Open House, Open Heart...

As many of you know almost 2 weeks ago now my precious boy, Helez Davy Parker was born.  His birth was quick (like crazy quick) and came at a time when I wasn't exactly expecting it. For about the last week of pregnancy I prayed each night telling God that tonight could be the night, I was ok with it and I was ready. on November 14th, I went to bed feeling stressed about our current circumstances here in NY and told God tonight was not a goodnight. I told him I didnt feel mentally prepared and I was just physically too tired. At around 3:15am I woke up to minor contractions. They werent very consistent or strong so I waited about 15 minutes to wake up Caleb. I knew I shouldnt wait too long since my labor and delivery was also quite quick with Axel and we are about 35 minutes away from the hospital I was going to deliver at. I wanted to make sure that we would make it in time! So at around 3:30am I woke Caleb up telling him I was pretty sure baby was on its way. We quickly org...

This has been probably one of the craziest weeks I've had in awhile. I mean we've lived and seen alot in the past couple months but this is really crazy. You guys, I'm a New Yorker and this is my cute New Yorker baby! :) Axel was thrilled to see his Giraffe from Grandma Angela made it to NY too. It feels crazy.. It is crazy. My life is... well, crazy. I'd be lying if I didnt say this is bittersweet. Believe it or not moving to New York has been much harder than moving to Costa Rica. Moving to Costa Rica we knew we were going to be living on a base, we knew mostly what Calebs work was going to look like, Caleb knew people at the base and we both had been to CR before. Coming to New York we had no friends here, no family, we had both never been to this state and we didnt know where we were going to live. We've been trying to figure out housing for weeks and it just wasnt coming together. I kept feeling God urging us to just go, to just get in the car and get ...

Another beautiful fall day has come and gone. I enjoyed the fresh weather, seeing family, a fun sermon in church and now a peaceful evening of rest while Axel sleeps. I've been MIA for a little over a month now and I feel like so much has gone on in that 1 month of time. Costa Rica seems so long ago. Life has changed so drastically in 6 weeks time its almost strange to look back and remember how different our lives were. I miss the rain, I miss many familiar faces, I miss amazing, delicious and cheap fresh fruit but I'm also happy to be here.  Minnesota has treated us well. The first 3 weeks back in the states were total chaos it seems. running from one place to another, racing around to see everyone we'd missed. the last 3 weeks have been more focused on packing, prepping and planning for NEW YORK.   We were hoping to be out there this past week but between trying to figure out housing issues for when we get there and Vehicle repairs we've been set back by a few...

Today marks 1 week back in the states. I've been terrible about sharing more and blogging over the past month. I've sat down to write a handful of times and felt like I just had too much to say and couldn't get it into one simple blog, so now I feel really behind. August was so busy, between being in Mexico, having our friends in Costa Rica for week and saying goodbye to life in Costa Rica for now. Now that I've had a few days to reflect on not only the past month but also the past 6 months, I'm noticing just how blessed we were over this time. Caleb and I cant put into words what we learned from this experience. The amount of trust, obedience and faith it took was great but the reward was much greater. Working alongside YWAM San Jose was beautiful and challenging. Caleb grew so much as a photographer/videographer and we both grew so much in our walk with God.I learned a lot about myself as a mother and the importance of being aware of and taking care of my imm...

I feel slightly uncomfortable writing this. I'm not entirely sure why. I guess writing about someone elses despair is not exactly easy. I want to write a little bit about what I've seen, and what its taught me in this short time here in Mexico. First I want to start with a quote from my book I'm reading, "Radical" by David Platt. "God blesses his people with extravagant grace so they might extend his extravagant glory to all peoples on earth." Read that a few times through. Sometimes I wonder why I was born in one of the most blessed countries in the world. I grew up in comfortable settings, always had food, shelter and was taught about Jesus from a fairly young age. I had my rough spots but nothing too terrible. For the first time ever, when reading that quote, I realized that by grace I was born in the United States. If you ask me its an extravagant amount of grace but thats just my opinion. What I do with that grace is my choice. God gave it ...

This has been such a crazy couple days. You guys, I made it to Mexico. Can you even believe it? If you kept up with my multiple Facebook posts then you probably already know about our multiple delays, missed flights and slumber party in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.  If not then I'll do a quick recap. We left San Jose Saturday morning 1 am. Flew to FL and were unable to make it through customs and security in time to catch our next flight out to Detroit. We tried talking to the airline to figure out our options. They told us the next flight to San Diego wasn't until Monday morning. As you can imagine my heart was so overwhelmed in the moment. Standing there 6 months pregnant with my exhausted almost 1 year old I whispered to God how overwhelmed I felt. We tried seeing of we could Atleast get a flight out of Florida to a place where we have family so we could wait till Monday there. 2 days at a hotel with no transpiration, no luggage and not a ton of extra spending money was not so...