North Dakota Update

We have been in North Dakota just over 12 weeks. Almost 3 months. Since I haven't been updating like I should, let's hit the highlights...

Things we don't like:

• Being an hour from Walmart & Target...or maybe we do like that?
• The grocery store closing at 8 pm (6 pm on the weekends!)
• No dollar movie theater
• Being far away from our dear EastNaz & NBC friends. We miss you all terribly! 
• Even after moving 12 hours away from our second home, still not being any closer to our family & friends in Iowa. We miss you all so much, too! 

Things we love:

• The parsonage. This house is gorgeous & HUGE! We love having lots of room to spread out & having the yard to play in. I'm hoping to plant a good sized garden next year.
• Our church - both the people & the building. Everyone has been such a blessing to us & we are loving getting to know them better.
• The parsonage being so close to the church. We aren't right next door, but we are just down the street. Derrick walks to work most days & we walk to church most Sundays. I know that will change come winter, but it is so nice right now. 
• The foster care process is so much easier than Colorado or Iowa. We are excited to hopefully be licensed by the end of the month! We'll put all the space this house has to work!
• The small town life. Sometimes I miss having a hundred choices of places to go to dinner or tons of activities to attend...but most of the time I don't. We are loving being home more.
• Along with that, we are loving spending more time together! We were all so busy & pulled in so many different directions in Colorado that it was really too much. It is awesome to be able to be a family again. And since Derrick isn't having to do homework all the time, we have even had time to watch shows together like we used to! 

The move has been hardest on Dylan, which I kind of figured it would be. He was only 3 when we moved to Colorado. He remembers bits & pieces of Iowa, but Colorado was his home. In the weeks & months surrounding the time when we moved, almost all of his friends moved from the area. They are off in Indiana, Michigan, Massachusetts, & on the Navajo reservation in the southwest. Even when he would cry about missing Colorado, he knew most of his friends weren't there. We have kids in our church, but the kids his age are mostly girls & I know he misses playing with other boys. Being homeschooled, he doesn't have a ton of places to meet friends, but we were blessed this week to meet another pastor's wife & her kids at the library. They also homeschool & she has a son Dylan's age, so I am looking forward to getting together with them soon. We also just signed Dylan up for a boys gymnastics class & are hoping that will help him some, too.

Overall, just like our move to Colorado was, this move was a good & right one for our family. It is hard to be so far away from our family & our friends-who-became-family, but we are thankful for technology that helps us keep in touch. I am able to check in often with dear friends in Iowa, Colorado, Indiana, & Michigan. The boys talk to my mom almost every week. I was even able to see pictures of a dear friend bringing her adopted daughter home from Armenia. Derrick checks in weekly with his best friend, Brad, & together they are able to work through the issues of the world...or maybe just the issues of homework & ministry. :-) We are blessed to have so many people who love us all over the country! As we continue in ministry here in Beulah, we are looking forward to building more relationships here & watching God work in the church & community!

Please pray for us as we continue to adjust to our new life here in North Dakota!

Questions About Your Mom - Dylan, June 2015

Some of my friends posted this survey & I thought I'd ask Dylan. Some answers are more correct than others!

1. What is something mom always says to you? Go back to bed.

2. What makes mom happy? When I do what she says

3. What makes mom sad? When I don’t do what she says

4. How does your mom make you laugh? By telling jokes...or something. I don’t really know.

5. What was your mom like as a child? I don’t know! Because I wasn’t there!

6. How old is your mom? 32 (nope)

7. How tall is your mom? 32 feet

8. What is her favorite thing to do? I don’t know (whispers, “What’s your favorite thing to do?”) Watch NASCAR?

9. What does your mom do when you're not around? I don’t know. Have lunch with Daddy.

10. If your mom becomes famous, what will it be for? Maybe being the President. Maybe.

11. What is your mom really good at? Packing

12. What is your mom not very good at? I don’t know.

13. What does your mom do for a job? Nothing! My dad only does a job.

14.What is your mom's favorite food? “I don’t know.” “Dylan, I just told you the other day.” “I can’t remember. Salad?”

