I'll admit it..

Ok, i admit it. I am a horrible blogger. You would think after all my good intentions i would improve. But when your this far behind in life, its just too much to catch up on!
But here is a quick overview of life right now:
We moved into a new apartment, it's closer to my parents and Chris' school. (Although i miss being on the same road as my sweet nieces and nephew!)  It's larger and although I dont really like the kitchen i do love the rest of the apartment. It's home for now and it will do. I'm working from home helping my brother-in-law to run an insurance marketing company and teaching health education occasionally on the side. Chris is in his last year of nursing school (yay!), although in reality it probably won't be the last year he's in school. After living in NC for 3 years I feel like we are in a good place. We have lots of adorable nieces and nephews that we love. We are close to family and are forming new, good friendships. We love our small group and getting to walk through life with some really great people. And we are both at a place where are excited to see what the Lord has in store for us in the future. Maybe it is just knowing that big changes will take place when Chris gets out of school (and i love change!) but I am hopeful that the best is yet to come.

Our humble abode!

This week we celebrated 1 year in our first apartment in Cary, NC! Yeah, i know..no big deal. But I don't want to forget this time in our life, it goes by way to quickly. We moved from my parents house to this apartment in March of 2011. On the same day we moved, I also got a new Hyundai Santa Fe. I know, crazy right?! We do plan on moving again in July to be closer to where Chris goes to school but for now we are enjoying our delightful apt. :)
Heres a few pictures I just took while writing this post: haha!

Looking in from the front door

The living room. See my laptop on the couch? :)

The kitchen & sitting room (note that the "sitting room" is supposed to be a dining room,
 but we don't have a table so we had to change that)

Our bedroom (and unmade bed)

and lastly, our Christmas tree! Ok, so its March and we haven't had it up since Christmas
 but it was too cute not to add.

Guess Who?!!

Wow, talk about not sticking to your word! Blogging is clearly not one of my strong points, but then again neither is picture taking, exercising or getting somewhere on time. But it doesn't mean I wont try. I realized recently that I love the concept of blogging; a journal that just requires typing and doesn't require a place to store it. The problem is that I am totally intimidated by the concept of people reading it. Mostly because I cant just default to writing about my kids or an interesting hobby because well, I don't have or do those things. So, it ends up just being me...and often times that makes me uncomfortable. But, for the day I decide to share this (like when I do have the kids or the hobby) I'll just go ahead and write..even for myself.

So, life has taken quite a whirlwind for us since moving to NC at Christmas of 2009. Chris has been working on his prerequisites for school since fall 2009 and in January of 2012 he began Nursing school! Yay! He is totally loving it and truly enjoys both taking care of people and learning so much fun stuff. He also works at Rex Hospital as a Nursing assistant on the Orthopedic floor. He is honestly the most caring person I know. I can't imagine how he does some of the things he does for people. If you were left in my hands you would probably die. :) I on the other hand have been working a full time job! In October 2010 my brother-in-law, Dustin and I decided that come 2011 I would begin working full time for him helping him manage his insurance business. So, I work from my home office and well, work! I also work on occasion as a Health educator at the Poe Center for Health Education (since October of 2009). I love the combination of both, I don't have to rush out of the house in the morning and I still get to see people during the week! Currently I am teaching a weekly program at an afterschool program in the worst neighborhood of Raleigh. Of course this is right up my ally and I look forward to going every week.

We have loved getting to see my nieces and nephews so often. We are right down the road from my sisters family, including 2 of my nieces and 1 nephew. But we are also super close to my brother and his family, 3 nephews and 2 nieces. AND on top of that we have been just a 5 hour drive from Chris' brother and his family, 4 nieces! SO, it has been great. We get to see them all at least every few months and we love it! (We also enjoy getting to see our siblings and siblings-in-laws as well!)

Isn't he so cute! (Camden, 7 months- My sisters youngest)

We love each other!

Chris and I talk often about what the future will hold. I feel like I'm getting old and should have this figured out by now. I mean Chris will be 30 (!) this year and we just celebrated our 5 year wedding anniversary in August. But, well, we have no idea what the future holds. We often throw around ideas, hopes and passions, but lots of those overlap leaving us even more confused. We end every conversation realizing that its something we will have to leave up to Lord. Something we must release control over and just follow Christ (while enjoying the ride!).

I wish I had more pictures to post. But like I said at the beginning, pictures are not a strong point for me so i don't have any. (ok, I'll work on it!) There is my latest life update! Hopefully from here, i can quit updating and start actually blogging! :)

Life Upside Down

I can hardly believe it has been so long since we wrote an update. No really, that's a lie. I'm not surprised at all. It is pretty complicating to have a blog based on our life, as Philadelphians and as missionaries and then suddenly to be neither anymore. (Well ok, I still claim Philadelphia). If you don't know, Chris and I moved to Cary, NC at Christmastime. He has gone back to school and plans to make his way through Nursing school. I on the other hand am still job searching and spend most of my days playing with my sister and nieces. (Which I won't lie, I do love!)

Although, life has felt a bit upside down since moving 7 months ago. I live a life now that is so different from what I have known. Often it feels like a dream or perhaps a vacation. Since I have no job and no new schedule, no permanent home or permanent way of life, it often feels as though there is no "normal". So, this blog has changed a bit. I realize I am about to walk down a path that is going to be a different than what my heart may desire. So, I invite you to walk with me on what we will call..life in phases.

