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- Details
- Written by: Alyssa
- Category: Life
Lent is coming up, and I'm looking forward to a 40 day break from Facebook because ten free minutes keep turning into an hour of scrolling that I wish I had spent somewhere else :)
Even more so than that, though, I'm looking forward to Lent because I'm looking for an excuse to focus my energies on connecting with God and with others, of taking time to pray and read and listen to my heart because it is all too easy to get caught up in the rush of life.
- Details
- Written by: Alyssa
- Category: Life
It has been 28 years since I emerged into the world. What a crazy thing! Thanks for pushing me out, Mom, I don't take it for granted.
I have been thinking of other milestones that this year means for me:
- 7 years since I've been married
- 4 years since I've been pregnant (Matt and I went camping on the September long weekend while Torre was cooking away)
- 10 years since I met Matt
- 14 years since I had cancer
- almost 1 year since I trained as a doula (and discovered my dream job)
- Details
- Written by: Alyssa
- Category: Life
We are moving!
A few weeks ago a friend texted me that she and her husband were moving elsewhere in the city and wondered if Matt and I would be interested in taking their apartment up the street from our church. We thought about it and prayed about it and went to see it, and we weighed the pros and cons of staying in our current apartment. Gradually we each swung towards wanting to move, and then we met with the landlords to go over the details, and now we are giving our notice to be out by the end of October!
Although I tend to resist change, I am really excited to live in a new space. I have been reading articles about living room layouts and researching routes for my commute to work. I'm looking to make the most of two more months with a playground right next door and good friends just a few floors down, but I'm also excited to count down the last few trips to the laundry room, long waits for the elevator, second hand smoke in the hallway, and hot nights with no air conditioning.
At this point I'm looking forward to packing, and my goal is for us to only bring the things we want to keep. Our last move included a few bags and boxes of miscellany that we didn't particularly need or want, and our apartment is currently housing a selection of crates and shoeboxes that contain homeless items I wasn't sure were trash. Surely two months is enough time to sift a two bedroom apartment. Right? I'm cautiously optimistic. I imagine boxes packed and stacked and labeled for where they belong, ready to make our new apartment home.
- Details
- Written by: Alyssa
- Category: Life
My birthday's coming! In a month, to be exact - technically everyone's birthday is "coming" unless it's that day, right? So I have been thinking about how to celebrate. This year my birthday falls on a long weekend, and Matt and I have talked about potentially going camping, and if that falls through we'll probably invite some friends over for cake.
Or something.
While plans for the day remain up in the air, I have decided on one thing: what to ask for gifts.
- Details
- Written by: Alyssa
- Category: Life
Perfect love casts out all fear
How can I tell you this story, when I thought I was already living it, thought I knew it through and through?
If grace is an ocean, we’re all sinking.
And then I discovered as if for the first time that God loves me (and you, there on the other side of the screen) So. Much. This is the most constant thing in my life, and yet I have found it fresher and deeper than ever before, like a fish discovering water. It is the most amazing thing, the most precious thing, the most liberating thing.
And I have, mercifully, been granted a new metaphor.
You see, I had this picture in my mind of my soul as a house, and Jesus had bought the house, and the Holy Spirit had moved in to do some renovations, and the metaphor was that I may be a fixer-upper, but I belong to the King of Kings, and one day I will be a masterpiece, Hallelujah!
This is well and good, except I happen to know that angry cracks run through the foundation of my soul-house, and anxieties flit like cockroaches in my cupboards.
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- Written by: Alyssa
- Category: Life
My baby is about to be two. I have to keep saying it because even though it's there every day in front of my face, it also catches me off guard in particular moments and I am just stunned with the gift of his life. Did you know he's started counting? Sometimes to three, sometimes seven, sometimes twelve. And he holds my hand just for the love of it now, not always because he needs help to balance.
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- Written by: Alyssa
- Category: Life
We are back! Back in Canada, unpacked, with the Christmas tree set up. We have great tans, tons of pictures, and a fresh impression of the little luxuries we take for granted, like flushing toilet paper down the toilet, reliable electricity and hot water, familiar brands on the shelves of stores we shop in, and the option to leave our dishes in the sink for the next day (very bad etiquette in the common kitchen of a hostel!).
Our family vacation to Nicaragua was everything we hoped for and more. We definitely faced some challenges, some scary moments and frustrations, but looking back in hindsight it was all part of a rich experience we wouldn’t trade, and we hope it won’t be too long before we have another opportunity to travel as a family and even to return to Nicaragua for another visit.
- Details
- Written by: Alyssa
- Category: Life
For several months, Matt and I have been planning an amazing family vacation, and this week it almost came undone. Our three week trip to Nicaragua is a culmination of years of dreaming, months of saving money, countless hours spent reading hostel/hotel reviews and travel blogs and drafting itineraries, then going back to square one and repeating the whole process. We chose this Central American country because Matt has been there before on mission trips and loved it - he has always said how much he wants me to travel there and experience the culture and see some of the amazing scenery Nicaragua has to offer. We also sponsor a child who lives in Managua, the capital city of Nicaragua, and we felt that having the opportunity to meet her in person was one we couldn't pass up.
This may be a once in a lifetime trip, although I hope it isn't! In the short-term, however, we do have a very special window to both take three weeks off work, for Torre to fly nearly free of charge, and to have pulled together enough money to make the trip happen. I joked with Matt that even though Nicaragua doesn't really have any resorts, we can tell people we're taking an "all expenses paid" vacation - it's just that we're paying all the expenses as we go :)
My passport has a few years left on it, but Matt had to renew his passport for this trip, which he did without any hiccups. Then Tuesday afternoon we found out Torre needs a passport to travel. Now, everyone who I told this to more or less responded with, "Well, yeah." But we just didn't realize. Honestly, I had no questions about showing up at the airport with our tickets and our child and his birth certificate and getting on a plane, but that's not how they do it any more. Doh.
- Details
- Written by: Alyssa
- Category: Life
A week from today, I’ll be heading to the East Coast of Canada for a mission trip to Bathurst, NB. It is my second year going, and like last year we’ll be driving for two days to get there (I appreciate your prayers that Torre travels well!), but.
Unlike last year, our team will be much smaller: 8 people instead of 17, and our trip will be a few days shorter. I’m really looking forward to going, and I’m excited for what God has in store, but I also have no idea what to expect. I am in a state of hopeful anticipation, confident that God has prepared good works for us to do and that He will take this time we are dedicating to serving him in order to shape us and grow his Kingdom, but.
This is certainly not a mission trip that we are entering into from a position of strength. Planning for the trip has been a bit disorganized, and we have spent very little time together as a team. A lot of the details for how we’ll spend our time in Bathurst are still up in the air, and I foresee some challenges for our team to live up to the expectations of past years, but.
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- Written by: Alyssa
- Category: Life
A few weeks ago Matt and I started a marriage training course with friends from church who are getting married at the end of the month. The course is put out by the same people who do Alpha, and so far I've found it to be a highlight of our week. Much of the material so far has touched on similar themes as our own pre-marital counselling sessions: take time to connect with each other, but don't smother each other either; communicate your feelings and listen without judging; love must be nurtured if it's going to last; and good marriages don't happen by accident.
But here's the thing! I have gotten so much out of these sessions compared to the counselling we went through five years ago, and I couldn't figure out why. But I think it's because.... we're married now! Dating and being engaged are simply not the same as being married, and although I believe Matt and I entered into marriage as well prepared as we could have been, it's simply a different matter when you put things into practice compared to talking through the theory.