My name is Jamie — I have been Bryan’s wife for over three years, and mother to Jones for two-and-a-half. We have a little guy slated to arrive sometime in October, so I’m working hard to prepare the nest. Since I began blogging and reading blogs, I’ve come to the realization that no matter how much I wish it weren’t true, my life just cannot look like the lives of the women I read. I live in Japan, and that changes things quite drastically. My homemaking, my mothering, my marriage, my calling, my relationship with God — all are quite different because of where He has chosen to place our little family. I always thought it romantic to be unique and different and noticed by others, but those things have a different title in my life these days. (Like, perhaps, ‘annoying’? ‘I just want to fit in’?? etc.)
There are few topics that I enjoy talking about more than Jesus, prayer, culture, pregnancy & childbirth, living in freedom from guilt/fear/shame, coffee, books, and homemaking. I love baking and eating baked goods. Banana bread with a hot cup of joe is my greatest weakness. (Cinnamon rolls are next!) I love getting up when the house is quiet and making coffee, though recently the term ‘rolling out of bed’ is a little bit too-true for my liking, and I’m looking forward to having a more normal-shaped tummy come November. (I was going to say ‘flat,’ but who am I kidding??)
Today, I am not at all who I supposed I would be at this time of my life. I thought I would be a lawyer, a journalist, a writer — instead I am a wife, a mom, a missionary, a homemaker.. I dream of living in the mountains and working with my hands, of backpacking with my hubby when our kids are grown, of someday writing a book on who-knows-what, of helping others find freedom from the past and the sin of their hearts, of becoming a runner again.. and I love it. I love who I’m growing into, discovering who God has made me to be. I’m learning to enjoy and even delight in the uniqueness of my heart, the uniqueness of how God relates to me. I am utterly amazed at how different my life is than what I expected. It is a simpler, more adventurous life.