15.What makes you proud of your mom? Taking care of us.

16. If your mom were a character, who would she be? Spidergirl, maybe. Maybe.

17. What do you and your mom do together? A lot of stuff.

18. How are you and your mom the same? Because of our voice, hair, & eyes.

19. How are you and your mom different? Because you have psoriasis & I don’t

20. How do you know your mom loves you? Because she says she loves me all the time.

21. What does your mom like most about your dad? That we can get money.

22. Where is your mom's favorite place to go? Chipotle (he’s probably right about that one!)

23. How old was your Mom when you were born? I don’t know. 22, maybe?

11 Years Later

My favorite wedding picture

Today is my 11th anniversary.

I'm not sure how that happened - 11 years is a LONG time! I feel like I'm not old enough to have been married 11 years, but here we are.

As I spent some time thinking about our 11 years together, it amazed me to think about how much our love has changed. When we started dating 14 (what!?) years ago, we were so young. 16 & 19. We were best friends, but so in love. In our wedding pictures 3 years later, we look like babies! I didn't feel young then, but now I think back on it & realize that we were just beginning our lives. Many people thought we were too young to build a marriage that would last. We had no life experience. We just knew that we were in love & wanted to get married as soon as possible. That love was strong & passionate, full of young dreams.

Most of the wedding party before the reception.

Now, 11 years later, the love is still there, but it is different. It is so much deeper now. While Derrick & I are still best friends, we are now also partners in life. We are each other's other half. We work together so well. We are each other's cheerleader, support, counselor. When we committed to "To have and to hold, from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness or in health" 11 years ago, we didn't know how much of that would be true. Life has not always been roses & rainbows. Marriage is hard work, even when it is with your best friend. Feelings get hurt, money runs out, people get sick. Sometimes God reroutes your plans right in the middle of your comfortable life. No matter what the future holds, Derrick & I are commited to each other.

Spring 2007 (I think)

One of the things that Derrick mentioned about our wedding was that he loved something that was part of my vows. We didn't write our own vows, but just let Pastor Bill do whatever he normally did. I don't remember all of my vows, but one line was "You are the husband of my choosing." 11 years later, it is still true. Derrick is the husband of my choosing. I don't know if I love him more than I did the day we were married, but the love now is so much stronger than it was then. As we are headed out into a new adventure together with our boys, I am excited to see how God uses us as we do what he has called us to! We are in this together, until death shall part us - and that is an exciting place to be!

Fall 2014

Quotes from the Boys

One fun reason to have kids is so you can hear the crazy (& hilarious!) things they say. I'm sure I've missed some, but these are some good ones! Dylan's are always great, but Andrew is finally starting to get in on the action!

Dylan:

January 2015

"My cold is getting badder." (We thought he said "better.")

"Wow, this is a fancy restaurant!" - while eating dinner at Chipotle.

While playing Life -
Dylan: "What's this say?"
Derrick: "Tutor."
Dylan: "Toot-er! My house is the Toot-er!" Laughs hysterically!

April 2015

Dylan has always had a good grasp on speech & grammar. He was never one of those kids who said things like, "Me want juice." Even when he was tiny, I was always shocked at the way he could put sentences together appropriately. The other day our friends shared a story about Dylan & his friends with us & I laughed so hard that I thought I needed to write it down.

Our dear friends Jenny & Steve teach Dylan's class at church on Wednesday nights. The class is 1st & 2nd graders & they LOVE to chat with each other. Jenny says that she tries not to intervene in their conversations as much as possible. The kids were talking about pets & one of the little boys was telling a story about how he knows someone who "dyed" their dog pink. Dylan responded with "I think you mean 'killed.'" He knew that we didn't "die" things, we "killed" them. The child insisted that, no, he meant "dyed." Dylan continued to argue with him about if he meant "dyed" or "killed." Sometimes in person communication isn't better than text messages & emails!

