Becoming a Champion of Faith

I woke up to my foot being nudged. Groggy, I looked to the foot of the bed and saw Keith, and then the words came out…

“Did you get my text?”

“No, why? What happened?”

“I am officially ‘separated’ from Target”

Then…something that I NEVER would have thought would come next…I heard a voice, felt it deep in my heart, God said to me, “Everything is going to be fine.”  That voice, that feeling, was something a couple of years ago I never would have stopped to hear or listen to, but it is that feeling, that has been my saving grace these last few weeks.

Many of you know that we moved up here to Waterloo about a year ago so that Keith could take a job with Target.  It was something that I never thought we would do; move 8 ½ hours away from our family and friends, from everything that we knew for our entire lives.  It was a great opportunity, a good job, with enough pay so that I could stay home with the kids, which was always my dream.  

So, I’m not going to lie to you, the first feeling WAS a feeling of comfort and peace…but about an hour later, and in the days and weeks that have followed, my biggest question for God has been “WHY!?”   Here’s the thing though, I KNOW why!

We were brought here to Iowa for Keith and I to grow as a couple and learn to bring our family closer to Christ every day, through everything we do.  We have been connected to AMAZING (which doesn’t even seem like a strong enough word) people, especially through our church.  From the people who welcomed us our first day attending Trinity, to our small group, the people we have met through different events not even connected to church, but are men and women of Christ that help us to grow in our faith daily. 

I think daily and have devoted our website and this blog to the idea that we are “Hansen Champions”…from day one with AdvoCare, we have loved the motto, tagline, slogan, whatever you want to call it that they use, “We Build Champions”.  It has encompassed the idea and vision Keith and I have for our family.  

This adventure we are one now is bringing us to a whole new level of Champion.  We are becoming champions…TRUE Champions of FAITH!  We have a strong faith that God brought us here for a reason, we have seen the reason in some cases, but we have a challenge on a daily basis to look and see, EVERY.SINGLE.DAY. on how God has blessed us.  We are going through a bump on our road, we know that.  However, what we know and believe event STRONGER is that God is leading us and we KNOW that he will be with us every step of the way.  We may struggle, we may falter and we may fall down, but HE will guide us and HE will bless us!

I will of course keep you posted along the way, but we greatly appreciate any prayers you can offer our way!  We want to share this journey with you all because as I have said before, this is a place I want to share to help others to know they are not alone.  I won’t lie; sometimes it’s a little “therapy” for me too! ;)  I hope you all will take this though and use it as a source of encouragement and faith!

Have a blessed day friends!

Back to the Basics

So...I have been M.I.A. on here for over a month now and A LOT has been going on.  To be honest, I started to get to a point where I felt like the things that were going on in my head and what I wanted to write about was to "deep" to dive in to or that maybe I didn't have enough "expertise" in the areas that I felt lead to talk about so I just didn't write anything.

I had to go back and realize and really come to terms again with WHY I decided to start this blog (yes, I understand it has only been going since January, but that's what happened).  The reason I did this was to talk about things that were on my heart and reach out to people.  That is the "beauty" and "beast" of blogs, isn't it?  I don't NEED expertise to talk about a subject! ;)  This whole thing is just my opinions and feelings.  I want people to be able to read these and get to know me, maybe even know that they are not alone in feelings they are having.  I spent so much of my life not being true to myself and worrying about what everyone around me thought,  and I have gone through SO MUCH in the last few years that have lead me to this point, I want to share and help others.  THAT is the point of Hansen Champions and THAT is what I am going to do!

So, I will give fair warning now...there will be topics that will be across the board on here (that's how my mind works - it's a little humorous sometimes I think to unwind the "web" on how my thoughts connect:)).  I appreciate feed back and discussion are VERY welcome!  Like I said, the whole purpose of this blog is to help others, reach out, lift each other up and know that at the end of the day, what is most important is to be THANKFUL and show GRATITUDE from the experiences we have had and to the God that has made them possible!

Be blessed friends! :)