To Stay Home or Not to Stay Home....

Ever since I was a little girl, I have LOVED babies and little kids. I used to just love when the neighbors would call and ask me to "babysit" their kids! The parents were there the whole time and really I was just playing with their kids, but hey! I thought I was babysitting and they were able to get some things done around the house... Brilliant strategy and a definite win-win! I just couldn't wait to have my own babies some day!

From pretty early on, I knew I wanted to be a stay-at-home-mom. What I didn't anticipate was the amount of time it would take to become a mom (you can read the full story here)... I also did not intend to find a job that I absolutely love! A job that I didn't want to leave...

A little history on my "career path":

The University of Montana

I went to school at the University of Montana and graduated with a Bachelor's in Marketing... So, naturally after graduation, I got a job babysitting ;) Again, I just loved it! But after about a year of this, Casey and I decided it was time for me to move on.... But I wasn't sure what to move on too... Then out of what seemed like no where, God opened a door wide for me to walk through... That door was the door to our church, Harvest Church.  I sat in a number of different seats on the Harvest bus, but the Lord eventually gave me the reigns to lead the Kids Ministry program at our Lockwood Campus (the same campus my husband, the worship leader, works).

I instantly fell in love with this job! It was hard, challenging, but oh so rewarding. My first day in this role was on Easter... If you know anything about church work, you know that Christmas and Easter are the two most attended holidays of the year! I can just remember the pure exhilarating exhaustion after that day and craving more! Even though I couldn't pull myself off the couch the next day, I knew that Lord had in store an amazing ride for me and that things were just getting started!

Our campus as a whole has been growing pretty steadily over the last two years and with more adults comes more kids! We grew from around a 70 kid average to around a 115 kid average in just 2 years! We were having an absolute blast! The Lord had assembled a killer team and I mean I have been getting to be part of kids learning who Jesus is.... Goodness that is something to celebrate!

BUT then something changed.... After years of praying, God gave me a baby... A baby of my own! Never in a million years, did I think that deciding to stay home with her would turn out to be such a challenging decision.

You see.... I now know that I was going to stay home with her all along, but as soon as I became pregnant, I was trying to convince myself and the Lord that I could do both... To love and raise this sweet daughter of ours AND lead our Lockwood Kids... But as soon as Sweet Avery Jane landed in my arms, I knew God was releasing me from my responsibilities at Harvest.

My heart was torn... I felt as if I was letting down a number of people I loved: my boss, my volunteers, my church... But every time I would begin to think that, I would hear myself think, "This is God's church not mine... His ministry not mine." God will take care of His church... He used me for a season, but now it's a new season... A season of motherhood.

So, I told my boss... He was more than supportive and even excited for me... Which made it even more bittersweet. His words to me were, "You have been great, and it will be hard to replace you, but nobody can replace you as Avery’s mom so give her all you’ve got. You have my deepest respect and sincerest gratitude both for your service to Harvest and your commitment to your family."

So, the decision has been made... To stay home with Sweet Avery Jane... He's right nobody can replace me as her mom and I intend to give her all I've got! I know I will NEVER regret this decision!

With heavy, but happy heart I am saying goodbye to my role at Harvest for now and hello to full-time mommyhood!

Travels and Conferences...

Ok... once again this is LONG overdue... For that I apologize... But cannot promise I will get much better at this blogging thing, but I will sure try ;)

So, it's been an exciting few months for us... in the beginning of March, Casey and I got to take a pretty amazing adventure together! We flew into New York, NY and stayed there for 3 nights... We had only planned on staying 2 nights, but a month or so before we were to fly out there, we found out that Mutemath (one of Casey's Fave bands) was playing the night we were supposed to leave.... So... of course we booked another nights stay in NY in order to see the show... However, our first hotel was booked solid so we had to stay in a different hotel...... That had "communal" bathrooms at the end of each hall... Oh well... We just needed sleeping quarters!!

