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Born in Dixon,
Illinois just a little bit before Reagan (Dixon was
his hometown) began his Presidency.
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My Grandma Bev
took care of me while my parents worked before I
started going to school. She taught me how to
love Jesus and what it meant to know Him. By
the time I was four it just made sense to live for
God.
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I grew up as a
little tomboy on the banks of the Rock River in
Lyndon, IL. My dad instilled independence and risk-taking in
me by teaching me to ride
three wheelers,
motorcycles and lawnmowers all before the age of
six.
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My family moved to a bigger town when I was nine. There I spent three
years as a "city girl" while we began building a
real home in the place that used to be occupied by
our mobile home. Yep, I was a trailer court
child my first few years of life.
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At thirteen, my
family moved back to the river and I had my very own
room with a lovely huge picture window that I would
sit by and read book after book.
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My teen years were
filled with being very active at my church, Rock
River Christian Center. I learned a lot from
Roger Ausbury, Debbie Lewis and Scott Skrogstad along with
becoming a leader and playing the piano in the
worship band.
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At seventeen, I
moved away from my family for the first time and
headed to the state capital, Springfield. I
was chosen for the
Illinois Governmental Internship Program. I
spread my wings there by doing a four month
internship with
OSAD. I ended up having a rotten host home situation (not the fault of the parents, I loved them), which ended up helping me find the most
wonderful church I've ever attended,
Vineyard Christian Fellowship of Springfield. (VCFS)
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After I moved
home, I started taking classes from
Sauk Valley
Community College. I got a head start on my
college education because I didn't actually graduate
from Sterling Christian School until spring 1998. I
had gone there since kindergarten. I graduated
as Salutatorian (from a class of four ;-). Oooh, I was homecoming queen too.
I hope you are dutifully impressed by now (rolling
of eyes.)
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During the summer
of 1999, I won a scholarship to move out to Wash.
D.C. for half the summer and work as an intern for a
congressman at the
capitol. Admittedly, I was
intern in D.C. during the Clinton
administration/post Monica Lewinsky, but I wasn't
about to let anybody give me a hard time about it.
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By the way, in
fall of 1998, I became infected with the "Jump, Jive
& Wail/Gap Khaki ad" bug and fell passionately head
over heels in love with
swing dancing for several
years. I went to countless dances and had the time of my life! Incidentally, I lived out one of my dreams by celebrating a
birthday at the Herräng Dance Camp in Sweden during the summer of 2007. My good friends Joe, Thomas and Lisa helped me celebrate by arranging a
birthday dance for me during one of our workshops.
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Spring 2000 came
and I had enough credits to get my A.A., so I did.
I had no debt, no husband & no children so I was
ready to take a break and do some living sans
college.
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Summer 2000, I
moved to Muskegon, MI and worked at a Christian
conference center called
Maranatha. It was a
lovely summer doing a fun, college student summer
job with other people my age, a pool and a beach all
within minutes of each other. Everything would
have been perfect during this time except that my
parents separated after 23 years of marriage.
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Fall came and I
packed my life into two bags and moved down to
Cleveland, TN. That is the headquarters of
New
Life Drama Company (NLDC). I began touring the
United States with them ministering at different
churches.
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On November 7, 2000, I had a life changing experience in a little dying church in Dallas, TX. I was at a prayer meeting praying for the
local community and I struggled because I didn't know what to pray for them. I asked God to give me the words to pray and for some reason, that night was different from all the other times I had
prayed prayers like that. Something happened to me that night that literally changed my life. I love sharing the story of that experience with others but since it is deeply
personal I prefer to share it one on one with people. Feel free to ask me about either in person or through email. It's something I am very passionate to share about. :-)
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That same month I
met an aging pastor in Bellaire, TX who showed me
his baby Taylor guitar. I could actually play
it so I determined that I was going to save every
cent until I could buy that type of guitar.
God blessed me immensely and I had it in my hands by
mid-January. I used my background in piano to
teach myself to play guitar. I was quite glad to finally have a portable instrument.
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After traveling
with the company through over half the United
States, I bowed out from NLDC just about the time
the twin towers were destroyed. The very
weekend after that, I traveled to Nashville, TN and was
introduced to
Mercy Ministries and was blown away by
what they were doing. I knew then my next
step. I worked at IDOT in Dixon that fall in
order to earn money for the next half-year.
