5

Only 5 days until I see my husband!!!

Five Things I Will Miss About St. Louis:

5.  Forest Park. There are so many cool things to see and do there, and many of them are free, like the Zoo, the Muny, portions of the museums, and all the hiking/biking trails!  Additionally, there's

4.  Free concerts and performances.  They're everywhere in St. Louis in the summer.  Seriously.  At the zoo, at the Botanical Gardens, at the small municipal parks, in Forest Park (annual Shakespeare in the Park festival), and of course, at the Muny.

3.  The small-town feel and pride with the population/sprawl of a big city.  Even with a metropolitan area of roughly 3 million people (last I heard), everyone still loves the same home-town team (Go Cards!), "Meet Me in St. Louis" is a perennial favorite at the Muny (and everyone in the audience can sing along with the title song with gusto), nearly every driver has picked up the same set of driving-style quirks (St. Louis rolling stop, anyone?), our city's rich historical heritage is celebrated at nearly every possible opportunity, and every St. Louisan knows that when you meet another St. Louisan (especially outside of STL), you will ALWAYS ask (or be asked) where you went to high school!

2.  The Cardinals.  'Nuff said.

1.  The food.  Ted Drewes, Italian from The Hill, St. Louis-style ribs, St. Louis Bread Company, toasted ravioli, Imo's, and provel cheese.  Mmm, now I'm hungry...


Time for a midnight snack, then a good night's sleep before another day of getting ready for Korea! :)

Play Ball!
-Emily

6

Only 6 days to go! :)

Six Things I Expect I Will Miss About the USA:

6. Things being written in English.  Being close to a military post will lessen this factor, but road signs, grocery shopping, and asking for directions are all going to be a bit more...eventful.

5. Familiar traffic laws and signs.  To drive in Korea, Drew and I have to get additional USFK licenses through the Army to operate a POV (personally owned vehicle) on the streets of South Korea.  Sounds like it won't be too hard to get that additional license, but the street signs will be different and I hear traffic flow there is CRAZY.

4. The 2nd Amendment.  I know this sounds weird, but for a household that's used to having guns/bowie knives/big kitchen knives and knowing how to use them properly, moving to a country where--other than Drew's military-issue firearms which would be kept on post, I believe, we can't even legally have a firearm in our home (Koreans who hunt have to jump through a bunch of hoops to even acquire a firearm for hunting, and when they successfully do, the have to store their firearms at the local law enforcement offices except during the hunting season itself).  Drew was even questioned at customs regarding whether or not our shipment of household goods contained weapons, including kitchen knives.  Good thing we didn't pack the replica claymore!  I guess, as an American who appreciates the 2nd amendment, I find it a bit unsettling to be moving to within 20 miles or so of hostile North Korean forces, who'd kill me without a second thought given the chance, and not be legally allowed to keep anything more (or equally, apparently) dangerous than a santoku knife in my home for self-defense!

3. Shopping for clothes may prove a bit tricky.  As an average-height American woman (5'6") with a non-twig figure who favors thrift stores for her clothing purchases, finding clothing that fits in Asia outside of the Army PX (post exchange) may prove a bit challenging...but I found out Target ships to APO addresses, so it's all good, right? ;)

2. I may actually miss my dishwasher.  We thought our apartment was going to have a dishwasher...and then we later found out that the thing we thought was a dishwasher was actually a kimchi drawer.  Apparently you can't keep kimchi in the same refrigerator as the rest of your food or else EVERYTHING in there would smell like kimchi.  My guess is we'll probably use it as a beer/wine refrigerator instead...

1. Family and Friends.  All of you are precious to me and I will miss you all dearly while we're gone.  But we have a guest bedroom now and we'd love visitors! :D

And now I should get back to packing...after all, I only have 6 days before I see my love again!

Cheers,
Emily

7

Seven days to Korea! :)

And...

