How Did I Get Here?

Chapter 2

I thought I might need to slow down and give a little of the "back story" to how in the world I ever agreed to move to the "very bad place."

First of all, on June 23, 2001, I married my junior high, high school, and college sweet heart, and I committed to love, honor, and cherish him, in sickness and in health, in the good times and the bad, no matter what.  I knew him when he was 14 years old and committed his life to ministry.  We were close to engagement when he climbed out of a tree stand after hunting over a Christmas break and drove straight to my parents house to tell me that the Lord had confirmed to him that He was calling him to pastor.  He had started college knowing his calling was ministry but was resisting the call to be a "preacher."  He kept "telling" the Lord..."anything but a preacher."  (He just finished his 10th year as a Senior Pastor! Don't ever say "NEVER!") After we got married, we had a year in our college town for him to work while I finished my senior year of college.  During that year, he sought counsel from many people concerning seminary, and we prayed about where the Lord may be leading us.  He felt the Lord was leading us to New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary, and I was called to support that decision, even if I didn't "feel" it in my soul!  However, I was initially OK with New Orleans because it was and still is the closest to our families.

We planned a visit to the seminary in January of 2002.  At the time, I was applying to a very competitive Master's Degree Program at LSU Health Sciences in NOLA, and I had a preview weekend scheduled.  We scheduled a preview weekend at the seminary as well, but we were not able to look at housing at that time.  I can't remember why now.  A sweet couple we knew from college lived in New Orleans (they were not affiliated with the seminary).  We got to visit with them while we were there and enjoy some fun in the city, and although the weekend was overwhelming, I started to think, "Okay, I can do this."

When we finished our school tours in NOLA that weekend, my husband and I went to my husband's family's duck camp on the Mississippi River to duck hunt with his dad and brother.  Why is this important information?  What happened there one night was foreshadowing the future, but little did I know it!!  Their "camp" was actually a very nice 5th wheel travel trailer parked in the middle of a farm field next to a levee.  There are creatures called MICE that get in those nice travel trailers sitting smack dab in the middle of hundreds of acres of flooded rice fields, and one just so happened to be in the trailer that night!  My father-in-law and brother-in-law (who wasn't married at the time) had so nicely given my husband and me the one "bedroom".  We were already in bed, and I heard my BIL loudly whisper to my FIL that there was a mouse running around.  They both tried to get it unsuccessfully, and they were trying to be very quiet.  However, when the "door" to the bedroom is a thin, sliding, contraption made of something similar to velum, you hear EVERYTHING!!!  I finally heard my BIL "whisper" to my FIL, "Let's just pretend we got it.  She'll never know!" (Wonder if he could get away with that now that he's married? ha!) Of course, by that point my heart was pounding in my head, and I was ready to kill 3 men, including my husband for NOT DOING SOMETHING!!!  For CRYING OUT LOUD, I had agreed to go to a duck camp and was planning to hunt the next day!!!  He could at least kill the mouse!!!!!  Like I said, little did I know how that mouse was a sign of things to come!  I'll explain further in Chapter 3 or 4!

I lived through that weekend, and we arrived to June 2002.  We needed to go back to NOBTS to finalize our pending move and to settle on housing.  We finally got to look at our on-campus housing options.  We walked in the one and only on-campus housing option available, and I burst into tears.  If looks could kill, I would be dead.  My husband was furious that I was standing in the middle of this apartment crying in front of a total stranger who probably thought I was THE.MOST.SPOILED.WOMAN TO EVER LIVE!!  It was basically one big room with a small bedroom and bath off to one side.  Three rooms total.  And OLD. VERY OLD.  Like 50-60 years old with no updates besides lots and lots of white paint old.  And it smelled OLD.  Looking back it was not as bad as what I perceived at that moment.  I could have lived there and made it cute and made it "mine," but at that point in my life, I was quite overwhelmed and immature in a lot of ways.  (And in the Seminary's defense they were in the process of making plans to add more updated housing.) My husband tried to smooth things over with the housing guy who was trying his best to reassure me.  We left the apartment building with the guy saying he "might" have an off-campus apartment that "might" be available in July, and that if we wanted, we could come look at his and his wife's apartment in that building so we could have a general idea of what the possibility might look like (We could not see the actual #219).  So, we drove to The Gentilly apartment complex at 5700 St. Anthony Avenue.  The outside was definitely a little overwhelming; (I hope you gathered a little of that from my description in my previous post) however, the actual units inside were much nicer.  Two bedrooms, one bath, a small kitchen with a living and dining area.   The building was still old, but it had been updated a little better.  I felt better.  There was hope!  All I needed to start doing now was PRAYING that we could get in the unit that was a "maybe".  Finally, confirmation arrived that #219 was open, and that it was ours!  Thankful!  I was back to the "I can do this," and then, the actual day arrived . . .

