Long winding roads with twists and turns and loads of trees lining the sides of streets can only mean one thing. . . we’ve reached the I-20 stretch from Alabama to Louisiana. 18-wheeler trucks fly by while various vehicles come and go. Brooks & Dunn, Morgan Wallen along with other of our family’s favorite country artists comprise our playlist as the GPS on our van proudly welcomes us to the next state.

As a child and young person, I often dreamed of a life full of adventure. Adventure on our next family vacation. Adventure of what the week would hold or adventures of the next craft project with my grandmother. Growing and journeying with the Lord has shown me that no matter the circumstances, life is adventurous. Like the ideas of what adventures looked like as a child, I find that adventures look different depending on the season and the mission laid before us.

Driving for days on end to visit family is definitely not my idea of fun although I do enjoy the hours of driving, conversations, thoughts, and amazing power naps in the van. As I look back, I notice I didn’t document much on #raising3rushes blog during 2023. Partly due to my forgetfulness to document, but mainly due to I was fulfilling my 2023 resolution of “learning to live.”

January generally means a start to a new year. I do enjoy clean slates and fresh beginnings. Personally, I tend to listen more clearly and pay more attention to wisdom and apply myself to the knowledge learned (Proverbs 22:17) during this season of fresh beginnings. And yes, I listen and pay attention to the Lord the rest of the year as well.

January 2023 brought on Craig’s opportunity of speaking at the ECHL Hockey All-Star Fame game breakfast and our family attended countless games. He is in his third season of hockey chaplain for the Norfolk Admirals team and our family loves helping make meals that Craig takes to chapel during home-stand series for this group of young men. Our kiddos have had opportunities of meeting some players and enjoy standing above their locker to cheer them on as they head to the ice. Christmas of 2022 a handful of these young men joined our family at Tab for their first Christmas Eve service.

Winter months in Norfolk means it’s COLD! I’m thankful for heaters, blankets, and access to all the warm yummy foods my heart desires and my hands can make or purchase. For others in our community it means scavenging for warmth, blankets, clothes, and food that’s edible. From January 1 to end of March churches throughout the community open their buildings and have volunteers to host 50 guests who currently find themselves living on the streets of Norfolk between the hours of 6 PM to 6 AM the next morning. During this time frame, guests are served hot beverages, hot home cooked meals, breakfast and given a bagged lunch to eat throughout the next day. Our family looks forward to preparing and serving food one of the nights during the week Tab Church hosts.

It truly is a humbling experience when we place ourselves in positions to see people for the persons they were created to be by the same Creator who created you and me. When faces have names and names have stories. When lives of addictions become lives who understand they are loved and forgiven and that Jesus died for them too. When we see John or Jane (names changed) year after year or at a stop light and we can call them by name and say hello and ask how their day has been. Or even better when we hear stories of when John and/or Jane’s situations have changed for the better and no longer need their spot for winter shelter. If you’re looking for personal fulfillment or trying to figure out this whole missional living thing, try volunteering and serving someone less than yourself. I promise, it will change your life.

Winter also brings about youth retreats and leadership labs for our kiddos. Secretly I have been waiting til the day that one of our kiddos would be old enough to attend youth group (be it at whatever church we are serving). This was the year our oldest was able to do just that! The Weekend winter retreat was his first experience of an over night away with youth group and it was an amazing experience of fellowship, worship and growing in the word!

February in Norfolk tends to be gloomy season, short days that are cold and rainy. For this southern girl, it’s my least favorite month. Strategically our family enters into February with a game plan of staying warm, staying connected while catching up on lots of sleep that will be needed once the time changes back in the spring. I enjoyed many coffee dates with friends and cleaned lots of teeth. Yard carding was kept to a minimum and I marked off several books toward my yearly reading goal. Kids continued in TabKids leadership lab and TabYouth group at church while school continued in learning through their PBLs (project based learning).

February meant the Toby Mac concert!!! Our entire family waited patiently for two months. So many great artists on tour with Toby Mac and an incredible night of worship.

March

During Spring Break 2023 our family crashed the senior adult bus trip to Lancaster, PA where we saw “Moses” at Sight & Sound Theater and toured Amish county. If ever in that part of the country, I highly recommend doing both of those and please make sure you grab a hot and fresh homemade Amish pretzel!!

April

We carded yards galore and geared up for Spring sports. I noticed the super cool shadow on the house while sending the picture to the client! We may not talk about it much anymore, but we are still carding yards and praying blessings upon each yard we enter! It truly has been a super cool way for us to connect with people we’d never know! Thanks for inviting the Rushes not only into your yards but also into your lives.