Seven Things I Still Have To Do Before I Leave:

7.  Laundry. A fair amount of it, actually (or maybe mountain would be a better word choice).

6. Wash, clean, vacuum, and otherwise generally prepare our car to be shipped across the Pacific. And it may take some scrubbing, given that I think the only washing it's received it in the past two months has been rain...and we are in the middle of a remarkably severe drought...

5. Drive to Illinois to drop off said car at the shipping site.

4. Stencil a painted border onto my parents' kitchen (my dad and I have been promising my mom for many months, maybe even a year or two, that we'd do that for her...but now we're running out of time to finish the project before I leave...)

3. Organize the corner of the basement where my parents are graciously letting Drew and me store a bunch of stuff that couldn't/shouldn't have gone into Army storage in Lawton but which we can't or don't want to take to Korea with us...like Drew's battle-ready replica 16th century claymore and some very-lovely-but-easily-breakable wedding gifts...

2. Mow the lawn at least once more before I leave.

1. Did I mention I still need to pack?


Ok, ok, before anyone panics, I've started packed, but there's still a fair amount left to do (see #7). And there are other things on my to-do-before-leaving list; however, this is a representative sample, I think.

But only 7 days until I see Drew!!!!!

Cheers,
Emily

8

In honor of the countdown of days until I am reunited with my love in Korea(!), I am starting a series of numbered lists corresponding to the number of days remaining.

I know I'm a few hours behind on this first post in the above-mentioned series, but it was accurate when I scribbled the draft earlier this evening!  As promised in a previous post, I am elaborating on some thought on doing marriage when your love is thousands of miles away.  Without further ado, ladies and gentlemen, I give you the first list in the series:

Eight Things That Are Hard About This Long-Distance Marriage Thing:

8. The time difference is dumb.  With Drew's work schedule, the only times we've been able to skype are late in the evening for me (during his lunch hour) or early in the morning (late in the evening for him).  So if we want to talk, then basically one or the other of us has to have a bizarre sleep schedule, depending on the day and what time we pick to try to skype.  We have been blessed, though, that it's worked out that we could skype or talk or text or at the very least email back and forth almost every day since he's been gone.

7. Communication is harder because there are fewer chances to get the non-verbals. So much of human communication--especially with someone you're really close to, I think--is transmitted through pathways other than actual words, whether it's inflection, facial expressions, hand gestures (I do this constantly), or even posture or eye movements. Skype definitely helps with this, but sometimes poor lighting or poor internet quality distort the non-verbals so much that they can hinder as much as they help.

6.  Long-distance tests trust.  You aren't there, so even more than usual you have to trust that your spouse is trustworthy.  I know my sweet husband is 100% trustworthy (and I'm uber-grateful for that!), but nonetheless I've had to rely on my trust in him rather than first-hand knowledge of his devotion like if we were sharing a home. So in the long-run this is probably valuable for us, I think, because it's strengthened the trust, but I could imagine that this is hard for a lot of couples in similar situations.

5. It's hard to have shared experiences--you aren't able to go to church together, to hang out with other people together, to have dinner together, to see and experience the same events together, to even watch a movie together. So you miss out on opportunities to interact with one another over a shared experience.  Inside jokes are a lot harder when "you had to be there" but you couldn't be, y'know?

4. The flip-side of the lack of shared experiences is that you and your spouse are each having a completely different set of experiences and circumstances, so you're growing and adapting and thinking about and responding to totally different things.  So you have to be a lot more intentional about conveying personal narratives and telling anecdotes and generally communicating what you're thinking and feeling and how you're growing and changing (because the truth is we are all always growing and being shaped by our experiences and in turn shaping our future experiences and actions), because otherwise it's harder to grow together rather than grow apart.  It can definitely be done well, but it does take more work that when you're able to flop on the sofa together at the end of the day and just chat about stuff.

3. It's hard to just 'hang out'--yes, you get face time through video chat/VOIP pathways, but there's an intentionality to sitting down at your computer to spend time together that limits how much "just being there" that can happen--unless you both intentionally agree to "just hang out" and leave the video on while doing your own thing, like both reading books or something.  As one can imagine, that takes a lot of the spontaneity out of the "just being there."  Furthermore, since you only get a limited amount of time to share together each day or each week, you want to spend it catching up and making up for all the above-enumerated aspects of married life that are made more difficult by the distance, and you miss out on the just being together, the occasional doing-nothing together that is one of the most natural things about sharing a home with your best friend.

