Sobremesa Stories

Letting stories unfold around the table

Testimony Tuesday: Fighting For Healing

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When I graduated college a few years back, it seemed like I had everything lined up for me.  I was headed to Kansas City to finally be in the same city as my long-distance boyfriend of two years, I had a teaching job lined up, and would start classes for my Master’s degree in education soon after I arrived.  That boyfriend soon became my fiancé,  and after a whirlwind seven months of teaching, wedding planning, and night classes, we got married.

From the outside, everything was perfect.  But from the inside? My heart was aching.

Sobremesa Stories Testimony Tuesday

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Wrestling With The Fear Of Miscarriage

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When Jordan and I found out we were pregnant this summer, it felt completely surreal (You can read more about the journey here!).  I took the positive pregnancy test at 4:00 AM before we headed to the airport for a 10 day trip to Mexico and California, so the whole thing felt like a blur.  I wanted to be excited about the pregnancy and all the possibilities within it, but more than anything, I just felt fear.

I feared that the THREE positive pregnancy tests I took were somehow a mistake, that I’d somehow made it all up and the doctor would tell us we were wrong.  I feared that there was something wrong with the baby and it wouldn’t implant correctly or grow correctly or do just about anything the way it was supposed to.  I was scared my body would somehow not be able to grow and carry this way the way it was designed to and the baby wouldn’t make it.  Even though I’m young, healthy, and have no previous miscarriages or medical issues that would make my pregnancy particularly high risk, I worried that something would go wrong.

There was joy and excitement and dreaming about our little one, but more than anything, I was so, so afraid.

Positive Pregnancy Test

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How We Make Money With Airbnb (Without Going Crazy!)

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Jordan and I LOVE to travel.  We spent five weeks last summer backpacking through Europe, and we loved all the fun people we got to meet, beautiful places we got to see, and amazing food and drinks we got to try.  During our trip, we stayed almost exclusively in Airbnb’s, doing everything from staying with people in their homes to renting out private apartments.  We had such a fun experience and loved how we experienced a more “local” feel of the cities that we stayed in.  It also saved us a ton of money (which we of course spent on more fun things like delicious food and German beer).

How to Plan Your Dream Europe Trip

Cliffs of Moher, Ireland

If you’ve never traveled with Airbnb, you should check out this post I wrote a few weeks back about how to use it! I go through all the details of creating your profile so future hosts will accept you and what to look for when booking spaces.  Okay, you’ve read that and are still interested in hosting? Let’s get going!

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How I Use A $20 Bill To Teach Students They Have Value

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Way back when I was just a wee college student trying to decide what I was going to do with my life (aka five whole years ago), I was in the heart of four years of intense Young Life ministry.  Seeing how much I loved working with high school students, I felt like being a teacher was the perfect way to combine my love of languages with my desire to impact high schoolers.  I knew I would walk into a high school and immediately have meaningful, deep relationships and conversations with every student I met each and every day (this is the part where all the veteran teachers laugh).

But as I started teaching, I started to realize that teaching is quite a bit different than leading student ministry.  For starters, I saw 160 students every day, with as many as 30 students in my room at one time.  I traveled between two schools every day, so I often wasn’t there for those before, after, and in between moments that help build relationships.  I had a handful of good conversations and got to see students’ hearts in tiny glimpses, but for the most part, my days were consumed with the daily realities of lesson planning, classroom management, and keeping rowdy 8th graders from driving me and each other crazy while still teaching them a thing or two about Spanish.

Teach Students They Have Value Converse Fields

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Why I’m Scared To Say I’m “Creative”

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If you had asked me to describe myself as a child, I probably would have chosen one word: smart. I was a part of my elementary school’s gifted program and did Honors/AP classes all the way up until I went to Davidson, a college known for its nerdiness and crazy-hard academics. For most of my life I’ve identified myself as hard-working, intelligent, and a perfectionist at just about everything. In other words…I’d probably say I was pretty nerdy.

But creative? Definitely not one of the words I’d use to describe myself.

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Slow Summer Days

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Summer Days Beach Mexico

Summer break in Mexico after we got married!

While teaching definitely has its challenges, there is one major thing that makes it much, much easier: the BREAKS.  Sorry to all my friends who work year-round and get 10 total vacation days, but having built-in breaks during the year and for summer is AWESOME.  I love having my year come in seasons and knowing that there are plenty of random days or weeks I can look forward to for times of rest, silliness, and adventures.  We used our summer after we got married to travel to Mexico and Sonoma, CA.  Last summer we backpacked through Europe for 5 weeks.   This summer will mostly be lazy with a smaller trip to Boulder, CO for Jordan’s Half-Ironman race and then a combined trip to Mexico and California in July.  But beyond those trips…we’re mostly just being lazy.

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How Getting a Dog Made Me a Better Human

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I have never been a dog person.  I am horribly allergic to cats, and on doctor’s orders, my family didn’t get a dog in case I developed an allergy to them as well.  So when I got married to my dog-loving, dog-wrestling, and dog-snuggling husband, I had a feeling we’d have to meet in the middle somewhere.  That somewhere came in the form of a sweet little black lab puppy named Olive.

How Getting a Dog Made Me a Better Human

We thought for months about adopting breeds of all kinds and were nervous to adopt from a shelter because it was a little unpredictable. This was a dog that we would bring babies home to, that our children would grow up with, and we wanted a dog who we would feel safe having around our future little ones.   We ooh-ed and aah-ed over sweet puppies on shelter/rescue websites, and even got in contact with a few different breeders of labradoodles and whoodles, but couldn’t make up our minds if we were ready.

I had all sorts of irrational fears about getting a dog.  I was afraid that the dog would somehow go back to its animal instincts and attack me  in the middle of the night (I know….absurd.  Can you tell I’d never had a pet?).  I was afraid it would destroy our house, my clothes, all my favorite things.  Perhaps most importantly, I was afraid that I wouldn’t be able to love it like I hoped.  I was scared I would tolerate having a little creature running around the house, but I wouldn’t experience the connection and love that people describe having with their animals.

Holy moly….I could not have been more wrong.

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