A Richmond chapter begins

Disclaimer: There is a lot of talk about God in this post.  We believe we can ONLY give the credit to Him! Once you read this, you will see why. If you have any comments or questions, please feel free to speak to us privately about them.  Otherwise, enjoy the story, and if you feel inspired, praise with us! :)

H: Wednesday we found out that moving into the house was no longer an option, without any real concrete explanation.  Disappointed and frustrated didn't even begin to scratch the surface as to how we felt.  I wrote in my journal for a long time, pouring out my frustrations and anger to God.  Yes, I was angry.  I don't like being angry, and I even apologized.  There was no holding anything back.  At one point I wrote, "I've learned in the journey of becoming a follower of Jesus is that we still have an obligation to show Your love, even if we don't feel like it."  Quite frankly, I didn't feel like it.  We had spent the last two months praying, putting our faith in people following through, only to be left empty-handed and disappointed.  I went to bed unhappy that night, utterly defeated and spent.  I'm surprised I got any sleep at all.

Kelly was due to come home from Ohio Thursday, so I shared with our house church members that we would not be there, so we could spend the evening catching up, relaxing, and discussing our next steps.  But what I didn't mention was that Thursday morning, I heard that still small voice, something, in my gut say, "You shouldn't go to church tonight."  I couldn't explain it.  (That was the first God moment, although I didn't know it at the time)

We went out for Chinese and we'd barely been home five minutes when Kelly got a Facebook message from a co-worker of hers, saying she had spoken to somebody about a duplex available in Richmond (God moment #2). On the phone, she said that a couple was going to look at it the next day, and asked if we could look at it that evening.  We dropped everything and drove up there.  Yes, it was that split-second of a decision! We had no trouble finding the apartment and were immediately taken to the location and the quietness of the neighborhood, despite it being right off the interstate.  Kelly's co-worker arrived a few minutes later and we asked how she knew the landlord.  This was her response (another God moment):

"Oh, I just talked to her on the phone just now.  I've never met her before.  I was just driving through here and I saw the sign out front, and I thought 'This is for Kelly. I want her to be in a safe neighborhood.'"

We were like ARE. YOU. KIDDING. ME.

Jennifer, the landlord, arrived a few minutes later.  In addition to her infectious personality, she mentioned that a police officer lives down the street and that her niece works at the preschool nearby (Remember the talk about a safe neighborhood?) We helped ourselves to looking around, and, admittedly, it is a downgrade in terms of size and space, but we've learned over the last year that we've had too much space.  The rent is more than $100 LESS than what we're paying now, and the place was near immaculate, there was new carpet, a small patio outside, plenty of parking, a washer and dryer hooked up (!!!), and, most importantly, Yoda and Wiley are welcome! :) Needless to say, it was not a difficult decision.  By the end of the night, a key was given to us and we had signed the lease!

The drive home was a combination of a daze and utter exuberance. God had shown up! Big time.  If we had gone to church, we would have missed the Facebook message and, ultimately, the phone call, the apartment would have been shown tonight and probably taken, and we would still be stuck waiting until the end of next month.  But now, there is no more waiting, and we have a cute new duplex in Richmond waiting for us.  All thanks to God!

K: While reading this, I thought of Holly. Gave up a UK, full-time benefited job for what she does now for the sake of being happier and less stressed out. I also think about getting my first job; that moment and time when I was just ready to give up was when I got the magic phone call. That's what happened here last night; God gave us what we needed, not what we wanted. I remember so many times praying "God just get us this house. Just get us this house." I'm not going to say it was as if my prayers were falling on deaf ears, because I don't believe that. Rather I just felt that this house we were seeking so hard for was just not going to happen. I always had this small notion in the back of my head that it was just going to not work out. Perhaps that was God's way of saying that He had something better for us. Because let's face it, the last thing we actually needed was MORE space and more money to be given for rent.

I truly believe that God talks and shows us what we need in a lot of mysterious yet awesome ways. I remember walking into that duplex and was like "this is it." That "aha!" moment. I don't believe in coincidence. I think coincidence is just one of the many ways God speaks to us. Though I can't hold claim to actually hearing His voice, I can hold to the fact that His fingerprints were ALL OVER THIS. There's really nothing more I need to add to this. It's all been said. We are excited to begin this new adventure and see where else He will take us. My ending is this; if you're waiting for something and feel like throwing in the towel, that's usually when a corner will turn. Sometimes it's not a good corner, but in our experience it usually is. Keep the faith, and remember that God is good.