2. You miss out on the small stuff, which in many ways is one of my favorite things about being married to my best friend.  When you're thousands of miles apart, the following are just a handful of the kind of things that can't really happen: spontaneous dance parties in the kitchen to the music in your head, laughing at ridiculous billboards or signs while driving, sharing a funny or intelligent quote from a book as you're reading it, pointing out a really awesome sunset when it's suddenly the perfect mix of colors, stealing kisses when bumping into each other in a tiny apartment, falling asleep or waking up curled up together. Those sorts of things are some of the things I'm most looking forward to about joining Drew. :)

1. No hugs. And no kisses, either. This long-distance thing stinks. Only 8 days to go! :)

Ok, that was long and kinda depressing.  But I get to see Drew in less than 8 days now, which is decidedly NOT depressing! :D

Cheers,
Emily

FINALLY.

The wait is over:

I HAVE A PLANE TICKET.

FINALLY!

I officially leave STL at 8:30am CST on Thursday, August 30th, and arrive in Incheon, South Korea, at 3:20pm on Friday, August 31st.

Can't wait to see my Drew again!  We will have been apart for 8 and 1/2 weeks, including our first wedding anniversary.

Come on, August 30th!  Hurry up! :)

Cheers,

Emily

Korea Update

Ok, long time since the last Korea update...wow. We received official orders at the end of May, moved out of our apartment in Lawton at the end of June, drove to STL, I moved in temporarily with my parents, and a week later (July 2nd) Drew boarded a plane for South Korea.

We had applied for and were granted Command Sponsorship, which means that I am allowed to accompany him to South Korea officially (as in, the Army pays for my plane ticket as well as for his), but in exchange we have to stay 2 years from the date that I arrive, rather than Drew going by himself for one year (or me joining him on our dollar for one year).

Over half of our stuff by weight went into non-temporary storage (NTS) stateside until our return from Korea, and the rest was divided between an Unaccompanied Baggage shipment (UB, approx 1 month from pack-up to delivery in Korea), a Household Goods shipment (HHG, approx 2.5 months from pack-up until delivery in Korea--it travels by boat across the Pacific!), our suitcases, and my parents' house. My parents had graciously agreed to store an assortment of odds and ends that we either didn't want to put in storage or that we knew Korean law wouldn't allow us to take with us (like Drew's 4.5ft battle-ready replica Scottish claymore). So we loaded those things into our little Civic and drove the 9+ hours to STL.

I am still in STL, waiting for the Army to finish their end of the paperwork and issue a plane ticket to me. We expect it will take at least another 3 weeks to a month before I might have a plane ticket in hand, possibly longer, and it's unclear how they'll determine my travel dates. Long story short, I'll be in STL until at least the last week of August. This unfortunately means that Drew and I will be apart for a minimum of 7+ weeks. Ironically, both my 25th birthday (yikes!) and our first wedding anniversary fall within those 7 weeks of separation. Sometimes being a military household stinks. But I knew that was a possibility even before we got married, so I've been preparing emotionally for the possibility of separation during milestones for a long time.  (More thoughts on long-distance marriage in another forthcoming post...)  Fortunately, we got to celebrate our anniversary early with a quick mid-week getaway in the week between arriving in STL and Drew's flight to Korea.

I am missing my husband constantly, but at the same time I'm savoring the extra time with family and friends before moving across the globe.  And I'm getting more excited all the time about new adventures waiting for us in Korea.  In closing:

Dear Army,
  Please hurry up and give me a plane ticket, ok?  I miss my husband.
Love, Emily

Incentive

I'm making this public in hopes that it will inspire me to work even harder to be healthier than I've already been trying...

