths to every part of my life, and to appreciate the grace of the Gospel message more than I ever have before (hello, I am a huge perfectionist, who struggles greatly with a works-based mentality). Kevin and I were both so refreshed as we were able to step back from vocational ministry for a while and were able to learn from men and women much wiser than ourselves. It was also a very humbling experience for me personally, to serve in a body of believers who did not know who I was, and did not automatically admire me because of what they had heard about my story. It was a difficult, but much-needed lesson in humility.
Just a few months after we'd moved- about this time last year- Kevin and I found out that I was pregnant. I'll admit that my first reaction was more of fear and trepidation than it was elated joy. I all-too-often have a hard time accepting the good things in my life and spend a lot of time just waiting for heartbreak to happen. I am definitely not proud of this tendency, but I suppose this is fairly common for people who have had a significant loss before. Time passed and my pregnancy was fairly uneventful. Throughout that time Kevin and I continued to work full time, he at Verizon and me at State Farm, while he evaluated potential job opportunities that would allow me to stay home once Hudson was born. He interviewed with a several churches and about two months prior to Hudson's due date, Kevin was extended the call to become a youth pastor at a church in the Atlanta area.
At first, the idea of moving yet again, only a year after we had moved to Louisville seemed very strange, but over time God gave us increasing amounts of peace about it. Kevin's new job would bring us closer to family, and because Kevin had been taking night classes and not seeing much of the esteemed faculty we had moved to Southern Seminary for anyway, he could continue classes with more or less the same experience online. We were grateful for the friends we made in Louisville, and our time away from the familiar was incredibly good for our marriage, but we also knew from the beginning that Louisville would only be for a season, and we were excited to start the next chapter of our lives as parents and Kevin as a pastor a little closer to home.
This summer was a whirlwind as we made preparations to transition at work, prepare for a new baby, and prepare for another state to state move shortly thereafter. On August 16th, Hudson was born (11 days late and after about 50 hours of labor, but that's a story for another time), and 6 days later we made the move from Kentucky to Georgia.
Kevin has been loving serving as the associate youth pastor at First Redeemer Church. It has been such a blessing for him to step back into full-time vocational ministry. The Lord has already blessed him with many opportunities to speak and teach, and we are loving getting to know the students and families here. It is such a joy for me to be able to sit under his preaching and dream with him about what God can do with this ministry.
Hudson is now three-and-a-half months old and he is such a joy. He is tall like his mommy and daddy and loves to be standing up. His favorite things to look at are Kevin and I, and the black and white silhouettes that I've painted of us and hung over the couch. His smile melts my heart, and I am so thankful that he has his daddy's relaxed temperament. I am currently staying home and playing mommy full-time, which has been a huge blessing. I don't have specific plans for returning to work at this time, and we are trusting that God will make that plain if it is wise for me to do so in the future.
I am filled with gratitude as I think about how the Lord has guided and walked with us over the last couple years and am excited for what He has planned for our future.
I feel exceedingly and abundantly blessed.
Grace abounds.
Diana
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