Liebster Award!!!

Thanks Haley @ For Everything there is a Season for nominating me for the Liebster Blog Award! It's an award given to blogs with less than 200 followers who the giver thinks deserve a little more recognition! Thank you Haley for recognizing Fast Forward Girl for this award!!!

Here are the rules:

1) Show your thanks by linking the sweet person who nominated you.

2) Leave links to 5 of your top blogs and leave a comment letting them know!

3) Post the award on your blog.

4) Enjoy the Love :)

I'm giving this award to five blogs that I love to stalk read! 

1. Rachel @ Semantics of Shalom This is my beautiful sister in law! She is wife to my brother in law, Chris and mother to my 2 beautiful nieces Ariella Sophia & Jocelyn Michelle. Rachel challenges me with her writing and her beautiful heart. I'm so bummed that we live far away from each other because I'm blessed to call this lovely lady a sister of mine! 

2. Laura @ One. Step. at. a. Time. This pretty lady has been a BFF of mine since......... I think fourth grade?! I admire her strong love for God and her ever bubbly personality! I have so many beautiful and crazy memories and inside jokes with this girl and I love that through blog world we've been able to keep in touch despite the fact that we're now in different States! It's so important to have people with whom  you go wayyy back. Good for the soul :) 

3. Chana @ More than Diamonds I've recently gotten addicted to this beautiful woman's blog! I love clicking over to her blog for fun fashion ideas! She has her own unique sense of style and I've found myself challenged to take a few new risks with my wardrobe thanks to her classy way of being adventurous with her style! I love how fashion forward she is while still honoring God with her clothes! And c'mon, what girl doesn't love a few new wardrobe ideas? You might find yourself resurrecting an old piece in a new way thanks to Chana's creative suggestions!

4. Emily @ Amazing Grapes I've gained a fast friend in this amazing woman! She has such awesome life experiences and I love how refreshingly honest her blog is. She also has a great knack for making me laugh :) I'm constantly learning something from her, and I often find myself living vicariously through some of her experiences! She's so relateable and fun! 

5. Sarah @ Playing House This woman is an inspiration! She has 2 young kiddos who she is raising while her hubby is away serving our country! Sarah and I have so much in common and I love reading her blog because I feel like we're chilling in sweats on her couch just chatting! She looks like seriously the most fun mom ever and her 2 cuties, Peyton (yup!) and Vandis are lucky little kiddos for sure! 

I hope you enjoy checking out these five wonderful blogs!!! Give them some love! 

And P.S. Thank you all so much for your outpouring of love, support and comments on my last post! I appreciate each and every comment made and I felt so encouraged by reading them! This motherhood journey is truly a wild ride, but it's one that is so rewarding in so many ways!

Catch Up and an Award!

I am well aware that I was in dire need of a new blog post. My days have been curiously packed (do I sound like a broken record? I feel like I've been saying that a lot lately). Maybe it's because I really am busy, or maybe it's because my time-management skills are lagging.... but either way I haven't had much time to sit down and pour my heart out.

I am so excited to report that we have purchased our tickets to South Africa! Ladies, this is SUCH a huge step for us and I'm shaking as I type this to you, because I can't believe that this is all truly coming together! On May 30th, we will be boarding a plane and making all those dreams and plans a firm, concrete reality! (P.S. If any of you are new here, and don't know our story, check out our website!) It's exciting, scary and overwhelming! There is so much to do and, as you can imagine, preparation has all but completely consumed our time lately! There are visas to procure, apartments to investigate, last minute loose ends to tie, and of course, goodbyes to be said.

Peyton is doing wonderfully! She is crawling now, which is such an exciting development! I love that she can follow me around! She has such a fire and spunk and it's so exciting to see her slowly but surely learning how to express her unique personality. She is now eating all sorts of new foods and I love her reactions to all the different flavors and textures :) Motherhood still never ceases to amaze me.

Although my reading of Captivating has been placed on the back burner for now, the journey of self re-discovery has not. I'm still learning more about myself everyday as I prepare to go on the mission field and finally do the thing that has stirred the passions of my heart since I was a little girl.  I promise I'll get back to reviewing Captivating with you when I get time again :)

I just wanted to catch up with you girls! I'm sorry this is so scatter-brained... I wrote this post over the course of a couple hours between doing all the other things I have to do today! After this, I'm headed to catch up with all of your blogs!

