I thought this would be a FUN way for you all to get to know me a bit more!
I found this idea over at Noobbeauty and just had to join in on the fun!
I loved these questions and would LOVE for you to answer them too if you’d like!!
Make sure to pop over to my FACEBOOK page and answer these in a post!! <3
HERE WE GO 🙂
What is your middle name? Dee! I was named after my grandmother Delores and she always goes by Dee. I’ve loved my middle name my whole life and that’s what I go by for business!
What was favorite subject at school? Hmmm… English was a favorite because I love to read and write but if I can be 100% honest, it was ART. No matter what class it was, I absorbed it all in and loved pottery the most. I dream of one day having my own studio in a garage xox
What is your favorite drink? Right now COFFEE. Black with a splash of cream. OMG I could drink it all day every day!! I am also a sparkling water fanatic and love to put a couple drops of citrus essential oil in my bubbly.
When it comes to an adult beverage, I love a good RED!
What is your favorite song at the moment? No longer slaves by Jonathan and Melissa Helser. YOU. MUST. LISTEN!!!
What is your favorite food? Pizza. I mean, is there another option?? Ok but really… I am currently craving Thai food something fierce! Get some yellow curry in my belly!
What is the last thing you bought? An adorable pair of TOMS that I got at Ross for only $16.99! I have teensy feet and can fit into a kids size 4! LOVE!!!!!
Favorite book of all time? The Bible. Where would I be without those words of LIFE!?
Favorite Color? Always and forever P I N K ! ! ! !
Do you have any pets? My furbabes and besties for life Lovie the fun-loving Yorkie and King Felix the tyrant of a cat 😉 I need to start-up their own Instagram because they are so cute!!!
Favorite Perfume? I stopped wearing perfume a few years back but have an Essential Oil blend that I swoon over!! Its called the Joyful Blend and actually boosts the endorphin’s in my brain making me happier and healthier!
Favorite Holiday? I am all things CHRISTMAS!!!! It’s the most magical and wonderful time of the year! It’s when we celebrate the birth of Jesus! Happiest time you will see me… plus the weather is PERFECTION and I get to wear boots, scarves and pea coats!!!
Are you married? To my best friend and love of my life! You can find our love story HERE <3 He was definitely worth the wait! I would do it a thousand times over to be with him xox
Have you ever been out of the country, if so how many times? The travel bug hit me hard when I was younger and I love going overseas! For both pleasure and ministry, I want to touch so many nations with the life and love of Jesus. I have been to Mexico (for a missions trip when I was 16 and we also Honeymooned in Cancun!) Uganda (we helped build a medical clinic as well as a fresh water well!) Cairo, Egypt (I actually rode a camel around the pyramids… CRAZY!) England (London, Bath, Shaftsbury, Manchester) as well as Scotland! Ready for my next adventure for sure!!!
Do you speak any other language? I wish I did but only a little bit of Spanish… Very little!
How many siblings do you have? One amazing sister who is my best friend in the world! And an incredible sister in LOVE that I get to keep forever <3
What is your favorite shop? Oh man… I have a few faves! I have always been an American Eagle girl but looooooove the deals I can get at Macy’s! I love finding a good bargain and am NOT attached to name brands! Forever 21 is great for all the cheap trends I don’t want to spend a fortune on!!
Favorite restaurant? I have 2! Fogo De Chao, a Brazilian steakhouse is where we favorite EVERY year for my birthday but I also fell in love with the customer service at The Capital Grille 🙂 Perfect for an anniversary or celebration!
When was the last time you cried? Yesterday… The waves of sadness still creep up on me from time to time in loosing our first baby and the pain of miscarriage. I miss our son so much but know that he is in perfection with Jesus! That reality alone gives my heart so much HOPE! We miss you little guy xox
Favorite Blog? I’m super crazy about my business coach and mentor Sandi Krakowski at arealchange.com 🙂 She is AMAZING!!!