May

Oh what a cold, rainy, sunny and hot trip we had as our first experience in the OBX!!! SO MUCH FUN!!! This was the only full family photo captured during our entire trip. Adding to my bucket list for 2024 is to take more family photos!

Nothing too profound or deep but just a whole lot of living and loving and raising3rushes in a perfect sinful world!

If I’m being really honest, I do love professionally done family photos but I dread more than anything the process of getting them done and making sure everyone is together and dressed to do it. Hence the reason our family photos on this blog are from when my kiddos were oh so little! But I do love photos.

Growing up my Mimi Dot had a camera on her at all times and it was always ready to capture the moment and the memory. First I remember her 35 mm camera. She’d take her roll of 14 pictures and then we’d make the trek to Walmart photo department to fill out the envelope and put it in the slot or if Mrs. Pat was there she’d take it and visit for a few. When 35 mm became ancient technology and digital cameras became a thing, I remember she’d take her little memory card back to Walmart and Mrs. Pat would help her make prints of photos.

My Mimi wasn’t just having one copy of the photos printed out. She had at least 5 or 6 copies printed of each photo, one for each member of the family and she had a very detailed storage system sorted by year. That’s dedication. Once your box was full she would gift it to you at Christmas. Those are probably some of my favorite gifts ever received!

With the invention of high tech cameras built into our phones the process of printing photos and the lack of having photos around for display of casual viewing has almost become a lost art. My kids ask me all the time, “mom what did I look like or ____ when I little?” I guess I should rethink this whole photo thing for my own littles and bring back the tradition that Mimi Dot so diligently worked hard to create. Until then, photo dumps through #raising3rushes will just have to work! Enjoy a little of life update.

Not sure where I first heard that phrase or where it even comes from. What I do know is that 2023 has FLOWN by!!! I mean, when did we finish the 2022/2023 school year and WHEN did I my baby become a teenager?!?

Last time we talked, our family had recently returned from a week long trip to La Paz, Mexico on the Baja peninsula for a youth mission trip. The travel bug had been ignited in all 5 Rushes. 2023 we have laid low and stayed more local.

Spring Break we bus tripped with 50 + Tab people to Lancaster, PA to see “Moses” at the Sight and Sound Theatre. We visited an Amish community and ate amazing homemade pretzels. Memorial Day our family rented a house in the Outer Banks and officially crossed “visiting the OBX” off our bucket list.

This summer we traveled for Elliott’s All Star baseball tournament which was held in Arlington, VA. Oh man, what a great trip we had to Arlington and with such an amazing baseball family! I would have never thought that 5 days in a Holiday Inn with 12 other families could have been such an incredible experience. . . But it was! First let’s just start with the talent on the team. Those fellas. They went to play ball and WIN! Win we did until we didn’t. . . In the extra innings and losing by 1 or 2 points. I really can’t remember. Oh it would have been incredibly fun to continue on to regionals as the VA 50/70 Intermediate State Champions. It was still also incredibly fun to see those fellas pour their heart and souls into ball and unite as a team and make it as far as they did and then cry their hearts out when they lost but turn around two seconds later and say “that’s okay we’ll take them next year!” Perseverance. Where’s that in scripture?!? It’s a pretty amazing passage.

End of summer brought kids traveling to Louisiana for 10 days to visit grandparents and live life fishing and on the farm while Craig and I enjoyed a week of Netflix and leftovers. There’s just something crazy amazing cool when you can come home, change clothes, crawl up on the sofa and catch up on a show until bedtime all while never hearing the word “I’m hungry” or “Momma what’s for dinner?” Seriously, it was a much needed time of being a couple and preparing for what we didn’t know would be the next few months of our world.

End of August Craig’s travel plans for Pakistan came to fruition. A little over a year of hoping for a visa paid off and he was granted a visa to travel to visit Bach Christian Hospital in Pakistan. Thankfully our kiddos were able to go to their local happy place, Triple R Ranch, for a week while I worked and they were growing in their faith and keeping their minds off of dad being gone.

