Hi everyone! After having a break for two weeks, we're back!
Let me tell you, we're all pretty excited to have our Saturdays free again. We're all pretty excited to ACTUALLY BE FINISHED with this project.
Yet, like Dustin said today, it'll be a little sad when it's all over, too.
But mostly so exciting! :)
Today was a great day...because we finished all our tracking! When we review the music and Andrew mixes everything, there for sure is a possibility of having to go back and re-record a piece or two. But today was a huge milestone we finally reached!
It started off with bacon, eggs, grape juice, and coffee. Haha! For real, it did. Even though the "start time" is 9:30, we don't usually start recording till an hour or so later. Andrew, Dustin, and I (have become, haha!) are very chill, so we all have a great time catching up over coffee, over lunchtime, and over our many break times.
But we did record today too! We did three little projects.
For the first one, Andrew added strings to the song "Cast Your Cares". It is so lullaby-ey, it makes me want to cry and fall asleep all at the same time! That's a good thing, ha!
The second project was adding more background vocals to "Colton's Song". Once we figured it out, that was very simple and so fast.
The third project was doing a retake on the guitar line in "Colton's Song". I was napping for that part--the beautiful part of recording in/at home. :)
The timing of this project truly is amazing actually. For starters, I never would've thought I'd have the time or energy to do a project like this while pregnant and then a mom of a young baby. But God has worked it out so beautifully! He's given me energy and tired moments and time to nap! And we've gotten so much done just by working every free Saturday we have!
I feel so blessed with how God works out details that normally would've (and did a little) stressed me out. He is such a good Father!
Our next steps are reviewing and mixing.
Stay tuned! :)
Saturday, December 5, 2015
Saturday, November 14, 2015
Recording Update #2
Today's recording update & pictures. That is today's blog post summary!
Today the guys have been mainly working on adding guitar to the songs, "I Surrender" and "Colton's Song"! Mostly, what this consists of is them brainstorming together and thinking what style of guitar sounds best, practicing a little, critiquing, and finally, recording. :)
"I Surrender" and "Colton's Song" are my top two favorite songs, I think. Not all of my songs have stories behind them, but these two do--maybe that's why they're favorites.
Anyways, when I would play music for friends or family, it would often be one or both of these songs. Of any of the music that wouldn't have been forgotten, it hopefully would have been these two. I've played them over and over again, with just piano. Then guitar was added when Dustin started playing the music as well. I'm so used to hearing this music in a very acoustic version. So that was a hurdle for me/us--trying to decide if or when we were adding too much and taking away from the message of the music/trying to be Rock Stars when we really are not, ha!
But Praise God, I think we got it figured out today with the guitar being added! I'm really excited with how it's sounding. It makes me so much more excited to release this CD! I guess today's recording was a mini breakthrough then!
So, another good day. Thanks, God!
Today the guys have been mainly working on adding guitar to the songs, "I Surrender" and "Colton's Song"! Mostly, what this consists of is them brainstorming together and thinking what style of guitar sounds best, practicing a little, critiquing, and finally, recording. :)
"I Surrender" and "Colton's Song" are my top two favorite songs, I think. Not all of my songs have stories behind them, but these two do--maybe that's why they're favorites.
Anyways, when I would play music for friends or family, it would often be one or both of these songs. Of any of the music that wouldn't have been forgotten, it hopefully would have been these two. I've played them over and over again, with just piano. Then guitar was added when Dustin started playing the music as well. I'm so used to hearing this music in a very acoustic version. So that was a hurdle for me/us--trying to decide if or when we were adding too much and taking away from the message of the music/trying to be Rock Stars when we really are not, ha!
But Praise God, I think we got it figured out today with the guitar being added! I'm really excited with how it's sounding. It makes me so much more excited to release this CD! I guess today's recording was a mini breakthrough then!
So, another good day. Thanks, God!
My normal "this is how I record when I'm pregnant" position. Standing and singing at the same time took too much energy. :)
Dustin's sister, Amy, flew out to visit and record some background vocals!
Ashton did SO WELL. He barely made a sound that long day of recording!
