Hi! My Name Is...

Hi there! My name is Kristian. It's been so long since I actually posted anything I figured I should reintroduce myself. Y'all! Life has been a whirlwind at our house! So much has changed and I really don't even know where to start in catching you up.

Well, I guess I'll first say we still have 5 kids. All of them have survived since last August and the Lord hasn't blessed us with anymore! Thank you Merciful Jesus!

So, we started the past school year off homeschooling the older four while our little firecracker, Rabina, went to public Pre-K. I love homeschooling and it was going really, really well until October. In October, our world was flipped on it's head.

First, let me explain that Lance and I had been in the process of looking into different business opportunities. We weren't very open about it, but we heavily considered buying an existing business up in Blue Ridge, GA. Thankfully, things did not work out for that, but it did help get us going in the right direction. I had done some research on a new type of entertainment called "escape rooms" and we were very curious.

This may not seem related, but Lance and I FINALLY were able to get away for a real anniversary trip! Way over due! We decided to go to California, and well, with so much awesomeness to see we decided to start in San Francisco and drive down the coast to L.A. It was such a great trip! We had a blast.

The day before we flew out of L.A. we decided to try one of these escape rooms. Apparently we didn't even pick a good one, but OH MY WORD we had the BEST TIME! You know how when you go somewhere like a museum or an aquarium, you fork out a ton of green for tickets and then when you leave you assess your experience and kind of feel a little cheated? Well, we felt the exact opposite of that when we left the escape game. We loved it so much! It was the only redeeming value of our stay in L.A. in my opinion.

So anyways, on the flight back to Georgia, we talked about the idea of starting an escape room business in our hometown of Columbus. How would we go about it? Where would we put it? Would people even come? Lance was of course the more logical one with more reservations, and I was the one saying "LET'S DO IT!"

I won, so as soon as the plane's wheels touched the ground we hit the ground running. Honestly, it's all kind of a blur, but we opened Escape This Live on December 5th! And guess what? It's been a success! People love it, and we are having so much fun with it! We opened our new location in Uptown (aka downtown) Columbus in May and we have been steadily growing. I'm so glad we took the plunge despite our reservations.

Okay, so back to homeschooling... we quit. Yep! We quit homeschooling and put the kids back into public school in January. I just got so busy with the escape room that I couldn't keep a consistent schedule. It was such a hard decision to make, but I know it was the right one for all of us. All the kids did so well. They have made me incredibly proud! The girls have come so far. It's really unbelievable.

We also hired a wonderful nanny for the kids. Rylee has a heart for India and adoption, so it was such a great match. She does wonderfully with the kids and Rabina hasn't run her off yet. Ha!

And to add more chaos to our lives, we moved houses. I swear I'm a glutton for punishment. We moved into a MUCH larger house than our previous one. I feel like a flippin' queen, because I have my very own bathroom that I let Lance use sometimes. The children are forbidden from crossing the threshold of it. It's so great. It was a little bitter sweet moving in, because the house actually belonged to our good friends who moved away.  It took me a couple of weeks to stop feeling like I was living in someone else's house.

Well, that's pretty much the gist of everything without writing a novel. I'll leave you guys with some pictures to complete the summary. :) (Sorry, but they are so not in any kind of order!)

Until next time (year)!  - K

Lance and I with our first employee Libby

Kashila's first American haircut

Khushboo's first American haircut

My life with Rabina

Birthday dinner (maybe?)

The Georgia Aquarium

Waiting in line at the Georgia Aquarium

Georgia Aquarium

Me and Brayden at the Montgomery Zoo

Train ride at the Montgomery Zoo

Eeaster

Our entire Escape This Live crew escaping in Atlanta.

Me and Rylee ripping up carpet in our new location.

Then and Now!

I went blonde.

CoDe our escape pup hanging out with me at work

Asher lost his two front teeth.

Kashila's no longer has an under-bite thanks to Dr. Matt Keller

A group of awesome India Mamas at Created 4 Care

The four eldest

Khushboo and Kashila's birthday party at Chuck-E-Cheese

Me and Lance visiting Alcatraz

Some beach on the California coast.

Pismo Beach (maybe?)

I deleted the crotch grabbing pics

One hot chunk of wax

Just riding the train to Long Beach, CA and trying not to get robbed

Halloween

Halloween

Todd and Ginger's wedding in Charleston, SC

Cuties

Our little Indian

Brayden got to get glued up

Christmas morning

Christmas morning

Christmas morning

Our traditional Chinese dinner for Christmas Day

Halloween

Gardening and the Christian Life

This spring, Lance and I planted a small garden. He laid the bed and planted the seeds, and I've nurtured them and helped them grow. He says this sounds just like making babies... 

