Well, I ended my last post (yes, way back in 2013, just a few days shy of three years ago!) by saying that I'd be back in God's time. Thinking about the reality of that, it makes me laugh. God's timing is always the right timing, amen? But I wonder sometimes if he laughs at us when we try to impose our timing on His plans for our lives.. If so, He must've had a pretty good laugh at my last closing statement. I thought I'd be back sooner, but I guess I thought wrong haha. So, I should probably give a few updates.. considering it's been three years.
It's crazy how much can change in a short amount of time, and the following things are definitely not an exhaustive list. For starters, we were insanely involved in our church in various ministries. We gradually pulled out of those ministries over a two year period, and changed churches a few months ago. This has been a wonderful change (not that our previous church is bad by any means) and we are enjoying a new church.
In the fall of 2013, I accepted an offer to work full time for a company in the oil and gas industry and left my position at the bank. I worked for this company until late 2014 until they downsized and I was laid off. I was shocked, scared by the loss of income, and unsure what to do, but I knew God was in control and would provide like He always has. (And He did, and continues to do so.)
During the summer of 2014, we had decided to start a family and with great joy discovered we were expecting that same September. I was blessed with a great pregnancy. I wasn't sick, didn't have any medical conditions, and only had mild morning (err.. all-day) sickness that lasted until around 24 weeks. The only concern for the whole pregnancy was that our little man was awfully comfortable and didn't want to join us, so I was induced on his due date. He still wasn't ready, so they sent me home for a week (which was totally frustrating by the way.. being the size of a bus is not comfortable, then going through the induction process only to be told 24 hours later, "hey, we're sending you home without a baby.. better luck next week" only sends a sore, hormonal momma into tears and more frustration). So, our sweet Noah was born a week later, last May, healthy as could be, and we are SO in love! He is definitely worth the wait and we are loving every minute with him. He is such a happy boy! He loves his family, his toys, any kind of food, music, and pulling all the DVD's off the bottom shelf on his way out when he tries to escape from the living room ;)
After getting laid off, I realized I was able to go to MOPS (Mothers of Pre Schoolers) and really enjoyed being around all the other mommas. If you're not familiar with MOPS and you're a momma, please please please check them out! It is a fantastic ministry for mommas and incredibly beneficial. In fact, I'll make it easy for you, here's a link: www.mops.org. In late summer, I got a call from one of the committee members asking if I'd prayerfully consider joining the leadership team by being a discussion group leader and be responsible for a table of ladies at each meeting. I'd recently felt God preparing me for something to get back in the saddle of ministry and it instantly clicked ("duh"), so I said yes and am currently serving in that ministry. I absolutely love it. Its definitely not within my comfort zone, but that's part of what God had been preparing me for. You know that "tugging-at-your-heartstrings" feeling when God is saying "go" but hasn't told you where yet, but you know He's not going to tell you where until you step out in faith and say yes to Him? Yeah, that's where I was at. And I said yes to God. And He has blessed every step of the way. And He has showed me for the hundredth time that I don't need to be great at everything that my leadership role entails, because when I let HIM fill in the spots where I'm inadequate, HE gets the glory, and the mommas get pointed to HIM (crafty, eh?). He is SO faithful!
So, those are just a few things that have changed, but I'll hopefully write more eventually. Noah's been asleep for 2.5 hours.. so he's due to wake up any second!
