Travel Adventures Archives

I didn’t know if I would have the courage write this blog post to you. But thanks to a lot of nudging from the Holy Spirit, and by God’s grace and strength, I know this is what I must do.

Before I let you in on some pretty big, exciting news, let me start by saying thank you. Thank you for being a part of this community. Thank you for sharing your heart with me week after week here on the blog and in the email newsletters. Thank you for supporting this ministry. Thank you for coming alongside me in prayer.

I’ve said it many times and I’ll say it again: Writing may be something God has called me to, but you guys are one of the main reasons why I write. You are the reason why I stay up editing podcasts when I get home from working my full-time job. You are the reason why I pour my soul out week after week, in the hopes that my story might inspire and encourage you in your own faith journey.

So thank you. Thank you for being here and thank you in advance for supporting me in what I’m about to share with you.

When I first met my husband eight years ago, I had no idea how our story would unfold. But I did know two things: one, he loved me; and two, he wanted to be a business owner someday. After moving from Indiana to the great state of Minnesota and then to Iowa, I knew three things: one, he loved me; two, he still wanted to be a business owner; and three, we wanted to settle somewhere warm — a place with plenty of beach and mountain scenery to go around.

From the day our moving truck unloaded our belongings here in Des Moines, we knew this city was only a chapter in our journey. We just didn’t know how long we’d be here.

Lord, please speak to my husband when the time is right to move. You know our hearts and what we desire, but we also want Your will to be done, so we will stay here until you say go.

In January, a year and a few months after we’d moved, my husband came to me and said, “I think it’s time.”

He’d already been looking at businesses to acquire for more than a year, and this time, the Lord brought a venture to him that was too good to ignore.

Five months later, I am thrilled to let you in on our little secret:Read More

Two-and-a-half years ago I packed up my car and moved across the Midwest to work as an editorial intern for Tiger Oak Publications in downtown Minneapolis.

Though my husband and I were still in college and not married at the time, we knew we needed to start entertaining ideas around where to live after college. Because our family lived in Indiana we wanted to stay in the Midwest but also loved the opportunities that cities like Nashville and Minneapolis had to offer. My summer internship in downtown Minneapolis was a chance for me to experience the city firsthand and decide whether I could see us living there.

I knew no one in the area, save two contacts: a Ball State alum who had visited the university to speak about life after college, and a Christian writer named Krisi, whom I met through the blogging community. Even though Krisi had never met me she invited me to rent a space in her home for the summer.

As I pulled up to the charming old green house, Krisi and a few other roommates were waiting for me on the porch.

“Need any help with anything?” they asked.

“Sure! Thanks so much!” I replied.

“You must be starving,” Krisi said.

I looked at my watch and felt my stomach grumble. It was 8 p.m. Indiana time.

“No worries,” Krisi chuckled. “There’s a place down the street called Pizza Luce that you are going to love! We’ll take you there once all your stuff is unloaded.”

If my first night in Minneapolis wasn’t wonderful enough, my next morning would take the cake. Something you should know about me: I’m the type of person who loves adventure and exploring new places. It’s part of who I am and I think it’s also one of the reasons why I love blogging and trying new recipes all of the time. So now that you know this, maybe you’ll think me to be less crazy when I say I had planned out what I wanted to do during my first week in Minneapolis almost a month in advance.

On my first morning in Minneapolis I jumped out of bed, laced up my tennis shoes, grabbed my keys and headed to Lake Harriet, one of the four lakes that make up the city’s Chain of Lakes. With the July sun shining bright in the sky I couldn’t have asked for a better first day. Halfway through my run around the lake I stopped at an opening in the shoreline where you could see the skyscrapers of downtown shooting up from the surrounding trees. The beauty of the city and the lake overtook me and my skin became covered in happy goosebumps. I am fairly certain for the rest of my run I had a smile on my face, simply because I could not contain my joy.

When I started my internship the next day, those goosebumps returned as I drove straight into downtown. As I turned the steering wheel to follow Hwy 94 toward the Vikings stadium I heard my soul whisper deep inside, “This is my city.”

And in that moment I knew I had fallen in love with Minneapolis. It was where I belonged.

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A month ago, if you’d asked me if I would consider leaving the Twin Cities area I would have laughed in your face. After graduating from Ball State University shortly after my internship at Tiger Oak, my husband and I moved here in the middle of an arctic snowstorm (Remember two winters ago when we had an unprecedented amount of subzero temps? Yeah, that’s the winter we moved!) and even that didn’t keep us from turning the car around and leaving the city we had come to love.Read More

When Loving Well Means Taking a Huge Leap of Faith {+ Finding Joy Episode #34 with Hands Free Mama}

A Minneapolis Love Letter {And Some Pretty Big News!}

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