Saturday, January 29, 2011
So excited!!
Alan and Ann are coming in tonight. (Dave's parents) This will be their last trip to Alaska for a while until we decided to move our family back up here. I think they secretly LOVE Alaska and wish they could live here to some day. :) We are looking for fun things to do in the next week, maybe a trip to Alyeska Resort. Oh the possibilities!
Wednesday, January 19, 2011
Saturday, January 15, 2011
A time and a place
We are starting the process of moving to Yakima, Washington. Looking at ALL the possible ways to move down there is overwhelming! We are obviously trying to find the cheapest rout, but there is still so much to look at. I am selling thing on craigslist right now taking it on like it is a full time job. My hope is to get rid of a lot of stuff and then go to IKEA and buy more!! LOL! I love me some IKEA!!
It is a blessing that Dave is not working a lot right now, I am not going to waste this precious time! Soon he will be in med school and really busy so the time we have now and for the rest of summer is going to be 100% cherished!! "Thank Jesus for this sweet time we have with Dave before we start med school!"
Sunday, January 9, 2011
Young Life/Young Lives
Young Life is a nation wide ministry that reaches out to adolescent teens all over with a vision to see every adolescent have the opportunity to meet Jesus Christ and follow Him. Teens are mentored and encouraged over the school year and in the summer all of the teens have the opportunity to attend Young Life camp. I, Courtney, have been to camp 3 times with Young Lives and it is always the best week of my life!!! Young Lives is a part of Young Life. Our focus is teens, however, we focus on mentoring teens who are pregnant or mothering a child.
This ministry has been rewarding and trying. When Carol asked me to step up and fill her position of the Young Lives director I was excited and a little nervous to have the opportunity to take over the ministry. I knew I would be leaving state soon and I wondered who God would bring along to step up when I left. I contiuned to pray and left that decision up to God.
Meanwhile, I along with 3 other women prepared to take 10 girls and 9 babies to camp in Flagstaff, Arizona.
Terry Harding was one of these women. She had just quite her prior job and this gave me a great opportunity to approach her and ask you to attend camp with me. Terry, 63 years old, jump on board without really knowing what she was getting herself into. She assumed she would be sleeping under the stars in a sleeping bag. Much to her surprise, camp was a wonderful experience with lots of fun to be had and air condition to sleep in. Terry at this point fell in love with the teens and the ministry and I begin to pray and ask if this was the women God had in mind for the Young Lives director.
Camp was in July and after a lot of prayer and discussion, I am proud to say as of Jan 6, 2011. Terry Harding is the director of Young Lives.
Terry, I love you and am very thankful for you and to God for preparing your heart for this great season.
I am sad to have to step down, but I am blessed to have had the opportunity to be in an honored position!
I am going to stay involved in Young Lives until we leave this March and I hope to join up with another Young Lives in Yakima, Washington.
This ministry has been rewarding and trying. When Carol asked me to step up and fill her position of the Young Lives director I was excited and a little nervous to have the opportunity to take over the ministry. I knew I would be leaving state soon and I wondered who God would bring along to step up when I left. I contiuned to pray and left that decision up to God.
Meanwhile, I along with 3 other women prepared to take 10 girls and 9 babies to camp in Flagstaff, Arizona.
Terry Harding was one of these women. She had just quite her prior job and this gave me a great opportunity to approach her and ask you to attend camp with me. Terry, 63 years old, jump on board without really knowing what she was getting herself into. She assumed she would be sleeping under the stars in a sleeping bag. Much to her surprise, camp was a wonderful experience with lots of fun to be had and air condition to sleep in. Terry at this point fell in love with the teens and the ministry and I begin to pray and ask if this was the women God had in mind for the Young Lives director.
Camp was in July and after a lot of prayer and discussion, I am proud to say as of Jan 6, 2011. Terry Harding is the director of Young Lives.
Terry, I love you and am very thankful for you and to God for preparing your heart for this great season.
I am sad to have to step down, but I am blessed to have had the opportunity to be in an honored position!