House stuff, other stuff and what we've learned

Kelly: And once again, we apologize for the extremely large gap in between posts. Life has gotten somewhat in the way again, in good ways though. For starters, I'm getting ready to leave for Peru in a few weeks. Has it really been that long since an update? Yes! Anyway, I'm going to Peru in 2 weeks. A few folks from church, myself and a cohort in Georgia are getting together to do medical missions/children's ministry. We leave on the 1st and will be gone for 10 days. Wee bleep! So preparations for that have taken up a bit of my time, and there's still a few things I have to do but I foresee they will not be too terribly demanding.

As most of you all know, we are still in the process of getting ready to move into our first house...hopefully. Just for clarification, we are NOT buying. Still renting, but it's a nice house and for the price per month it's a pretty good deal. We looked at it last week, met our landlord and his wife, filled out our application and are now waiting. The wife was not too keen on the idea of us bringing along the fur babies, but we said leaving them behind was just not an option. She didn't come right out and say we couldn't have them, rather "preferably not." So now we're waiting and hopefully we will hear something soon. Throughout this entire process, it's been a series of just waiting. Waiting for answers, waiting for God's direction, waiting. And learning how to be patient and be ok with waiting. And learning and doing my best to maintain a positive attitude while getting things here packed up. Seems like some creepy-crawly bug freeloaders want to come along too, but I've had to give them a few smacks, sucks in the vacuum and a big firm no they are not allowed. That in and of itself is a whole other ordeal for another time. So yeah. Lots of waiting, but God has really shown us how to basically handle that, even though we feel like going crazy 99.9% of the time. It really does hold true that God doesn't give you patience; He gives you circumstances and scenarios in which you have no choice but to just be patient. And wait.

So there you have it. It's been exciting, knowing that something great is going to happen. Not knowing when it will happen has caused a bit of anxiety, but I keep telling myself it'll be worth it. Having a sense of humor throughout this process has helped greatly too, because if I wasn't laughing or trying to get sis to find the humor we'd probably be crying. Thanks for hanging with us, and we are looking forward to many many house parties!

Holly: And here I am, a couple of days late! I shared this entire process with the small house-based church we've been attending, and there was a comment that said "It's a good thing we're all so patient, right?" I WISH! Some days, I must admit, are much easier than others.  Some days it takes everything in me to not just take a flamethrower to the entire place and dance upon the ashes when it finally burns to the ground. But we can't do that (And we definitely shouldn't do that). Some days, most days, I just grin and bear it and deal with it, silently praying that one day, ONE DAY, we WILL hear something and we WILL be in a much better situation. Like Kelly said, though, God has shown us a lot through this waiting game.

I've been reminded one of the points from a sermon a couple of weeks ago, and I'm probably butchering it to kingdom come, but it was something to the degree of that you don't have to necessarily like your circumstances to keep trusting God. Do I like that we're basically sitting ducks? No, I don't.  I wanted to be out of our apartment months ago! But, unfortunately, life doesn't work that way. I'm just really fortunate that I have my faith in Jesus in the first place, because if I didn't have at least that hope, I really don't know what I would do. I'm also really fortunate that I have such a strong network of people that are cheering us along, encouraging us, also making us try to see the humor in it all, praying for us, offering to help us move, and so on.  It's good to have people! :)

So that's where we are right now.  Hopefully the next time we post it will be with a moving date and plenty of pictures and happiness galore! Thank you all for journeying along in this craziness with us!

ALEP Mid-Summer: A continued family reunion

H and K: Howdy! You get both of us again!

It's been a little while since our last post.  Can't believe how June has just seemed to slip right through our grasp.  Heck, next week is the 4th! We've been rather busy, traveling and going here and there. Unfortunately we still have not heard any word on our house-to-be, but we are keeping the faith and holding out that we will hear something soon.

But enough of that. Almost two weekends ago we went back to the Shire! Yes, that's right.  You may remember how all of this ALEP craziness started back in September. This gathering was not official, not planned, just whoever was available to escape for a weekend of unplanned relaxation, conversation, and generalized merriment.  And all of those it certainly was!

It's hard to capture the atmosphere we've come to love in this ALEP group.  We all come from such vastly different walks of life, from vastly different parts of the country, even (a few traveled from as far as Virginia, Texas, and even Canada!).  But what's so amazing about this time, these ALEP reunions, is that, for just a few days, there is no worry.  No stress.  No negativity, pessimism, or stress of any kind.  It simply ceases to exist as soon as you see the signs welcoming you into the Shaker Village. The laughter, the cheerful conversations, the food (oh. my word!), the time we cherish and spend together...it's the best form of therapy that we can possibly imagine.

The next event is in April of 2016. While we won't be able to go for the entire weekend (these fun gatherings do cost money), we will definitely return for a day.  Because even just one day is worth it!

Until next time! :)

ROBERT!!!! <3 

:) 

Sunset in the Kentucky Shire 

The meatless results (and a house update?)