MyFitnessPal - Free Calorie Counter

Official Countdown to the End of Drew's Army Commitment:

South Korea: The RFO

     Now that we finally have an RFO (Request for Orders), I can actually share some factual information about our upcoming move to South Korea for those of you who've been patiently waiting for details! :)

An RFO is a preliminary set of orders, which the Army--naturally--reserves the right to change without warning.  So basically, here is the information that we're currently operating on (but which could still change):

-Drew's current training course lasts until May 22, 2012.

-He has been assigned an additional few weeks of training for the specific type of equipment that he has been assigned to for his time in Korea.  That training will wrap up on June 22, 2012.

-He has been assigned a report date to the 2nd Infantry Division, 1st Brigade (probably as an FSO, for anyone who knows artillery and is curious) in South Korea for July 9, 2012 (however, he is authorized to report early if he wishes).

-There is almost always a lag-time between when the soldier goes and the dependent(s) follow(s).  Therefore, I expect to be stateside until the end of July at the very least.

-We expect to be stationed at Camp Casey, which is north of Seoul in what the Army calls Area I.  The larger city outside the camp is called Dongducheon (alternate spellings available depending on how one romanizes it from Korean, I think).

-We don't have any details yet about how long we'll be there or whether or not we'll have command sponsorship.

That's it for now, folks!  At least we're not moving in 6 weeks (for those who remember how I was slightly panicking in a previous post about possibly having to pack everything and move with less than 6 weeks' notice)!

Thanks for reading!  Further bulletins as events warrant. ;)
-Emily and Drew

For the Record

     Just for kicks and grins (and in anticipation of our upcoming move to South Korea--Camp Casey and Dongducheon), I decided to make a list of which states and countries I've visited (and when/why--if I've been there more than two or three times, I'll only reference the main or most memorable trips), which I can return to and update as we travel more in the coming years.

US States:
Alabama--2000--cousin's wedding
Alaska
Arizona
Arkansas
California--2007--cousin's wedding
Colorado--1990s-2011--camping, skiing, youth group trips (summer and winter), DCC (x4)
Connecticut
Delaware
Florida--1987-2011--regular visits (starting pre-birth) to grandparents' home
Georgia--2005--college visit
Hawaii
Idaho
Illinois--numerous trips to Chicago...
Indiana--2005--college visit
Iowa--1987--born there.
Kansas--far too many cross-state roadtrips from MO to CO
Kentucky
Louisiana
Maine
Maryland
Massachusetts
Michigan--2005, 2011--college visit, catching up with a friend from the other side of the world who was meeting her future in-laws in Michigan ;)
Minnesota--many regular visits to relatives
Mississippi
Missouri--lived there. :)
Montana--2010--cousin's wedding
Nebraska--2010--roadtrip to cousin's wedding
Nevada--2007--cousin's wedding
New Hampshire
New Jersey--2004--choir tour
New Mexico
New York--2004--choir tour
North Carolina
North Dakota
Ohio
Oklahoma--lived there in 2011-2012
Oregon
Pennsylvania--2004--choir tour
Rhode Island
South Carolina--2002, 2006--youth group trip, choir tour
South Dakota--2010--roadtrip to cousin's wedding
Tennessee--2005--college visit
Texas--2006, 2011, 2012--mission trip, grad school visit, visit to in-laws' in Dallas
Utah
Vermont
Virginia--(hope to visit later in summer 2012)
Washington
West Virginia
Wisconsin--drove through on way to MN more times than I can count...
Wyoming--2010--roadtrip to cousin's wedding
Washington D.C.