I am going to stay involved in Young Lives until we leave this March and I hope to join up with another Young Lives in Yakima, Washington.
The fun is not over. . . the adventure has just started!
It is 2 days before we ring in the new year of 2011 and I cannot imagine what is in store for us.
2010 was an adventure all on its own, what more could happen to make life more interesting???
In a nut shell. . .
January: I took a trip to a Young Lives conference in Oregon with the Carol Slama, the director of Anchorage's Young Lives, to gain a clear vision of Young Lives so I could take over the ministry when Carol decided it was time to step down.
February: Dave and I celebrated 5 years of marriage with dinner at the Crows Nest and a luxurious stay at the Captain Cook Hotel.
March: Dave and I took a trip to Bradenton, Florida for Dave first medical school interview. The boys stayed here with my mom and sister while we were on the trip. It was a sweet 2nd honey moon, with miniature golf, an all you can eat seafood buffet and a wonderful trip to Sea World!! We also found out we were pregnant with another sweet baby at the end of March.
April: Carol decided it was time to step down from Young Lives. After praying about the decision, I decided to take over the director position of the nonprofit organization Young Lives, but not without some fears. Between Dave being in school, morning sickness and our plans to move out of state, I was overwhelmed. Could I, or should I take over a position that would only be temporary? And what would happen to Young Lives if I didn’t step up??
Dave went to another Medical school interview in Yakima, Washington and we continued to pray for God’s direction. Now I was getting REALLY nervous, would I be having a baby in another state without family and friends around??
May: We celebrated 3 GREAT events!! Dave's 27th Birthday, Josiah's 2nd Birthday and the long awaited. ... DAVE’S GRADUATION FROM COLLEGE!!!!!! He graduated with honors from UAA with a BS in Biological Sciences. Alan and Ann Abel and my Dad, Bruce, came to attend this wonderful event. We also put our house on the market in preparation to move out of state for medical school.
June: I was pretty much working full time getting ready to take 10 girls and 9 babies to Young Life camp in Arizona. We also found out Dave was accepted to Pacific Northwest University of Health and Science. However, they gave us the option to defer and begin school in the fall of 2011!!! That gave me the opportunity to have the new baby in Anchorage and allowed more time to sell our home. The provision of God shines through in little glimpses here and there!
July: I took 10 girls, 9 babies and 3 other mentors to camp. I was 21 weeks pregnant and not sure what I was thinking. At Young Life camps the activity level is high and the sleep level is low. What a crazy group it was!! God brought together an odd group of mentors including a retired nurse (Terry Harding), a real estate agent (Debbie Higbee) and two pregnant stay-at-home moms (Courtney Abel and Amy Dalhin) to take the girls to camp, but he used our gifts for his glory.
August: We hired Debbie Higbee as our new Realtor and the showings sky rocketed!! We were cleaning our home for a showing once or twice a week! This was a big change, remember our home was put on the market in May and we had shown it once. This month I also decided school would be a great option for me, not sure what I was thinking. . .but the provision of God is awesome! Because of my prior military service the GI Bill paid for my tuition and also gave us a small living allowance. This made is possible for Dave to stay home with the boys and begin homeschooling Benn for his first year of Kindergarten. He did a great job! Benn is reading and doing simple math now, it is wonderful to see him learning and memorizing scripture. Dave was able to keep the house clean for me, as a big belly makes it a little harder to do things. It is not impossible, but not comfortable.
September: I was taking a full load at UAA while also beginning a new year with Young Lives. Dave was able to stay home a couple days a week and spent time teaching the boys as we waited for our house to sell. Dave also got a job as a substitute teacher for the school district, but he doesn’t use it much because he likes his own kids better.
October: About this time School was getting harder for me. I began to realize how much I enjoy staying home with my kids. The school work is not hard but juggling my children, school, homework and Young Lives was intense. Also, I had the opportunity to speak at a Young Life fundraiser and shared the heart and vision of Young Lives. In the background God is still hard at work preparing a special heart to take over the director position.