Blankets, always blankets.
Andrew, the master producer!
So much practice.
And discussion.
And finally, recording!
My brother, Austin, recording background vocals!
Bryce is infatuated with Andrew, no lie. He'll often stare-gaze and smile at him, haha!
Vic-tor-yyyy. Boom. Bam. Done.
Bryce, the Champer-Whamper.
Feelin' that beat, ha!
We're going to be off for the next two weekends, but then we're back! Until next time!
Saturday, November 7, 2015
Our Recording Project
"For this week's assignment, I want you to write a song."
That's what my dear piano teacher, Rachel Giles, told me when I was probably 13 or 14 years old. She had been teaching me chords for a long time. I have always appreciated how she noticed that I was more interested in playing by ear and with chords versus sheet music. I still learned how to play sheet music, but she directed most of my lessons towards chording. I remember assignments where she would give me sheet music to learn and tell me to replace the left hand notes with my own chording ideas. It was such good practice for me! But this song writing assignment...I was so overwhelmed! I had to write the lyrics, come up with the tune, piano, everything.
But thanks to God, I did it! I still have that song (somewhere?), and sure, a lot of it is super rough to me now, but this was such a turning point for me. I could actually compose music! This was the beginning of a whole new stage for me!
Over time, I kept writing songs. I heard once that someone has to write around 50 songs until they get a good one. This was so discouraging to me. I remember just hammering out the songs so I could reach that 51st song! I think it was at this point that I reached major writer's block. My piano teacher still continued to encourage me though and said that this is normal, no worries.
I'm not sure at what point the dream to record came to be. I have always loved singing, so it might've been even before I wrote music or played piano. I'm pretty sure I wanted to be a singer when I was a little girl. When I started writing music, people would tell me that I should record, and though that was a huge compliment, I felt so stuck at the same time. WHERE WAS I EVEN SUPPOSED TO START? It was also sad to think that someday my music could totally be forgotten just because it hadn't been recorded.
In January of 2014, Dustin and I made the move here to California. We stayed with our pastor, Ernest Witmer's, family for about two and a half weeks while we house hunted. Andrew Miller, a VS worker for Choice Books, also lived at the Witmer's house. We had lots of jam sessions in those two and half weeks! There were a lot of people in the Witmer's household that thoroughly enjoyed music.
It was during this time that we found out that Andrew was part of a band in his home area in Kansas called Saints Alive. They had just recorded an album themselves actually! THEN. The best thing happened. Andrew said, "Hey! I would love to record for you guys!" He said that he would love more practice with recording music and would we be interested in this?
YES!
It's amazing how you think or assume that a dream will never come true (Tsss :) How flowery does that sound?), or that it'll be so much work to make it come true. And then God just drops a beautiful opportunity in your lap and you don't even have to search anymore how to fulfill that dream!
But disclaimer: Recording is SO. MUCH. WORK. I am so excited that it's actually happening and we're actually getting this done, but don't be fooled. So much work. Haha!
So anyways, we started a few months later (May of 2014) and decided to try to work on it every Saturday. That's a lot of free Saturdays to give up (Thank you, Andrew!).
A lot has happened with this project! Some fun facts:
-This whole project has been recorded in our home or the Witmer's. We just turn off the fridge, turn off the AC, wait for the airplanes or helicopters to fly away, wait for neighbors to stop leaf-blowing, etc. Haha! Recording in-city is interesting.
-Dustin's sister, Amy, flew out to record some background vocals!
-My brother, Austin, sang some background vocals, too!
-Probably around 90% of my vocals were recorded when I was pregnant with Bryce.
-These are all songs that I wrote.
-We didn't reach our first projected release date, but that's okay. :)
-It's so fun to me to be able to record with my husband! He's singing background vocals, playing guitars, and giving lots of great input. Just when I think we're done with something he gets this certain look in his eyes, pauses, and says, "What if we would do this...". Which, in a moment of being really REALLY ready to be done with something, can make it frustrating. BUT in the long run, his ideas make for some great, quality music! He has a super ear for tiny details in music. Thanks, Babe. :)
-Bryce is quite the little trooper! He takes naps on recording days and somehow sleeps through all the music, thank You, God. When he's awake and we need to record, one of us will take him out back or on a walk for a little just in case he decides to scream or something. :)
-Our projected release date is January of 2016!! Right around the corner!