Favorite Movie? You can’t have just one! Beauty and the Beast, Little Mermaid, The Princess Bride, Die Hard trilogy, Lord of the Rings trilogy, How to lose a guy in 10 days, The Intern, Frozen (don’t judge!!) and so many others!!!!!!!!!!!
Favorite TV shows? 24, Person of Interest, Once Upon a Time, Agents of Shield, The Flash, HGTV (Fixer Upper is my fave but I will literally watch anything from there!) Madame Secretary, When Calls the Heart… SO many others!
PC or Mac? I’m a rebel… CHROMEBOOK! I know it is probably on the PC end… but its in a land of its own!
What phone do you have? A Sprint iPhone 6! Only the best!
How tall are you? 5″1 and a HALF! I take my half very seriously thank you very much!!!
Can you cook? I looooooove to cook! Every since we discovered how severe my gluten intolerance is, I had to get real crafty in the kitchen. The only thing I haven’t mastered yet is the art of making a perfectly cooked steak. I leave that and the grilling to the Mister. He is WAY better at that than me!
WELL THERE YOU HAVE IT!!! Now you know a bit more about ME and I want to know a bit more about YOU!
Comment your answers BELOW or pop over to my Facebook page and post some of them there!!!
Some seasons come with joy.
Other seasons come with pain.
Heartache. Challenges. Grief.
Yet in the midst of it, hope remains firm.
Constant. Brilliant. Beautiful Hope.
And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us. -Romans 5:5
For us, these challenges have not been easy the past few months.
Yesterday I celebrated my first Mothers Day…
Two months ago today, on March 9th, our precious first baby went to be with Jesus. Only a few short weeks after we found out that we were pregnant, the pain of miscarriage swept in like a flood.
A silent pain that so many women walk through, yet rarely talk about. The loss of an unborn child.
Death. Grief. Aching.
To be honest, I imagined my heart to spiral into depression.
To lose heart and forget faith.
Yet something amazing happened.
I leaned into the pain and let Jesus simply hold me.
Waves of sadness and grief washed over me in the days and weeks to follow and instead of numbing out, I let my heart FEEL the sadness.
Through this process, I FELT GOD DRAW NEAR.
I wasn’t afraid to be honest with Him. To sob so deeply. To let Him know my pain. I chose to NOT turn my face from Him, but see that He was sitting with me in my sadness.
It was deeply comforting to know that He was with me…
My husband was given a beautiful picture of our baby with Jesus, in perfection… praying for us.
This picture the Lord gave him has graced my heart with such hope. My amazing, wonderful little baby has a greater knowledge of God than I have ever experienced in a lifetime. How beautiful His mercies are to our hearts.
Its been 2 months and my heart has felt that sadness sweep over me this week as Mothers Day approached.
I let the tears flow freely and chose not to stuff my pain.
We celebrated, because we know that tiny, little life began at conception and forever we will be parents.
It was important to acknowledge the sadness and let the tears come.
Today I embrace the promise of HOPE.
Hope that I AM a mother.
Hope that I will be with my child for all eternity.
Hope that there is an age to come with no more death, no more sorrow, no more tears.
Hope that in the end, we will be united with God forever.
“He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.” -Revelation 21:4
I am a mother… one of the greatest dreams of my heart. I am a fighter… waiting and hoping for the restoration of all things. I am a lover… trusting in the process and beautification pain brings.
I will not allow despair to steal the HOPE He has given me.
Hope rests and remains in the age to come and I will always lean into that grace.
For those of you who have lost precious babies, or the pain of infertility, and felt the sting yesterday, know that you are not alone and that I am praying for your heart, mind, emotions and body.
You are beautiful and you are loved fiercely by your Heavenly Father.
I pray you feel His affections resting on you today.
Since last Mondays blog post, I have really been thinking about the difficulty to actually BE myself. Sounds silly, right?
Maybe…But have you ever thought about it?
To be honest, posting and sharing a LIVE video was VERY exposing for me.
Monday was without makeup, hair up in a pony tail, just worked out, not a great camera angle and imperfect lighting. Needless to say it was SCARY… I think I might care a little toooooo much what other people think. But I did it because I wanted to confront my own fears and be REAL with each other.