November: 9 months pregnant!! We are in the home stretch and ready to introduce our baby boy to the world. We decided to have a birthing center birth. This month we have our orientation at the Center and a small one-on-one birthing class with the best teacher around, Megan Cutter. We had a fantastic Thanksgiving with my cousins, Vince, Shawna, Grady and Tom and also my Dad and sister. However, the Thanksgiving break came and was gone and we were still VERY pregnant.… no baby….due date past…. No baby…. OUR HOUSE IS NOW IN CONTRACT…no baby. WOULD HE EVERY COME!!
December: This was the longest and shortest month of 2010!! We had a baby, sold our home and moved to a new rental with a 30 day window. Our home officially entered contract on the 27th of November but we began the marathon of home inspections, appraisals, and re-inspections in December. Our sweet baby Caleb Joshua was born Dec 8th at 3:18pm weighing 9lbs 6oz and 21 inches long. It was a hard, fast labor of 2 hours and 18 min. The experience of having a birthing center, natural birth was amazing!
Ann came up the next day and helped with home repairs and packing; we were in full moving mode. I took a few much deserved days off, but began the packing process soon enough. Looking for a rental was not easy; we needed to do a month to month lease with a dog, turns out that is not a good combination. Dave kept hitting dead end after dead end. It felt like we would be homeless in January. It was great to see God use this trying time to develop our character and demonstrate his perfect timing. Less than a week before we had to be out God found us a new home. Turns out our friends had a rental property that was available short-term and we could bring our dog.
We took a short 2 day break to spend Christmas with my family. Both of my parents, my 3 siblings, my two step brothers, my brother fiancé and their baby and my mom’s husband ALL at our home for Christmas! It was a sweet time to have everyone together for one last time in our house we had called home for over 5 years.
We signed the papers on our house December 29th 2010 and it was recorded the next day; we were officially gypsies until our rental was available the first week of January. So there you have it, our 2010 in a big nut shell. We have had some tough times and uncertain times. Yet through it all we are reminded that God is faithful and His hand orchestrates the affairs of men…He is sovereign.
2010 was an adventure all on its own, what more could happen to make life more interesting???
In a nut shell. . .
January: I took a trip to a Young Lives conference in Oregon with the Carol Slama, the director of Anchorage's Young Lives, to gain a clear vision of Young Lives so I could take over the ministry when Carol decided it was time to step down.
February: Dave and I celebrated 5 years of marriage with dinner at the Crows Nest and a luxurious stay at the Captain Cook Hotel.
March: Dave and I took a trip to Bradenton, Florida for Dave first medical school interview. The boys stayed here with my mom and sister while we were on the trip. It was a sweet 2nd honey moon, with miniature golf, an all you can eat seafood buffet and a wonderful trip to Sea World!! We also found out we were pregnant with another sweet baby at the end of March.
April: Carol decided it was time to step down from Young Lives. After praying about the decision, I decided to take over the director position of the nonprofit organization Young Lives, but not without some fears. Between Dave being in school, morning sickness and our plans to move out of state, I was overwhelmed. Could I, or should I take over a position that would only be temporary? And what would happen to Young Lives if I didn’t step up??
Dave went to another Medical school interview in Yakima, Washington and we continued to pray for God’s direction. Now I was getting REALLY nervous, would I be having a baby in another state without family and friends around??
May: We celebrated 3 GREAT events!! Dave's 27th Birthday, Josiah's 2nd Birthday and the long awaited. ... DAVE’S GRADUATION FROM COLLEGE!!!!!! He graduated with honors from UAA with a BS in Biological Sciences. Alan and Ann Abel and my Dad, Bruce, came to attend this wonderful event. We also put our house on the market in preparation to move out of state for medical school.
June: I was pretty much working full time getting ready to take 10 girls and 9 babies to Young Life camp in Arizona. We also found out Dave was accepted to Pacific Northwest University of Health and Science. However, they gave us the option to defer and begin school in the fall of 2011!!! That gave me the opportunity to have the new baby in Anchorage and allowed more time to sell our home. The provision of God shines through in little glimpses here and there!