H and K: It has been seven days since our last post, and if you remember, we took it upon ourselves to go one week without meat.  So...how did we do?

Honestly, we didn't find it too challenging.  Some days, it was hard walking up Main Street and catching a whiff of the cafe's burgers, or resisting devouring an entire order of chicken wings from Papaleno's.  We did have one "cheat" day, Saturday, in which we attended a cook-out sponsored by Kelly's work.  We didn't go too crazy, though, in the sense that we both had just one chicken wing. Fried rice became a good friend of ours. Our weight didn't really change either, which we kind of expected, but that's ok, considering that wasn't the end goal.  We were just curious...and a little bit broke.  So will we do it again? Probably.  We had to get pretty creative with some of our recipes, but overall we enjoyed incorporating more veggies into our diet. The drastically reduced cost of groceries for the week was a good incentive, too!

And this concludes our one week without meat.  We learned a lot, had a good time...but honestly, if anyone would care to drop off a couple of steaks or a rotisserie chicken, that would be pretty amazing.

Switching gears a little, and we're just going full disclosure here, because we can do that here.  In case some of you are a little behind, we are in the process of moving, this time into a house.  We do have a house lined up, although we've only seen it from the outside.  However, here's where the situation gets a little hairy: The family that is living in the house now is waiting on a closing date for a house they're buying.  Once they get their closing date, they will move out, and we will move in. We are not buying, we're renting (Just in case that wasn't clear).  We do not know when this closing date will be.  It's been two weeks since we first made contact with our eventual landlord.  When I called him last week, hoping to affirm my fear of him not giving the house away to someone else, he informed me that they still had not reached a closing date, but that he still had our contact information and would reach out to us when they closed.  That was a week ago.  We still have not heard anything.

Honestly...it's been hard.  Our many frustrations with our current living situation, for reasons we don't wish to discuss at this time, have nearly reached a tipping point.  Let's just say it's gone on too long. Period.  In addition, it's just the waiting...the waiting and waiting for a phone call.  My (Holly) hopes soar every time my phone rings, and plummet when it's someone else besides the phone call we're anxiously waiting for.  It's the doubt...the doubt of wondering, nearly agonizing ourselves, if this is ever going to happen at all.  It's discouraging- another day that passes with silence, with no news. But through all of this, we've learned a lot about grace, and we are thankful for that. I (Holly) read Proverbs 3:5-6 recently, and I've been heavily meditating on that, relying on that promise in God's word.  We've been praying.  We've been praying a lot.  And still waiting.

So that's where we are right now.  If you feel led to pray for us, please do so.  And pray for the family that is waiting on a closing date; it's probably just as frustrating for them, if not more so, than it is for us. But we KNOW that something better is coming, and we KNOW that God is faithful.  It's just that some days are easier than others, and we thank God that He can handle our joys and our frustrations as well.  Thanks for following along with us, as always.  We hope to hear something soon.

The H and K Food Experiment: 1 week of Meatless

Holly and Kelly: On the way home from grocery shopping, in which we grossed in approximately $56 for about a week's worth of food, we decided to partake in a wee experimentation of food challenges. The first one? One week with no meat. However, it's not entirely without meat; we currently have two meals planned, one with fish and the other with eggs in it. Other than that, no meat. Nothing. No chicken, no red meat, no bacon, nada. No. Meat. You might ask, why are ya'll doing this? Well, we've read numerous web studies and through word of mouth have heard that not eating meat supposedly makes you feel better, have more energy, and not to mention meat is expensive these days.

We're just not eating meat. We're not changing any other of our activities of daily living, which means Holly is still going to walk to work and we're still going to do ReFit on Monday nights. And we're going to a work potluck for Kelly's work and have decided to not eat meat there, which we are certain will be quite challenging. So there you have it. One week without meat. At the end of the week, we will report back and see how it went. How we felt, how tempted we were to sneak in a cheeseburger, that sort of thing. We're going to see if our weight changes as well. Wish us luck; the challenge begins tomorrow!

A Generalized Life Update #2

Kelly: So I've been at my new job gig for a little over a month now, and so far things are going really well. Our patient numbers (census) have been high for a while, which has made things crazy but so far nothing catastrophic or earth-shattering has happened. For the most part everyone has been calm, somewhat happy and haven't made any ridiculous demands. I really enjoy the staff I work with and we all have a good time and love what we do. I really enjoy the patients too, and gone are the days of constantly feeling like walking on eggshells. When working in psych, things were so unpredictable all the time, and you just never knew what may set someone off. So there's that. It's pretty smashing.

