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

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 :)

Here we go again!

After a several-month-hiatus, it's time for this blog to come back into active use! For anyone who hasn't heard yet, I'm spending 7 weeks abroad this summer. I fly to London on Thursday, May 13th, to visit friends. On June 1st, I fly to Pisa, Italy, then take a train to Florence (Firenze), where I will be studying opera for the month of June. On June 30th, I fly back to London, where I will stay with friends until I fly home to the US on July 2nd.

I am extremely excited and also nervous about this trip. It's a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to study opera in Italy, surrounded by the history and the language (more on those in a future post).

It's also wonderful to have a chance to catch up with the dear friends I made last semester. It's been just under 5 months since I saw them, and I've definitely missed them. I'm excited to see what God's been doing in London since I left, excited to go back to HTB for a few weeks, and excited to have a chance to do a bit of sightseeing that I ran out of time to do when I was there last fall. I'm also planning to visit a couple of grad schools while I'm there (more on that later, too).

At the same time, as departure draws closer and closer, I find myself getting nervous. I'm not at all nervous about London, but I am nervous about Firenze. I'm nervous I'll have trouble picking up the language, getting around, and making friends. I'm especially nervous about finding an English-speaking community of believers to worship and fellowship with for the month. God's been gracious already to me in this regard, though, because at least one other student going on this study program loves Jesus, too. Finding that out was really an answer to prayer. But I must admit I still have to remind myself of God's past faithfulness to me to calm my fears as Thursday gets closer.

I intend to keep this blog much more up-to-date than I did last time I was 'cross the pond. The posts may be less thought out or less carefully crafted, but hopefully they'll be a genuine representation and record of what I'm doing, what I'm learning, and God's constant faithfulness to me.

To-Do list before I leave:
-finish unpacking from the semester
-laundry
-repack for seven weeks
-buy an English-to-Italian phrase book
-get a haircut
-finish making my best friend's birthday/graduation gift
-have lunch with my best friend and give her the gift

Thanks again for reading!
Cheers!
-Emily

Joshua 1:9 (NIV) "Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go."