Geee-tars

This past weekend we went to Tyler to visit my Mom. We love going to spend time with my Mom and really love when we get to spend time with our nephew, Boston. Boston really loves Ryan and loves playing music with Ryan. They play guitars together, play the piano together, and even sing some songs together (okay it is just the "ABC" song, but he is ONLY two!) Here are pictures of the jam session!

disclaimer: Boston is not naked, he has on a pull-up after spending the morning at the lake :)

They both started with their "own" guitars.

Boston quickly learned that Ryan's guitar sounded much better than his little red one and wanted to switch.

This picture reminds me of the movie "August Rush." I'm pretty sure Boston is also going to be a musical prodigy!

What If?

Back in March I read a blog entry by Donald Miller. It challenged you to ask yourself the question "what if?" and actually follow through with that question. It was an inspiring blog to me and you can read it for yourselves here:

http://donmilleris.com/2010/03/25/the-single-most-powerful-question-you-can-ask/

After reading, Ryan and I began to ask ourselves this question. What are some things that we would really love to do, but for some reason are not doing them? Maybe we are scared, maybe we are scared of what others will say and think, maybe we just don't take the time, or maybe we don't think we can really do it??

Many of you know that Ryan and I plan on moving to PA and then out of the country in the next year or so. These are really big steps and they are scary to me at times, but we are doing it because we know God is leading us every step of the way. For me, it is often the smaller things that are harder to do, the smaller "what ifs" that are more scary for me.

So, after two years of thinking about it and talking nonstop about it the last few months(poor Ryan) I am doing my "what if"!! I really love jewelry and I learned about a company called Silpada. It is one of those companies where you become an independent rep for them and then throw parties in women's homes and sell your product. From the first time I heard about Silpada, I wanted to do it. However, I was afraid

1. People would think I was silly for wanting to sell jewelry

2. I would lose money

3. I would be horrible at it

BUT, I painfully put those worries aside and ordered my kit. I have had three parties so far and I am loving it. It is really fun hanging out with new ladies and catching up with old friends while looking at beautiful jewelry. I am still scared that after a little while no one will want to have any more parties and I still feel a little silly when I tell people about it, but I did it and that is the point. I think it is really good for us to do things that make us feel a little uncomfortable and silly.

Maybe reading this you are a little disappointed that my "what if" was not more dramatic or life changing...sorry if that is the case. OR maybe, just maybe there is something you have been thinking "what if" about and maybe, just maybe my little story of Silpada will inspire you!

For some of you, it maybe be something huge or it may be something "small". What if you decided to become friends with someone totally different than you? What if you decided to start working out? What if you started a blog or a journal? What if you adopted a child or became a foster parent? What if you got married? What if you started eating more vegetables(working on this one :)? What if you learned a new language? The list can go on and on.

What is your "what if"???

PS Anyone want to host a Silpada party for me??? :)

6 months

On Saturday, Ryan and I celebrated our six month anniversary. It is hard to believe we have really been married six months. I had defensive driving all day, but arrived home to a bunch of tulips and pictures that Ryan had developed of us. We also got our wedding video on Saturday so it was really fun to watch it and remember all the special moments.

We celebrated by going to the Oasis for dinner. It is a restaurant on Lake Travis with absolutely beautiful views. They had a live band and so we spend the evening (along with thousands of others) dancing, eating, and watching the sunset.

Here are some pictures from our night. After we got home we made chocolate covered strawberries and bananas for dessert!

In honor of our 6 month anniversary I thought I would write about the top six things I love about Ryan and being married to him:

1. Learning Together. The amazing thing about marriage is that you have someone to process and learn with all the time. Whether it is learning new things about each other, God, cooking, music, or about ourselves it is a beautiful thing to do with someone.

2. Saturday Morning Pancakes. It has been a tradition for Ryan to cook pancakes every Saturday morning. He has even invented a new type of pancake. He scrambles eggs then he pours the pancake batter around the eggs and makes an egg pancake. It is delicious!

3. Joy. Ryan is one of the most positive people I know. He finds joy in so many things(like good food, a good book(he even loves books that are thousands of pages long and loves reading through all of it!), good relationships, and good wine). He has helped to teach me to enjoy the small things.

4. Date Night. We decided when we got married that we would have a night every week where we just spend time with each other. We use this time to focus on our marriage and our hopes and dreams for our marriage and each other. We do different things on date night, for example; salsa dancing, exploring different coffee shops, watching 24, and checking out different restaurants. Austin has endless options for this kind of thing.