I know this is asking a lot of myself, considering I blog so rarely, but I would like to try to post a little update every week. Maybe I'll post some short video clips of upcoming songs, tell you what we worked on that day, etc.
For example, today the guys were working on recording acoustic guitar for the song "I Will Choose". Bryce is on his second nap. I was even able to get a nap in (The one good thing of not knowing how to play guitar, ha!)! I'm sitting on our back porch steps typing this up, because my computer was humming too loudly. Andrew said he could hear it through the mic while he was recording, so here I sit. :) We started at 10ish today and are starting to wind down now, at 3:30. Somedays we get a few songs done and someday, like today, just one! Either way, it makes for a good day. :)
So that's that. I'm so excited to present this album to you all!!
That's what my dear piano teacher, Rachel Giles, told me when I was probably 13 or 14 years old. She had been teaching me chords for a long time. I have always appreciated how she noticed that I was more interested in playing by ear and with chords versus sheet music. I still learned how to play sheet music, but she directed most of my lessons towards chording. I remember assignments where she would give me sheet music to learn and tell me to replace the left hand notes with my own chording ideas. It was such good practice for me! But this song writing assignment...I was so overwhelmed! I had to write the lyrics, come up with the tune, piano, everything.
But thanks to God, I did it! I still have that song (somewhere?), and sure, a lot of it is super rough to me now, but this was such a turning point for me. I could actually compose music! This was the beginning of a whole new stage for me!
Over time, I kept writing songs. I heard once that someone has to write around 50 songs until they get a good one. This was so discouraging to me. I remember just hammering out the songs so I could reach that 51st song! I think it was at this point that I reached major writer's block. My piano teacher still continued to encourage me though and said that this is normal, no worries.
I'm not sure at what point the dream to record came to be. I have always loved singing, so it might've been even before I wrote music or played piano. I'm pretty sure I wanted to be a singer when I was a little girl. When I started writing music, people would tell me that I should record, and though that was a huge compliment, I felt so stuck at the same time. WHERE WAS I EVEN SUPPOSED TO START? It was also sad to think that someday my music could totally be forgotten just because it hadn't been recorded.
In January of 2014, Dustin and I made the move here to California. We stayed with our pastor, Ernest Witmer's, family for about two and a half weeks while we house hunted. Andrew Miller, a VS worker for Choice Books, also lived at the Witmer's house. We had lots of jam sessions in those two and half weeks! There were a lot of people in the Witmer's household that thoroughly enjoyed music.
It was during this time that we found out that Andrew was part of a band in his home area in Kansas called Saints Alive. They had just recorded an album themselves actually! THEN. The best thing happened. Andrew said, "Hey! I would love to record for you guys!" He said that he would love more practice with recording music and would we be interested in this?
YES!
It's amazing how you think or assume that a dream will never come true (Tsss :) How flowery does that sound?), or that it'll be so much work to make it come true. And then God just drops a beautiful opportunity in your lap and you don't even have to search anymore how to fulfill that dream!
But disclaimer: Recording is SO. MUCH. WORK. I am so excited that it's actually happening and we're actually getting this done, but don't be fooled. So much work. Haha!
So anyways, we started a few months later (May of 2014) and decided to try to work on it every Saturday. That's a lot of free Saturdays to give up (Thank you, Andrew!).
A lot has happened with this project! Some fun facts:
-This whole project has been recorded in our home or the Witmer's. We just turn off the fridge, turn off the AC, wait for the airplanes or helicopters to fly away, wait for neighbors to stop leaf-blowing, etc. Haha! Recording in-city is interesting.
-Dustin's sister, Amy, flew out to record some background vocals!
-My brother, Austin, sang some background vocals, too!