As I’m currently writing this, one kid is playing in the marching band for the Granby High School football game while the other two E’s and I eat pizza and watch TV. Where’s Craig? Well he’s in Africa. Yep. Chad, Africa. Today is Friday, November 3rd. He arrives back to America on Saturday, November 4th and turns 40 on Monday, November 6th. There’s a whole lot to unpack there and maybe one day soon I’ll do just that, but for now, let’s leave it like this. The Lord is never early or never late. He is always right on time. I really am excited to have my man back home. . . And no I’m not just saying because of all of the mushy gushy marriage stuff. I’m incredibly excited to hear what the Lord has shown him during this trip and what he has to share. Until then, I hope this finds you all loving Jesus and living out loud.

Do you ever have days where your mind just goes there? You know what I mean…. There being a place where all things seem clear and reasonable, but in reality it never changes. The sky is really the limit and you feel like that the spirit of the Lord is standing right before you just as he did in the Old Testament times, but you haven’t an actual clue your entertaining angels because well, he never reveals his name?!? But you feel and sense that something is just, different?!? No, just me?!? Ok, no worries. I’m pretty use to being different.

As a kid I didn’t quite embrace it or understand it and if I’m a 100% honest, I don’t think my parents ever fully understood it for themselves either. What exactly am I talking about? The fact that as Christ following disciples we are set apart. We are called out. We are given a mission and a purpose. We are sold out to him. To make his name known. To fully devote our lives to sharing the gospel with all those that are around us.

Yet, often times, somehow, we easily tend to forget our calling. Our main purpose for living on this place called Earth. We sell our souls to ______. Fill in the blank with what fits best. We desire popularity over humbly serving and loving people. We seek wealth and/or instant fame/success instead of being willing to do the hard work trusting that His Word is true “work hard become a leader. Be lazy and become a slave.” (Proverbs 12:24)

The last thing I want to become is a slave. No matter if it’s a slave to something as simple as doing the dishes and laundry or something as complex as my phone. So how do I work hard without having a mindset of “good works” but balance in rest and restoring? I’m not real sure, but I’m willing and ready to learn.

My theme/goal for 2023 is “Learning to Live.” Learning to live fully in the life that I am currently placed in and work in. Live fully physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. If I’m real honest its been a hot minute since I have had that clear mind.

Part of that was just the stress of moving cross-country while being met shortly after with the crazy thing we all experienced. Part of it was homeschooling kiddos who really love to be in the middle of their peers and this momma who also thrives in being in the middle of her peers as well not to even mention that I do love to work. I enjoy cleaning teeth and walking alongside those that carry a title of being one of my patients or co-workers. Part of it was trying to figure out what the role of “pastor’s wife” really means and how do I find the balance that is best for me, our family and my marriage while still being able to have a sympathetic and broken heart of what breaks God’s. And those thoughts don’t even include how do I learn to thrive in this now almost 42 year old body that brings about physical changes.

Learning to live means that I am submitting my will, my heart, my hurts, my heartaches, and even my desires to Him while trusting that because I am intentionally putting Christ first, He has already gone before me and has a plan. He is good and He is sovereign. Learning to live means learning to grow where I’m planted while trusting that it might mean discomfort. And learning to live sometimes means just learning to be.

So the question is this, how do you define what learning to live means? What does that look like to you and what constitutes success?

For me, today it means that it’s a constant reminder that His mercies are new every morning. It means that my human expectations must decrease as my faith muscles increase. Today, I can say that I am living while also loving where I am in this stage of life.

I knew it would happen, but I just wasn’t sure when that would be. Craig and I have always said that once the seal is broken or the top is popped that the rest would be history. I’m not trying to speak in code or be vague about anything. Ha! If we’ve spent any time together then you’ll agree that being vague just isn’t my style. I tend to be the complete opposite if anything. So what is this mysterious top being popped? Seal being broken? Let’s talk about it.

I’ve shared in the past that we headed to seminary for Craig to study missions. On our first date, we talked extensively about not wanting to live life in a box. The box is the oh-so-good and grand American dream of a house with a white picketed fence and 2.5 kids and a dog where parents worked typical 9-5 day joys completing menial work where people live life on autopilot and look as though they have been zapped by the modern-day culture bug zapper that ultimately enslaves them to what this world has to offer. All of that really made us want to barf. As young adults, we just couldn’t wrap our minds around it. Throw in the fact that we were in the midst of significant growth of growing in and understanding what it means to be intentionally walking with the Lord and living a life of faith in Jesus. Whew! Yet, somehow it tends to happen.