OOOOO! But first!!! I almost forgot! Sweet Brittany Ciara over at Not Your Average Teen Awarded me with a beautiful Award! Thank you so much sweetheart! If you haven't checked out her blog already, head on over! She is such a beautiful young woman who has inspired me and shocked me with her maturity and pure heart! Check her out!

Okay, this is how this award works!

• Put the logo on your blog or within your post.
• Pass the word to 12 fellow bloggers.
• Link the nominees within your post.
• Share the love and link the person from whom you received this award.

I have to admit that I am going to be SUCH  a party pooper... I don't have time to link this up to 12 other bloggers, so I'm just going to award this to one brand new blogger who I just discovered today!  She is new to the blogging world, so head on over and welcome her :)


Her name is Cath and she's over here at the Here 'N' Now! Enjoy your award Cath, and welcome to Blogger!

Living in the Desert!

I'm almost embarrassed to write this update, because I haven't blogged in sooo long! We had some complications getting internet set up in our house though, but we finally have it fixed :)

Wow! Where to begin? We've been here for about a week and a half now, and I have to admit, I love it. It's really beautiful here... a very different beauty than I've ever really known, but beautiful all the same. The mountains (and cactuses!) are almost mean looking, but they're contrasted by these beautiful palm trees and warm sun. It's the "rainy season" right now, so there's quite a bit of greenery which alot of people have told me will disappear in summer. Weird to think of greenery DISAPPEARING in summer!! I'm such a northerner through and through! And I have to say, the way we northerners take pride in being tough in the cold and snow... is the same way these south-westerners take pride in toughing out the heat! They're really scaring me with tales of not being able to leave your house in April because it's so hot!

We've been for a couple hikes already and the "wildnerness" here is alot of fun. There are so many cool trails and mountains, and you can stumble on turquoise mines all over the place! So cool!  (Sorry about Bryan's weird pose in this picture, lol, not sure what he's doing!!!)

Peyton LOVES riding in her back pack carrier. Honestly, she thinks she rules the world when she's up there! She smiles and looks all around at everything with this snub little look on her face! Haha it's great. She'll skip naptime and even feedings when she's in there because she has so much fun!

As much as we love hiking around Arizona, there's a lot of work to be done as well. As I explained earlier, we moved into Bryan's late great-grandmother's house and we are helping to fix up the house and clean it out. It's been a lot of fun to think about how to landscape her backyard, and what to do to improve the house. Bryan also is now working to sell the antiques and other items in the estate. He loves the work, and we are able to more than live off of what he's getting paid, which is a huge blessing.

If all continues to go well, we will be in South Africa in June! We are praying that the Lord would continue to prepare the way for us.

We found a church home here in Arizona! Broadway Christian Church. We really love it and think we'll fit in well there. We actually met a guy in Walmart last week and he stopped to see Peyton, and we ended up talking, and he mentioned that BCC is his church home, so we decided to check it out! Is that the Lord, or what??? We love the energy at their contemporary services and the preching is rock solid and right on. We're excited to have found a chuch home so quickly... now we just need to plug in and make some new friends :)

I'm staying really positive, but it is hard to be in a place where you really don't have any friends. I miss the community of close friends and the luxury of calling up a girlfriend to do lunch, go shopping or catch a movie. I'm praying God will bring me a sweet friend soon.

Well, I have a million and one things to get done today... I just wanted to let you all know that I'm still alive :) But before I go, Thanks so much to Steph for these thoughtful awards!

I have been Tagged!

Guess what?! blog readers? I've been tagged! Thanks so much Ria for tagging me! So here's what this means: since Ria tagged me, I have to share 7 things that you may not already know about me... then I'll tag 7 of my blogging friends and they'll have to do the same! What a fun way to get to know each other better! But now I have to wrack my brain to think of 7 fun, creative, obscure things about myself!