-Probably around 90% of my vocals were recorded when I was pregnant with Bryce.
-These are all songs that I wrote.
-We didn't reach our first projected release date, but that's okay. :)
-It's so fun to me to be able to record with my husband! He's singing background vocals, playing guitars, and giving lots of great input. Just when I think we're done with something he gets this certain look in his eyes, pauses, and says, "What if we would do this...". Which, in a moment of being really REALLY ready to be done with something, can make it frustrating. BUT in the long run, his ideas make for some great, quality music! He has a super ear for tiny details in music. Thanks, Babe. :)
-Bryce is quite the little trooper! He takes naps on recording days and somehow sleeps through all the music, thank You, God. When he's awake and we need to record, one of us will take him out back or on a walk for a little just in case he decides to scream or something. :)
-Our projected release date is January of 2016!! Right around the corner!
I know this is asking a lot of myself, considering I blog so rarely, but I would like to try to post a little update every week. Maybe I'll post some short video clips of upcoming songs, tell you what we worked on that day, etc.
For example, today the guys were working on recording acoustic guitar for the song "I Will Choose". Bryce is on his second nap. I was even able to get a nap in (The one good thing of not knowing how to play guitar, ha!)! I'm sitting on our back porch steps typing this up, because my computer was humming too loudly. Andrew said he could hear it through the mic while he was recording, so here I sit. :) We started at 10ish today and are starting to wind down now, at 3:30. Somedays we get a few songs done and someday, like today, just one! Either way, it makes for a good day. :)
So that's that. I'm so excited to present this album to you all!!
Monday, August 10, 2015
Bryce Camden
There were quite a few things that were actually not just things, but miracles, in fact, involving Bryce's birth.
On March 9th (the day before my due date), I went in for a normal checkup. My kind doctor said she wouldn't let me go past 41 weeks, so I knew I eventually had to have this baby, even if it had already decided it wasn't coming out, ha!
My doctor had "just randomly" scheduled an ultrasound to check up on the baby. Miracle #1.
That morning, I was in the ultrasound room for so, abnormally long. The ultrasound tech, Miss Shelley, checked his heartbeat and it was fine.
She then turned on some different settings that allowed her to view blood flows, etc. Miracle #2.
I remember looking at the screen and seeing a red line, then a blue line, then red, then blue, about 8 times. Weird. I had no idea what this meant.
I then happened to mention to Miss Shelley that the baby hadn't seemed to move as much as it normally did that morning at home. Miracle #3.
I had done the fetal kick counts: drank cold milk and laid on my left side, poked my belly, and prayed. My doctor wanted 6 kicks within an hour (I think) whenever I did fetal kick counts. The baby just so got that number in, but some "kicks" felt more like an arm falling or something.
Miss Shelley is a super sweet woman. She just calmly took this information in, finished up with me, and sent me out to the waiting room. A couple minutes later she came out again and said, "Could you come back in? I want to try to get 3 movements from the baby.".
I didn't see this as a huge deal because remember, the baby's heartbeat was fine. I kept coming back to that.
It took Miss Shelley 20 minutes to get him to move 3 times. And she is a professional ultrasound tech, watching the baby, knowing exactly where to poke and push. Ouch. Twenty minutes is a long time for that kind of poking activity.
She then sent me to the room to wait for my doctor. I knew something was up, but really had no idea.
My doctor walked in and said, "We need to talk.". Okay! She proceeded to tell me that they weren't positive, but it looked like the cord was wrapped around the baby's neck 4 times. FOUR TIMES. This is what they were able to see when Miss Shelley turned on the color feature.
I remember feeling a terrible fear in the pit of my stomach. After the doctor talked for a while, I finally asked, "So am I going home today or not?". She said no she doesn't think so. I felt a little fearful, but actually pretty excited, because THIS WAS IT!
My doctor proceeded to tell me that she was going to send me over to the hospital so they could monitor the baby's heartbeat for a while. IF it was fine, I could try to have this baby normally. I would have to be induced that day, and would have to be aware of the fact that it would most likely end up in an emergency C-section. Or we could schedule a C-section in an hour or two.
