About Me

Welcome to my Journey of Learning How to Living Abundantly . . . even when you are thrown into a pit!

I have been married to my college sweetheart for twenty five years and we are raising three awesome young men to be strong fearless Godly leaders in an ungodly world. We are trying to teach them to choose joy and find the lessons when they are thrown into a pit. We know life is going to be hard, and we do not want them to lose hope during their journey on earth. I want the same for all of us. 

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Here is a little background to why and how I came to choose joy and found a way to live abundantly even at the edge of being thrown into a pit. . . 

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I traveled the first five years of my marriage following my husband while he was able to follow his dream of playing professional baseball. We both have a marketing degree, and I later went on to get a masters degree in education. 

We both have an entrepreneurial spirit and have owned a marketing company as well as a children's event company.We have learned together to stay in God's will as we pursue any decision in our life. 

When my husband settled down after his playing days, he was a general manager of a minor league team and ran a professional golfer's foundation. 

Several years after settling down and pursuing our careers and growing family, we began studying Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace method. We didn't have a car payment, just built a house, almost debt free with no credit cards, and loved our big family Christmas celebrations traveling from city to city to see everyone. 

We were living an amazing journey. Well, we do live in a fallen world and hard times and the edge of the pits are pretty much guaranteed on this side of  heaven. 

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Myhusband and I were both raised in Christian homes and both baptized. However, twelve years ago my husband and I began a journey of learning to really lean on God and not ourselves. We learned that God has a perfect plan for our life even when we feel like we have been thrown into a pit. 

My husband was thrown into a pit by an employer that he considered to be like family. We were on our way to being debt free with no credit cards, just had our third child, and truly enjoyed being with family. One day that suddenly changed as my husband's employer began to slander him and continued doing so when he took another job. 

This began to interfere with our marriage, our family, and our finances. We woke up one day living and loving life to suddenly being thrown into a pit of darkness that we were not prepared for. This must have been what it felt like when Joseph was thrown into a pit by his family because of jealously. My whole family was thrown into a pit the day my husband was slandered. We isolated ourselves from our friends not knowing who we could trust or who we were anymore. But we continued to have faith in God's promise that He had the perfect plan Jeremiah 29:11. 

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During this tough journey and trying to find a way out of the pit, we were taking care of my father-in-law who was struggling with bipolar and depression. We were the only family living in the same town and had the capability to take care of him daily. In October 2012, my husband's father passed away suddenly in his sleep.

In November 2013, my mother, who was a breast cancer survivor of 10 years, passed away of a massive heart attack in an ambulance on the way to the hospital. In December 2014, my brother passed away suddenly. During this grief my husband and father had surgery. My father is in a wheelchair and lives alone. 

We have been searching for a new normal and some energy to catch our breath. We were drowning in exhaustion and felt lost in the wilderness. We knew God was with us, but we were not sure where He was leading us and when we would find our way out of this journey of exile. We continued to hold on to the God's promise that He had a perfect plan, but learned to dig deeper into His promise and claimed Jeremiah 29:11-14 for our family. 

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In the middle of the grief and surgeries, we closed our family business, and I went back to teaching while my husband found his favorite job ever at our church. We have had a stable income for a few years and repairing the damage from the sudden changes in my husband's career. We have been finding our better and learning so much about God's ways and our relationship with Him. We have learned to believe everything in the Bible even when we do not understand. We are climbing out of the pit one day at a time and learning how to live abundantly through the storms of life. 

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However, it doesn't mean that life is easy. In fact, I just finished my breast cancer treatment and have medical bills to tend to now. But through our climb out of the pit we were thrown into 12 years ago, we came out of isolation and learned to be transparent with our friends and family so they know how to pray for us. We learned how to unlock our inner strength and to depend on God's strength. 

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My husband and I have both lost weight and found a healthier lifestyle mentally and physically. Your input will determine your output. It is important what you put into your mind and body because it will reflect on the outside. We are both advocates of a ketogenic lifestyle because of the health benefits. The weight loss was the bonus we found following this way of eating. 

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I want to be transparent with you as I recover from my breast cancer journey and continue to live a life following Jesus. Life is not going to be easy on this side of heaven, but I choose joy and a life of abundance. I want to share with you ways to choose joy and live abundantly while climbing out of the pit.

Life is hard and that's why we need Jesus and need to try to keep our one and only body healthy and a positive mindset! I'm not perfect at any of it, and I hope to document some of my journey here so maybe someone that is going through the same struggles will find some hope and value in the lessons I've learned while climbing out of the valley.  

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