1) I was homeschooled my entire life. Now, people who knew me back in my school days obviously know this one already. But alot of my Minnesota friends probably didn't know this one. There's always an element of surprise when I tell people about my "dark past" (giggles). Maybe it's because people think that to have been a life long homeschooler, I should be sporting a long matronly skirt and some clogs. But yes, I was homeschooled and no I was not sheltered! I was in tons of lessons and activities where I met a ton of friends. I've never been at a loss for a social life as is the common misconception about poor, sheltered homeschoolers! But although I cringe at the stereotypes and attempt to defy them, I must admit... I can still spot another homeschooler out in a crowd from a mile away! Some things, you just can't escape ;)

2) God has performed many miracles in my life. I can't deny the power of my God! From even before my birth, God has had his hand on my life! When my mom was pregnant with me, she had a miscarriage. (stay with me). The doctor confirmed she had miscarried her baby. But there was still a heartbeat! My mom had miscarried my twin, and I was still alive in her womb. (Sidenote: I can't wait to meet my twin one day! You'll see us together in heaven, hanging out and redeeming the years we lost!) I was born with congential heart disease. I went in for routine check-ups. My last check-up was at age 16. I had to be cautious about using knives because an infection in my bloodstream could be fatal. I also had to avoid getting sick with bronchitis or pneumonia, because both could also be fatal. When I was 19 (and pregnant with Peyton) I had to go back in for another EKG to monitor how my "defected" heart was handling the increased blood flow of pregnancy. Three doctors examined me for a full hour and another more experienced doctor came in to offer a FOURTH perspective. They found NO TRACE of a heart defect. The man looked at me and said, "You are as healthy as any other normal human being. I see no evidence of this heart disease. I don't think you ever had it!" (We know that I had it because I've had it my whole life... but God's healing power COMPLETELY erased it!) When I was 17 I got in a car accident with my best friend. We were driving her car at 1 in the morning in a back country road in Vermont. We decided (stupidly) to see how fast her car could go. The last time I looked at the speedometer we were quickly passing 120 mph. We crashed at full speed into a rock face. The car spun around and around until finally resting, split in half over 100 yards from where we first made contact. I blacked out during the accident, and when I came to, the car was smoking and there was debris everywhere. We were both in pain and my friend was bleeding from her head. Amazingly enough, we both walked away with barely any scratches aside from severe whiplash. The cops who came to the scene were shocked to find us alive, let alone walking away from the crash scene! Less than a year later, God completely healed my neck injury. God has done many more miraculous things in my life! Those are just a few.

3) I'm African-American. Okay, this one has a double meaning. It doesn't mean what you think it does. My mom is fully South African (she immigrated to the states when she was 27), and my dad is American. Therefore, I'm African-American... in the true sense of the term. Sometimes I put it down as my ethnicity just for kicks.

4) I was a competitive swimmer for 7 years. Swimming used to be a HUGE part of my life. I learned to swim when I was just 3 or 4 and then I swam competitively from age 7 to age 14. I loved swimming and my dream was to go to the Olympics. I swam in two New York State Championships and both times my team won. However, as I grew older I developed other interests and moved states. I still love watching swimming in the Olympics though, and I always wonder what it would be like if I had kept up with it. (I would definitely be fitter than I am, lol!)

5)  Bryan was my first (and only!) boyfriend! When I was 12 years old I  made a commitment to the Lord that I would save myself for my future husband in every way possible. I began writing letters to him in a journal (and filled it by the time we married when I was 18!) I met Bryan at Bethany College of Missions and we fell in love! He asked me out and 11 months later, we were standing at the altar exchanging vows! We've been ridiculously in love ever since! We were both each other's only boyfriend/girlfriend! It's kind of our special little thing ;)

6) I spent a summer reading ridiculously long books... I decided it would be cool to master an intimidating reading list. I spent a summer reading Anna Karenina (838 pages) and Les Miserables (1200 pages). I'm not sure what I thought I would accomplish other than wasting a perfectly good summer... but hey, at least I can say I've done it, right?

7) I'm a young mom. Okay, so this one you already know... but to be perfectly honest I couldn't think of a seventh thing! I got married to Bryan when I was 18. I got pregnant with Peyton when I was 19 and I had her just a couple months after my 20th birthday. Kind of a fun random fact! 


So here's who I'm tagging!!
1. Leigh @ Looking for Things Unseen
2. Carrie @ Carrie & Hannah's Blog (Ben, too!)
3. Rachele @ Life...Come and take a glimpse
4. Amy @ Journeying into Whole-heartedness
5. Katelyn @ That I May Gain Christ
6. Katie @ The KC3
7. Andy @ We are Moving Forward


Here are the rules if I tagged you!

1. Copy the "award" picture into a blog post.
2. Thank the person who gave you the award.
3. Tell seven things about yourself that your readers didn't know.
4. Declare seven bloggers as the new recipients.
5. Notify the winners with comments on their blogs.