Secondly, Holly and I have been in the process of trying to find a house to rent. We can't quite afford swinging to buy one yet, but it's time for a change. We've been at our townhouse for a little over 2 years now, and a series of circumstances have left us ready to go. It's been overall a somewhat frustrating process, in terms of finding a house and making phone calls to prospective rental companies/landlords. We've learned the term "single family" does not apply to twin sisters, which sort of stinks for us. Neither one of us can really afford to live on our own, nor do we want to. We've had a lot of closed doors, but as of today two more prospective options have opened up. I'm not really trying to keep my hopes up, but there's a part of me that is optimistic that one of these two will work out. On the way home after just driving by to look at a neighborhood in where one of them are, we prayed while driving, and soon after came across the number of another house to rent. God is good! I'm going to make a phone call tomorrow to this other house and hopefully things will be in our favor. So that's what's going on in our lives for the time being. Thanks for hanging with us!

Holly: I spent all of last week traveling for work-related events: building two high tunnels and a VISTA training/networking/catching up weekend in Pikeville, KY.  Got to reconnect with a lot of VISTAs from my Atlanta training, and meet some more, all of who are doing some pretty awesome things in northern and eastern Kentucky. Speaking of VISTA, things are going very, very well; I am still really happy there and I'm learning more and more as every week passes.  I have about three and a half months to go until my term ends, and I feel like the second half has just flown by! As for post-VISTA....well, they liked me so much they decided to offer me a full time gig!! Yep, you are totally reading that correctly! :) I've known for quite a while now but have been essentially sworn to secrecy, but I think I've kept it a secret for long enough! I am beyond excited to transition into this new role and I am still blown away at just how much God has worked for good when He called me to do this crazy thing almost a year ago! I don't know any of the logistics yet, but...yeah, there it is!!

Yoda and Wiley (our pet babies) have been with us for three years now.  We still love them to pieces and they still drives us insane.  They've brought us so much joy and have kept us ridiculously entertained.  Neither of us are in relationships still, and we're still ok with that (Although I'm plotting...) And lastly, we're spending Memorial Day weekend in Indiana! You may remember when we went to their wedding almost four years ago! Yep...their little girl is due in July (their first!!!), and we are all BEYOND excited :)

So that's basically it.  Pray God will have His will as we continue to search for a house, and that all will go well for our dear Ashley and her little Nugget :) Thank you all for continuing to journey on this crazy road with us!

And just in case you need a laugh, which I'm sure you could always use one, you can watch this video that Kelly and I can't get enough of!

A Nurses Week post

Kelly: This was actually Holly's idea! Today begins Nurses week, a celebration of nurses past and present. It starts today and ends on the 12th, which is the birthday of none other than Florence Nightingale. It means I'll get a nice spiel at work about how appreciated I am and a lovely present (there is NO sarcasm in that previous statement whatsoever) :) It was Holly's idea to come up with our favorite nurses, real and fictitious. Since we share the same favorite fictitious ones, I figured I would share my favorite real ones! I honestly have too many to name; 4 come to mind, and I hope they know who they are. Due to privacy reasons I'm keeping their names anonymous. Unfortunately, because of my schedule change I no longer work with these awesome nurses anymore, but I am indebted forever to these individuals. They've taken me under their wings, mentored me, challenged me, and I have thoroughly enjoyed working with them. Some have become strictly colleagues, while some have become very close friends of mine. I've learned so much from them, and they've learned some from me too....I hope. Hahaha! So cheers to the four of you I have in mind; thank you for being there for me and helping me grow not only as a person but as a professional too!

Holly: We have two fictional nurses that we admire, one of which has been with us for a while, and one who has just recently entered our lives. 

Our first shout-out goes to Carol Hathaway, from the show ER.  I personally love Carol because although she is really good at what she does, she has a big heart for her patients and their families, which sometimes gets her into trouble.  One of my favorite episodes, and the last one to feature her as a show regular, involves a woman with end stage cancer. Carol violates her DNR order, just so her two young daughters can say goodbye.  This particular situation causes Carol to evaluate some of her own choices, and in what is quite possibly the most romantic notion ever, she gets on a plane to Seattle, just to find out if Doug still loves her (Guess what? He still does, and they live happily ever after!) 

And secondly, we would like to honor none other than Abigail Morgan. We met Abigail, honestly, just a couple of weeks ago; she can be found in the show Forever.  Abigail was the wife of Henry, the show's main protagonist, and she was an army nurse treating prisoners of concentration camps during WWII.  Unfortunately, her story does not have a happy ending and, without revealing any major plot spoilers, we discovered that Abigail possesses a fierce and loyal love for her family, despite Henry's immortality. And bravery. Oh, was she brave.

So there you have it, folks! Remember to take some time this week (and every week!!) to thank the nurses in your lives! They do a lot :) 

As for me, I'm pretty stinking proud of this "real" nurse on the right of me :)