30 weeks & counting…

It’s incredibly hard to believe that the last time I wrote on this blog, Jon and I had just moved to State College, PA. To put it briefly… a lot has happened since then. God has continued to pour out His mercies over us time after time. Although He has given us many reasons to be joyful, the gift that far outweighs them all is the gift of our little baby girl!

I found out I was pregnant shortly after we had moved to State College. Jon and I were humbled by God’s love for us when we discovered the news that I was expecting our first child and we have been thrilled ever since then. My pregnancy has been a bit challenging but I am already in my 30th week! Wow! Only 10 more to go….

It’s amazing to look back at my pregnancy pictures and see how my belly has grown. What an incredible miracle our little baby girl is…

week 9… first pregnancy picture

week 14

week 20

week 21

week 22

week 22

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week 29

week 30

week 30

week 30

our new beginning…

August 2010 marks a new beginning for Jon and I in many different ways. A new home across the country, new academic endeavors for Jon, a new job for me, new adventures and a brand new perspective on life. Although moving away from family and friends is heart-wrenching, this re-location for the two of us has allowed us the freedom to discover the incredible ways in which God has shown us His provision in our lives. This new period in our life has its challenges but the new hope and peace that He has provided far outweighs our obstacles.

It is amazing the change of perspective and vision you gain just by being surrounded by the unfamiliar. All your senses are alive. New sounds, new scents and new scenery to gaze at are all dancing in front of you, awakening the sense of adventure inside of you. You have a new energy and an urgency to go and uncover all the treasures that may be hidden in this unknown world. Everyday new places are revealed to you, new people cross your path and new ideas are formed that will either heighten or diminish the perception you have formed of this foreign place. To put it simply, everyday is a new adventure.

Our journey has also been filled with a new sense of purpose for the two of us. This has brought with it a new love for each other and the path that God has placed before us. It is a journey that will be humbling and full of joy as we trust in His sustaining love.

“Even to your old age and gray hairs I am he, I am he who will sustain you. I have made you and I will carry you. I will sustain you and I will rescue you.” – Isaiah 46:4

So Near Yet So Far

Well, we are officially less than a month away from finally getting married. As I am living out my last few weeks here in Korea and Emily is busy planning the final details for the wedding (with some help from me I might add) the fact that we will be married in less than a month remains somewhat surreal. As each day passes each of us grows increasingly excited, but it is impossible to fully comprehend how it will feel to not only be together after an entire year apart, but to be closer than we have ever been. It’s like flying from one polar opposite to the other in a matter of weeks. No more phone calls carefully planned to allow for a 16-hour time difference, no more writing letters or mailing packages and waiting two weeks for them to arrive, no more 6,000 mile separation and, perhaps the most wonderful of all, no more loneliness. I will finally enter a place where I will be understood by everyone, I won’t have to slowly repeat my name over and over again: “no, no, its Kelley, not Kerry.” Where I will drive a car for the first time in 13 months (drivers beware.) Where I will understand what is being said around me, about me, and to me. Where I won’t have to bow constantly, I won’t have to wear slippers indoors, and I won’t have to duck constantly when going through doors and into subway cars. It will be good to come home, and I couldn’t be more excited to come home to my beautiful fiancé, or, as my homestay family says it, “Jon Kerry’s pian-say.”

It is looking more and more likely that we will live in Phoenix for our first year at least. I am looking into a few options that involve work and potentially taking a few Korean language classes to achieve complete fluency, all of this while Emily continues to work as a Nurse at Mayo. After that we aren’t sure, I am still hopeful that I will end up at a law school sometime in the near future, but honestly after completing my Fulbright we will have several options that we are excited to pursue. Either way we are excited to spend our first year around family and friends in Phoenix, and save some money on moving costs!

Until next time, we are less than a month away, and we are more and more excited to celebrate and see everyone!

An Introduction to a Grand Adventure

Emily and I are about to be married. We have been apart for a long time, a year to be exact, and the decision to be apart for that long wasn’t easy, it was one of faith, belief, and a lot of pain. Incredible things have arisen from our time apart, and an incredible closeness has developed that wouldn’t have been possible had we not been 6,000 miles distant.

You see, I think that we held certain misconceptions about the nature of love. I think we all do when we are young.

We thought love should be convenient, we thought it should be easy, we thought it had to be proximate. We knew love was a choice but had no idea how often that choice had to be made, we knew God needed to be close but we had no idea how close we needed Him. Distance and time change those misconceptions, it alters the fairy tale reality that many, including ourselves, would choose to live in.

So when we are married in July it will be much more than a simple marriage. It will be the end of a journey, and the beginning of another. It will be entered into with eyes wide open and souls born bravely, and it will be entered into with anticipation, excitement, and desire. Since we have been forced to experience our love at such a distance for so long, marriage will be a homecoming in many senses of the word, and it will be the culmination of 5+ years of close friendship.

We are each more excited than we can communicate about the next year, and the year after that, and on and on. We are excited because we have seen how faithful God has been, we have experienced so much (not the least of which includes traveling to five different countries with each other) and we are convinced that even greater things lie ahead. Love is many things, but it begins with God, and that is where we want to start from every day.

So let me sum up what we are doing, let me place in a nutshell what we are seeking to accomplish through our union, if I may be so bold. We are hedonists, and we love God, we also love each other. Thus, we are seeking to live out more fully a slight alteration of the Westminster Catechism given by the great theologian John Piper:

“The chief end of man is to glorify God by enjoying Him forever”

We believe that we can better do this together. We can live more fully, we can experience more deeply, we can understand truth more honestly, and ultimately we can better glorify God by enjoying Him forever.