weekend adventures: library day

It's official: Brian & I are official library cardholder members in Orange County. I guess it means I need to start reading more ...

To add to our library excursions, we visited our alma mater. Since being students there, they renovated our school's library. Pretty sweet if you asked me. 

1...2...3...

Three years ago, I married my best friend. 

Best decision I ever made.

Photo taken by Sam May

I'm so blessed to call him my husband. One of the first times I said "my husband" to his face, I cried ugly tears. Like legitimate ugly tears; pretty sure that's where the sob monster made her first appearance. My husband makes fun of me because I didn't even cry at our wedding; and yet I chose to weep when I called him my husband. 

This year has been an amazing year of growth for both of us. Looking back at the people we were then a year ago and who we are now, God has definitely played a huge role in our growth as a married couple. It's been a pretty eventful year for us. From scares to surprises, we continue to draw closer to God together. And it's been a ride. 

Photo taken by Miriã Braga

Sounds cheesy, but I love my hubs more than ever; I really do. As I mentioned in previous posts, God taught me a lot during my time in Mozambique this past summer. Learning to lead with my husband was a big step for us; and I'm thankful that we did it together. It wasn't always easy, but we had to trust where God was leading us. Where I was weak in areas, he was strong; and where he needed support, I was there by his side. There were times where we had to make sacrifices for our team, such as spending time apart. But even during those times, God drew us closer. Learning to be a married couple on the mission field allowed us to experience God's love in new ways (a post we will write soon). When you experience God's unconditional love firsthand, you learn to love others the way He does.

Happy 3 years love! Can't wait to go on more adventures with you. 

Photo taken by Maggie Carranza

one day tripper

A few days before Memorial Day weekend, we decided to be spontaneous (well, our version of spontaneous) for the upcoming weekend. We decided to drive out to San Diego and spend a whole day at Coronado and Old Town San Diego.

It was the perfect day to be down there. Perfect weather. Not super busy. Good grub.

 Love him.

he's 29.

This is my husband. He just turned 29 this past Saturday. Such a cutie.

If you know him, then you know this: He doesn't like celebrating his birthday. And to some extent, I agree with his reasons. Don't want to be in the center of attention. Just want to keep it simple. 

But if you know me, then you know this: Everyone deserves a celebration for his/her birthday ... whether it's a big or small one. I've noticed each year for birthdays, it gets harder and harder trying to be creative with the presents I give him. One year, I gave him presents throughout the day. Another year I bought random knick knacks that reminded me of him with cute little post-its describing each one. And another year I bought him tickets for Wicked (can't beat that one!). This year, I flat out asked, "What do you want for your birthday?" Most married women can agree: It's better to ask him what he wants. But of course, the creative side came out and I found myself finding other pieces to go along with his present. And it worked. And he loved it. 

Toms. Johnny Cash. Dress socks. "Oh the Places You'll Go." 

For his birthday, we went to the place filled with art and lush gardens ... otherwise known as the Getty Museum in LA.

We went with a couple of our friends that day, and just spent a few hours admiring the scenery and artwork located on this hill. My personal favorites were paintings by Monet and Van Gogh. Being a history buff, he enjoyed reading the stories behind the different types of artwork. I loved how excited and intrigued he got reading each description. 

The day was just perfect for his 29th birthday. Worried that the couple days before filled with rain and not-so-fun weather would influence this day, the sun peaked out. I love celebrating each day with him, but I more so love spending his birthday with him. Who wouldn't want to treat their best friend out on their special day? 

I'm blessed to be his wife. 

Side note: The first time we went here was during our first Valentine's Day together.

my saturday mornings look like this.

Most people have the privilege to sleep in on Saturday mornings.

Not me.

It's soccer season for my hubby.

 

There's always blood

He absolutely loves soccer. Even more than his UCLA Bruins (whoa).

Before we dated, I was never interested in soccer. When I was younger, I'd flip through the channels on tv and always stumbled soccer games on espn, telemundo, or whatever. Even though it was for a few seconds, I was easily bored at watching both teams pass the ball to one another.

When Brian & I were dating, he'd told me how he loved soccer and would start naming players, both international and national, that I had no clue of. When February came around in our dating relationship, I learned he played soccer for a church league. As a good girlfriend, I went to watch his games showing my support (even though 3/4 of the time I had no clue except to scream and shout when our team mad a GOALLLLLLLLLL!). During this same season, we would go/watch L.A. Galaxy soccer games where I learned a lot of the technical terms, how the game really works, and the names of the players. This has gone on for four years, and I'm proud to say I'm a soccer fan!