It was important for ME to breakthrough the insecurities I hide under and share from my heart. And you know what is CRAZY?? We reached OVER 3,600 views on that RAW, weak, honest video. 3,600!!!! WHAT THE WHAT!!!? (Video can be found HERE in case you missed it!)
The crazy thing is how many emails, responses and comments FLOODED in by me simply being me. Raw, makeup free, real ME.
It caused my heart to ponder the deeper work God was doing in my heart.
Why do I spend so much time hiding behind the masks?
Why do I fret over what others think of me?
What am I feeling when I give into those fears? Rejection… Sadness… Hopeless… Anxious…
But what is the deeper desire in my heart?
That desire that was put there BY God?
For me its to make an impact.
To see lives and hearts awakened to truth.
To be known, seen and heard for who I truly am, not who I am projecting.
So that’s the question I want to pose to you:
What are you feeling when you allow comparison to steal your joy?
What desires are so deep down inside of you, screaming to be free?
Breaking free of false expectations and truly being YOU. Wild, crazy, YOU.
Think about what you like to do. What your passions are. What YOUR dreams are. What God says about you and how He made you PERFECTLY.
Do you agree with Him?
I struggle with it… still.
BUT I am asking for grace to love me for ME and love what He worked so hard to make.
Think about some of those fears that seem to paralyze you and comment below with something that you LOVE uniquely about YOU!
We are in this fight for life and light TOGETHER!
My heart feels like it is might burst; expanded to a capacity where I know something deep has taken place.
Why? I did something CRAZY!
I journeyed with a few women away to the mountains this past weekend and turned everything OFF.
Cell phone. Computer. Email. Social Media. OFF
MAGICAL.
Have you done that recently? Taken a day or two and unplugged?
Let go of the tangled web of comparison…
I can’t begin to tell you how clear-headed, clean and energized I feel.
Life comes at us at a million miles an hour.
Work demands our strength.
Family requires our attention.
Friends desire our time.
Daily tasks delay without attention.
But what about your heart, dear daughter? Is it alive?
Do you remember glimpses of YOU before the swirls of life took over with its needs?
Are you living from your heart?
In returning home from this weekend, I am pondering the idea, the notion, the audacious and terrifying longing of living from the WHOLE heart.
Not living from my daily task list, work demands or even family necessities. (They never seem to stop, do they?)
But the heart? I’m not sure I have time for all that…
In Biblical language, your heart is the center of the human spirit, from which spring emotions, thought, motivations, courage and action; thus it is the ‘wellspring of life’ (NIV Study Bible Note on Psalm 4:7)
Our heart houses so many beautiful aspects of our identity. It is the source of our thought life, what we feel and all of our deepest desires. How many of us feel like our heart is barely beating, our dreams have fallen under piles of laundry and the feeling of opening up brings up pain and heartache.
All too often we hear voices scream “Suck it up… You don’t have time to feel… You are too much and no one cares…”
Yet God, in the riches of His goodness, has called us to live wholehearted, alive in love with Him. He has crafted us to represent His glory and beauty, aspects of His nature that only women can display. Our heart is essential to our very being, the core of who we are. Without it open, tender and vulnerable, we fall into deception, confusion, isolation and despair. (Anyone else out there??)
Yet there is a Father who loves, sees and cares.
A Father in heaven who wants to take us on the journey to discovering how we can learn to love US.
To be patient with the process, gentle with the journey, humble in the breaking and loving what He intentionally made.
You, beloved, are not a mistake.
You, dear daughter, are not too much.
You are bright, beautiful, astounding, capable, tender, fierce, courageous, inviting, beautiful and life-giving.
You have much to offer and much to experience.
Find a safe place to sit in silence, even for just a few moments, and ask your Father to take you on a journey of discovery. A journey into the place of loving yourself, accepting your faults and patiently opening your heart to His love.
The adventure is worth it.
You have a huge part to play in the most beautiful of stories.
YOURS.
