For those of you who I see regularly.....this may fill in some blanks about our past.

For those of you who we knew from our time in Anchorage......this will give you an update about what we've been doing since we moved.

For those of you who I haven't talked to in years (ok, decades).......this will explain what's happened since I left Michigan.

For those of you who really don't care.....just stop reading now.  I'm sure you have better things to do with your time! 

In May 1990, I married a GREAT guy....one truly sent from God.  It's cool to look back and see how God really brought us together.  Steve has been a great husband and great father.  We are very happy together.  A week after our wedding we moved to Anchorage, Alaska.  Neither of us had ever been there.  We didn't know anyone there.  We didn't have jobs or a place to live lined up.  It sounds kind of extreme as we look back, but at the time it didn't seem like a big deal.  Steve had just sold out his portion of a business and I was just working in an office, so we didn't have anything keeping us in Michigan.  We thought if we were ever going to leave, this was the time.  Although we didn't know it then, God's hand was all over this decision too.  Both Steve and I became Christians shortly after we moved to Anchorage!! And that is when our "real life" began.

We have four children.  Tanisha is 24, has been married for four years to a really great guy from high school.  Jamie is in the navy.  They are currently in the Seattle area and have 2 wonderful boys:  Elijah (3) and Ayden (18 mo).   Zeb is 17 and a junior in high school.  Keenan is 15, a freshman.  And Timary is our baby.  She'll be 13 soon.  For those of you who care, I'll give you details on each of them in a separate blog.

We lived in Anchorage for a little over 14 years.  We loved it there.  God blessed us in so many ways.  We found an apartment right away and both had jobs within a week or two.  Steve was going to finish his college degree (he had dropped out and started a business) and I was going to work during that period then stay home and be a mom.  Unfortunately, it didn't work out that way.  The cost of living was pretty high up there, so financially we were never able to make that happen.  Which was apparently God's plan, since He provided a fantastic opportunity to me.  While it was not my intention to make a career of it, God guided me step-by-step into the financial services industry.  I am a stockbroker with a regional brokerage firm.  I worked in partnership with an older man who retired in 2000.  I serve about 350 clients and count it an honor to be able to help people with their investment decisions.  Since I hadn't gone to college (freaked out from moving away from home to a city and quit right away!) I didn't have any knowledge in finances, so I decided to learn more via the College for Financial Planning.  I got my CFP (certified financial planner) designation in 1998.  Later I also earned the Chartered Retirement Planning Couselor (CRPS) designation, since I found myself doing a lot of retirement planning.  When we moved, I remained connected with the Anchorage office, since most of my clients are there.  I work from my house in Colorado Springs and fly up to Anchorage four times a year, for a week at a time, to meet with clients from the office there.  My assistant and support system is still up there, so clients can drop off checks or do paperwork there.  My phone automatically forwards from the local number here.  Technology is incredible....this wouldn't have been possible ten years ago!  And as a bonus, I get to see some of my old friends when I go up there.

Anchorage is really a small town once you are connected.  We attended two different churches while we were there, our kids went to a private Christian school for some of that time, and they played sports....all of which provided opportunities to meet so many wonderful people.  We made a lot of very dear friends and felt blessed to have "family" there, despite having no real family there.  We worked with the youth in church, again growing into it slowly through God's leading.  So there are many students that we love very much and feel like they are an extension of our family. 

When we first moved to Alaska we said we'd never leave.  It is SOOOOOO beautiful.  And there are a lot of really unique things that we got to experience while we were there.....moose eating our garding and wandering the streets.....the northern lights.....the midnight sun.....it was a chapter in our lives that we will cherish forever.  But over the years, the winters got longer and darker.  After about 12 years we started talking about moving "someday" but didn't really have any plans or ideas of where to go.  In 2004 some good friends of ours moved to Colorado.  We went on a spur-of-the-moment vacation to check it out.  That was in June.  The end of July, we put our house on the market.  Two weeks later we had:  sold our house in Anchorage, flew to Colorado Springs for 3 days in which we bought a house, signed a rental agreement to stay in the new house before it closed, bought a car in Colorado Springs (left it at the airport in parking), enrolled the kids in school, and had the home inspection.  Steve and the three younger kids were living here less than two weeks after we put the Anchorage house on the market.  Tanisha and I stayed behind to pack the house, deal with the movers, and tie up loose ends.  Yes, God's hand was in this too!

So we've been in Colorado for almost four years now.  We've gotten involved with the youth (shocking, I know!) at our church here and have extended our "family" even more with more teens!  I continue to work at the same job.  Steve works for Home Depot....doing something with purchasing....I'm not sure what the actual job description is because they keep changing things.  He had worked at HD in Anchorage and transferred to a store here when we moved.

During our time in Alaska, we met many people from different places.  Anchorage is really a melting pot with many different cultures.  We love learning about other people and the places they come from.  And living in Alaska, people come and go.  So we have friends scattered literally across the United States now.  One of the things we've enjoyed about being in the Lower 48 is that we can drive places!!! That may not seem like a big deal to those of you who live here, but our Alaskan friends will understand!  We've taken several long road trips since we've been here and hope to do many more.  We've had fun exploring our beautiful country and meeting old friends along the way.  It's also been nice being a little closer to family.  We are so thankful for the way that God has guided us so far and look forward to seeing what He will do in the future.

That pretty much sums things up for us.  There are lots of details that I left out, but felt like this was long enough!  If you want all the details about something, let me know.  I'm always happy to share how our amazing God has worked things out for us!!!