Changing Times

I haven't posted in a LONG time! Life has been flying by and sometimes I forget to stop and look around at what's going on. Ryan and I are in our final month and a half of wedding planning. It's all starting to feel a little more real. I can't tell you how excited I am to see everything all put together, our friends and family celebrating with us and just to experience marriage as a whole. It's crazy to think that it's almost here!

In other developments:

-We found our sweet humble abode! We'll be living in Vienna near the Orange line so that Ryan's commute is a breeze. He's currently living there now and loving the fact that he can just walk to the metro. We really lucked out with this space too! It's got a lot more square footage than we thought we could initially afford and is so light and airy! Don't get me wrong, it's definitely tiny--a little over 800 or so square feet. You're probably thinking to yourself, that's not a lot of space at all, but up here that's HUGE for the location and the price we're paying for rent. We're spoiled with a little loft space that opens up the living room and makes it feel a lot less small than it actually is. The Lord truly provided. It's been fun to slowly make it a home, I love the decorating!

-We're joining a new church! This is something that the Lord has so graciously allowed us to become involved in and we're so excited to be used by Him. Ryan and I had been really wrestling with a lot of things regarding our current church for several months. We LOVE the people that we've met there, which made the idea of leaving so much harder. Now if you follow @shaughnessy22 on twitter, you will remember that Ryan took a several month hiatus from Twitter. One day out of the blue, Ryan decided to get back on the Twitter train and that day he saw a tweet from @hbcfairfax. So long story short, Ryan meets with the pastor of this new church plant coming to Fairfax, hears his vision for the church and tells me we should consider joining this team to launch the church. I was skeptical at first and thought there was no way that we would actually be doing this. Nonetheless, here we are and so pumped! Thank you Jesus for using social media to reach into our hearts and to call us to help build your church. It NEVER ceases to amaze me how the Lord works and it is by far through his will that we are in such a humble position. If you're looking for a church in the Fairfax area, I would encourage you to check out Harvest Bible Chapel of Fairfax on September 9, our official launch date!

-We're both going through some job transition. Ryan switched to a rotational job position about 2 months ago that will have us in the area for at least 3 years. After that, we're moving South! Just kidding, we'll see! He's currently working at the Department of Homeland Security HQ and will be switching to another department every year until he graduates from this program. He's also going back to school to get his MBA. Would you ever have thought that my Ryan would be going to business school? Love it!

I just went through my first salary/promotion negotiation last week. I received a job offer from a competitor firm and my current firm fought really hard to keep me. They worked with me to figure out some additional responsibilities that I could take up and feel like I'm moving in a career direction I want to go. I will be leading the marketing efforts of one of our industry groups and couldn't be more excited for such a big jump in responsibility. In any place I've worked, I've always made it my goal to have a work ethic that reflects Christ. So all you new college grads out there, work hard and aim to be indespensible. Don't think that your assistant or associate-level job will get you no where. You never know what building blocks you're setting up!

So those are all the major changes that are going on or have gone in the future Shaughnessy house! If there is anything that I've learned from going through all of this life change is that HE never changes (Hebrews 13:8). Being a person who is SO resistant to change, I haven't always reacted the best to all of this. Something that I've realized is that Christ has called us to a life of change. Romans 12 talks about how we are to be constantly renewing our minds. The Christ-centered life dictates change and a constant working effort towards making Him the center of this changing life. I'm still learning this the hard way. Change is good and necessary and we have the Lord as our anchor, the unchanged and the immovable to sustain us through life's uncertainites. I'm thankful that I can know that and claim that.