5. Snuggling. I really love to snuggle. Marriage = constant snuggle partner.

6. Unconditional love and forgiveness. We have quickly learned that the closer you are to a person the more that person has the ability to hurt you. We definitely are not perfect and have already done a lot of selfish, hurtful things to one another. The amazing thing is that God has given us so much grace and we are able to extend that to one another and experience more of God through one another's love and forgiveness. It is such an amazing thing to completely, unashamedly know and be known by someone in marriage. I am so thankful God gave us this gift in order to for us to have a very small glimpse of His TRUE, NEVER FAILING unconditional love and forgiveness.

I have been accused(I believe wrongly) of still being in the "honeymoon phase" and wearing "rose-colored glasses." So in an attempt to fight this stereo-type and be honest about marriage I decided to include a list of 6 annoying things about marriage:

1. Getting elbowed in the face. Ryan likes to sleep with his arm up under my pillow, well when he gets tired of his arm being in this position he carefully removes it. More than once, this has resulted in his elbow jamming into my face in the middle of the night.

2. Clutter. Ryan loves books and to study. He is usually reading multiple books at a time. On most days if you come to our apartment you can find anywhere from 5-10 books scattered around...on the table, on the desk, ect. (Okay I have to admit a few of the books are mine, but most of them are his!)

3. The Pregnant Question. Now that we are married anytime we tell someone we have some news we want to share with them, they automatically think we are pregnant. I guess it is just that time in our lives.

4. Alarm clock. Ryan is a morning person and I am most definitely not. He likes to wake up really early and read and study. He likes to set his alarm a good 30 minutes before he wants to wake up, this means that the alarm goes off around 5:30 multiple times every morning. At least it is a soft alarm that sounds like wind chimes.

5. Weird noise. Ryan does this weird thing where he makes a noise in his throat/nose. It is really hard to explain. He does it when his throat or ear itches. It is very strange to me. I think he learned it from someone in his family :)

6. Decisions. I have learned now being two people instead of one means that you check with each other before making plans and decisions. I think this is really a good thing and teaching us what it means to not be so selfish. However, it does mean that it takes a lot longer to make plans and decisions that it did as a single person.

I love being married to Ryan Hartsfield and hope you enjoyed a little glimpse into our first six months!

Fun Weekend

One of the reasons I love Austin is because of all the unique events you can attend.  This past weekend was SXSW and the kite festival.  Jessica, Autumn(college friends), and Maggie(co-worker of Jessica and Autumn/new friend) were all in town.  Saturday we spent the day at Town Lake canoeing and playing frisbee.  Then we took a trip to Mt. Bonnell.  On Sunday we went to the kite festival.  

At the kite festival there were hundreds of people flying kites.  The skies looked amazing! It is so refreshing to spend time with good friends. 

Here are a few pictures from the weekend.  I really hope to have a better camera in the next few months, but for now these were taken on the iPhone :)

*top of Mt. Bonnell overlooking the Lake.  I love these girls!*

*Maggie's uncle has a sweet house on Lake Austin.  This is Ryan and I on the dock.*

Invitation to Celebrate

*Noori,(bday girl's father) telling everyone how thankful he is that they came to celebrate*

Last Monday night we had a knock on our door and it was our neighbor inviting us to come to a birthday party the next night for his daughter's first birthday. We said we would come, but we had no idea what a huge party this was going to be! There were about 30ish people at this party, a huge cake, lots of sweets, and very loud music.

The family is from Iraq and they have lived in America over a year now. By most people's standards their life looks sad and depressing, and in many ways they have suffered things I can not fathom. They have left their homes and families to come to a new, unfamiliar place and get jobs that pay $8 an hour at best. However, on Tuesday night the only thing felt around the swimming pool of our apartments was joy and celebration.

*sweets and women*

I started thinking about parties and celebrations and what our lives look like as believers. I will admit, I can be pessimistic and often see the hurt and pain in life before the joy and celebration. However, I was reminded that life now is hard and there are struggles but we must learn to celebrate in the midst of it all. Not celebrate as if there is nothing bad happening, but celebrate because we know of the joy that is coming and celebrate the present joy we experience because we know Jesus.

Isaiah 25:6 Says:

^-8But here on this mountain, God-of-the-Angel-Armies
will throw a feast for all the people of the world,
A feast of the finest foods, a feast with vintage wines,
a feast of seven courses, a feast lavish with gourmet desserts.
And here on this mountain, God will banish
the pall of doom hanging over all peoples,
The shadow of doom darkening all nations.
Yes, he'll banish death forever.
And God will wipe the tears from every face.
He'll remove every sign of disgrace
From his people, wherever they are.
Yes! God says so!