Krystle & I aka Soccer Moms

Another plus side of going to these games are these two cuties:

our next adventure

God has been revealing a lot to us…especially within the last month. Before I begin to tell you what He’s done, let’s back track a bit…

Since we've been married, we really haven't been living out the Gospel. Not to say we have been straying away from our faith, but to be quite honest, we have not been pursuing God in an intentional way. It’s very easy for us to live life filled with routines; Routines are not bad at all – it's when we've become defined by them and allow them to dictate how we carry on life versus asking God for guidance. Within the last year, we decided it needed to change: we got more involved with church, viewed our jobs as ministries not as identities, and viewed these pauses/delays in our lives as God's way of preparing us something beyond what we know.

Over a month ago, Brian and I were asked if we wanted to lead a team to Mozambique through Vanguard University. Obviously, my desire is to go back, and I would've said yes right away. But since Brian and I have been in this season of waiting on God, we knew we needed to pray about it. Not only did we pray about the trip, but prayed about where God is leading us. During those same weeks, Brian and I had really tough conversations about next summer; we knew we wanted to go on a missions trip, but we both had conflicting hearts when it came to it: I wanted to go back to Mozambique (leading or not leading), and Brian felt more opened to going on a missions trip outside Mozambique via ROCKHARBOR (rockharbor.org), but still had Mozambique in the back of his mind. There was the possibility that if Brian didn't felt called to go, I could lead the team by myself…or we go somewhere else. There was also the stress of requesting three weeks off; it’s not often that companies would allow for an extended vacation. So imagine two weeks filled with lots of praying, crying (well just me, of course), talking and talking…and you get the gist of it all.

At the end of those two weeks, God answered. He called us back to Mozambique; He called us to lead a team there; and He called us to do it together.

By God’s will, we were able to take off 18 days; the conversations we had with our bosses were filled with ease, and not so much of what he had predicted would happen. We both felt that even though the idea of going somewhere else was something we were opened to, we knew that God was opening a door for us to return back to Mozambique this upcoming summer. Since we’ve been together, I had always imagined both of us doing missions together. VBS, in a way, was the stepping stone we needed to get back into ministry. It definitely reawakened our desire to do God's work in our community, but also reawakened our heart for ministry overseas.

So for the next nine months, we will be preparing for this adventure. Excited? Yes. Anxious? Yes. Nervous? Absolutely. But we know that this is where God is calling us; He wouldn’t have given us something that we couldn’t handle.

We don't know how involved in missions we will be – be a missionary, help send people to missions, or lead small trips. Either way, we are confident that ministry is a huge part in our lives, and we want to obey God in all of it.

For now, this is where He has us.

We're heading back home.

two years

As I write this, I have to pause and think. I've been married for two years. That's half the time I've known Brian. Crazy and surreal...

It's been an amazing two years. Has it been perfect? No, but it definitely has been adventurous...discovering who we are and what role we play, realizing what marriage is (and continuing to learn more each day), and fighting battles, mentally, physically, and spiritually together. And through this adventure, we learn to rely on God more and more each day.

I married my best friend when I was 22. I was fresh out of college (eish). I barely started a job I disliked. And I had no idea how to be a wife. The first six months I struggled fitting into this new role, this new transition. I constantly found myself crying every week, because I wasn't the "perfect wife." I had certain expectations that I thought had to be filled. I was always comparing myself to other married couples. In the first six months, my biggest fear was letting Brian down. And with that fear overriding my life, my insecurities were far from hidden. I thought our marriage had to be perfect. 

Through our imperfections, God reveals the true beauty of marriage. Being married is challenging and hard. But it's also amazing and full of laughs (or in my case, snorts). Each day you learn something new about the other person...and even yourself. You learn the real meaning of love when the other person says, "I'm sorry." It's about learning to live together and doing ministry together as one. 

When I think about our marriage, I can't help but smile. I am one lucky girl.

To this day, people keep asking me, "How's married life?" Honestly, I don't know how to answer that. Most of the time, I just smile and reply, "It's great!" But even that response doesn't embody how I feel about married life. It's a whirlwind of emotions; obviously the good ones weighs over the bad. But how do you explain to someone in a few minutes (or even seconds) how married life is? The only thing I can think of is this: 

I love being married.

I love living life with my best friend. 

