it's been almost a year...

Who knew it had been almost a year since I last blogged!  Life has taken MANY turns and looks nothing like it did a year ago!  A year ago, we were living in Carlisle, PA, enjoying our first home, both working secular jobs while Jer kept his ear to the ground for his next step ministry-wise, and visiting doctors to find out why my body was not cooperating with the baby-making/family-growing dreams we were praying so hard about. 

And now, just a year later, we are living in an apartment in Pittsburgh, PA, trying/praying desperately to sell above-mentioned first home, I am working a full-time job as a Career Consultant for a staffing agency while Jer is partnering in a church plant in Eastern Pittsburgh, and we are visiting doctors to monitor the precious life that is growing inside of me; we can't wait to meet our precious little girl, Jubilee Rayne, who is preparing to show her face to the world in just 12 short weeks!  

It sure took us a while to get here, and by no means is "here" the end, but what a journey!  We had pretty much settled on the idea of looking into adoption before finding out I was pregnant.  Doctors had gotten us to the point where our insurance was no longer going to cover further infertility testing/medicines, and we felt that, for us, we would rather visit the path of adoption rather than the unsure/imperfect path of infertility drugs/procedures. 

In August 2009, we had gone to CPAC (Church Planters Assessment Center) and were green-lighted as church planters but did not know where God was leading. Was it a new church in Carlisle? We thought perhaps since God had so clearly led us there. But then our hearts began to drift.... Carlisle was becoming more the place where our house was and less feeling like home. God was once again on the move in our lives.  After some prayer and conversations, we teamed up with Rick and Eunice Cox in an endeavour that would lead us across the state to Pittsburgh, where, together, we would plant The Bridge, a new Wesleyan Church in the Penn Hills area.  Being that we were two sets of assessed church planters, the goal from the beginning was to plant Church Plant #1 together before Jer and I split off to plant Church Plant #2.

So here we are.  The Bridge is beginning her preview services in just a few short weeks and Bridge 2.0 is pledged to branch out in June of 2011.  God is definitely doing a great thing in Pittsburgh!

As for the adoption idea -- Jer and I are still longing to traverse this path together.  Who knows if God will bless us with another child from my own womb, but either way, we do not feel he is finished with growing our family yet.  As we began looking into it a year ago, the idea of adoption gripped our hearts and has not let go.  We are praying for the right time and place to begin that process, and do pray that God would choose to use us to bless the life of a child, our child, as we know she/he will surely bless us!

Thanks for reading! Thanks for caring!  Perhaps I'll try to write again before summer 2012 :)  Keep up on facebook where I'm sure you'll see plenty more pictures and highlights of our "firsts" with both church planting and parenting!