New Website!

Hi friends!

I'm happy to announce that Tim and I have moved our website and our blog to a new location, with a new look! From now on, all our work will be over there... Check it out and I'd love to hear what you think :)

Website & Blog

This is home.

This morning I went on a walk around our neighborhood to take advantage of the sunshine I spotted poking out from behind the clouds. The weather-lady on the news instructed me that if I wanted to enjoy the sun, now was my chance, as it's going to be gone later this afternoon with the incoming rain. Her doomsday speech was enough to get me out of the apartment to enjoy the flowering trees, the sound of the birds, and the breeze coming off the Puget sound. Thank you, weather-lady.

Throughout this season that Tim and I are in, going on walks has been our way of processing through much of what we're learning. Some of my favorite memories of our time in Seattle has been walking around the neighborhood with my husband, sharing what happened in our day, dreaming about where we want to go in the future, and loving on each other through the gift of listening to one another. I'm so grateful to be on this adventure with my best friend - I tell him that nearly every day. He knows exactly how to support me, how to listen when I need to talk, how to comfort me when I'm down, and how to push me and encourage me to grow. For all those things, I am grateful. These photos are from some of the walks we've taken throughout the past few months. Enjoy some Seattle neighborhood details :)

A rainy day and Psalm 55

In honor of a terribly gray rainy day in Seattle, I thought I'd post a few good rainy day photos. Hence the bookstore, the coffee shop, and the board game :)

This weekend I've been resonating deeply with these words from Psalm 55.

"Give ear to my prayer, O God, and hide not yourself from my plea for mercy! Attend to me, and answer me; I am restless in my complaint...And I say, 'Oh that I had wings like a dove! I would fly away and be at rest; yes, I would wander far away; I would lodge in the wilderness; I would hurry to find a shelter from the raging wind and tempest.'"

The words from Eugene Peterson's Praying with the Psalms remind me to be thankful I haven't been given wings: "Maybe this is the reason God did not give us wings - we would use them, not to obey his commands more quickly, but to escape from unpleasant circumstances." And the prayer that accompanies these words: "You know, God, how often I want to get away from it all so I won't have to face a world that spurns your love and rejects your life. But you also know how to give me courage; I wait for your help in Jesus Christ. Amen."

Last night I was talking with my Dad over the phone. He reminded me that everything we go through - the good, the bad, the beautiful, the difficult, the uplifting, and that which tears us apart, is all cumulative for our faith. If we don't think that way, he told me, then we're just trying to make things easy and comfortable for ourselves. But we're not called to be comfortable. This thing called faith isn't easy. Today I'm trying to remember that each circumstance that I'm in is an opportunity to learn and grow.

April Already?

As I looked at the calendar this morning I could hardly believe that it’s already April. These past few months have gone by in a blur. A few weeks ago I ended my job at Starbucks and took one as a nanny for a local family. I’m learning quickly that nannying has its own challenges, but I’m very grateful to be working normal hours. I was interested in this particular job because the family is raising their children to be bilingual, and they wanted a nanny who would be willing to immerse their kids in Spanish. Each day I’m amazed at how much the kids (2 and 4) already understand, and little by little they are beginning to speak the language too. It’s been a good challenge for me to speak Spanish all day long, although I didn’t realize how much vocabulary I’ve forgotten!

Tim’s still at Blue Nile, doing customer service for them, and slowly – oh so slowly – they’ve begun giving him less 4am shifts. I still feel like we live in a sort of time warp though, when we look at the clock that says 8pm and we know we should’ve already been in bed. We keep reminding ourselves, “We’ll have stories for the kids one day…”

As we approach this summer, many of our conversations have revolved around our photography business and trying to determine what that is going to become. We’re both thrilled for the coming months and all the weddings that we get to shoot together. It means we get to see friends and to travel, but I also think it’ll really help us to discover what our style is and how we work together. Down the road we see ourselves working alongside one another, in ministry, in a photo business, through counseling, or in some combination of the three. It’s so easy to want to skip ahead to whatever that is. I daily have to remind myself that there is value in what we’re doing now, that we’re learning and growing through the circumstances that we’re in right now. I recently re-listened to a chapel message from our senior year at Wheaton. Sarah Graham suggested Tim and I listen this message by Dr Burge a few months ago, but the words struck me harder as I listened to it again last week.