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In January of
2002, I packed my possessions in my car and drove
down to Nashville and began a half-year internship
with Mercy Ministries. Many of the girls in the Mercy home came from difficult situations and my idealistic eyes were opened to many more ills in the world. Nonetheless, I made amazing friends in that
time and grew so much as an adult. The people
in Nashville have a chunk of my heart that was left
with them.
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I needed money
again, so I moved back home and worked for IDOT a
second time. This time they put me in
Construction. I got to work with a Hell's
Angel who happened to be a very nice man named Norm
who had a friendly dog. I also met my buddy
Deeger who made the work tolerable and kept things fun by taking me to get some
Lt. Dan. The job
ended in November and I worked at home on projects after that.
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In Fall 2003, I
moved in with my mother. I started working on
getting my degree to become a teacher through the education program at
Eastern Illinois University. I did the fall
and spring semester of my junior year and then moved
to Springfield during the summer because I enjoy Springfield and was also
longing to be a part of VCFS again. Never had
I been at a place where I was so challenged to
develop a personal, vital relationship with God.
My job that summer was working for IDOT in Springfield.
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In Fall 2004, I
started my second year at EIU and I had become
enmeshed in college life. I had my wonderful
friends in the Eastern Family Tree, I was asked to
be president of the
EIU Intervarsity chapter and I
was president elect for Kappa Delta Pi. I also took
cello lessons. All this along with working at
Booth Library. It was all too much. I
needed to live closer to EIU. I moved in with
my friend Dana for my first month and then the McGilliard
family took me in as one of their own for the rest
of the semester.
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In Spring 2005, my
student teaching experience commenced.
Everything shut down. I lived with my mom
again. I would go to work at 7:30 a.m. and end
up not returning home until after 8 p.m. I
couldn't seem to get home any earlier. In my mind there was always "just one more thing" I could do to help my students and I wouldn't let myself
say, "Enough is enough." I straggled out
of that experience with a nomination for "Best
student teacher." It was a great experience and I love teaching but I took the responsibility of the lives of children extremely seriously and I had no life while teaching.
There was no balance so I decided I had to learn balance or find a different way to be a teacher.
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I used the summer
to simplify my life. I just wanted to be with family and
go through my possessions and get rid of half of
what I owned. The reason for that was because I planned on moving to Mexico in August and I needed to get my affairs in order before going since I had two years abroad planned.
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After the summer, I began a
new life
in Puerto Vallarta. I had always wanted to learn another language and Spanish was it. The first few months I struggled and was stretched in ways I had never experienced.
I kept in touch with my home community by writing a column with my hometown newspaper.
I also published in a Puerto Vallartan online news source. My column was called Viviendo en Mexico (Living in Mexico). The
stress of living with another language built though until it was finally released at
Christmas time when somebody very important to me made it possible for me
to fly home for the holidays. I needed that
trip more than I realized. It made it possible
to move back to Mexico and not languish.
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I arrived in
Guadalajara in January and finally began
experiencing some real breakthrough with the
language. I traveled more and finished up
twelve more credits at CEPE. I flew back to the U.S.A.
and dropped off transcripts so I could officially
graduate in May with my degree in Elementary
Education. I then flew back to Guadalajara because I had accepted a job there to
work until June 30th as the 6th grade English as a
Foreign Language (EFL) teacher at the Lincoln School.
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As soon as I
finished, I went back to the U.S.A. to spend some long awaited time with my family and friends. In September, I flew to Belfast, Northern Ireland because I was awarded a Rotary Ambassadorial Scholarship
I worked on
my Master's degree in TESOL for an academic year
at Queen's University. When my modules finished, I spent time traveling in Europe and soaking in new experiences.
That year in Northern Ireland was an absolutely exceptional year in every way possible. My friend Kathryn made it for me though and I owe her my gratitude from reminding me what true
friendship is.
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In conclusion, I could not ask for more
than what I have been blessed with already.
So, as the days pass, I struggle to serve God to the
best of my abilities and work to build His kingdom
and not my own. What is it worth for me to have all these wonderful experiences but leave God out the picture? I figure it's flat out selfishness on my part. Life is
but a breath. I want mine spent well.
