My 6-Month-Old Jetsetter!

As we approached the tarmac flying in to Anchorage last night, I couldn't help but think, Wow, Ruby has been on so many trips lately! She's quite the jetsetter. My little girl is growing up so fast - perhaps too fast - as I reflect on these past six months of life. She's traveled from Alaska to Washington twice now, and in just a few weeks, we'll be back on a plane headed to Maui, to visit my family, and then relocating to Eastern Washington after that. The actual traveling part is not glamorous to me - flying with a young child, packing and unpacking lots of baby equipment, sleepless nights when said baby is off her schedule - but getting to explore new places and fellowship with friends has been a distinct blessing (and privilege) and I'm thankful that we've been able to broaden Ruby's horizons in these few short months. Also, this trip went much, much better overall than the last one (read about it here), which felt like a sort of hazing experience, if you recall.

Baby girl’s latest developments include:
- Eating rice cereal for the first time. She loves it! 

Exhibit A: 

- Chewing on anything and everything she can get her hands on (newspapers, books, napkins, water bottles, the kitchen table – you name it.) Mama and Daddy can almost never look away. 

- Saying words that sound like “Hi” and “Da-da”, along with her typical bubble-blowing, razzing, and high-pitched pterodactyl call. 

- Making music on her lap piano. She loves pressing keys and making sounds!
- Focusing her gaze on moving objects, like fans, and fixating on bright lights.
- She can almost crawl and is able to maneuver her body to reach toys and blankets that are close by.
- She sits up so well!
- She’s super sociable and is a real crowd-pleaser on airplanes and in group settings. For instance, Ruby won the hearts of the rows surrounding us on the plane yesterday. By the end of our 3+ hour flight, folks all around us were trying to play games that would grab Ruby’s attention. She's a real heart-stealer. One couple even gave us a brand-new baby teething toy, which was part of a 2-pack, that they were bringing to Anchorage for their granddaughter. I was blown-away by this random act of kindness. 

Here are some photos from our recent house-hunting trip to Eastern Washington! We surprised my cousin Kristina by showing up on her 29th birthday, and it was so much fun hanging out with her and my cousin Isaac in Spokane and in the neighboring towns. We also found a super cute 4-bedroom house with a stunning view in a small town outside of Spokane, which we're praying will become our new home! We'll see what happens, as we still need to sell our house in Anchorage to make that work. 

Details, details. 

All that to say, somehow my beautiful baby girl turned 6 months old a couple weeks ago. She helps keep me grounded in this season of transition, and I praise God for her every day. 

Hope you enjoy these snapshots of our little family trip!

Big News for Us!

Two blog posts in one day? Yes, it's that big of a deal.

<< Drumroll, please. >>

Without further ado, I'd like to announce that our little family-of-three (four, including Penny) will be moving to Eastern Washington! Yes, within the next month and a handful of days, we will be flying out from Anchorage International Airport with all of our belongings in tow (or at least the more important items) and relocating back to our previous home state.

At this point, you may be saying to yourself, "Wow, that's a big move!" And you would be spot-on in that regard.

This will be a huge change for us, as we've had the privilege of living near Ken's family and extended relatives for the past couple years here in Alaska. It was here in Alaska that Ken and I bought our first house, got our first puppy, and welcomed home our beautiful baby girl. What an adventure it's been!

"But why move?" You ask.

Well, just this past week, Ken got offered an amazing (!) job at a really great engineering company - the type of position that you hope will turn into a career, and we accepted! Ken will soon be creating power transmission protection systems for sites around the world and also be flown out to these sites, with the potential for international travel. I'm so excited for Ken, and impressed at the level of responsibility this employer will be giving him. Ken's a real catch - I knew that already, and now this company saw that, too. ;)

In sharing this news, I can't help but grieve the loss of proximity we'll have to Ken's family, along with all the great friendships we've made and the community we've built. God met us in our move to Alaska, and He's now ushering in a new season, where we'll live near my cousin Isaac and his wife, Kristina. We would love your prayers for us in this time, as we pack up our belongings and say goodbye to the place we've called home these past two years. Please pray that we are able to sell our house in Alaska quickly, and also that we find a new place to call home once we arrive in Eastern Washington.

We are so sad to leave behind our wonderful family, friends, and church community here in Anchorage, and feel extremely blessed by the people who have welcomed us into their hearts and lives in this place. We will miss you dearly.

For our friends in Seattle and Eastern Washington, we're coming back! Hope you're ready! Hehe.

Double Trouble: 30th Birthday Festivities x2

I'd like to think that I went out with a bang in leaving behind my early 20s this past week. Two separate birthday parties, lots of balloons, wild hair flair (in honor of the Roaring 20's), decadent cakes - and surrounded by loving friends and family, who really blessed me in the advent of this new season.

On my actual birthday, we enjoyed a "Fancy-Schmancy" themed birthday party (aka dinner out in fancy clothes) and then celebrated with more friends and family on Saturday, with a giant pot of crockpot chili, homemade cornbread, and an elaborate six-layer chocolate salted-caramel buttercream cake my dear friend Alisa whipped up! It was so nice spending time with Ken's relatives, including his Grandma Dorothy, who is exactly 60 years and a couple days apart from me in age. She seemed to enjoy the party. Also, in town for the party was Great Aunt Wilma, who spends part of her time living in Minnesota and the other part in Brazil. She's really cool.

I felt so loved by the oodles of birthday cards, flower bundles, gifts, and goodies! In writing this, I keep glancing over at the beautiful arrangements on our table - roses, sunflowers, carnations, orchids, and alstromeria. I've never had so many flower bouquets in my possession. Thank you so much!

