I was born in February of 1987 in MN. I was raised in three different states in the midwest throughout my growing up years. It was always expected that we would move every couple years to a bigger house. With 5 brothers and sisters, it was needed! After finishing high school early (I was home-schooled) I did on-line classes at the metro college. After one semester I quit. Jim and I were engaged for several weeks at that point and they don’t have classes for what I wanted to do with my life. There weren’t any classes on being a housewife and mother. If I was almost done with a degree I would have finished, but I was very much far from it. After I was married I worked for a family in our church. I guess you would call it a part-time nanny position. I would go over to their house and give the mom a break and keep an eye on their three little boys, a 4 year old and twin babies (6 months old). It was a blast!
I grew up in a Christian family, so at a very young age I started learning about God. I remember when I was around 8 years old I started to notice a difference between the people who lived next door and the people I knew from church. Their lives were completely opposite, and I wanted to know what was so different. I understood that the people at church called themselves ”Christians” and the neighbors did not. Slowly through the year God was working in my heart to see how bad sin is, yet I still did not think that I was bad. Then one night in December I asked my parents “what does it mean to be a christian?”. They told me a christian was someone who knew that they were sinners, and that there is no one, except Christ, who lived a sinless life. Romans is very clear that everyone is a sinner and that the payment is death. But Christ came to make the payment for sins in replacement of sinners. And if we rely solely on His work as a payment for our sins, God will forgive us. This was the first time I can remember in my life hearing the gospel. Later that night I repented and asked God to forgive me. That night was the greatest night of my life! I was reconciled with God!