Other countries:
Austria--2009--fall break trip (Vienna)
Canada--multiple times for family trips (Thunder Bay, Ontario)
England--2007, 2009, 2010--family trip, study abroad (fall semester), visiting friends on way to second study abroad trip
France--2007--family trip (Paris)
Germany--2009--fall break trip (Munich, Berlin, Hamburg)
Ireland--2009--weekend visit to Cork, Blarney, Limerick, tour of Galway Bay area, and Shannon
Italy--2009, 2010--fall break trip (Trieste, Venice, Pisa, Rome), summer study abroad (Florence, Rome, Naples, Caserta, Verona, Cinque Terre)
Mexico--2006, 2011--mission trip (Juarez), honeymoon!
Scotland--2009--weekend in Edinburgh(Riviera Maya/Cancun)
South Korea--2012-2014-- PCS-ing with Army to Dongducheon/Camp Casey in summer 2012! :)
Japan--2013--stopovers flying between South Korea and US

And hopefully I'll get to add a few more states and countries to this list by the time we're done with the Army in a few years! :D

Itinerant Household!

Ok, I've given A LOT of thought lately to the topic of the previous post--being an itinerant household. The reason?

WE COULD BE MOVING (AGAIN) IN AS LITTLE AS SIX WEEKS.

Yes, you did read that correctly.  It will probably be longer than six weeks, but there's no guarantee.

That's right.  We could be moving in less than two months, COULD being the operative word.  The Army, bless them, hasn't bothered to cut us any orders--or even any pre-orders (called RFOs)--yet.  All we know for sure is as follows (and we've known the following 3 things since Feb. 28, nearly 6 weeks ago):

1) We are officially moving to South Korea.  (More on that in the next post!)
2) Drew will be stationed with the 2nd Infantry Division (henceforth referred to as the 2nd ID).
3) We won't be leaving until after May 22, 2012, because Drew's coursework/training here in Lawton concludes on that date.

Yes, that's all we know.  And yes, May 22nd is a mere 6 weeks away.  Can you tell I'm getting a bit restless?

I've been reading all about the country, the culture, moving tips, pinning all things moving-and-itinerant-household related onto Pinterest, speculating about all the possible variations of how this whole moving-to-Asia thing could go down, and stressing out some about how little real info we have about something that's happening for sure and may be happening very soon.

If you search Google for moving advice, timelines, and checklists, most of the moving timelines start counting down from 8 weeks...and expect you to actually know where you're moving to.  We won't even know what kind of housing accommodations we'll be renting until Drew gets there (he will go first) and signs a lease, by which point in time, we'll have already moved out of our apartment here in Lawton, OK, USA, and put all of our belonging into a) storage, b) a shipment to Korea that has a maximum weight restriction, or c) his and my suitcases.  So much for the internet's advice to consider the layout of your new home and label the boxes with appropriate room designations and plan furniture layouts! Ha! :)

I guess I always have said I wanted adventure...I just sometimes wish it didn't involve so many unknowns or so many things outside my control, truthfully.  At the same time, I know that these few years of Army moves will be an amazing experience--we'll get to travel to and live in places we might never otherwise see, and we get to grow together as individuals and as a couple through these experiences and the challenges that come with them.  So even though I'm sometimes frustrated, I try to remember that--as one of the women at the Army wives' Bible study I go to said recently--"God cuts the orders and the Army foots the bill!"  God already knows all the details that we don't, and better yet, He's already planned out each and every purpose He has in store for us in South Korea.  We have the chance to carry the Gospel with us all over the world, and the Army pays our expenses. :)  I hope to find joy and comfort in that as the move gets closer and closer.  God is the God of the whole world, and He goes ahead of us and follows behind us, guiding and guarding us as He gives us a role to play in His Kingdom's work.  As we remember especially at this time of year our Lord's atoning death and triumphant resurrection, may we find joy in being including in the glorious project of Redemption.
In Christ, who is the Hope of the whole World (even Korea),
Emily

Trying to think outside the box...

...about boxes, of all things.

Ok, so college students do it regularly, military families do it regularly, missionaries do it regularly...so why isn't there more written about it?

I'm talking about moving, of course. :)

College students move usually twice a year (to and from college) for four-plus years, military families move anywhere from every 6 months to 4 years, and missionary families often move between the field and their home-church base for sabbatical times.  There's tons on the internet about moving, packing, cleaning out the clutter before the move, and unpacking after the move.  That's all well and good and has definitely helped me over the years.