Here are some pics we snapped from the parties! :)

Party #1:

Party #2

On Turning 30

Today is my 30th birthday. I've officially or unofficially transitioned from young adulthood into the seemingly nondescript decade that is my 30s. According to modern wisdom, I'm no longer a kid. I'm supposedly wiser, more confident, more resilient, more educated, and showing more signs of wear than my 20-something counterpart.

By now, I should be investing in my future through monthly 401k contributions, have life insurance, be building up savings, buying a home, and settling down. I should also focus on my health and wellness, and try to get in the best shape of my life. At least from the handful of articles I've read and countless others that I see on the internet, these are some of the things I should have started by the time I turned 30 and be pursuing well into my 30s.

This is the decade to "excel at business", "quit bad habits", and "take charge of my life", thanks to my Google search on what it means to turn 30.

All of these ideas sound nice, and important, and are more or less true for me. And yet, all these things fall short in describing who I am, where I am going, and where I find purpose in my life. There has to be more to turning 30, I think to myself.

It's a little past 7 a.m. this birthday morning, as I sit down to ponder all the revelations I had hoped would suddenly come upon me when I turned 30 today. I couldn't fall back sleep after nursing baby Ruby, and decided that rather than lying in bed awake, I'd enjoy the quiet time to write. Also, Ken has been fighting a virus, and I figured that rather than waking him up to eat birthday breakfast with me (which I considered), it'd be best to let him sleep. Poor guy is pretty sick. So, I tip-toed out of the bedroom, threw on my fluffy pink-bowed robe and in considering whether to fire up the wood stove, decided instead to light the beautiful (and intoxicating) apple currant jam candle that my best friend sent me for my birthday. Less hassle and more cozy-scrumptious pleasure to get me through the delayed breakfast.

I guess, in writing out my thoughts, I am curious what it really means to turn 30? Why does this age get such a bad rap? Throughout adolescence, I'd hear 30 years old referred to in a pronouncedly negative way. As if life was "all downhill after 29". During childhood, my biggest goal was to become an adult, because adults seemed to have way more fun than kids. They didn't get reprimanded or punished (I thought) and could travel anywhere around the world and eat lots of treats and didn't have a bedtime and were big enough to drive cars. Oh, to be a kid again, with my huge imagination...But somehow, I think that I feared turning 30, because even adults were scared of that.

All this time, turning 30 has had a sort of build-up in my mind to a season of uncertainty. And every year, for the past few years, turning 30 became the 'elephant in the room', when friends or coworkers would learn how close I was to the next decade. Like death was knocking at the door. Everyone heard the knock, but no one wanted to answer or give me advice on what to say when I answered the door.

You can imagine, then, how I must've been feeling as I approached my birthday this year: Apprehensive? Concerned? Curious?

Yes, yes, and yes.

Happily, I can report to you that I made the leap successfully. I'm now 30 and feel just as much of my youthful self as I did last night. Actually, I feel just as tired as I normally do from raising a rambunctious six-month-old who doesn't sleep through the night as of yet. Turning 30, surprisingly, feels great. I feel accomplished, and loved. This past decade has brought incredible changes for me. I graduated from college, moved to a big city on my own, got married, traveled throughout Europe, moved again, got a dog, bought our first house, and most recently, gave birth to a beautiful and healthy baby girl.

You can read about some of these things here:
Europe: The First Few Days
Switzerland: Where Narnia and Heaven Meet
A Chocolate Croissant & Overcoming Setbacks
The Alcan: Our Journey to Alaska from Seattle via Alberta

Discovering Home: Thoughts on Visiting Maui & Buying a House in Alaska
Baby Ruby: My Birth Story
On How We Met & 5 Things I've Learned About Marriage

God blessed me in miraculous ways this past decade, particularly with all the memories Ken and I have made together. We got to most of the things I'd written out as goals on my bucket list for places to see and things to do. I'm realizing that by the time I turned 30, I checked off so many things on my list, that it's about time to start a new goals list.

Yet, what stands out to me most in reflecting on the past 30 years, goes deeper still than the beautiful places I've seen and experiences I've enjoyed (as well as the photos and trinkets and accolades). It is something richer, and more satisfying, and more life-giving.

What I feel most honored and humbled by - is how God showed up in my life all these years. So often, God made a way when it seemed like there was no way humanly possible for something to work. He provided me with friends and community, to walk alongside me during difficult times. He blessed me with divine appointments - people, opportunities, gifts, at just the right time when they were needed most. God spoke life into the darkest corners of my life, where I had allowed grief, pain, and bitterness to eat away at my joy. He showed me that in Him, there is life and hope far more satisfying than anything this world (and all its goodies) can provide.

During my twenties, God gave me this verse, which reminded me of his hope, health and restoration, as I worked through my own brokenness: "I will restore to you the years that the locust has eaten," Joel 2:25. Despite endless attempts at trying to 'fix myself' on my own, Christ keeps showing me how much he loves me in the midst of my brokenness. His love has changed me, and continues to change me. Praise God.

Now, as I embark upon a new decade, I hear God whispering the words of Jeremiah 42:10: "I will build you up and not tear you down; I will plant you and not uproot you." This verse has stood out to me ever since I first read it on my cousin's wedding invitation, back in 2011. God has molded my perception of what it means to "settle down" and "take root". Home is the gift of sharing life with Ken and now Ruby. Wherever God takes us in the days and years ahead, I am confident that He will build us up and root us in Him.

Cheers to being 30!

Me at 1 yrs old:

And now at 30 yrs old: