OUR FAMILY - REDEMPTION AND HEALING

We have witnessed God binding up the broken hearted and restoring the years that we previously felt had been wasted. No tear shed was in vain, no trial was without purpose; it was all used for His glory.  

In Joel it talks about his people returning to the Lord with all of their heart, fasting and weeping and mourning. It says to come to the Lord torn on the inside to be restored as only God can restore. That is when we met - having returned to the Lord torn and mourning. It goes on to say that God will have pity on them - the rain will come, the pastures will become green, they will have more than enough, the trees will bear fruit and they will no longer be shamed and scorned. That is exactly what happened!

We were both recovering from difficult marriages that had ended in crisis. As suddenly single parents we held tightly to our belief in God's goodness and sovereignty and depended on a lot of help and support from those closest to us. The body of Christ, living out God’s love for us, paid bills, delivered meals, babysat, cleaned, prayed, cried with us, became surrogate parents, provided wise counsel, said hard things, helped us move, provided transportation, jobs, vehicles, housing and food when we were the most helpless. God bless you all.

At Ugly Mug Coffee we both began working in sales. What a sweet place for healing and restoration to begin. We were in the midst of a solid group of people, full of encouragement, that had experienced life and had been wrecked by God’s grace. We were in a family. After spending close to a year sharing a 10x12 office/hallway we discovered how similar our life experiences had been, how much we had in common and how our passion for people, justice and our families were a result of our love for God and His grace in our lives. We developed a unique bond.

Soon after that, Ugly Mug Coffee was bought out by another company. We were brought in to transition the company and continue developing the markets we had been in. What an unbelievable test to our friendship! We had completely different strengths and work styles. In the 4-6 month transition we worked through the major issues most marriages face all in the context of business. We worked on our communication differences, conflict resolution, the way we budgeted and handled money, the division of labor, trust and respect. We learned to recognize, appreciate and encourage the strengths we both had. We learned how well we compliment each other and we had a lot of fun. When our time there was over we had ironed out a lot of issues, our hearts had been healed and transformed, we had experienced incredible growth, adventure and fun. We were not ready for that to end.  It was the beginning of something amazing, something redemptive, something healing and something new!




On July 23, 2010 our two families became one.  We covet your prayers and are so excited to see how God will use our family to spread the grace, love, and mercy he has lavished on us.  Rejoice with us in this new season.