"When I grow up, I'm going to get a car just like this. Only a convertible." While riding in our mini van. 

Dylan - "How do the weather people know the weather?"

Derrick - "Well, they study it & can figure out what's going on."

Dylan - "Oh. Maybe they just watch the news."

Andrew:

For some reason, Andrew calls all the grandparents "Baca." We have no idea why or where it came from, but that's what he prefers. So goofy!

May 2015

Andrew's favorite song is Jesus (There's Something About that Name). He loves it & we sing it almost every night. He has started singing it on his own & it is adorable. Also, hilarious! The song goes "Jesus, Jesus, Jesus. There's just something about that name. Master, Savior, Jesus..." Andrew's version goes, "Jesus, Jesus, Jesus. Some name. Masser, Freezer, Jesus!"

What Happens After Graduation?

Many of you have been asking what we are doing after Derrick graduates at the end of the month. Are we coming to Iowa? Are we staying in Colorado? We decided that we would share with you where we are at & what is next. Since Derrick started sending his resume out to Nazarene church districts in March, he has had several conversations with District Superintendents either about specific churches or just about the district in general. Nothing really jumped out at us. Then Derrick, on a whim, sent his resume to the Prairie Lakes district at the beginning of April. We have a couple friends on the district, including our former youth pastor/best man/good friend/mentor to Derrick, Dave. We thought it would be awesome to be close to him. Before I go any farther, I need to say - Prairie Lakes is a big district. It is all of Minnesota, North Dakota, & South Dakota. As Derrick was sending out his resume, I said the thing you should NEVER say when going into ministry, “I just don’t want to go to some tiny town in North Dakota. No one lives in North Dakota!”

So the next day (or something), Derrick gets an email. The District Superintendent of the Prairie Lakes district wanted to meet with him. He just “happened” to be in Colorado Springs for a few days. So they met for lunch. And Derrick texted me - “The DS is nice...he wants us to consider a ‘really nice church’...in Beulah, North Dakota.”

I immediately started sobbing. North Dakota, God? For real? Not only was it not really closer to Iowa (12 hours vs. the 14 now), it wasn’t really near our friend Dave, either (still 6 hours to his house). I texted my dear best friend, Amy, who is really good at talking me down from my crazy. After me telling her what was going on & many messages back & forth, she finally said, “Okay, but what is your gut reaction?” Aside from the sobbing...my gut reaction was to allow the DS to give our resume to the Beulah church & see where that goes. After talking to Derrick that night & finding that he had the same gut reaction, we contacted the DS & told him he could give the church our information. We have been telling God “wherever you want us,” so this was our first BIG step out in faith.

And then we waited. And as we waited, we researched. Derrick may have accused me of being a stalker. We searched the town, the people, the church. We found that the town was super tiny - 3000 people. No Walmart, McDonald’s, Sam’s...but they do have Derrick’s favorite - Subway! Seeing all that they don’t have made me really nervous. The more I looked & thought, though, the more I liked the idea of a small town. No major distractions. More places for my boys to be outside & run & be boys. It really started to feel like it could be home. We began to get more & more excited. And more & more nervous. It felt like they would never contact us, so we thought maybe they decided to go a different direction. And then one day a couple weeks later, Derrick got a call. They wanted to Skype interview us.

I was so distracted waiting for that interview. I was so excited & scared. We interviewed. The church board was super nice & have a great idea about where they want their church to go. We had a really nice interview. And then we waited, again. Finally, after what seemed like forever, but was really only a few days, they contacted us, inviting us to come visit & for Derrick to preach. We are so thrilled! It feels like God has been leading through this whole situation. Whether or not we are called to the Beulah church, we know that going to interview there is from God.

