Coast to Coast

      My husband and I have recently taken a journey, a very long one! As I mentioned, we had answered God's calling and were moving to the other side of North America.  My husband took a job in the beautiful state of Washington, which prior to our move we had spent one weekend checking things out.
     We decided the best way to move out there would be to drive our belongs out with us. This was a two part adventure because we were on the east coast of Canada (NB) and the rest of our belongings were in Michigan.  So we set out from New Brunswick to Maine with my parents driving along (with some of our belongings that did not fit in our civic, so we could mail them to Michigan). It was an emotional day saying goodbye to my parents as we left them somewhere near Portland, ME after spending the summer with them. We set off for Michigan; just the two of us, taking in all the sights and wonders of the east coast! We stopped in New York for New York style pizza, walked around Scranton, PA to see where one of our favorite shows is set. We squeezed in as much as we possibly could as we drove the long 24ish hour drive from New Brunswick to "Pure Michigan".
     After what seemed like never ending roads we arrived and thankfully had some down time with my husbands family. It was wonderful to spend some time with family again before we moved very far away.  Moving to the west coast was never the plan! We had moved  from Saskatchewan (Canada) to be closer to our families, but things did not go as we planned or had hoped.  Some how we had found ourselves on a job hunt that lead us to Washington state.
     We left Michigan after we packed up all of our belongings that were in storage, into our big yellow moving truck and hit the road! Our first night proved to be a little more excitement than we had hoped! We were driving a very large truck and pulling our civic behind it; we had been told that we could not back up or make tight jack-knife turns. We stayed our first night somewhere on the other side of Chicago (we decided to leave later at night to avoid the traffic in Chicago) and our motel for the night was on the otherside of a divided road. We needed to turn but it was a wide jack-knife type turn, it was pretty wide so we thought we could make it. BIG mistake, we didn't make it!! After a few "what do we do?" "I don't know!" "We can't back up!" "What do we do?", freakout moments we did the only thing we could do: unhook the car in the middle of the road and drive it off the ramp and then back the truck up.  Thankfully God was watching out for us (it was very late at night so there was not much traffic), He sent someone who offered to park his vehicle in front of ours with the flashers on so no one would hit our car. We unhooked our civic in record timing and I drove it into a near by parkinglot as we moved the truck, seriously we moved both vehicles faster than the speed of light. We then decided to keep the car unhooked until we got to the motel (a smart choice since the motel parkinglot was small). We collapsed into bed vowing never to try that again! Our first day of our second part of our road trip was a little more eventful than we had planned!
      Our journey continued but there are more stories so I will save them for another day! We were on an adventure that was for sure! As with most things in our lives, our trip out west did not always go as we planned, but we knew God had a plan!

Leap of Faith!!

Dictionary.com defines the word leap as "to spring through the air from one point or position to another". Dictionary.com defines the word faith as "belief that is not based on proof".
So putting those to together means that you are springing up and over to another place without knowing for sure what is there waiting for you.  That is what my husband and I are doing in these next couple of weeks. God has called and we have answered! We are not really sure what is in store for us but we are taking that leap of faith, trusting that He will be there to catch us!
     I have always loved the game "leap frog", I loved playing it as a child! So much fun! I have even played it underwater with my campers at camp during a water carnival! That sure was interesting! Sometimes though, leaping into the unknown can be scary! Especially when it means moving away from all your friends, family and all you hold dear to the other side of North America to answer a call! It would not be a leap of faith if there wasn't that element of trust, knowing that everything is going to be ok the other side when your feet hit the ground again! Some would say that is the best part; the thrill of the unknown! Me, I'm a planner, not always...but when it comes to my life I like to have everything mapped out (or at least somewhat). This past year God certainly threw a curve ball in, and I am sure he giggled a few times watching me scrabble as I missed the catch! Though during times of "unknown" and the curve balls is when I find myself growing the most in my faith...so in the end I am thankful for them.
    I am a planner, most of the time but other times I too like to take part in a great adventure and experience the thrill of free falling! And right now I am feeling like a good adventure, and it's a good thing because I think one is right around the corner! Buckle up, it's going to be a good one!

Blessings Big and Small, He's got them all

      Tonight I experienced a fun little blessing. It is funny sometimes when life isn't going how we planned we get all caught up in all of the negative and forget to look for His blessings.  It is easy to get so consumed with everything that is going wrong and all of the "woe is me!" but sometimes counting our blessings is all we need to get through the day.  God has a way of still handing out blessings (big and small) to help keep your head up.
      In the past month and a half God has used other people to bless us for Him. These were things that caused us to sit back and hear God say "I am here, good things are on the way".  So lately I have been trying to remind myself to look for the good, the blessings that are often missed in the craziness of the day. Hang on to the blessings along the way during a difficult journey because they are there, you just might have to look a little harder to find them. In the words of Tobymac in the song Irene, "keep your head up, don't you ever let up...this storm will pass you be ready for the next one".

Sailing?.....

So....this is my first ever blog and I'm not exactly sure where this is going to go.  First off let me say, I don't know how to sail. I have never been, and know nothing about it. I like to think that someday maybe I will try it, but I am kind of a big chicken and I'd probably be terrified that the boat would tip over. So the title of my blog isn't really about "sailing" it is more of a metaphor; about making sure that my focuses in life are in order so I can have....smoother sailing? Ha. Well this thing called life has certainly been filled with times of "rough seas" these past 12+ months and it has caused me to reevaulate my thinking. My anchor (my faith) in life was set a long time ago and during these ups and downs I have been been put to the test of how much do I really trust God with my future.  I have learned a lot during my short 26 years of life and they are lessons I wouldn't trade for anything. My faith has deepened during these unplanned times of difficulties, the pain has been deep but the growth has been worth it. During difficulties we are able to see what we are truly made of, what we believe, and who we really put our faith in. I stand in the midst of a storm and I can say I truly feel safe.  I trust God with my life and I know there is always a bigger picture that I cannot see, which sometimes I hate but other times I am grateful for!
   So, this blog might be a smorgasbord of life lessons, memories, funny stories, and dreams for the future. Whatever this may be thanks for reading!