She kept saying, "It is very common for babies to be born with the cord wrapped around their neck one or two times, and they're fine.". But her recommendation was getting a C-section.
I called Dustin and he left work right away, stopped in at home to take a quick shower and to grab my hospital bag. We didn't even have to discuss that long which option we wanted to do. Miracle #4.
It seemed so clear to us to take the C-section route. It didn't seem worth it to have to be induced, only to most likely end up in an emergency C-section. It also didn't seem worth it to put the baby through that stress.
So at 4:52 p.m., on March 9th, 2015, Bryce Camden Graber was born!! That is the ultimate miracle. When the doctor pulled him out, she said the cord was for sure around his neck 4 times and it was about 4 feet long! She said the cord grows to accommodate how active the baby is. Apparently Bryce was a super active baby! He did move a lot, but I just have no other baby to compare him to! Also, the doctor showed me a perfect little knot that was in his cord. Wow. Thank God that it wasn't tight enough I guess to harm him.
Different nurses kept referring to him as the "acrobat baby". :)
Sometimes I look at our sweet baby and am just overwhelmed at the thought of what could have happened depending on so many factors. I am just SO GRATEFUL to God for sparing his precious life.
So this is our miracle baby. :)
Monday, February 23, 2015
Selfie-Survey :)
What is the reason for this post? Maybe it's the nesting in me, but I really felt like I wanted to get at least one last post out. :)
Before what? BEFORE THE BABY COMES!!
How many more weeks till your due date? Two. Two little old weeks. Two weeks that are actually feeling like forever. But yet. This could happen any.time.now. Mind blown.
Thoughts about the nesting stage? It's a real-live stage, I believe. :) I always enjoy crossing things off lists, but there is an extra satisfying feeling that comes from crossing something off that needs to be done before the baby gets here. Personally, I think that was very creative of God to put that instinct/stage in about-to-deliver women. So far though, I haven't done anything too dramatic, like scrub tile flooring in the middle of the night.
What is something you envision these days? Holding my baby. That is all. :)
Do you enjoy pregnancy? Hm. I love feeling the baby kick and am so, so grateful to be pregnant. But. I don't enjoy tingly hands (I wear hand braces every night and naptime!) and swollen feet (Seriously, I saw a picture of my sister's feet this weekend and they looked anorexic to me. Obviously I'm used to swollen, chubby feet, haha!) and feeling all cramped inside. Also. Being tired a lot. This is a pretty mild answer. :) Sadly, I don't enjoy it as much as I thought I would. Not to be a Debbie-downer. Every lady is different!
moving on to different subjects...
What is the weather like? It is very pretty. :) Don't hate. Mostly in the 70's and 80's. Except today it's raining. It hailed this morning, too! Rainy, cloudy days are gooooood. :)
What was your highlight of this past Christmas? Probably 1, a super relaxing day with Dustin. And 2, hosting some people who also weren't with family for dinner that night. We did go back to Mississippi for a "late" Christmas & also went for a wedding. That week was so good. :)
What is your most current-yet-taking-forever DIY project? This. Just make it the tiny size that they do. Don't make it bigger. Please, for your sanity.
What is your husband up to? Ohhh, you know, work and stuff. He recently started at a job in Santa Monica (which if you have visited us, we probably took you to the beach in that town). Weird fact = it takes him 40 minutes to get to work and an hour and a half to get home. Traffic is just...traffic.
We know your husband likes to design and make things. What has he done lately? He is making his own phone case windshield holder thingy for the car! Oh and he also fixed my laptop battery with some....glue stuff. I should probably remember the names of this stuff.
What is something funny that happened recently? One evening after Dustin got home from work, we decided to set up the car seat in the car and store the stroller in the trunk (Cause who has room for those things in their house? haha!). I carried the car seat and Dustin carried the stroller. Our neighbor (lives in front of us), Miss Adrianna, was watering her flowers. She took one look at us and what we were carrying and stopped what she was doing. She real nonchalantly asked, "Where are you goingggg?". Haha! I told her, "Don't worry, we're not having the baby yet. We're just setting this stuff up in the car." Haha! Her face. You had to see it.
