1. Tell us about you! Who you married, where you live, how long you’ve been married, where did you go on a honeymoon, how many kids and ages.
Hi everyone! It’s been so fun to see your photos and hear about your lives! Mike and I celebrated our 25th anniversary in March. We went to Panama City Beach, FL for our honeymoon and had so much fun! It’s one of the best vacations we’ve had!
We live in Greeley, CO and have been so blessed to be a part of Summitview Community Church. Mike co-pastors with Jim Long and we are so thankful to serve with Jim and Brenda! We have 7 children who we thoroughly enjoy spending time with: Caden (23), Ethan (22), Landen (20), Emmery, (18), Hadley (16), Brinley (14) and Audrey (12). Ethan is marrying Kaitlin this August and we are thrilled for them and are so excited for our wonderful, new daughter-in-law! Fun Fact: Each of our children and Mike and I were all born at the same hospital in Greeley. Even though we both spent time out of Colorado, (me in Minnesota and Mike in Missouri), we both ended up back in our hometown and met each other here!
2. What are your hobbies? How did you get started on them?
I have a lot of fun making special cakes, mostly for my kids’ birthdays but we have done a few showers and weddings. My girls do most of the creating/baking now but it’s fun to do that together! I followed in my mom’s footsteps as she always made fun birthday cakes for us growing up. 😊Otherwise, we typically spend our downtime as a family in our living room, watching movies, talking about just about any subject, and we almost always all gather there at the end of each day to check in and process life and enjoy time together.
3. Who has been an influential person in your life? Would you tell us about them?
My husband has been the most influential person in my life. When I first met Mike, I could see that he was a man of conviction and strength and was willing to stand alone for Christ. I was not living as faithfully for the Lord at that time, but even on our first date, I remember a moment where he stood firm on something minor and I immediately had the strength to do the same. He’s been an example to me in so many ways and I think he has an amazing balance between walking in wisdom and counsel and listening to the Spirit and taking steps of faith. My tendency is to be too serious and every crisis seems bigger than it actually is, but he is able to bring lighthearted joy and perspective to our home which has made things so much more fun and encouraging for our kids. It’s an adventure for sure to live each day with Jesus as Lord in our lives and while we both can fear or worry at times, one of Mike’s famous sayings to us all is, “It’ll be fine!!” And it will, won’t it? Jesus said, “It is finished,” and we are new creations with a delightful inheritance ahead. It will be fine!! 💜
4. What is something the Lord has been teaching you recently?
As believers, one of the most amazing things is that we have unlimited access to the Sovereign Creator and Loving Father and can approach the throne of Grace with confidence and receive grace and mercy to help us in our time of need. I love that God is called our Wonderful Counselor. He knows everything, can change everything, knows the depths of my heart, knows the future, and knows everyone else’s heart. So what a perfect place to seek counsel!
I have been learning to spend more time with my Wonderful Counselor and talk honestly to the Lord. Often I pray for the end results that I am hoping for, like, “please help me to walk by faith, please help me to remember that you are sovereign, please help me to trust you when I’m afraid,” and all those are good prayers! But, I tend to not pray about the root cause or about what is buried beneath those issues. Praying out-loud and writing down exactly how I feel has been very revealing to me and has helped me get to the core issue.
So then I’m able to pray things like, “I am struggling to believe that you have good for me in this moment, I don’t understand how you are both Sovereign and good and yet I am not experiencing peace right now, I am so afraid that I won’t be able to make it through the pain if that thing happens.”
It has been so healing and so comforting to bring the deepest hurts and sorrows of my heart out into the light and ask my Wonderful Counselor to tell me what he thinks.
I think that’s what it looks like to cast all our anxieties on him because he cares for us! And that his yoke is easy and his burden is truly light. That’s why we can smile at the future and not fear what is frightening.
5. What can we be praying for you this month?
-I’d love prayer to be able to love my husband and children well and for us all to trust God and to be able to smile at the future.
-My brother Mark is not walking with the Lord and is coming to visit this month. We all have been hoping and praying for his salvation.
-Please pray for our church to be a light to this world, and for us all to walk well in the healing that repentance and forgiveness can bring.
L to R: Ethan, Kaitlin, Mike, Audrey, Heather, Emmery, Landen, Hadley, Caden, Brinley
