heaven & co

I'm currently on Spring break - finally - and wanted to catch y'all up on things that have been going on in my life. Not sure if I've mentioned it before or not, but Jeffrey and I have officially hit our one year mark of living in Kansas. Yay! I think I can safely say that it takes longer than a year to adjust to changes and transitions in everything! I'm finally now getting used to this place and I'm starting to call this "our home." I love the busy-but-not-really-busy downtown, the grid system of the streets, and I'm finally able to remember roads! Aside from the actual place, I'm finding that my heart has truly been bent for the people here. On random days, I catch myself thinking about these people; how they remind me of my own parents sometimes and how much I want to love them more! The other week, one of our church members' son suddenly passed away and even through the hurt and grief, I was encouraged by this community. For the first time since Jeff and I have been here, I didn't want to leave this place. To be frank, I think when Jeffrey and I first made the decision to come here, we assumed it'd be temporary. Now that we're face to face with the question of what we should do, we're very unsure, but I think we know. 

All that to say, we may know, but still have no idea! Ha. I think I can speak for the both of us and say that we're not totally worried about it, but want to just be sensitive to where the Lord wants us. We've had many people asking us and different churches have contacted Jeffrey about maybe considering other places. It's weird how the Lord works - in a place and position that I wanted to run away from, He's turning my heart to desire it more. I'm thankful for how the Lord pursues us and teaches us in the midst of our youth, our young-ness in ministry and in most cases, our lack of knowledge in a lot of things ... gosh, I'm thankful for His goodness! 

Planning, planning, planning. Literally making a plan for all the things! If y'all didn't know, I put in my two weeks at Ulta because I needed to make room for other things in my life. One of my goals for this year was to put more of my time in the things that matter. A job is great and we could certainly use the income, but I had no time whatsoever with that job. With all this free time, I have space to be with people, to invest in others, or to be invested in! 

For a long time now, I kept asking Jeffrey for flowers. I thought he'd surely give me some on my birthday or perhaps Valentine's Day of last year, but I got nothing. Finally, for Valentine's Day this year, I got flowers, y'all. I think the act of giving flower is so precious and was so happy when I received them so of course, it had to be documented. ;) 

We didn't get to the very top of Machu Picchu but this is pretty close! The climb is pretty hard, y'all! I've found that not a lot of people talk about how hard the climb is, but it definitely is. When we reached the top, we felt So accomplished and proud of ourselves. 

A few things to consider if you ever decide to go there: 1) Wear light clothing! Cannot say this enough. I've never sweated as much as I did climbing this thing! I initially thought it was going to be cold, but you will sweat! 2) Bring something to eat along the way for a little boost during your hike. There's so much to see and you don't want to miss it due to hunger or lack of energy! 3) Get some hiking boots for sure. My husband and I decided to invest in some hiking boots and it was the best decision ever.

We purposefully took this cheesy photo. ;) 

Sweet friends from Switzerland. Hearing their story inspires me to travel more!