About Grace

My name is Grace and this is an intermittent blog of the people, things, songs, and events of my life since early 2009, when I was finishing my last semester at the University of Akron before graduating high school. I am an early nineties baby, I love God, love real food, natural birth, children, research, and music.

This is a summary of the stuff on the blog. But read the posts!!

I worked at Camp Luz, loved and treasured it. I grew with God there and it still has a special place in my heart. I hope to work at Camp Luz or another camp someday in the future (again), even though I have my precious children to keep an eye on.

I started college at EMU with great ambitions, a diet soda (pop) addiction, and a persona that I don't recognize anymore (it's 2014 now). I was to become a neurosurgeon. Looking back from the degree I graduated with (social work), I would have been a great nurse, or even better a midwife. :) but that's what I wanted to do then (stubbornly). As things careeened out of ideal, I helped myself out of it by taking a semester in DC, mindlessly working an internship that was hardly any work at all (mostly attendance), and trying to figure out what I was supposed to do with my life. I debated many different majors, memorizing that classes offered at EMU and thinking about Liberal arts, early education, and social work. I decided on social work, for the selfish reason that I could finish college in three years, not four, which is what early education would have been.

I decided in March I wanted to do a short term mission assignment, and went to Queens, NY for three months, and worked my butt off, learned a lot about myself, and burned out a little bit. I learned about needing to be fed, not just giving and giving and giving. There were a few people who fed me while I was there. I treasure them in my heart still. I was exhausted from working 50 hours a week with an understaffed children's program, and in my last week, a church member brought me to a vegan restaurant (that was my style at the time), and bought me a manicure. And it was pure heaven.

I went home to OH and suddenly realized how quiet the rest of the world was. Then went off to EMU and jumped into the social work program. The relationship I had high expectations for ended and I moved on, and moved "in" to the dorm with friends who supported me and blossomed me and I wrote excellent music that semester. I started training for a half marathon with another blessed friend. I was outspoken and bright and independent. And I met this conservative, funny, Biblically minded guy who stole kisses and my heart and whisked me off my feet (or was it the other way around, Ben?)

We started dating at the end of November and got engaged in August (after a loong waiting summer of me working in OH and him traveling the world for school). Then school started again (my last year) and we were busy and working hard. Social issues had claimed my heart and passion and I was loving my degree and field and couldn't wait to get out and do it! We had our wedding scheduled for May and nothing could go wrong.

We found out we were pregnant with Naisa in February and the wedding was in May and she was due in September. . . we had some rationalizing sin and priorities mixed up and we figured that out and repented but we still had a baby three months after getting married. I chose to be a stay at home mom and preferred it to the possibility of continuing school. Ben finished his last semester at school as I was pregnant and then had Naisa. We worked with a midwife for my prenatal care and had a successful water birth eleven days after her due date. Breastfeeding didn't go well and I pumped for 13 months.

I started researching vaccinations and stumbled upon the real food traditional diet movement and we made baby steps in that direction. We now eat eight to ninety percent real food (and then 10% organic ice cream and coffee haha)

Naisa has grown up nicely, when she was one and a couple weeks, we had another positive pregnancy test (two surprises in a row!), and then began the journey of being pregnant again. This pregnancy was different. I thought it was twins for a little while (it was one breech boy, before he flipped), I swelled, I still gained the same amount of weight (and accepted it). He was born at 39 weeks in the water as well, and breastfeeding had a rocky start but seems to be going well.

Ben and I are now beginning a transition to a new place. a new job for him and as we go I will blog about it!