But now what I can't seem to find is the one type of thing that I really want to know about: when one is preparing for a life-time (or at least several years of the foreseeable future) of constant moving, how does one make EVERYTHING one owns portable or easily packable or flexible, without looking like one is living in a college dorm room with posters haphazardly taped to the walls and stacks of flimsy, brightly colored plastic rubbermaid boxes holding anything that doesn't fit in the wardrobe that came with the dorm room?  Where are the blogs about making every piece of furniture do double duty as furniture and storage that can be adapted to any sized living space but be both easily packed up and moved with out breaking easily, yet still look classy or even coordinated?  Where's all the advice about how to decorate your first home or apartment when you know full-well that you'll be relocating the entire contents in 6 months or less?

I'm determined to meet this challenge head-on and master it.  I WILL figure out a way to make this work, to keep the furniture and containers and systems that will transition well from location to location, from one side of the globe to the other, if need be, and cull out everything that weighs us down without being worth the extra effort. :)

In closing:
"Have nothing in your homes that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful."
-designer William Morris

[Or that can be easily moved halfway across the world, or is worth the extra effort needed to do so. :)]

If I come up with awesome revelations or even vaguely useful ideas on the subject of the Itinerant Household, I'll follow up and post them!

Stewardship and Spiritual Gifts

One of the cool--and challenging--things about moving regularly is that you don't have time to get complacent spiritually.  At least, not in regard to attending church and listening to preaching and teaching and such.  When you have to find a new church home every couple of months or years, you get used to evaluating carefully what's being said, testing it against the Bible, looking at groups of people you've recently met and asking yourself, "How is this community living out the Biblical ideals of the body of Christ?" and "Is this the community God wants me to join to fellowship with, learn from, and grow with?"  It often makes me think more seriously and extensively about what's said in any given sermon or Sunday school lesson, mulling it over and trying to decide whether what was said was sound doctrinal truth and, if so, how I should apply it to my life.

This morning, I attended Sunday school for the first time at what I believe will be our new church home here in Lawton, OK.  The topic was stewardship.  I've thought about that a lot over the years, but the Sunday school leader presented a few aspects I hadn't considered much before: that stewardship applies not only to the obvious things, like our time, money, general abilities, and our bodies (the temple of the Holy Spirit), but also to things like our testimony and our Talent(s).  

Testimony in this context meant that each of us has a unique testimony of which we are the steward: we are meant to understand our testimony and share it with others for the edification of the body of Christ and to help bring people to relationship with the Lord.  If we neglect to use our testimony for the Kingdom, instead hiding it away, we are being poor stewards of something that is unique that God has given us for the advancement of the Kingdom.  I had not thought of it that way before, I guess.  But after some consideration, it seems to me to be a valid and Biblically sound idea, that each person's testimony is valid, beautiful, and meant to be shared for the advancement of the Kingdom, and to refrain from sharing it at the appropriate times is to miss out on a chance to advance the Kingdom and give glory to God.  

I also thought a lot about what they meant by being a steward of one's Talent(s).  When I hear 'talents,' I assume someone's talking about how well he draws or she writes or he plays baseball, but this morning Talent with a capital T meant your spiritual gift(s), which God has entrusted to you and wants you to invest for the growth of the Kingdom.  The premise, which may or may not be widely known in all evangelical circles, I'm not sure, is that--in addition to the fruits of the Spirit and general enabling through the Spirit to live in a way that honors God--each believer is given one or more special spiritual gifts.  These are particular areas where he or she particularly--supernaturally--excels at an aspect of the Christian life or a charismatic demonstration of his or her faith.  Not all spiritual gifts are the charismatic kind, though.  One online resource for helping Christians identify what might be their unique set of spiritual gifts lists as many as twenty-eight kinds of spiritual gifts.  These range from the more obvious kinds, like speaking in and interpreting tongues, to the less obvious kinds like teaching, hospitality, or administration.  This doesn't mean that only some Christians are expected to be organized or hospitable, but rather that God gives to some a remarkable, supernatural ability or inclination in these areas (for example, I know a young woman who almost certainly has a spiritual gift for administration.  She ENJOYS organizing things.  Like A LOT.  And she has continually, selflessly, and joyfully used this gift to benefit the ministries she has been involved in so that they are better able to advance the Kingdom.  This seems by all appearances to be more than a case of an ordinary orderly individual.  At the other end of the spectrum, I also have met a young man who seems to have a spiritual gift for healing.  He sees it happen supernaturally and somewhat regularly.  I've heard some of his stories first-hand--it's CRAZY what God chooses to do sometimes.).  There is something deep-seated in their souls that compels and enables them to do these particular things to the extent that they (or those around them) can identify these abilities as coming from the Lord.