July: I took 10 girls, 9 babies and 3 other mentors to camp. I was 21 weeks pregnant and not sure what I was thinking. At Young Life camps the activity level is high and the sleep level is low. What a crazy group it was!! God brought together an odd group of mentors including a retired nurse (Terry Harding), a real estate agent (Debbie Higbee) and two pregnant stay-at-home moms (Courtney Abel and Amy Dalhin) to take the girls to camp, but he used our gifts for his glory.
August: We hired Debbie Higbee as our new Realtor and the showings sky rocketed!! We were cleaning our home for a showing once or twice a week! This was a big change, remember our home was put on the market in May and we had shown it once. This month I also decided school would be a great option for me, not sure what I was thinking. . .but the provision of God is awesome! Because of my prior military service the GI Bill paid for my tuition and also gave us a small living allowance. This made is possible for Dave to stay home with the boys and begin homeschooling Benn for his first year of Kindergarten. He did a great job! Benn is reading and doing simple math now, it is wonderful to see him learning and memorizing scripture. Dave was able to keep the house clean for me, as a big belly makes it a little harder to do things. It is not impossible, but not comfortable.
September: I was taking a full load at UAA while also beginning a new year with Young Lives. Dave was able to stay home a couple days a week and spent time teaching the boys as we waited for our house to sell. Dave also got a job as a substitute teacher for the school district, but he doesn’t use it much because he likes his own kids better.
October: About this time School was getting harder for me. I began to realize how much I enjoy staying home with my kids. The school work is not hard but juggling my children, school, homework and Young Lives was intense. Also, I had the opportunity to speak at a Young Life fundraiser and shared the heart and vision of Young Lives. In the background God is still hard at work preparing a special heart to take over the director position.
November: 9 months pregnant!! We are in the home stretch and ready to introduce our baby boy to the world. We decided to have a birthing center birth. This month we have our orientation at the Center and a small one-on-one birthing class with the best teacher around, Megan Cutter. We had a fantastic Thanksgiving with my cousins, Vince, Shawna, Grady and Tom and also my Dad and sister. However, the Thanksgiving break came and was gone and we were still VERY pregnant.… no baby….due date past…. No baby…. OUR HOUSE IS NOW IN CONTRACT…no baby. WOULD HE EVERY COME!!
December: This was the longest and shortest month of 2010!! We had a baby, sold our home and moved to a new rental with a 30 day window. Our home officially entered contract on the 27th of November but we began the marathon of home inspections, appraisals, and re-inspections in December. Our sweet baby Caleb Joshua was born Dec 8th at 3:18pm weighing 9lbs 6oz and 21 inches long. It was a hard, fast labor of 2 hours and 18 min. The experience of having a birthing center, natural birth was amazing!
Ann came up the next day and helped with home repairs and packing; we were in full moving mode. I took a few much deserved days off, but began the packing process soon enough. Looking for a rental was not easy; we needed to do a month to month lease with a dog, turns out that is not a good combination. Dave kept hitting dead end after dead end. It felt like we would be homeless in January. It was great to see God use this trying time to develop our character and demonstrate his perfect timing. Less than a week before we had to be out God found us a new home. Turns out our friends had a rental property that was available short-term and we could bring our dog.
We took a short 2 day break to spend Christmas with my family. Both of my parents, my 3 siblings, my two step brothers, my brother fiancé and their baby and my mom’s husband ALL at our home for Christmas! It was a sweet time to have everyone together for one last time in our house we had called home for over 5 years.
We signed the papers on our house December 29th 2010 and it was recorded the next day; we were officially gypsies until our rental was available the first week of January. So there you have it, our 2010 in a big nut shell. We have had some tough times and uncertain times. Yet through it all we are reminded that God is faithful and His hand orchestrates the affairs of men…He is sovereign.
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