Another funny story? Ok, so Dustin got me flowers the week of Valentine's day. I was happily cutting the plastic wrapped around them to stick them in a vase. I pulled the plastic back and started separating the roses to trim the stems and suddenly...you'll never guess what happened. No exaggeration, ALL but three of the leaves on the roses fell off. FELL OFF. I stood there and laughed and laughed. Guys, that is a lot of leaves to just fall off a dozen or so roses. haha!
What are you reading? Perspectives. It's a huge encyclopedia-type-thick book that we have to read for DNI training we're taking in April.
Tell us about training. Well, it's for six weeks in NYC. Technically, we were supposed to take the training before we moved, but that's a long story. :) So now we're planning on taking it this April. From what I hear, we have a class in the morning and then street-witness in the afternoon. I think homework involves lots of reading, some memorizing, and some essay-type writing. We leave the beginning of April and get back the middle/end of May. We're hoping to tie in a visit to my home area (!!!!!!) during or after training. And yes, we realize we'll have a teeny tiny baby with us. Pray for so much grace and strength for us & protection from sicknesses for the baby, would you?
What is for dinner? Today is pretty much calling for soup.
What should your next blog post be about? Baby, of course. And then after that, maybe an update on our recording project.
That's all for now!
Before what? BEFORE THE BABY COMES!!
How many more weeks till your due date? Two. Two little old weeks. Two weeks that are actually feeling like forever. But yet. This could happen any.time.now. Mind blown.
Thoughts about the nesting stage? It's a real-live stage, I believe. :) I always enjoy crossing things off lists, but there is an extra satisfying feeling that comes from crossing something off that needs to be done before the baby gets here. Personally, I think that was very creative of God to put that instinct/stage in about-to-deliver women. So far though, I haven't done anything too dramatic, like scrub tile flooring in the middle of the night.
What is something you envision these days? Holding my baby. That is all. :)
Do you enjoy pregnancy? Hm. I love feeling the baby kick and am so, so grateful to be pregnant. But. I don't enjoy tingly hands (I wear hand braces every night and naptime!) and swollen feet (Seriously, I saw a picture of my sister's feet this weekend and they looked anorexic to me. Obviously I'm used to swollen, chubby feet, haha!) and feeling all cramped inside. Also. Being tired a lot. This is a pretty mild answer. :) Sadly, I don't enjoy it as much as I thought I would. Not to be a Debbie-downer. Every lady is different!
moving on to different subjects...
What is the weather like? It is very pretty. :) Don't hate. Mostly in the 70's and 80's. Except today it's raining. It hailed this morning, too! Rainy, cloudy days are gooooood. :)
What was your highlight of this past Christmas? Probably 1, a super relaxing day with Dustin. And 2, hosting some people who also weren't with family for dinner that night. We did go back to Mississippi for a "late" Christmas & also went for a wedding. That week was so good. :)
What is your most current-yet-taking-forever DIY project? This. Just make it the tiny size that they do. Don't make it bigger. Please, for your sanity.
What is your husband up to? Ohhh, you know, work and stuff. He recently started at a job in Santa Monica (which if you have visited us, we probably took you to the beach in that town). Weird fact = it takes him 40 minutes to get to work and an hour and a half to get home. Traffic is just...traffic.
We know your husband likes to design and make things. What has he done lately? He is making his own phone case windshield holder thingy for the car! Oh and he also fixed my laptop battery with some....glue stuff. I should probably remember the names of this stuff.
What is something funny that happened recently? One evening after Dustin got home from work, we decided to set up the car seat in the car and store the stroller in the trunk (Cause who has room for those things in their house? haha!). I carried the car seat and Dustin carried the stroller. Our neighbor (lives in front of us), Miss Adrianna, was watering her flowers. She took one look at us and what we were carrying and stopped what she was doing. She real nonchalantly asked, "Where are you goingggg?". Haha! I told her, "Don't worry, we're not having the baby yet. We're just setting this stuff up in the car." Haha! Her face. You had to see it.