The Big Easy.....

I mentioned in my previous post that my life or I should have said my family's life has taken an interesting turn in the past few months.  My husband has recently made a transition from a full time Senior Pastor of a Southern Baptist Church to an Associate Dean and Assistant Professor at New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary.  We are truly humbled by this calling and transition, but at the same time it has been a little overwhelming dealing with all of this change.  The children and I are staying in our current town while we try to sell our home and to allow our two oldest children to finish school.  My husband is living in New Orleans during the week and traveling home on the weekends.  We have been blessed beyond measure by our congregation who has asked my husband to continue to preach on Sunday mornings while we as well as the church are in this "transition" phase.  It means so much to my family that our church family would want him to do that....such a unique relationship!

I have been thinking so much about where my "adventure" first began in New Orleans and how our family is preparing to move back there.  I thought it may be best to start with the very beginning of our "journey" for you to understand where we've been and how far we've ....or I've come....to even be willing to consider moving back to "The Big Easy"......because living there and moving there as a "newly" married couple (we had just celebrated our 1 year anniversary) was NOT EASY!!!!  This is going to be a rather lengthy "retelling" of my story, so I will write in "Chapters" with other "thoughts" and stories thrown in the middle of those "Chapters."  I know ....probably not the most cohesive structure...hence imPERFECT!

Disclaimer:  Remember I'm writing real truths and struggles of my life!  I have said things and responded in ways that I'm ashamed of; however, I am writing my story in hopes of encouraging others to know that we all have struggles and through a personal relationship with Jesus Christ can we be made PERFECT!

Chapter 1
     It was July of 2002 at 5700 St. Anthony Avenue, New Orleans, Louisiana.  My husband and I, my parents, and my husband's parents had just stepped out of our vehicles.  The sun and heat pierced through our souls and any other living creature, for that matter.  The heat hummed and radiated in our ears, thicker than the black mud on the banks of the Mississippi.  The humidity soaked every inch of our bodies until we were covered in perspiration --- hair matted to the back of our necks and legs and arms, little trickles of wetness pooled on our upper lips and slid down the side of our faces faster than the white waters flowing over Niagra Falls.  Mind you, we had only been out of our vehicles for approximately 5 minutes.  This was the first indication that we had arrived in a place only a couples of inches above hell!  (Especially since New Orleans is below sea level!) (And so that I won't be misunderstood, I'll change "hell" to a "very bad place.")

     The second indication that we had arrived to a "very bad place" was the fact that we were standing outside a prison - "Fort Gentilly" as my dad rightly named it.  Stout wrought iron gates and heavy iron bars kept the public from entering the building.  Wire fencing with rolled barbed wire stood at attention around the perimeter of one of the parking lots.  A security officer "walked the beat" 24/7.  And, inside this prison was a "cell" just for my husband and me. Cell #219.  Apartment #219.  Second floor.  Up the concrete and steel stairs, down the walkway to the middle of the north side.  We arrived to our cell, parents in tow, and opened the door to a world and an adventure that would grow and stretch me like no other had in my 22 years of life.  

To be continued...

I'm Back!

Well, I've been "gone" for over a year now, and I know....I didn't keep my promise on completing my "For Crying Out Loud" saga from 2013.  I issued an "Apology" and "promised" to finish it and to push through in my blogging efforts.  However, I fell very short, and I have definitely failed miserably in the area of blogging.

My life, however, has taken an interesting turn recently, and I want to be more intentional about documenting my "story/journey."  I have a whirlwind of "thoughts" throughout my crazy days, and I really do have a desire to write them down.

So, I'm not going to make promises, but I am going to make a good, strong effort to be more intentional about blogging/journaling my imPERFECT life!