As life has it, we married. Had menial jobs. We served in the church. Built a house. Started a family. Then Craig changed his full-time job to a job in ministry. We sold our new house and most of the things in it. Moved to another state to go to seminary and started pursuing international missions. Each time we tried to head to Africa we found out we were expecting a baby. We lived life on mission amongst the internationals in the DFW metroplex all while being very intentional in raising our kiddos and sharing the gospel with our American friends. . . and we still never left the country. It really is mind-boggling how many people in today’s world have never heard of Jesus, much less understand the depth of His love for them!!!

Fast forward to the present day. It’s pretty fitting that we moved to Virginia to lead a church that is centered on missions, yet not fully understanding the depth of their desire for international missions or really thinking that flame still existed for our family. The Lord really does have a way of working all things together for His good if we will just trust Him to do His thing!!! The top that has been popped or the seal that has been broken is this, after 11 years of trying to go internationally for missions, Rushes have done it! Or should I say, the Lord has done it through us? So far for 2022 Craig has been to Athens, Greece and all five of us have traveled to La Paz, Mexico for mission trips. Not only did we absolutely like it, but we all LOVED it. The 3E’s begged to stay and can’t wait for the next grand adventure! Where will we go next? I’m not sure where or when that will be, but this I know is true, the seal has been broken and the Rushes are ready to explore!

Where would you go if given the opportunity to travel internationally for the sake of sharing the gospel with some of God’s people who have yet to hear or fully understand the life-changing story of the gospel of Jesus of Christ?

Disclosure: this blog originated December 2021 and has been a work in progress over the past few months.

It’s in the quiet moments that we often times find ourselves fully transparent and fully vulnerable not only with ourselves but also with the ones around us. It’s like our coffee hasn’t kicked in completely. Some people operate like this and for some there never really seems to ever be a quiet moment. Constantly going. Constantly creating. Constantly talking or thinking. Places exist like both of these.

I remember so vividly the first apartment community we lived in when we moved to the DFW metroplex. The apartment community is located at the intersection of Campbell and 75 right in the heart of the telecom corridor in Richardson, TX. Shops and restaurants line the bottom of the buildings while the apartments fill the next three stories. At any moment the whiff of bison burgers could potentially overtake the aroma of fresh coffee and pastries or the yummy all American versions of your favorite pasta dishes. Top all of that with the colorful window display coming from the froyo shop located at the corner of it all. And if that isn’t enough, breakfast tacos with fresh jalapeño ranch sauce and chips will surely satisfy any craving left untouched. Imagine it now. It was a foodie’s delight.

Being that our community was located next to 75 we also had the pleasure of experiencing the daily humming, drumming, wizzing, and whirling of the DART train system. It started out as the sound that we tried to drown out with sound machines and by the end of our time in that community it became the sound machine we found comfort in. The noise blended into the quiet still moments. Never a dull moment or even an empty sense being stimulated. Yet through it all, you could still feel the tenderness of each new day.

Most of our time in Texas was like this. Full of all the things and noises. Full of opportunities for growth professionally and personally. Seasons of spiritual growth and physical growth. Full moments of growing a family. All of this was amazing yet still never filled the empty spaces of hopes and dreams that only came up during those few quiet moments. Things that because of “the noise” and the constant movement were hard to accomplish because we literally never sat still. Physically or metaphorically and I had no clue that I was tired.

When Moses led the Israelites out of Egypt, I’m pretty sure he didn’t think it would end up being 40 years of wandering. Can you imagine? I would have been so tired! Then time and time again the Lord would hardened Pharaoh’s heart which led to plague after plague. Hardship after hardship. But what we see in the end of the story is that all of that had to happen in order to fulfill the promise of the coming Messiah. Our coming King. The redeemer of it all!

Like the Israelites, we were tired. Tired of having our hearts hardened in one way or another. Hardened from good things and not so good things. Tired of feeling like those empty spaces of hopes and dreams were never going to be accomplished because reality is they probably wouldn’t as long as we were in the middle of all the noise. So I ask you this, what is “the noise” in your own life that keeps you wandering? Maybe resulting in brief seasons of growth, but yet never fully surrendering you to the “promised land?” I’m leaning into the quiet moments and digging into discovering what to do with those empty spaces while trusting the Lord to quiet the noise while my season of discovery continues to unfold.

About that small business I started during a global pandemic. September 8, 2020 we made our initial investment and became Yard Card Queen – Norfolk! Maybe you’ve heard of it and maybe you are like most when I say yard cards. That look, I can see it now, “what’s yard cards?!?!?” In short, we are a yard greeting rental company that specializes in celebrating anything and most everything! Here’s a visual.

This greeting I put up super quick before kids walked out the door to head out for their first day of school for the 2021-2022 school year. It was also our first day in Norfolk Public Schools.