Another funny story? Ok, so Dustin got me flowers the week of Valentine's day. I was happily cutting the plastic wrapped around them to stick them in a vase. I pulled the plastic back and started separating the roses to trim the stems and suddenly...you'll never guess what happened. No exaggeration, ALL but three of the leaves on the roses fell off. FELL OFF. I stood there and laughed and laughed. Guys, that is a lot of leaves to just fall off a dozen or so roses. haha!
What are you reading? Perspectives. It's a huge encyclopedia-type-thick book that we have to read for DNI training we're taking in April.
Tell us about training. Well, it's for six weeks in NYC. Technically, we were supposed to take the training before we moved, but that's a long story. :) So now we're planning on taking it this April. From what I hear, we have a class in the morning and then street-witness in the afternoon. I think homework involves lots of reading, some memorizing, and some essay-type writing. We leave the beginning of April and get back the middle/end of May. We're hoping to tie in a visit to my home area (!!!!!!) during or after training. And yes, we realize we'll have a teeny tiny baby with us. Pray for so much grace and strength for us & protection from sicknesses for the baby, would you?
What is for dinner? Today is pretty much calling for soup.
What should your next blog post be about? Baby, of course. And then after that, maybe an update on our recording project.
That's all for now!
Tuesday, January 27, 2015
Looking back.
"If you could describe this past year in one word, what would it be?"
This was a question asked at church recently.
Answers slowly came out.
"Hard."
"Challenging."
"New."
"Surviving."
Some definitely clicked with me more than others, but I wasn't brave enough to voice my own. Partly cause I couldn't think of my word. Or maybe I bet I was searching for a more glorious word than what really came to my mind. But honesty is good, right?
I think I'd say my personal word would be "Hard.". And honestly speaking here, I mean HARD. You know how whenever someone says something like that, they turn around and say, "But! It's also been the most rewarding year, the most fulfilling year, etc., etc."? Well, I can't say that, I don't think. It's just been hard. That doesn't mean I haven't learned to love certain things about L.A. or haven't made some really precious friends, but I think I figured out the bottom line. What Dustin and I are involved in here is church planting/building, a.k.a. trying to build relationships with any and everyone around us. Relationships take time. They're not something you can push or rush. Which is why my year may have been hard (starting with new people, new area, new everything) and not necessarily "fulfilling" (waiting for friendships to be built).
I think I'd like to go further into forming that question.
"If you could describe this past year in one word, what would it be? AND if you could describe what you learned about God this past year, what would it be?".
My answers would be "So hard and so faithful.".
In the moment, I don't think I would've seen His faithfulness necessarily. But looking back, I know it's there! In everyday things like having a husband who is sensitive to me & takes care of me, a church who has welcomed us with open arms, friends who have broken up the long, lonely weeks with little get togethers, hosting so many people, being able to go home for visits, getting to know neighbors, in feeling God's comfort some hard, hard days, etc.
So no, I'm not meaning for this to be a morbid post. :) I just want to review my year and give God glory for His faithfulness that is always there, even if we can't feel it all the time.
I actually really battled with just being here, with so much homesickness, probably till about November. I'm still not sure what changed me, or brought peace to this struggle. There are a few things that I think may have contributed to it somehow.
--We were back in NY the end of October-beginning of November to attend Michael (Ev) Stoltzfus' funeral. He was a family friend, a classmate, a great guy. He died from ARDS, a lung disease that prevents enough oxygen from getting into the lungs and blood. It's a long story of how he got sick and the many ups and downs he had throughout what seemed to be recovery. See, that's just it. I wasn't expecting him to die. He was MY AGE. I'm so, so glad we could be back for the funeral, even just to process this. Somedays, I still sit and try to process it. You can't imagine how hard it is to process something like this so far from home. I'm not surrounded by things or places that make me think of him. I'm not surrounded by his family and people from home who have been hurting so badly over this death. It's been hard and so weird to try to process something like this.