Considering this, I went looking for something like the link I included above, similar to a different assessment that a young woman who discipled me in college had once had me take.  Though some of the results were different (which may have something to do with a different, more specific test format or that some of the areas of emphasis in my walk with the Lord have varied over time and were unduly reflected in the last set of results?), some of the results stayed pretty consistent.  And this set of specific results really resonated with me.  I've been thinking about callings and careers and purposes a lot lately, and I'm beginning to think a way to go for the time-being might be to pursue avenues surrounding what seem to be the spiritual Talent(s) God has given me.  If some or all of these things (in particular, hospitality, music, missions, exhortation/encouragement) are in fact Talents from God, then I can have confidence in pursuing these avenues as I seek to be a responsible steward of these things for the advancement of His Kingdom and His glory.  I was once told by someone that I had the "spiritual gift of 'hello,'" meaning, I think, that I'm burdened and enabled by the Lord to care tremendously about making people feel welcome and included in the Body and at getting to know people and helping them to connect and build meaningful relationships that last even after I get out of the picture.  This happened multiple times in Cru in college, and it happened in London pretty intensely, too.  I feel absolutely compelled to not leave that new person standing in the corner--I want them to experience fellowship.  I love opening my dorm/flat/apartment to people so that they might be able to experience a deeper community within the Body or even come to know the Lord for the first time by being welcomed into a community that will bring them face to face with Jesus.  I also feel called to music, in a variety of ways--I'm not entirely sure which direction I'm called from this point, but I do believe that God wants me to keep using that Talent to encourage the Body and to bring Him glory.  I also know that I find immense joy in experiencing new cultures and that the prospect of maybe moving to Korea later this year (and the opportunities culturally and spiritually that would include) is less scary to me than moving to Lawton, OK, has been.

I suppose now I've gotten to the rambling stage of this post, so it's time to wrap it up and get out of here.  I guess what I'm trying to say is that I am really mulling over the idea of being a steward of Talents, what role that can and should play in my life in general, and what role that should play in my life at the present and I'm spending these next few transitional months in Lawton figuring out more about who I am, who God wants me to be, and what His calling(s) is/are for my life now and in the future.  I'd love your prayers and your feedback as I ponder these things and seek God's guidance about how to put His good gifts to work.  I have more thoughts and anecdotes about the topic of spiritual Talents, but I think that'll have to wait until a later post.  For the moment, I have dishes then sleep calling my name.  Thanks for reading and wandering with me!

Cheers,

Emily

Better late than never...

Ok, it's been nearly a year since my last post...and a LOT has happened since then.

I didn't get into grad school. But God had other (better) things in store for me.

Even as I finished up my final (fifth) year at Truman and stressed out about grad school apps and auditions, God was carefully orchestrating the timing on another wild card in my life: my relationship with one LT Andrew D. Tipping, U.S. Army (a friend from Truman who, incidentally, was one of my few avid readers from this blog's inception). Our friendship of 4 years turned quickly into something more after Drew gave his life to Christ on May 4, 2010. We both thought it would be a bad idea to date right away, so we essentially alternated 'breaking up' with each other despite the fact that we weren't officially dating...I'd just been calling him from London on my cell phone for 4p a minute for sometimes hours at a time (in the middle of the night, GMT, I might add), and he was regularly emailing me and more than happy to let me run up his phone bill like that. Well, after 3 pseudo-break-ups in mid-May, early June, and late August respectively, we finally started dating officially in late October 2010.

