who are you?

i love this quote by ralph waldo emerson

" to be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment"

who am i?

i am a dork, a wife, a mother, a musician, a lover of arts, a daughter, a sister, a friend and a whole slew of other things. do any one of these things define me more than another?
no.
they work together to make me the magical bipolar person that i am. i am kidding, but honestly each of these parts of me define me.

there is a part of getting older that is amazing, and that is self-actualiztion. realizing that who you are is not dependent on any outside forces. i cannot allow anyone else define my worth and value. i cannot allow others to diminish who and what i am, neither can i allow any of the labels control me. i only wish that i knew this as much when i was in high school when i needed it the most.

i'm not the biggest dork i know, nor the best wife, mother or musician. there is always someone who is a better daughter, sister, friend or leader. i know i have my own mission in this life. i know that no matter what people say, think or feel about me that i have a purpose. a calling. a divine nature that God intended to be truly mine. given to me as a gift of His love. to be used as a gateway to serve Him through serving His children. i am not perfect, great or even good for that matter, but in the end i am a daughter of God. a woman.

i'm proud to be the dork who doesn't write well or speak good and who always gets in trouble for plowing through life, but i am who i am. at least for now. i know i will change again.

who are you?

when His plans are different

forgive the long post but here goes...

our story starts about 5 years ago (2004). we move into a 2 bedroom condo with a 2 year old and a newborn. it was great, except it wasn't ours. about 10 months into our lease our condo when on the market and sold in 3 days. we prequalified for a loan by calling the bank and having them ask us how much money we wanted to borrow.(this was 2005, think....) we thought $300k was good enough so off we went house hunting. this was the beginning of a trying, frustrating and crazy time. contracts with escalation clauses, no contingencies all sorts of no-no's. the one townhouse we loved we lost by about 30k. it was in manassas, which is far out but hubs worked about 15 minutes away. when we lost that house we gave up. we signed a year lease on a great townhouse.

we loved this townhouse, and even talked to some neighbors about buying their townhouse for $300k. that fell through when the market started falling. after being in the house for a year i got pregnant with #3 and did not want to think about moving. well knock knock the landlord shows up one day and tell us we needed to be out in 60 days. what?!? i'm 8 months pregnant! we didn't have time to buy something. we had to find a rental.....again.....

we found this amazing house in a great neighborhood. it was the most horrendous move ever. ever. several months into our lease the owner offered us a chance to purchase the house from her. we were ecstatic. fast forward to 3 months ago when the owner called and said she had to decided to come home and not sell the house. what?!?!

each time the Lord has shown that he knows more. for example 3 months after we lost bids on townhouses in manassas hubby changed jobs closer to d.c which would have given him an hour + long commute. then gas prices went up. we would have been sunk. that house just foreclosed on for $140k. the townhouse in reston is also valued at $60k below what we had discussed.

we make plans and try to make them work. for us, the Lord clearly has a vision far greater than our own. our upcoming move is sure to show us something more that he has in store for us.

"There is a divine purpose in the adversities we encounter every day. They prepare, they purge, they purify, and thus they bless." - James E. Faust