And when we allow God to be the center of our marriage, we see Him working in our lives in ways beyond our own strengths.

Happy Two Year Anniversary my love :) Can't wait to celebrate more!

blue bookshelf

It was almost four years ago. Brian invited me over to help paint his desk that he assembled. After opening the lid of the can of paint, he realized the black paint he had requested turned out to be dark blue. Pure disappointment. I assured him that it was a good color (but knew black would've been the better color). It took a few strokes on the desk to convince both of us that the accident made by the guy at Home Depot turned out to be...well, not an accident. In the words of a Chinese turtle, "There are no accidents." The color turned out better than we thought and even added some color to his room. 

So I've been using this color ever since. In all mediums in fact. Aside from the usual/random crafting I do, it has influenced my life. It ended up being one of my color's at my wedding. Without realizing it, I find myself buying striped shirts and tank tops with that exact color of blue. Even bought a blue car :) 

We decided to paint our wooden bookshelf this color. We have another one that is painted as well; the splatter paint on the backing was by accident (aka me), but it provided a really good background. With the paintbrushes in our hand filled with blue thickness, we painted. 

Success.

new beginnings

Recently, news of engagements, weddings, and babies have sprung up one after the other. Friends are traveling oversees to venture into new endeavors. Graduations are lined up with students anxiously awaiting to walk across the stage. It seems like everyone is entering into a new phase in their life, knowing & not knowing what lies ahead in their journey. 

Brian & I finally moved into our new place, and we love it. A new change for the both of us. To start off new and refreshed. We sometimes find ourselves pausing in the middle of our tasks, looking at each other, and smiling knowing that within the next year, our home will be a place filled with new & old friends, with challenges & triumphs, and with growth & love.  

Change is an overwhelming feeling. If you're like me, it's a mix of jumping in the air and having an emotional breakdown. (Exaggerated? Just a bit...) But regardless of the type of change, we can never predict the impact it will have on us until we view it later in life. It can be days or a year from now or even 10 years. All we can do is live each day to its fullest, conquering obstacles, rejoicing in our victories, and even learning from our mistakes. Change happens for a reason, and the reasons are different for all of us. It allows us to start somewhere new, to build a foundation from the ground up. It reveals more of who we are, and our purpose in life.

Welcome to a season of new beginnings.

memories

I can't believe it's already mid-April! With all the busyness in life, it's made the year go by fast!

In less than two weeks, Brian and I will be moving into our new place, and we still have halfway to go in packing everything up. As much as I am very excited to move into our new place, I do not enjoy packing. Well for one, allergies. And, of course, I'm not a fan of packing in general. It's too much work, not enough time, and I'm discovering bugs have made some of our boxes their home :(  

It wasn't until I came across my college-marked boxes that I had a difficult time sorting through. I hadn't opened them for almost two years. From endless pictures to notes my residents wrote on my corkboard to even little knick knacks I've collected on adventures with friends—the memories came flooding back to me. Every time I came across another keepsake, I paused during my sorting/packing process and proceeded to tell Brian the ENTIRE back story of the piece.

Sorting through my boxes, Brian took out this little bottle out and knew by my facial expression what it was and that it was a keeper. This little bottle contained dirt that I collected from the first time I went on a mission trip to Mozambique. The day before we left to go back home, a few of us decided to use these leftover mini bottles to collect the dirt from different parts of the orphanage: the school where we taught arts and crafts to the children in the community, in the refatorio where we shared our meals and stories with new friends, in the church where we witnessed the beauty of God's grace and love through the joyful cries of the congregation, and even right under the feet of the little children who blessed us more than we can imagine. Sigh. I've held on to this little thing for five years. It was more than just a bottle of dirt…it represented a turning point in my life.

In these boxes, each little piece had a story. And all these stories represent the person I am today. I was reminded that my college years weren't just about living independently from my parents or focusing on my major. It was about finding myself, who I am, who God created me to be. I was also reminded that I'm still on that journey. God is still doing work in my life. It didn't stop right after I graduated; He continues to move in my life in ways that are beyond my reach. In college, it was more visible because I was surrounded by a community of people who also witnessed God creating beauty in their brokenness. But now, I'm learning more about myself in a new light, in new environments, and in new relationships. And I constantly see God's hand in any situation that I'm in.

As much as I wanted to hold on to every single treasure, I had to let some of them go. But the memories, their stories, will still live on. They are a part of me. And I'll continue to create new ones each day as I continue on my journey.