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Oliver’s adventures; womb to world birth story

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15 weeks later and finally managing to write about Oliver’s birth! Time flies with a newborn! Awaiting Oliver’s arrival was such an anticipation and a cluster of emotional moments. Originally I had planned to have Oliver naturally. From the beginning of the pregnancy, I wasn’t so fixated on needing to have the birth detailed exactly how I had wanted it to be, but I didn’t realize how quickly all of my plans would fly out the door.  We had a smooth pregnancy over the course of those 40 weeks; tons of morning sickness from week 9-21, but after that it was smooth sailing. My midwife regularly checked on Oliver, and his little heart beat was strong and was sweet music to our ears. In Sweden, they only do one ultrasound in week 21. If there are no causes for concern, then that’s the only time you’ll get to see your litttle one before they make their official appearance; pretty crazy compared to the American routine I knew of. So in week 21 we found out Oliver was a healthy baby boy
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Help for immigration; I got married and moved to Sweden from the US

Hey! I’ve been reading a lot of posts lately for people seeking help to either get married or move to Sweden from the states, so I thought I’d post my own route to getting into Sweden! Facts: I am American and was single when I first came to Sweden.            I had a volunteer visa for 2yrs so I had the right to be in Sweden for more than 90days at a                           time.            My husband is an EU citizen who works in Sweden and is in the process of waiting for citizenship to Sweden. He has an “Uppehålls rätt” through his job. Step one- getting married within Sweden Here are the steps I went through to get my application for marriage accepted: 1. Gather paperwork (passport, proof of being single from the states; tax return, or if not accepted then a “record of no record” from a county in the US. I had mine mailed to a US friend and she took a pic and sent it to me, I then scanned it on my phone app and emailed it to my case worker) 2. Go to skatteverket for y
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Case of mistaken identity

Case of mistaken identity I’ve been studying out God’s grace, hoping to dig deeper in my understanding. I prayed for God to help me to understand more. I came across a news article recently about a family in Georgia who invited their 15 year old son’s friend to come live with them. I can definitely picture this young boy excited to have his friend come live with him, “Please, please, please, can he come?! Please mom/dad?!” Maybe he knew about his friend, or maybe he didn’t, but the friend had been involved in gang related activity. Whichever rival gang he was messing with, came into the house he was staying and gunned him down, but unfortunately, they had the wrong boy—mistaken identity. They shot and killed the son, not the friend. I’m sure the young 15 yr old boy who the bullet was intended for felt so guilty; how can he possibly pay back anything for his friend’s life that was taken? He can’t. This unfortunate event reminds me of Jesus.   “Dad! Dad! Can
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I was robbed, God was glorified.

FLASHBACK! It's July 19, 2016  My birthday! and in 3 days I'll be traveling to LA for a conference! I had just finished eating a delicious birthday meal at an Italian spot called Vapiano. Downstairs from Vapiano is one of my favorite cafes, Stories. After saying goodbyes and finishing lunch I decide to sit down at the cafe tables and work on my lesson entitled 'Revolutionary Mercy' based on the letter of Philemon. I had gotten some historical background; Philemon, a leader in the Colossian church had a slave named Onesimus who had robbed him and ran away. After running, Onesimus comes in contact with Paul and, in fact, becomes a Disciple. Paul is sending Onesimus back and requesting that Philemon extend complete mercy and take him back as not only his slave, but a brother.... An incredible account, but I had no idea how to relate this to my lesson. So I started praying,  God, help me to understand mercy more, help me to relate this to my life, help me to explain it
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You're engaged! Tips for a kingdom wedding!!

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Congratulations!!! So first of all, I'm so excited for you! I can't wait to watch your pretty face walk down the isle to the man God has placed you with! Secondly, I wanted to share some of the things that helped me during my engagement and wedding planning time! (obviously my suggestions may not be relevant for everyone's situation, but I hope they are helpful <3 ) He popped the question! Now what?..   Get a lot of advice from your ministry leaders/disciplers- They will help you tremendously from making rash decisions. Because my husband and I lead a campus ministry in Sweden, it was important for us to balance ministry and planning, so what worked for us was meeting once a week in the morning to go through any updated plans for the wedding and spent the rest of the week focused on ministry. This also helps in the area of purity so your mind is guarded from thinking about wedding stuff and each other all the time. Lets be real, satan is there for opport
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Life is like a box of Chocolates; My engagement!

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I haven’t taken the time to blog in a very long time, but I found this would be the perfect opportunity to get back to it  On November 5 th while visiting for a London church conference my boyfriend, Kaspar, asked me to be his wife! ..but since I haven’t blogged in a while, allow me to rewind back a while back..way back.. In 2005 (10 years ago. Wow, I’m getting old.) before my senior year of highschool, a family I babysat for had asked me to be their summer nanny in Finland. I agreed and off I went. While in Finland, I also got the opportunity to visit Stockholm, Sweden and Tallinn, Estonia. I remember walking the old town streets and thinking how life would be to live in a place like these, or even the faint thought of falling in love with a stranger in a foreign place, but I absolutely knew for sure that Europe was of no interest to me. People were different and at the time I was too selfish to notice how unusual I must have been to them.. Flash forward two years, aft
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You can run, but you can't hide.

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Today I went running (this is not normal..lol..pray for my consistency).. anyway, I was thinking about a lesson I heard this morning with a point about being comfortable (you can see how running inspired this reflection)...then a light bulb went off in my head.. God will never put me in a position of comfort because it results in complacency.   Life has absolutely been an uncomfortable adventure thus far. I was thinking about all the different places I've had the opportunity to live, and I can't think of one place where I would have chosen to live with comfort being the priority on my mind. I have been forced to grow and stretch in areas I didn't even realize I had issues with.  I remember growing up, my parents chose to move our family from Arizona to Michigan and then to Oklahoma. I remember these being the most uncomfortable changes I had ever felt. New friends, new cultures, new everything. Arizona was my first comfort zone and I had dreamt of the
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