Redeeming Childbirth Launches Tomorrow!

My great friend, mentor and sister in Christ wrote an amazing book on inviting the Lord into your childbearing. I am so grateful to have this come now, as John and I take the next steps in starting our family. I highly recommend this book to ALL women: With children, or none; Christian or not. I appreciate Angie's commitment to uniting women through the process of childbearing.

I Found My Mentor!!!

Just under a year ago I attended my first Titus 2 Women's Study. The purpose of this study is for younger/new believers to connect with mature believers and receive mentorship and guidance. Since I've been attending this "Once A Month" study, I've met a handful of awesome women, but none that have been the perfect fit for me. Mostly because they had a house full of kids that they were home-schooling, which is understandable.
Enter Amy! She and her husband have recently moved down to So Cal from Seattle. They have 4 grown boys, and she left her job as a high school counselor when they moved. She shared that what she was "struggling with" was having so much time on her hands.
When I was sharing about myself, she said, "I feel like I can talk to you all about what you're going through!"
We exchanged info. We met for coffee on Saturday morning... two hours later we set up our next meeting. I was excited to receive her follow-up email with a few suggestions of some material that we can cover. So EXCITED!!!

Know Your Bible: All 66 Books Explained & Applied

2012: The Year of Bikram

Attending Bikram Yoga Teacher Training
is step 1 to starting a family:
Preparing my body.
The Goal: Sell enough knives to pay for tuition.

...and so it begins...
The Deposit

It's Official.

My Dialogue!!!

Aaaahhhhh!!!!!

Bye Bye Interviews, Hello Dialogue!

My Home for 9 weeks.

After 1st Class

John came to visit!

Bring Back Bollywood Bites!!!

What food looks like at TT

My Progress

Last Class... I miss the ice bins

Caroline.

Amie. My giggle buddy.

Soul Sister.

Group 15: Lovely Brits

Group 15!

9 hard weeks for this piece of paper!

...peace-out LAX Radisson

...and so it begins

1st paycheck!

Seeing life through the Bikram lens

 443 new Bikram Teachers and
4,443 new inside jokes...
and no one else quite understands.

The Before & After Shot

Couldn't do this before Teacher Training. Major Progress.

I'm Bad!!!

During a recent session of our Landmark Education Creativity Seminar I was presented with the following exercise:
Complete the sentence:
I AM...
Here's what I came up with:
not disciplined because I always want attention so if I stop getting it I change to something new
Someone that doesn't follow through or complete things
Not a good person
Not valuable unless I have something material to give
Irresponsible
Someone who never gives 100%
I'm harsh if I'm real with people
Misunderstood
insignificant
Shallow
Weak
{Oh I thought we were supposed to be writing things we wanted to work on my bad}
Awesome
Enthusiastic
Fashionable
Educated and informed
Caring
Pretty
Creative
Good  listener

Admittedly, as this was my first experience of leaving a session "incomplete," I was uncomfortable and slightly annoyed. But, I also have done enough of this work to know that it is a process and that "being with" the "incompletions" has purpose.
The thing that was really bothering me was "I AM not a good person." I couldn't say this without getting choked up. And worse, I couldn't say this without fully believing, without a shadow of a doubt, that it was TRUE!!!
Not only is it true, I can prove it! But instead, I'll just sit over here quietly cowering in the corner.

Days later, I'm at my sisters house, graciously utilizing the baking resources, {don't worry I brought my own cake mix and eggs, but I think I still owe her a 3/4 cup of oil}.
While I was making cupcakes, my nephew was getting ready for his "1st Confession" getting dressed, asking questions about how things were gonna go, why we confess, why we love Jesus so much.

**side story:
When my sister said "Jesus gave up His body to make up for all of our 'bad things'."
My nephew eagerly replied, "Well that was nice of Him!!!"
{where do they come up with this stuff? lol}

Anyway, I'm sitting there engaging in this conversation, I can't help but think back to my first confession:

We had just finished rehearsal. A group of us seven year olds were hanging on the swings taking turns sharing what we were gonna confess. The typical confessions included, "I hit my sister..." "I lied to my parents..."
When it was my turn I said, "I stole, I lied...-
To which my friend replied with shock, "YOU STOLE!?!?!"
In that moment I thought, "Whoa, I'm bad. So much more than anyone else! And, not only am I bad, I'm unforgivable. I must be. Why else would my friend respond this way only to me!?! It must be that everyone else's sins will be forgiven, but mine won't."
Without even realizing it, I've believed this and lived in this context since I was 7 years old!!! 
Can't you do the Young Persons Forum as young as 8? That would've been nice.
#justsayin #parentswitheightyearolds

I mean seriously how many times did my ringing phone ignite the concern, "Uh-oh, what did I do?!?"
Hey Monica, quick question, "GHUAH!!! Let me guess: I did something wrong and you hate me."
Maybe if I can wow you with my awesome fashion sense you won't notice what a terrible human being I am!

I'M FREE!!!

But let me share with you what I'm most grateful for in coming to this realization:
A new relationship with Jesus.
One where where I don't have to adopt a baby to save it from abortion to prove to God that I am good. But one where, if that is how God would have me glorify Him, so be it.