So pray for us. We are excited, but very nervous - this would be a major change for us. We are currently attending a decent sized church & we live in a town that has almost anything you would want. Our boys have grown up here in Colorado Springs & it would be hard to take them from what they are so used to. It would be hard to leave our dear friends here who have become like family. Pray for the Beulah church - this is a time of transition for them & they are trying to discern what God has for them. Maybe it is us...but maybe it’s not. Most of all, pray that we would all look for God’s will in this. We all want to do what God is telling us to do. We want what is best for ourselves, but we also want what is best for the Beulah church. Being in the center of God’s will is an awesome place to be & we want to spend as much time there as possible!

Long Overdue Update

I have been kind of avoiding writing this post. It has been a rough few months for me & I wasn't sure that I was willing to share what's been going on. But, then I remembered that I want to be honest on this blog & that maybe my trials will help someone else to have the freedom to talk about what it going on in their lives.

In October, I had another miscarriage. Very few people actually know that it happened. This was miscarriage #4. Everything seemed to be going so well with the pregnancy - lots of nausea, lots of fatigue. I was doing all the things I should have been doing, including taking a supplement to help the placenta grow. One day I started spotting & things when downhill from there. I saw my doctor & we did an ultrasound. Just as I've had in the past, there was a sac, but no baby. We planned to repeat the ultrasound in a couple weeks to see if I was just not as far along as we thought. Before the next scheduled appointment, I miscarried at home. We went in to confirm that my uterus was empty & it was, so we headed home with expected, but very sad news.

It was very hard to make it through those few weeks surrounding the miscarriage. Trying to carry on like all was okay & normal when it very much wasn't. Trying to care for my boys & household while feeling awful, both physically & emotionally. Working at the church in the nursery & with the kids. It was painful to even be there. Several friends has little babies & I couldn't bring myself to hold those sweet babies that I had been so excited about just weeks before. My heart was absolutely broken because my baby was taken away.

Unless you have had a miscarriage, you don't really understand. When my dear best friend miscarried before I had any little ones, I didn't know what to say to her. I was super sad for her, but I had no idea what she was going through. Now I have had 4, so I know painfully well what she was feeling. You find out you are pregnant & are so excited...you have dreams & plans for this baby. Is it a boy or a girl? What will we name it? Who will it look like? Who will this baby grow up to be? And then, in an instant, all those dreams are ripped away as your body, created to protect this growing life, fails, & you are left to make sense of it. Having struggled to get pregnant with both boys, but also experiencing miscarriages - I'd rather just not get pregnant than get my hopes up.

We hope & pray to have more little ones in our home. We don't know if they will be biological, adopted, foster. Dylan asks almost daily for a baby sister. Maybe that will happen one day. We are working through our foster care applications & classes. I check adoptions sites several times a day. I have been advocating for several little ones and their (soon-to-be) families because even if I can't bring those little ones home, they still need a family. At this point we are just trying to trust that God has a plan bigger than us & that we just don't understand it yet. I take comfort in knowing that one day in heaven I will understand the plan God has been working out through our lives.

Crochet Project

Starting today, I am running a fundraiser for a fantastic family! Kami & Chris are adopting a sweet girl from eastern Europe & I want to see her get home!

Throughout December, 25% of all proceeds from crochet orders will go to benefit their adoption! I am super excited to see how much money we can raise! If you don't need anything crocheted, you can still donate to their fund at http://reecesrainbow.org/76470/sponsorladybug

Here are some examples of what I can do. All orders are custom made unless otherwise indicated, so please contact me if there is something you would like but don't see on my page. I will be taking orders & getting them out as quickly as I can, but I may need to stop orders if I get too many...I hope I can reach the "too many" limit! (Local orders can be picked up or delivered. Non-local orders will have a $2 shipping charge.)

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10151876311376031.1073741826.515621030&type=1&l=f25e8243a2

Please contact me with any questions! Thank you for all your support! You are making a difference for a real little girl on the other side of the world & her family is so grateful!