Our life as of late...

 Dario, Jeremy, Joshua (my handsome little brothers from Guatemala)

 Me and My Love

My love before the wedding :) I make him a little nervous...

Lauren (sister), me, and Momma pre-wedding

July 17, 2010

 The Piton Mountains, St. Lucia

 The pool in our "sanctuary" room

 Our usual meal view was incredible!

 The architecture inside Jade Mountain was beautiful. Each bridge led to a separate room

 We went down to the town of Soufriere one day and this was their hospital :) Our guide said it functioned more like a walk- in clinic. There are two other major hospitals on the island.

 The rooms at Jade Mountain

As you can see, we are beyond blessed. Jeremy's parents blessed us beyond measure with a honeymoon to St. Lucia and my parents blessed us with the ability to spend our wedding day in front of hundreds of people who love and support us. We are forever grateful for this season in our lives. The people of St. Lucia are warm and genuine. Many of the workers at the resort were our age so it was so fun to talk to them and see what their days look like. Since returning, we have moved ourselves to Nashville and have hit the books hard. Jeremy is finishing his senior year and I am working on my Family Nurse Practitioner at Vandy. 

    In August, I read "A Hole in Our Gospel" by Richard Stearns, the president of World Vision and my life hasn't been the same. If you haven't read this book I would encourage you to do so. But.. caution... do not read it until you have prepared your heart to respond. It is not something you walk away from. It has convicted me to take the Bible more serious than I ever have. Verses don't just wash over me like they have in the past. The call to be a disciple to Christ is not this lovely bubble I have always lived in. It has radical implications. Luke 14:33 says, "In the same way, any if you who does not give up everything he has cannot be my disciple." I don't know what this looks like in our life so I'm for sure not going to tell you what it looks like in yours. But I would encourage you to press in. Please remember us in your prayers as we step out in faith. We are very prayerfully considering taking next year off of school and work and serving where we are called, wherever that may be.

        Lastly, I wanted to share with you some of my motivation in starting this blog. It was not so that we can put our lives out in the open for everyone to examine. It is because I have been immensely blessed and encouraged by following the life stories of others. Blogs are not a complete picture of the joys and trials of life but they can provide encouragement and a community of prayer warriors. I wanted to share with you 3 blogs that have showed Jesus to me.....

Suzanne, Katie & Gwen

GWEN’S BLOG: oatsvallteam@blogspot.com
SUZANNE’S BLOG: joiningthejourney.blospot.com
KATIE’S BLOG: kissesfromkatie.blogspot.com

     I am now volunteering with 147 million orphans and Gwen and Suzanne in Nashville and want to encourage everyone to do their part where they feel called.

Now.. I must go study I suppose....

Blessings,

            Kristin