That’s a yard card greeting folks. The possibilities are truly endless! Due to the nature of pandemic and what seemed like quarantine that lasted FOREVER, starting a small business that requires no contact with others has been the perfect fit for our family.

I mentioned that we ended up homeschooling our children during the 2020-2021 school year so we ended up using our new small business as an economic project. What better way than to teach them how hard it is to make money compared to how quick and easy it can be to spend it! I think the 3 E’s would attest to the fact that working can be hard and sometimes just not fun, but playing baseball and being a part of a competitive cheer team are exciting and also very expensive so they do their parts of pulling yard cards and cleaning them up and putting them away afterwards. Team Rush is (hopefully teaching and learning) lots of life lessons.

I don’t have a whole lot to say about YCQ specifically other than we love it! It’s work but it ties in what we love about life in general. We adore people. We love celebrating people and we love when people feel special. So having a job that does all of that and more is just the icing on the cake!

Words are great but pictures can be better. So, I’ll leave with you some photos of greetings we have designed over the past year!

What’s your favorite? Are you celebrating any big milestones this year? Let us know we want to hear!

“Actually…” (as E3 would say) it has been 61 weeks since I “graduated” with my Masters of Science in Management and Leadership! July 4th weekend of 2020 I finished my masters degree! Wahoo!!! A major personal goal that I have had for quite sometime.

It all began because I honestly wanted to wear a hood (my master’s degree was 100% online, so I didn’t even participate in a ceremony) and say I had completed master level coursework. Now, if you’ve spent any time with me at all you’ll know that sitting still and focusing on “schoolwork” for significant amounts of time is almost an oxymoron hence the reason for the goal of completing master level coursework!

The goal slowly morphed into obtaining my masters in order to further advance my career in post secondary education. I worked in post secondary dental hygiene education and loved it! My dream was to be a dental hygiene program director which required a Master’s degree! As life would have it, our family needs changed as did our location which meant I no longer would be teaching collegiate level,

Now you may be reading this and thinking “that’s a whole lot of change!” Yes, it was. These changes occurred over the course of 6 or 7 years. All while we were having babies, my husband was finishing his master’s degree at DTS, and I was thanking the Lord daily for His continued provision of amazing jobs that I LOVED and that supported our family while Craig was earning his degree and working for a church. I didn’t even start my master’s degree until after I was finished teaching collegiate level and was close to the end of my career in teaching high school. And I would have never thought I’d be working through my master’s while in transition! Much less finishing it during a global pandemic!

So that’s where we are.. or where we were. July 4th weekend of 2020. I turned in my final coursework and graduated with my master’s! A dream of a decade and close to 17 months of hard work! But what to do with it? Especially now since we live in a totally new place, in the middle of a global pandemic unexpectedly homeschooling my 3E’s. The questions have been asked more times than not and they generally sound like this. “Now what?” or “So now that your kids are going back to school are you going to pickup some days cleaning teeth at a dental office? How about see if ODU is hiring for a clinical professorship?” All meaning questions and inquiries. Ones that I’m afraid my answer to all of them (at this current time) are the same, “the Lord hasn’t released me to step back into dentistry!” People who have been through the journey with me sort of gasp when I say it. Dentistry has been my life for the past 15 + years. I have worked hard and diligently to help develop processes and protocols when I began teaching college and then when developing a dental assisting program for high school. Blood, sweat, and tears!!! And to accomplish the next educational journey needed to progress and then walk away from it?!? Yep. That’s it. So, what then?!??

As you can imagine completing my degree, in a new state where we had relationships with only a hand full of people only months into this global pandemic thing meant I had tons of free time on my hands. I mean I was preparing curriculum choices for the upcoming school year for my 3E’s, but still there was lots of time! And I don’t do well with free time. New school year kicked off. We settled into our daily methods and routines. Kids were doing great, but I just wasn’t being challenged FOR ME!

September 2020, while visiting on the phone with my sweet friend back in Texas she mentioned she had done a thing! A thing that she was loving. It was pandemic friendly and was affording her opportunities that frankly wouldn’t exist otherwise. You have my curiosity. Tell me more! I left that conversation that evening with a spark of interest and a prayer to pray. A prayer of maybe this could be my thing. A fun thing. An educational thing. A family thing. We prayed. Ran numbers. And we jumped in feet first! WE STARTED A SMALL BUSINESS DURING GLOBAL PANDEMIC!

Stay tuned for more on our small business!