This Beautiful Life Journey

I love to write.  It's a bit of a hidden secret of mine.  When I was little, I wrote all the time.  Still to this day I love picking up a pen and writing a handwritten note.  I feel like I express myself best through writing.  I'm able to fully convey what my heart feels through writing. So, years ago, I started a blog.  I've had years where I was good at writing about my adventures, but this year I have once again found this love for writing and blogging.  I can't guarantee I will have time to write a lot or keep it updated, but I'll try.  My life isn't always that exciting, but I try to make it an adventure when I can.  And if people want to join me on that adventure than all the more better.  For the best in things in life are meant to be shared!  I found this in a book and I think it describes me perfectly:

"If anywhere in your heart you should feel the desire to write, please write.  Write as a gift to yourself and others.  Everyone has a story to tell.  Writing is not about creating tidy paragraphs that sound lovely or choosing the "right" words.  It's about noticing who you are and noticing life and sharing what you notice....When you write your truth, it is a love offering to the world because it helps us feel braver and less alone.  And if you're a really really bad writer, then it might be most important for you to write because your writing might free other writers to have a go at it..."

So follow me as God writes my story and I live out this 

beautiful life journey...

Some of my favorite things in life...beaches, Caribou Coffee, thinking, hymn singing, and making the most of everyday.

Let Your Story Speak

I love how God often times in my life just is so direct with me....for example.  Today is Sept. 20th.  In my life this date has huge meaning.  12 years ago today I had a trampoline accident and was paralyzed.  A defining moment in my life....  Truth is, I don't talk about it a ton any more.  Maybe it's because it was so long ago and maybe because I've just feel like I've told the story so many times that its been overheard.  Yet today at church I sat in my seat and listened as it seemed Mike Baker and I were the only ones in the room.  His message revolved around Acts 3 and 4, where a lame man was healed and he spends the rest of his life running with joy the truth that His Savior had healed him.  He had a story, and he chooses to tell it.  We all have a story.  Our stories go like this: 

I once was _______, but now I'm ________.

For me, my story is I once was lame, but now I stand. I have a story and I need to speak.  I actually love speaking about it...it's just I do it more when directly asked by someone.  I mean I remember the day I came to church in a wheelchair and they asked the audience to stand and sing.  Everyone in the church did, but I couldn't. It was a moment I remember thinking, that I may never be able to stand and sing again.... yet 12 years later I can.  That's God's faithfulness. 

So I write as a way of speaking.  To let the world know that because I have seen, heard, and felt the love of God in some of the most tangible ways ever, I can speak boldly about His constant love for me in the good and bad times of life....

Listen:

Lifesong

My Story

A New Journey In The Making

I’ve started a journey….a new journey…or maybe it’s the same journey that’s just leading down a new path.  Whatever the case may be, I’m excited to share this new journey...

It’s taken some time to get to this point.  Maybe it’s because for a while it seem like just a dream and not something that truly could happen.  But more, I think it’s because I’ve been fearful.  I’ve let this fear hold me back from really moving forward with excitement.  It’s a fear that others will look at me and judge me, question me, not understand me, or really even give up and leave me.  So many times we pick a path and we keep on that path for a long, long time.  For me, I’ve chosen to be a teacher.  I love kids, I love their hearts, I love being with them.  But I love other things too.  Before I go any further, I’m not leaving teaching.  I’m still a teacher.  But, in every human heart there is dreaming and curiosity.   I’m scared of pursuing a dream and having people look at me and say, “that’s stupid, you could never do that…just be content with the job you have, it’s more secure…”  Maybe part of me thinks their right.  After all, what if I dream big and that dream becomes costly in many ways.  There is this fear that people will judge me for being someone I’m not….or at least someone I’m not yet. But at the same time, how many people have actually taken steps to pursue their dream?  There are a lot of people who dream, but not a lot who take action.  I don't want to just be a dreamer forever...I want to live it out.  

Maybe what scares me the most is that dreams can be taken away.  I’ll be honest and say that I haven’t done much dreaming in the last 10 years or so.  When my accident happened, it took more than just physical strength away.  It took some dreams too.  And aren’t dreams unfulfilled sometimes harder than the physical battles?  Slowly though, I’ve had to relearn how to let myself dream small without fear.  It’s not been easy, but as I’ve dreamed, I’ve learned this important lesson:

God is only a giver, and where he takes, it’s only to give something greater. 

So what’s my new dream and journey?

 

I want to work in real estate.  Maybe more specifically I want to become a female flipper.  YES, a female flipper :) No, not like the gymnastics stuff I use to do…but a real estate rehabber, aka flipper.  Maybe that will change into something else, but for now that’s what seems fun and exciting to me.

Yes, I have little experience.  But I haven’t invested a lot of time, money, and energy into learning.  I have a desire to learn, to grow, to see something completed.  I don’t know if that’s going to be enough….I’ve never gone down this road.  Are there things that are COMPLETELY out of my comfort zone?   ABSOLUTELY!  But, I want to conquer them. So I'm starting this journey of not just learning a new trade, but of implementing the learning and opportunities I've been given. 

