they're here.

We got our wedding photos today! Kory got them in the mail and waited for me to get home from babysitting to look at them...besthusbandever.
here are just a few favorites....
((more will be posted on facebook soon))

all photos courtesy of Samantha Danielle Photography www.samanthadanielle.com

transition.

Is life after school the way it seems?
Do you just get to leave work and not think about it til 8am the next day?
While I am sure my expectations of life after undergrad are completely off, I like to day dream about when I get to come home from work and just relax. Not stay up working on a paper, or even worse, do busy work just to get that A.
I like to think about when we move back and get settled I'll finally be able to join a small group I know I can commit to, become a "Big Sister" and not have to leave her every few months, and just have a normal life. We will actually get to have dinner together at night and go to bed at a regular time.
    Oh, the joys of having so many expectations and plans when I should be living in the present. That is becoming more and more difficult each time we go back to Quincy. It is automatically assumed that we hate life in Marion and just want to be there. This is not true at all. I love it here, I love it there. I love the friendships and community I have in both places. It is like we have two different worlds that we constantly go back and forth to.
   This is a beautiful season in our life that God has given us to enjoy the best of both worlds. I would have never guessed I would get to experience my sister's first semester away at school with her. Kory is loving spending time with the boys for all of their last months in Marion. We are blessed. God has prepared this windy way for us for a reason and I will embrace it.

in the moment,
Katie

Senior.

    It was a great weekend. Even though I was fearing for Kory's life all weekend due to him spending 32 hours in a moving vehicle in three days, it was great...and he is alive :)
             The weekend practically started Thursday with all the homecoming festivities. Its my senior year and even though I am married I still get to have fun and be a college student (best of both worlds, if ya ask me!) My "bro" Chris is on the homecoming court so Kristen, Karli and I (his 3 beloved sisters) went to support him at the coronation. 

       Then we went to the most bizarre thing that IWU does: "Homecoming Torch Run and Rally." At 8 p.m. on a Thursday night all the athletes ride on fire trucks/floats downtown where they gather for a "rally." Then at 9:30 at night they drive back, sirens, honking, throwing candy to the non-existent children who couldn't be seen anyways. That being said, we had a blast. I am just enjoying being a senior. We cheered for all the senior athletes and made fun of IWU's traditions. Then we went to the best thing at IWU...the bonfire at good ole President Smith's house. While I have never been inside --- this is on my list of things to accomplish by december -- I love hanging out in his backyard eating a caramel apple next to a ginormous fire.
Here is a throw-back pic from freshman year Homecoming:

Senior year:

still not the same as high school,

Katie

K & J.

     A common saying in Christianity is "the power of prayer". I have heard this, spoken this but it wasn't until recently that it began to truly ring true in my personal walk with Christ. I praise God for allowing me to attend the Christian university that I do and at the beginning of each semester we have Summit week, which is like a revival. This year God challenged me in my prayer life. To believe in the gift of prayer. This was sparked by our cousins Kal and Jad Mitchell. A week or two before our wedding Kory and I were challenged to begin praying each day for the boys, I for Kal and he for Jad. They were my daily reminder to cast all my cares and worries to the heavenly Father. 
      These tiny conjoined twins that were never able to experience earth, but were given the GIFT of life abundant in heaven with their almighty father truly ministered to me. Their struggles and challenges they faced called me into a spirit of constant prayer. Their Mom & Dad's strength and faith in the midst of their crisis left me with no choice but to praise Him. I know they have left an eternal impact on many hearts and lives and I thank God for using Kal and Jad to teach me to believe in the power of prayer. 
   There are days when I go to pray for John and Shawna and I just don't have the words so I lean on Romans 8:26-27 and allow the Spirit to lift them up on my behalf:
"The Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God's will."
http://forthegloryofgod.tv  -----> watch the memorial service here.
Thankful.
Katie

Our God.

I am in awe of the God I serve. A God that loves me so much that He would create someone just for me in order to experience a glimpse of the love He has for me. Want to know more about this God? Chris Tomlin has an amazing new song: 
Listen Here
But I warn you, it's going to make you want to jump out of your seat in praise :)


Water you turned into wine, opened the eyes of the blind there's no one like you none like You
Into the darkness you shine out of the ashes we rise there's no one like you none like You
Our God is greater, our God is stronger, God you are higher than any other
Our God is Healer, Awesome in Power, Our God! Our God

Into the darkness you shine out of the ashes we rise there's no one like you none like You
Our God is greater, our God is stronger, God you are higher than any other
Our God is Healer, Awesome in Power, Our God! Our God
Our God is greater, our God is stronger, God you are higher than any other
Our God is Healer, Awesome in Power, Our God! Our God

And if our God is for us, then who could ever stop us
And if our God is with us, then what could stand against
And if our God is for us, then who could ever stop us
And if our God is with us, then what could stand against
What could stand against.

Our God is greater, our God is stronger, God you are higher than any other
Our God is Healer, Awesome in Power, Our God! Our God
Our God is greater, our God is stronger, God you are higher than any other
Our God is Healer, Awesome in Power, Our God! Our God
And if our God is for us, then who could ever stop usAnd if our God is with us, then what could stand against
And if our God is for us, then who could ever stop us
And if our God is with us, then what could stand against
Then what could stand against??
Our God is greater, our God is stronger, God you are higher than any other.
Our God is Healer, Awesome in Power, Our God! Our God!
Our God is greater, our God is stronger, God you are higher than any other.
Our God is Healer, Awesome in Power, Our God! Our God! 


Isn't our God AWESOME??

Katie