The History of a Goodwilled Woman

I figure you need some background and I'm going to try to condense my whole life story in a relatively small blog entry (in proportion to my whole life that is). Here goes...

I become a follower of Christ when I was 12...Church summer camp in Panama City. I had been in church my whole life but that is when I knew that I needed God and so I cried out to him. My mom gave me a strong foundation to build on because she always encouraged us to read the Bible growing up. (I attribute that to my extensive knowledge of Scripture - thanks mom!) Then I entered a rough season - my mom refers to it as "the dark years". I had been in a small baptist church my whole life and then right before starting high school my parents said "we're not going there anymore". BLAH! That statement rocked my world, and I still feel a sadness when I think of it. Those people were my family and I did everything with them. My first love was there, and all my memories, etc, etc. It took a long time for me to accept God had plans for me that couldn't happen unless I moved on. I specifically remember laying in bed crying and telling God "fine, I surrender, You can have Your way because I'm miserable". So, things started to look up.

We started going to a contemporary church and that rocked my world (in a good way). I started being able to sing more and led worship a lot (which paved the way for all my worship experiences up to date). And I went to JAMAICA! I am, admittedly and helplessly, in love with that country and her people. There are days when I weep because I miss it so. Don't get me wrong - I love my husband and girls and ministering to them is more fulfilling than I ever imagined. But Jamaica does something to me I can't describe and I know God intended it this way. Jamaica changed me - God changed me there. He showed me something in myself, something about this world, about the enemy and God's power...And that's just a few of the reasons why I love it. I have been to Jamaica 8 times now and in faith, 9 is on the way!

In high school I had mostly church friends. One of my only regrets in life is that I wasn't friends with more people, and I mean friends on deep levels. However,I don't sit and beat myself up too much because I'm someone different now and for that I praise God. I hated high school for its trivialness (is that a word?) and how silly people were. I was, I suppose, slightly beyond my years. (I heard that too much and it got to my spiritual ego later on...Alas.)

In high school I met a boy and I got in engaged and I held onto that like my life depended on it. I am devoted to a flaw at times, and this was one of them. I don't like reminiscing too much on that because it was so dumb most of the time and I dislike when things get dumb. I got anxious and depressed...and then anxious because I was depressed and depressed because I was anxious. It wasn't pretty. Let me put it this way, I'd probably still be holding on unless he hadn't let go. He was the man of my dreams - but thankfully God always has for us more than we ask or imagine and so I ended up with Jeremiah...Who is nothing like what I ever dreamed and the better part of all my imaginings.

I took up rock climbing for 4 months and then what I refer to as "rock falling", and tore my knee up horribly. But God healed it and I'll share later on that...

I graduated college with a degree in Business Admin. I got married a week after I graduated college. I got pregnant two weeks after I got married. I gave birth nine months later. I got pregnant again seven months later. I gave birth again nine months later...And here we are coming up on our 3rd anniversary with a 26 mo old and a 10 mo old. I am skinny because my kids don't really let me have a moments rest, and most days I feel a slight bit crazy.

This is my life and I love it.