Let me start from the beginning and where this dream started….

Let me first start by saying, that in college I really wanted to get a finance minor.  I’ve always been interested in finance and seriously considered it, but when my accident happened, it put me behind and I truly wanted to graduate with my class.  So I worked my butt off to finish my Elementary Education major in less than 3 ½ years.  But in doing so, I had to let go the idea of getting a finance minor.  In addition, the last few years since owning a home, I’ve really come to love home design and home construction.  Maybe it’s a trait my dad’s passed down to me.  He owns a remodeling and construction business and has taught me a bit along the way. 

So with those two things as interests of mine, I decided to attend this three day real estate investing workshop in town that a company called Fortune Builders was putting on.  I had known of someone who had joined Fortune Builders a few years back and have seen her success, so I figured it wouldn’t hurt to just listen and learn.  Fortune Builders is an educational company that teaches people how to do real estate investing….in other words, you go through hours of curriculum learning how to do marketing for homes in distress, purchase them at discount, learn how to wholesale them out, or fix them up (flip), and sell them.  They teach systems that people can use to learn how to become an entrepreneur as well as coaching/mentors from experienced investors.  Well those three days were the start of a journey I didn’t really see coming.  The class was run so well and by day one I had learned more than I probably ever did in my masters (sad to say).  So much information was being presented that I felt like a sponge that wanted to soak it all up.  It made me excited, it made me curious, and it really made me wonder “what if…”  So on the last day of the workshop, they asked for people to interview if they wanted to join the Fortune Builders Mastery team.  My stepdad and I decided to interview.  Long story short, we joined.  What that means is that we will form an LLC small business and receive lots of support from experienced investors to help us navigate through this.  We have coaches who will call us and guide in the right direction with the best systems.  What our company will do is provide cash offers, which allows us to close quickly, and sellers avoid closing cost and commission fees.  We look for people who are motivated to sell due to things like facing foreclosure, divorce, inherited property, relocation, bank owned, etc.  Anyone who needs to sell quick and has a house that maybe needs some repairs and wants to sell in "as is" condition.  It wasn’t an easy commitment in any regards.  So why did we do it?

Before I tell of the “why”, let me just begin by placing my fears out there.  I am a teacher.  I have been for many years now.  I do enjoy my job and love working with kids.  It has so many wonderful things that it encompasses.  But the teaching world has changed.  So many more demands are being placed on us, and we are expected to make every child into children who are on grade level standards.  We spend countless hours at school or at home doing work….not to mention that I go into work EVERY weekend.  We work for salaries that are pathetic and spend more and more time working each year when it should be less with experience.   The last few years have taken a toll on me and I’ve found myself wondering more and more each year about what else is there out there that I could do?  I don’t feel called to leave the teaching field as of now….but I do feel like I need to explore what else is out there.  I want to dream….

Why would I leave such a comfortable and easy place?   Why would I turn my focus to something so new and quite frankly something I have so much to learn still?  I’m not a salesman….I’ve never been good at that.  I’ve never worked in the business world and learning how to connect with people and network is such a new concept to me.  But I find rehabbing and staging houses to be exciting.  But, if I truly want to be a dreamer and participate with what God’s doing and going to do in my life then I can’t live in the clouds. Dreamers are people who don’t live with their heads in the clouds…dreamers are people who are willing to crawl through the swamp.  Dreamers live in the mud where things get dirty.  They learn how to do things they’ve never experienced and they learn to step out of their comfort zone everyday.

So why?  Why not stay content with the great job you have now?  Truth is I am content, but I have a vision for more.

1.         My why is so I can financially give so much more to people and places than I can now.  My why is so that I can go on mission’s trips and spend time serving others.
2.        My why is so that I can provide scholarships for high school students who can’t afford to go to CIY church camp
3.        My why is so that I have time and financial ability to visit family that lives far away more often than I do now.
4.        My why is to be able to travel, see the world, and find new adventures.
5.         My why is to meet more people and really grow in knowledge
6.        My why is to give back to schools that need funding for projects and technology.
7.        My why is to support my family.
8.        My why is I want to prove to myself that any physical, emotional, mental limitation can be over come with faith.
9. My why is so that I can keep the generational family home in Michigan in the family through my generation.
10. My why is because I need to learn how to overcome things and how to be vulnerable and brave at the same time.  Because without scary, we would never learn how to be brave. 
11. My why is so that I can give back to Taylor University and leave a legacy.

I don’t know where this will go.  Heck, it may go no where and in a year from now I may be back where I started.  But I have faith that God’s journey is better than mine.  I’m just going to go where he leads.  I feel a bit like Moses in the Bible….fully knowing my weaknesses and not fully knowing my strengths.  But even though Moses spent most of his years in the desert, he did something most people don’t do when things get tough…..he kept going. 

So I’m going to do the same… I’m going forward and going to see how God leads this new journey.
Can I ask a favor of you?  I don't ask for a lot....just your support, love, and encouragement.  And if you have connections to anyone in the real estate world..... attorneys, agents, other investors, hard money lenders, or people who want to become private money lenders.....send them my way.  The best journeys in life are ones that are shared....   

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