We dated 3 weeks before he happened to mention it to his parents, and only a week after finding out her son was dating me, Drew's mom proceeded to spend part of their family's Thanksgiving roadtrip bestowing unsolicited upon him her advice about the best time of year to plan the wedding! (People, I'm not making this stuff up.) Anyway, at least we knew she approved from the start! By January, Drew and I were the ones discussing marriage seriously, and we asked God at the end of February if that was His plan for us. It's another long story, but He said yes pretty clearly.

It took another 3 weeks, though, before we figured my parents were ready for Drew to ask permission to marry me. Once he did, and permission was duly granted, he proposed on Monday, March 28, 2011. On Thursday, March 31st, I got my final rejection letter (actually, it was a rather impersonal email) and we knew we'd be getting married in the fall instead of waiting until I was finished with grad school! I've never been sooo happy about being rejected in my life! And so, 6 months after Drew became a Christian, we starting dating, and 5 months after that we got engaged. Almost exactly 5 months from our engagement, we were married in Hermann, MO, on August 20, 2011.  (If anyone's interested in more of the story of our relationship, you can take a look at our wedding website, http://tiny.cc/AndrewandEmily2011)

Marriage is amazing and challenging. I've grown so much in the past 4 months that it's almost hard to believe how far I've come when I look back. I thought I was ready for marriage, but I had still so much to learn. God's been good and seen us through a number of challenges since our engagement, including Drew's mother's unexpected death in June, my first of 2 wrist surgeries (Nov), and--between the two of us combined--moving house not once but 4 times since May!

I confess some days I feel a bit like Eowyn in J.R.R. Tolkien's The Return of the King.  Like Eowyn, I have always held in my heart a deep yearning for adventures and great deeds.  Maybe it's the traces of a Viking heritage not completely diluted with the passing of generations or perhaps it is an echo of a longing for the glory and adventure of the new heaven and new earth that are yet to come.  Whatever its source, settling always felt like a trap, and complacency always seemed the worst of fates.  Yet I have come to understand, I think, the change of heart Eowyn felt when she exclaimed to Faramir after months and years of restlessness and fears of adventure and glory passing her by, "I will be a shield-maiden no longer, nor vie with the great Riders, nor take joy only in the songs of slaying.  I will be a healer, and love all things that grow and are not barren."  She finds solace and a home in sharing her heart with a man--a friend--who understood her yearnings for something honorable, something more than ordinary.  She finds someone who understands her and loves her exactly as she is.  And growing in that relationship is a new and completely different adventure.  I, too, have found adventure in sharing my life with this man that God has given to me.  Because being in an ever-growing relationship is a constant source of exploration and discovery, and because God has given Drew and me to one another as traveling companions, I now know that no matter what we do or where life takes us, settling is no longer an option.  We have chosen a life of adventure together--the adventure of living for God's glory and the advancement of His kingdom, the most glorious cause possible.  As we follow our King, life can't help but become a daily adventure.

It's true that God's closed one chapter in my life--my years of Truman and studying abroad--but He's penning the opening pages of a new and exciting adventure. I hope to be more reliable and articulate in posting about both the adventure of the daily living and about where God's path take Drew and me in the coming years--whether it's Stateside or South Korea or somewhere else. As I look back on all that the Lord has done in my life to this point and how clear in hindsight His guiding Hand is, I am humbled at my own childish impatience and frustration when I didn't understand what He was doing and awed anew by His unfailing Love for me and all His children as He works all things for the good of those who love Him (Rom. 8). I see His hand guiding my wanderings in this wide world so that--as long as I keep my eyes on Him--I may be a 'wanderer' but I will never be lost.

In closing, I leave you with a beautiful song by a talented Christian artist, Andrew Peterson, who shares his thoughts on wanderlust and the adventure of marriage:

In Christ, our great King, Guide, and Leader,
Mrs. Emily E. Tipping :)