let's give it a try.

my first attempt at a blog post- here it goes.

i am not one to be known as a blogger yet i have felt that it is important to keep friends and family updated on what God has been teaching me and bringing me through in the past few months. Oh what a few months! i know many of you have been praying for me and encouraging me and pushing me forward when times have gotten tough. i have said this whole time that i want my loved ones to be part of this journey with me because believers never travel alone. so here we go...

for those of you just joining in, May 1st (besides being Ashley's birthday) became the day one chapter in my life ended and the next one began. i had been feeling a desire for over a year to go serve and serve in a big way- giving up a lot of security in my life and devoting my life to the plans the Lord had for me. i felt this slight tugging on my heart and the quiet whisper of the Lord, yet i didn't feel like the timing was ever right. i had a passion for microfinance and began reading and researching what this actually means yet for whatever reason i never acted upon these longings. my heart also started breaking for the poor. here i was, serving the richest of the rich but i felt like i was being called to serve the poorest of the poor.

if you know me at all, you know I LOVED my job at Tiffany & Co. i couldn't have asked for a better job and better co-workers (you know who you are) and i could use up the rest of this blog talking about what a great company it is and how blessed i was to be in the position that i was in. At this time in my life God was calling me to do something different- just like He put me at Tiffany's for a reason. my three years there were blessed beyond belief and i will be the luckiest girl on earth if i ever again find a job that i loved as much that one.

January 12th- i heard about the earthquake in Haiti. i felt this earthquake literally hit home for me. you Californians may compare it to an earthquake happening in Hawaii (a place i have never been) but my family always grew up vacationing to the islands all around Haiti yet we had never visited there. for some reason my heart was really broken for this country and i could barely watch the news or look at the newspaper. i wanted to jump on a plane and help ASAP (which almost everyone felt). Yet this feeling didn't go away.

long story short(er), I prayed for "change" one night at a bible study knowing change was upon me. be careful what you pray for. this was a tuesday night. i remember a girl asking, what kind of change? I responded, I don't know. Just pray for change. the very next night Sarah, my dear and loving roommate and bestest of friends, announced she wanted to go live in a studio before she got married leaving our apartment of 3 yrs. I was really happy for her as it is important to do things you want to accomplish- and then i realized, oh geez. this is that change i was praying for. the Lord grabbed hold of my heart and said as clear as day, Go. That night I just KNEW without a doubt that I needed to go accomplish my dream now. someday I would have kids and a mortgage, and I needed to go serve NOW if I was ever going to do this. so i decided to quit my job, leave california, and start looking for serving opportunities in Haiti. When the Lord puts something on your heart, it is the only thing you can think about, the only thing you can talk about and the thoughts give you pure joy. My heart felt so light and full at just the thought of what the Lord was calling me to do.

that was a wednesday night. after prayer and a lot of talking with wise people i was in front of my boss Monday morning telling him my plans and giving him my two month notice...

since that night when i decided that i needed to go serve in Haiti and i needed to go do it now, i have never doubted this is what the Lord was calling me to do. this was His plan for me. i knew it was all in His hands and He would provide. and He has.