The legacy Michael left was loving well. That's a fast description of his life, but he really was so well at making people feel welcomed and important. And I know his life has really impacted and changed people, which is so God! So God being so redemptive.
--Another thing that may have just brought peace to me was being home for a week after that funeral. It was so good to be surrounded by familiar things and people and FAMILY. You'd think that that would've just made it more difficult for me when I got back, but it didn't.
--Also, right after we got back from that trip, some of the Destination InterNational board members were out here to check up on us and see how we were doing individually, as a team, etc. That was so good. We are so blessed with a mission over us that cares for and supports us so well.
So I don't know if it was one or all of those things that brought peace to me. I can't put my finger on it. Maybe that means that it was just God. Just purely God.
His faithfulness & peace truly are beautiful, amen?! :)
This was a question asked at church recently.
Answers slowly came out.
"Hard."
"Challenging."
"New."
"Surviving."
Some definitely clicked with me more than others, but I wasn't brave enough to voice my own. Partly cause I couldn't think of my word. Or maybe I bet I was searching for a more glorious word than what really came to my mind. But honesty is good, right?
I think I'd say my personal word would be "Hard.". And honestly speaking here, I mean HARD. You know how whenever someone says something like that, they turn around and say, "But! It's also been the most rewarding year, the most fulfilling year, etc., etc."? Well, I can't say that, I don't think. It's just been hard. That doesn't mean I haven't learned to love certain things about L.A. or haven't made some really precious friends, but I think I figured out the bottom line. What Dustin and I are involved in here is church planting/building, a.k.a. trying to build relationships with any and everyone around us. Relationships take time. They're not something you can push or rush. Which is why my year may have been hard (starting with new people, new area, new everything) and not necessarily "fulfilling" (waiting for friendships to be built).
I think I'd like to go further into forming that question.
"If you could describe this past year in one word, what would it be? AND if you could describe what you learned about God this past year, what would it be?".
My answers would be "So hard and so faithful.".
In the moment, I don't think I would've seen His faithfulness necessarily. But looking back, I know it's there! In everyday things like having a husband who is sensitive to me & takes care of me, a church who has welcomed us with open arms, friends who have broken up the long, lonely weeks with little get togethers, hosting so many people, being able to go home for visits, getting to know neighbors, in feeling God's comfort some hard, hard days, etc.
So no, I'm not meaning for this to be a morbid post. :) I just want to review my year and give God glory for His faithfulness that is always there, even if we can't feel it all the time.
I actually really battled with just being here, with so much homesickness, probably till about November. I'm still not sure what changed me, or brought peace to this struggle. There are a few things that I think may have contributed to it somehow.
--We were back in NY the end of October-beginning of November to attend Michael (Ev) Stoltzfus' funeral. He was a family friend, a classmate, a great guy. He died from ARDS, a lung disease that prevents enough oxygen from getting into the lungs and blood. It's a long story of how he got sick and the many ups and downs he had throughout what seemed to be recovery. See, that's just it. I wasn't expecting him to die. He was MY AGE. I'm so, so glad we could be back for the funeral, even just to process this. Somedays, I still sit and try to process it. You can't imagine how hard it is to process something like this so far from home. I'm not surrounded by things or places that make me think of him. I'm not surrounded by his family and people from home who have been hurting so badly over this death. It's been hard and so weird to try to process something like this.
The legacy Michael left was loving well. That's a fast description of his life, but he really was so well at making people feel welcomed and important. And I know his life has really impacted and changed people, which is so God! So God being so redemptive.
--Another thing that may have just brought peace to me was being home for a week after that funeral. It was so good to be surrounded by familiar things and people and FAMILY. You'd think that that would've just made it more difficult for me when I got back, but it didn't.
--Also, right after we got back from that trip, some of the Destination InterNational board members were out here to check up on us and see how we were doing individually, as a team, etc. That was so good. We are so blessed with a mission over us that cares for and supports us so well.
So I don't know if it was one or all of those things that brought peace to me. I can't put my finger on it. Maybe that means that it was just God. Just purely God.
His faithfulness & peace truly are beautiful, amen?! :)
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