“God is at work shaping us with indelible experiences when we don’t even realize it…And what I’ve decided is that there’s a tremendous denial at the very heart of that kind of thinking. The denial says that what we are doing right now, what we are experiencing right now, who we know…these are accidents we think. And it’s wrong. God is at work shaping us now in the experiences that come our way and we don’t even realize it.”

I’m clinging to this thought, so as not to be swept away by my own frustration and desire for something different for us.

Tim and I drove over to the University of Washington to see the cherry blossoms last weekend, and they were just as spectacular as promised. Spring is blooming here in Seattle, but the cloudy gray skies refuse to loosen their grip. I've been told summer here is spectacular...I'm so ready for it.

Seattle Public Library

Seattle has the coolest library. True story. Last week my brother and I explored this maze of multicolored elevators, escalators, and staircases and I know we still didn't see everything... The architecture and design is just brilliant - I'll need another afternoon to go back and explore some more!

In other news, Tim has started a food blog! I definitely cannot take all the credit for the good food that we eat - Tim is much more of the creative genius behind dinner :) I'm constantly amazed by how much he knows about food, so I've been encouraging him to start a little blog to inspire others to try their hand in the kitchen. Head on over to check it out!

The Delicious Side of Seattle

Since my brother has been in town, we seem to have turned the corner into spring in Seattle. We've had little more than a spritz of rain before the sky gives way to sunshine, and for that I am incredibly grateful. I keep threatening to keep Christian here rather than send him back to school in Chicago - I'm afraid as soon as we put him on the plane the traditional gray sky and drizzle is going to return! A couple days ago we spent the afternoon exploring Pike Place and sampling food from all different corners of the market. We started at one end with Russian food at Piroshky Piroshky before making our way through the fresh produce where I found some strawberries to snack on. Tim and Christian were much braver than I and put their taste buds to the test with hotdogs from Gourmet Dog Japon. Awesome. We ended the afternoon with ice cream and root beer floats - not a bad day I'd say.

Embracing the Chaos

This morning as I drove Tim to work just before 4am, through the steady rain pattering on the roof and the sound of the windshield wipers squeaking back and forth, I had a moment of seeing ourselves from a distance. “What a weird time in our lives,” is what I said to him. Wrapped up in those words are so many emotions – sadness about leaving friends and family behind, excitement about future opportunities, frustration with Tim’s current schedule, anticipation for something new, but overall there’s gratitude. I have to keep reminding myself where we’ve been this past year and what God has taken us through. Last night I was looking through photos that we’ve taken in the last several months – it’s the best way for me to remember the past and turn it around to thankfulness and praise. When I remember that we had next to no money when we decided to come out to Seattle with nothing but our car and a couple suitcases, and that we were blessed with a free place to stay during the two months it took us to find work, and that within 24 hours of signing a lease I lost the job opportunity I was promised and then Tim was offered a new position…when I remember these things I cannot help but be overwhelmed with gratitude for all of God’s provision.

The past few months have been very difficult for Tim and I. We’ve been homesick and exhausted and struggling a lot with where we are right now. When I look back at this though, I know we’re exactly where we’re supposed to be. We’re growing in ways we wouldn’t have if we’d stayed in Wheaton or moved near our families. New opportunities have been opened to us since moving out here – new friends, a new church, new challenges and encouragement for really starting our photography business. Despite the challenges and the hard decisions I’d like to shrug off, I’m trying to remember and live the saying I learned a few years ago when I was in Honduras – “Embrace the Chaos.” It’s in the hard places that we have the opportunity to be stretched and grown into who we’re meant to become. I have to keep remembering that.

I leave you with a few of the photos I was looking through last night. (I hope the last one makes you laugh...)