His City

I just got home from seeing an old friend that I haven't seen in a while. This old friend of mine lives here in the city and at one time he use to sleep on the streets here in Philly. He now lives in an adult care home where he is happy as he can be. It was great to see him but I was also sad to tell him that I was moving down to North Carolina, I assured him that he could call or write me as much as he would like. He is a great guy that the Lord uses to remind me that no matter what our circumstances He will always provide for our needs.

We had our annual Christmas Party at Cast Your Cares the weekend before last. It was freezing, raining and even snowing at times. But the weather was not a huge issue because we had a huge tent set up with heaters and hot chocolate inside for everyone. We invited everyone from the neighborhood into the tent where we had ourselves a little Christmas service. The guy speaking was a pastor who had once lived on the streets himself at one point in his life. He spoke about the freedom that is only found in Jesus and shared about what that freedom has looked liked in his life. It was extremely powerful and the Lord drew many hearts toward Him that night. After the service, for the first time in years, we had our Christmas dinner inside. We opened up our doors and were able to feed over a hundred people a hot meal. We also handed out gifts to everyone that came as they left. It was a wonderful night.

The thing we will miss the most about Philadelphia is the people we have grown to love over the many years of being here. They are people that we am so thankful to the Lord for, ones that we will never forget. It is funny to look back and remember my first day in Philly. I was nervous, in culture shock, and a little scared about what I had gotten myself into. The Lord reassured me that day to continue loving and seeking Him and to love others as He loves me. That simple truth stuck with me all these years and I have been able to be a part of something wonderful here in Philadelphia. Jesus has blessed both of our lives while living our lives here. We have seen many things that have broken our hearts and many things that warmed our hearts and made us smile. We have watched Jesus do some pretty amazing things, and we are confident as we leave that He will continue to do amazing things here in His city Philadelphia.

Big Changes

Well it has been a while to say the least since our last blog post. We have both been doing well and the Lord has been doing some great things not only in our lives but in the lives of others as well. Life has been crazy for both Anna and I. Anna has continued to work at her after school program as well as working at an internship at a children's hospital. She has really enjoyed it but she hasn't had much free time to do anything else. I have been taking online classes on top of working at Cast Your Cares during the day. So my free time has become no existent as well. I decided to start taking online classes in order to finish up some basic classes that I never took when I was in college years ago.

Many of you know but for the one's that do not know Anna and I are going to be moving from Philadelphia to Raleigh, North Carolina. After a lot of prayer and tough decision making Anna and I decided that our time here in Philly was coming to an end and that the Lord had some new things in store for us, one which involved me going back to school. It is something that we are very excited about but at the same time we are very sad to leave a place and a people that we love so very much. Both of us have grown so much through our time here in Philadelphia. The Lord has led us through so many adventures here. We got to see God's heart for his people here, watched peoples lives be dramatically changed by Him, and this is also place where we first met as well. So to say the least Philadelphia is a very special place for both of us.

With that said ministry has continued on even though my blogging skills happen to stop for awhile. Some updates from ministry include giving out 32 turkeys to families for thanksgiving which was cool to see, hitting an all-time record of a busy day at the food cupboard by giving out 60 bags of food and my favorite of the past month was getting to go out with Anna and her afterschool kids on a bowling outing. It was the first time I got to meet all the new kids from this year, which I must say are some very sweet kids.

We do have some really big changes coming up in our lives, ones that I don't think either of us know how to handle. In the mean time we are just going to soak up all the Lord has to offer us here in Philly. I will try to get a little better a my blogging skills as I have sort of gotten a handle on managing my online classes because well they are almost over. While we are still here we will continue to try to update you as much as possible with the wonderful things the Lord is doing here in Philadelphia.

School Kids

We live next to one of the high schools here in Philly. Almost everyday I watch kids running from the school. They are running not because anything is wrong but because they saw their break and are running so they don't get caught skipping school. I sometimes see them in the morning from my window or other times they run right past me on my way to Cast Your Cares. I always just shake my head and think to myself "what a shame". I wonder why in the world is it so easy for so many kids to skip school everyday and why there is no one trying to keep these kids in school. I remember growing up, I couldn't wait to leave either, when that bell rang at 3 pm I was one of the first ones out of the school. But what breaks my heart is the brokenness that I see in these kids. Around half of the high school students in Philadelphia drop out school and out of the ones who do graduate the percentage of those who go to college is not very high.

One of the neat things that goes on in the city to fight this brokenness is after school programs. Anna has been working at an after school program here in Philly for over 5 years now. She has worked with kids of all ages from elementary school to high school. I have been a few times over the years and they can be a little rough but she loves them and wants to see their lives changed not only in their school work but have their lives as a whole changed by Jesus. Our hope is always to see the Lord redeem the brokenness all around us, whether it be in our own lives or in those lives around us. The Lord has given Anna a huge heart for kids of her after school program. She always does the best she can with the strength He has given her, whether it is helping the kids with their homework, keeping them in line, loving them, playing with them, and even teaching them about the love God has shown us through Jesus. She has seen success and failures over the years but has always maintained that it is all worth it because whatever is done for God's glory is always worth it.

Yes there is brokenness in the schools here in Philly but I praise God for the work He is doing and the wonderful people He has placed in it to show His redeeming power and love. We all live in a world that is broken and sinful, we all experience it no matter where we live, in the cities or in the suburbs, in our own lives or in others. The one thing that always blows me away is God's continue redeeming work wherever that may be.