Anyways, nobody told me gardening was addictive! Before I knew it, we (Lance) had ripped up our overgrown shrubs that were in the front of the house and we planted some new plants in their place. If we were made of money I would have a full English garden by now, but our Lowes gift card ran out so we stopped  buying plants. Sad day.

I don't even know what kind of bushes we pulled up, but I replaced them with Indian Hawthorns which are quite hardy. I also planted a lovely Hydrangea with purple/blue blooms in a spot where a scraggly rose bush once lived (it came with the house). Hydrangeas are some of my favorite flowering plants and this one was particularly beautiful. One of the blooms on this Hydrangea was almost 10 inches in diameter! Huge! I'll come back to my gorgeous Hydrangea in a minute.

I really and truly didn't expect to love gardening. I've always seemed to have a "black thumb" and have never had much luck with plants. I even killed a bamboo plant once. So, I just assumed it would become another chore I put off, but I love it. I look forward to going out every morning to water the plants and see what has changed. I even love pulling weeds. I wish laundry had the same appeal.

I also didn't expect to glean so many lessons about the Christian life from gardening. This has come as a complete surprise. It seems like every time I spend a few minutes surveying the fruits of my labor I always walk away pondering life; growth, faith, pain, joy, grace, provision, etc. 

Ok, so back to my Hydrangea. I planted it in late March, and it was my pride. The blooms were huge and it seemed to be doing well. I was really enjoying it, but, as the days got warmer, I started noticing something that concerned me. The edges of the leaves were starting to burn up. This plant only got a handful of hours of sunlight but it was the afternoon sun. Being an amateur gardener, I didn't know that in the South Hydrangeas really like morning light and afternoon shade. 

As the days passed, I decided I needed to move the Hydrangea to a shaded spot if  it was going to live. I knew leaving it where it was would eventually kill it. So, I got out the shovel, put the edge to the ground, stomped on it and dug up my beloved Hydrangea. I dug another hole and placed the root ball in the ground and covered it with soil. I patted down the dirt and watered it. As harsh as it seemed to dig it up, it was the only way I knew to save it. 

I tend to give my plants personalities... I'm weird. This Hydrangea did not like me digging it up and moving it somewhere new. It was quite comfy in the place where the sun beams rained down... even if it's leaves did burn up. It was used to that spot and would have preferred not to leave it, but I knew if it had stayed there it would die. For a couple of weeks after digging up it up, it seemed as though I had not saved my plant but killed it. It appeared the transplant had been too much for my Hydrangea to bear. It drooped. The blooms shriveled and browned. It was pitiful. My plant was in shock, teetering on the edge of life and death, but I continued to water it and check it because I believed I had done what was best for it even though I was taking a gamble that my plant might die. 

Yesterday, I went out to check all of my plants and as I got closer to my Hydrangea plant, I noticed something really awesome... new growth! Around each stem, under the shriveled blooms, there were little sprouts of green, heathy, new leaves. I was so excited to see this and instantly I began to relate to this Hydrangea plant. 

There are times in the Christian life when God has to dig us up! Sometimes he has to remove us from our comfy spot in the sunshine or else we will shrivel up and die. It's strange... to us, what feels like living is, in reality, dying. We've laid our roots and taken hold of the soil around us. Because of this, we don't want to be dug up. We don't want to move. We don't want to go through hardship. We don't want to be scared. We. Just. Don't. Wanna!

But unlike me, God is no amateur gardener. He doesn't take a gamble with our lives. He knows what we need... exactly what we need. He knows when digging us up is the BEST thing for us. While digging us up my take us out of our comfort, he does it to produce growth in us so we can live in a way that pleases Him. 

He is not unkind when he puts his shovel to the ground. He is perfectly loving and tender as he unearths the most vulnerable parts of us and lays them bare to be cared for by his expert hand. He sustains us when we are weak. He never leaves us even if we feel abandoned in the shadows. He supplies all our needs even when we feel nothing but despair. If we are a part of HIS garden then we have no need to fear because HE is an expert gardener and he love each of his plants. 

God, help us to embrace the times when you dig us up. Help our roots to grow strong in YOU and not the world around us. Give us courage so that we can be obedient even when it means leaving our comfort behind. Be our strength when our soul is weary and we feel as though we cannot go on. Produce growth in our lives that glorifies you and speaks of your wonderful grace! 

Until next time! -K