How in the world did I get here?

In the three years since my last post, I can look back and clearly see the Hand of God in our lives as clearly as I see my own face every day in the mirror. I have been on an amazing journey. It has been full of joy and blessings, and also sorrow and tribulation. I have learned to embrace all of it with gladness, knowing that I serve the One True God, and that He is at my right hand, He has my rear guard, He goes before me and dwells within me…The God of my salvation embraces me from all sides, and I really don’t know what could be more comforting than that!

Our 3 year synopsis in a nutshell: We own our business, Smart Cooking: Tri-State, and that keeps us hopping. We depend on it to keep me home with Landon, so Jeremy works during the day at home, but many evenings, he is out working. Our little guy will soon be 6 years old by the end of the year. My last blog entry, he was only 2 1/2! He officially started his Kindergarten year, and I have officially become his teacher! I know that homeschooling will have its challenges, but from what I have experienced thus far…I LOVE IT! I put Landon to bed one night and he said, “I am the luckiest boy in the world to have you has my Mommy AND my teacher!” I am the lucky one!

My Mom and Step-Dad moved just 2.5 hrs away from us. It was not long after their move here that my Step-Dad, (I call him Pop) was diagnosed with cancer of the neck. On December 16th, 2010, Pop passed away in his sleep. I was with my Mom and my Step-Sister Ginger. I have known him and loved him since I was 15 yrs old. I am thankful that he loved the Lord, and that he was at peace when he left this world for the better life in store for him. He poured himself out and was one of the most generous men I’ve ever known. I miss you, Pop.

My precious Dad lived with us from July of 2008, until February of 2011. He moved into an Assisted Living apartment with the intention of moving back in with us as soon as we renovated a house we purchased in the country. It sits on 5 very treed acres, has outstanding views, and is the perfect ranch style home for us. It needed some severe renovation, and I could not care for him and do the work on the house at the same time. While we worked away on the house, he began to deteriorate physically. We were able to move him back home into the new house, into his new room. I will never forget the look on his face when he saw the views. He sat in his wheel chair outside before we took him in, and looked over the field of wheat just across our road and said, “Praise God! My dream come true!” We took him inside his room, and he raved about how well we had renovated and what great decorators we are! 8 days later, he fell asleep in the Lord. He was the first in our family to become Orthodox, and he was the first in our family to have an Orthodox burial. May his memory be eternal. We all miss him.

As far as our journey into Orthodoxy? What a long tale, but a good one! It is in fact, my favorite part of our story in the last 3 years. We came to Southern IL to plant an Anglican Church, which we did. It was not long after we planted the church that we began to research and study more about the early church. We wondered, why all the denominations? 25,000 or more denominations! Were we right to be Anglican? Where was the Church that Jesus started with His apostles? With each question we had, we backed up a step away from the Anglican church and finally ended up turning around and smacked into the Eastern Orthodox Church. Thanks be to God! What we found there was a little foreign, and a little scary because we didn’t understand it all. But when preaching words of eternal life to His disciples, many of them murmured and said, “This is a hard saying; who can understand it?” John 6:60   And from that time, many of his disciples left and walked with Him no more. And Jesus said to the twelve, “Do you also want to go away?” Simon Peter answered and said, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of life. Also we have come to believe and know that You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God”. John 60:67-69

There were things in the Orthodox Church that were hard to understand at first, but we had backed ourselves right into the Early Church of 2000 years ago, and there was no place else for us to go. We could go back no further, and we certainly could not walk away. In January of 2010, we became catechumens and began to learn what being Orthodox (the word Orthodox means, correct praise, or right worship) was all about. A little over a year later, we entered the Church. Praise be to God!

I will write a little each week as we continue on our journey. I like to write about being a Wife, a Mom, Home Schooling, living out in the country, etc. I will share recipes that I hope you will enjoy, share pictures from time to time, and talk about what it’s like to be an Orthdox Christian woman in the 21st Century! Until next time, may God be with you!

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