(the Message)

*Hamdia(mother), Noor(bday girl), and me*

A great feast is coming and our King will reign and make all things completely right one day. Yet we still are living in the Kingdom of God right now. This has always been a mystery to me(and many others I am sure.) The Kingdom is among us and yet bombs are killing people everyday, children go to sleep with no parents, people are starving, and women and children are forced to be sex slaves. What does this all mean? I am definitely not a theologian, but I believe God will make all of this completely right. He will do away with all this sin and injustice. This is what Isaiah says. But what about now...well we are the body of Christ in the world. I pray we become Kingdom workers who fight for these injustices in our everyday lives. I think understanding that God (not us) is the one who will actually make them right gives us the freedom to celebrate and have joy in the midst of such sorrow and ordinary-ness of life today. We know the end of the story will redeem all the regular, hard, and even boring parts. So party on...with all of your heart!

"We need to understand that God does at times give us an infusion of joy even in our bitterness and hard-heartedness. But that is the abnormal situation. God's normal means of bringing his joy is by redeeming and sanctifying the ordinary junctures of human life. When the members of a family are filled with love and compassion and a spirit of service to one another, that family has reason to celebrate."

Celebration of Discipline- Richard Foster

Listening is so HARD!

We just returned from two weeks of training, evaluation and orientation in order to go overseas.  The last two weeks were intense to say the least.  It was definitely information overload and I keep asking myself, "What was the main thing we learned?"

We learned a lot about transformation, peacemaking, marriage, singleness, language learning and much much more.  However, I (Kristin) think the one thing that we learned the most about was listening.  Most of my friends would probably say I am a good listener, but I am talking about listening to God.  So many times when I pray, I come with so much talking and lists of what I want to "tell" God.(as if he doesn't know)  I have been reading and thinking about Romans 8 especially this part:

²⁶In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express. ²⁷And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God's will.

Growing up Southern Baptist and currently being a part of a Reformed church, I find myself being a little bit skeptical and even afraid of the "Spirit".  As soon as people start talking about the Holy Spirit, I get pictures in my head of people running around yelling and making people pass out.  This is extreme and un-biblical.  These past two weeks I felt stretched and even uncomfortable at times, but I also began to realize that I was in a way trying to control God by limiting what I believe about Him.  God can't be controlled and I can't change his character, but my belief and understanding were lacking and therefore wrong.  God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit are a beautiful mystery.  I want to know that beautiful mystery more intimately in spirit and in truth.  I am practicing more listening in my prayer life and more dependence on the Spirit.  He intercedes for the saints in accordance with God's will, I definitely want to be a part of that!  Please pray for Ryan and I as we learn to listen more and talk less in prayer.  I pray that this will stir you to also become a better listener :)

Life as we know it.....

We have decided that a blog is the perfect way to share all the new things we are learning and experiencing right now.  We believe that God has been and continues to write a beautiful story of bringing us out of captivity and death and into life.  Our story is just a very small part of this beautiful script that has been written since creation.  We hope you enjoy it :)  

This is the beginning of "Our Story"

Kristin:   While living in Greece, I became really close with a couple (about my parents age...YOUNG!) Tracy and Mary Marks.  They were my family away from home.  During the summer of  07 their daughter Amy came to Greece to visit for a few weeks.  One night we were talking about boys (of course!) and Amy said, "Mom, do you know who would be so perfect for Kristin?.....Ryan Hartsfield!"  Mary said, "YEAH!"  So Ryan and I became friends on facebook; however, I didn't even think twice about it because I thought there was no possible way I would ever really meet this guy.  

  After moving back to Texas from Greece and a lot of crazy decisions that didn't make any sense, I ended up moving to Austin, Tx.  I loved Austin and knew there were refugees there so I moved!  On November 25, 2008, Amy Marks was in Austin and invited me to go out to eat.  I thought it was going to be just me and her; however, she had invited quite a few other people.  One of those people happened to be Ryan Hartsfield.  Because of my experience in Greece I have a really huge passion for refugees and Ryan just happened to live in apartments with refugees.  So funny how that works out!  That night we talked mostly about refugees in Austin.  A few days after meeting, I sent Ryan a facebook message asking him if they were doing English classes or anything with the refugees.  He responded by answering my questions and asking me to go have coffee/tea with him.  We began to teach together and drink together and quickly fell in love!!!