Meet the Bloggers!!

Wow! What a great response to my blog bible study suggestion! We have a total of 6 bloggers! Kathryn will be on a hiatus as she is about to expand her family by 1 and that is such a wonderful blessing in her life we want her to relish every moment and she will join in once the madness slows down!

Stacie at One Step at a Time
Karissa at Being a Better Wife
Kathryn at Singing Through the Rain
Skinnie at Skinnie Piggie
Stacie-Marie at Just to Breathe You in I am Satisfied
Lauren (Now ACE) at Faith & Deployments

So here is a little about each of us and what we will be writing about:

I am excited to be here, with you! My parents named me Stacie 32 years ago. Throughout my youth, my parents made sure I knew who God was. I attended private schools from pre-school through sixth grade and was confirmed at that time. Okay, fast forward to 2003. I was attending college, joined a sorority, and was living on my own for the first time. Unfortunately God was not my priority. We also know the big "thing" that happened in 2003 - Iraq. My boyfriend (now husband) was deployed. I blamed God, cried out "why me? why us? we just found each other again!" I was so angry at God for taking him from me. However, God remained steadfast and held me even though I blamed Him. Although I wasn't listening, He whispered to me. I never stopped to listen during that deployment. I kept blaming God, but continued to pray (without belief) for him to return. So, here I sat blaming God for sending him off to war. Halfway through I was given another blow to my heart when my Mom was diagnosed with cancer. Again, "why God? why me? why her?! WHY?!" I lost faith, I gave up hope, and I quit believing that He had my (our) best interests in His hands. My family prayed, prayed for a miracle that God would heal her. Prayed that she would grow old and see me graduate, get married, have children. Our prayers weren't answered. Yep - I threw my hands in the air and said "no more! if You can't help me then what's the point?" I walked a very lonely path of healing. I shut God out of my heart and sot comfort anywhere but from Him. It took a year after my Mom's death to get me to step in a church. I'm not sure what was my turning point, but I know He had both of His hands in it! Now, as infertility has struck I don't find myself blaming God. I find myself believing in Him and His plans. Believing that He is opening doors to adoption. I believe that God's purpose for each of us is....wonderful. I believe that He does have our backs. I BELIEVE! With that said, we'll be studying Beth Moore's "Believing God" together.

Hi! I'm Karissa. I am a 20-something girl who grew up in the suburbs of Seattle, WA but have recently made the move to East Georgia and I'm LOVING it! Growing up, my mom made sure that I was in church every Sunday morning and enrolled me in a Christian school. I was very fortunate to be raised on Biblical values and to have a strong foundation in Christ. However, when I hit high school and started going to a public school, I realized for the first time that it might not be that *cool* to go to church. I took a pretty long hiatus from God and it put a major damper on everything else in my life. I got lost with people I thought were my friends and too many boys that I thought loved me... Thankfully, my good foundation held on tight even when everything around me was falling apart. God picked me back up and held my hand and kicked my butt back into church (with the help of my amazing big sis) and soon after I met the man of my dreams who is now my wonderful hubs. Now, we are walking together and finding God all over again and He continues to draw us closer to each other and closer to Him daily. I will be posting every Friday on my series titled, "But the Greatest of These is Love" based on 1 Corinthians 13:13. Each week I will focus on God's greatest commandment to his people - love - and how the Bible teaches us to love in all aspects of our life.

Hey everyone! My name is Skinnie. Anyway, I was fortunate to grow up in a Christian home and raised with good moral values. That doesn't mean I was always the "good little church girl" though. In all honesty I didn't really begin to understand the love of God in its entirety until my teenage years. My dad was diagnosed with a very aggressive form of Hairy Cell Luekemia, and I remember the weekend the doctors sent him home. I wasn't suppose to hear, but as my sister and I walked out of his hospital room I heard the man whisper to my mom "spend every second you can together, this very well could be the end." Not very reassuring to a 13yr old... My home church has some amazing prayer warriors, I've never seen so many people pledge to pray for someone and actually follow through. My dad pulled through and then 4yrs later when I was 17 he was diagnosed again, but this time it had mutated to Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma. I got mad. I didn't understand... it took me a long time to realize that everything is in God's plan. This bout of cancer he had to be sent to a specialized hospital and my mom went. I was 17 and taking care of my younger sister (14) and grandmother (84), alone. I grew up a lot in the month he was being treated, I also relied on the people from church to help when I didn't know what to do. My mom also called to tell me a (non-believing) nurse talked to her about my dad and his reading the Bible, because one night as she walked by there was a supernatural glowing coming from his room, and she wanted to know if there really were guardian angels! Sorry this is so long... my first study will focus on "Fireproofing your Marriage," as I am currently a newlywed!

Hi everybody My name is Stacie (or Stacie-Marie) so we don't get the 2 Stacie's confused and my lil bio is gonna be short and sweet cus as the ladies know My hubby is Deploying shortly and I reside in Germany so I'm going to try to keep up as much as possible but you may not always be hearing from me.. I am 28 years and a Lover of Christ which I found on my own and not through my family and as confusing and trying as that was I would not change anything I don't believe in Religion so don't Call me Religious first and foremost I have a Relationship with our lord and savior you know the kind where I talk to him and he talks back!!!!!

Hello! I'm Lauren, also known as L.C. to the blogger world! I am a newlywed (until Aug 2) and my husband is currently on his 3rd deployment since we met in 2008. I had taken a hiatus from church and trusting in God since my confirmation at the age of 14 (I was raised Lutheran) and tried a few churches since then and it never felt "right". During our marriage counseling we were counseled on the importance of trusting in God in your marriage because we as humans will always let each other down. How true that came to play when Deployment 2 graced our marriage after just getting hitched. I found myself angry, argumentative, and even said the "D" word within 3 months of us getting married. I knew something had to change, I was unhappy and my husband's words of "You are smothering me" really hit hard...a friend asked if I wanted to attend church and I took her up and my life and our marriage has done a 180. Anthony agreed to give God another try too and we have been working through putting God first in our lives and marriage. With Deployment number 3 already underway I am determined to not shut him out of my life. So I will be posting based on the bible study "Hope for the Homefront" geared towards Deployment struggles.