We saw all the sights, got turned around on the subway, rolled our suit cases to our 2nd hotel 20 or so blocks away (while rolling over peoples' toes every few minutes), ate some pretty amazing food, saw a Broadway show, and learned that NY is not the place for us!  As fun as it was to visit, we definitely were reaffirmed in our love for Montana and so pleased with our home state's slower pace of life and welcoming atmosphere.

At the Statue of Liberty w/NY skyline in background (Building right above my head is the new WTC)

Central Park

At Sister Act on Broadway and snuck a picture in b/c there was no photography allowed :P

At the 9/11 memorial

New WTC

At Mutemath... AMAZING

Seriously... Best show I've ever seen!!

The next morning we woke up bright and early and jumped on a bus that took us to our nation's capital... we spent that day checking out some of the sights, but after 3 days of non-stop walking in NY, our feet were a little tired to say the least..... So, we didn't get to see as much in DC as we would have liked! That night in DC we had some amazing Thai food and incredible ice cream!!

The view from our hotel in DC

One of the few DC sights we saw ;)

The next morning we picked up our Mazda 3 that we had rented and headed South.... 540 miles and only ONE tank of gas later... We arrived in Charleston, SC to visit our sweet friends the Wallers (click here to see their blog).  We arrived to some fun gifts and smiling faces! It was soooo great to see them and so fun to see their life down south!

In the Mazda 3

Silly Boys....

Such a pretty Steph Waller (+1)

SC Grub

The BEACH

All in all our trip was so great! Unfortunately, I had a head cold the first 3 days and then Casey caught it on the end of the trip... But it was sooo great to get away with just each other and make new memories, explore together, and travel hundreds and hundreds of miles to see wonderful, old friends!!

****

And just a few weeks ago, Casey and I got to go back down to the LA area with a big group of our coworkers and attend Catalyst West... It's a creative, church leadership conference held every year in a few different locations.... This year's theme was Be Present.... We heard a lot of amazing speakers laying their hearts out before us the importance of being present in our relationships, in our ministries, with our families, with God... It was a convicting, worshipful experience....

A few nuggets from the conference:

"Do for one what you wish you could do for everyone."-- Andy Stanley

"When we feel entitled, we don't show honor."-- Craig Groechel

"Authenticity trumps cool every time." -- Craig Groechel

There's something about being surrounded by thousands of other people who are trying their hardest to live their lives for Jesus.... Overwhelming, encouraging, convicting...

Being in ministry is NOT easy and can be very taxing at times... At Catalyst we were in a building packed full of people admitting this to one another and all agreeing that even though it's tough many times... It's sooo worth it!! BUT our relationships with our spouses, families, friends, and ultimately God should not suffer because of it... We need to Be Present among the people around us! God told us to love each other... How can we do that if we are too caught up doing projects/tasks? People over Projects should be our way of thinking... Loving people as Christ first loved us... But too often we throw people to the side in order to squeeze in one more "project." I challenge you all to examine your lives and figure out if you are truly Present in your relationships... Put down your phone, computer, iPad, etc down and have a face-to-face conversation with someone you care about WITHOUT allowing your mind to wander to work or your next task.... Enjoy being present with them... Unfortunately, it's a lot harder than you would think.... Good Luck!

Love you all!

Here it goes again...

So, I tried this whole blog thing back last January... Wrote a post... Never finished the layout... Because of this.... Or laziness (we won't spend too much time figuring this one out), but either way... it never got published. HOWEVER.... I was re-inspired this week to try again. So, here we go...

Well, I work at a church called Harvest as most of you know (haha "most of you" as if there is anyone reading this yet)... Anywho... one of our core values at Harvest is "Fun Required." So, today our staff spent the day at our GoKart track.... Having required fun. We began the day with some grilled grub, then geared up and hit the track. We formed teams of four, and spent the majority of the time running into each other doing whatever it took to win.... We are a competitive bunch.

Results of the day:
1) I may or may not have almost killed my boss, Vern.
2) My team took 2nd!
3) My husband seriously almost died by flipping his go cart. 

In the words of Casey: "Just another day at the office...."