I love this season of life that I am in with Kevin. We are young, happily married, and working full-time at jobs that we enjoy and can't complain about. We are relatively healthy, involved in a Biblically-sound church, and have wonderful friends and family. Above all that, we have a God who is faithful & sovereign & wonderful. God loves us so much & I am so aware of His grace in our lives. He is so good and sweet and loving.
Life is just so full of surprises and while some are better than others, it's nice to know that everything happens for a reason. Often times if anybody asks about marriage, I can't help but praise this wonderful institution. Of course, things are not perfect, and we have our set of issues that God grants us grace daily to deal with, but I have SO much to be thankful for and I want to chronicle our happiness & struggles as much as I can.
Kevin & I just turned 25 years-old recently. My friends and I joke that this is the time for a "quarter-life crisis!" But I was like "Oh heck nooo!!! Time for a quarter-life REFORMATION!" Hahaha I love unnecessary capital letters & loudness. But really though, Kevin & I have been eating healthier and exercising more and it's been a really big change in our lives. Eating healthier has also changed a lot of our spending habits because eating organic is super expensive...I like to comfort myself with "It will pay off in the long run...we need to prioritize this..." as I walk out of Sprouts Farmers Market exclaiming to Kevin, "When we shopped at Winco, we could survive a whole week with just spending forty bucks a week! AARGH!!" We went from a lifestyle of no exercise and a lot of unhealthy eating to going to the gym and exercising at a few times a week & a strict diet...I did a lot of research and there is this diet called the Low-Amylose diet that is supposed to be really effective for weight loss & maintenance with people who have a similar health condition to mine (I have insulin resistance so my body stores a lot of carbs as fat and it's VERY hard if not impossible to lose weight) & it's been really interesting to be so...CLEAN in my eating. Surprisingly I have a new found love of fruits and veggies so I thank God for that! When we go to the gym, I usually do some Zumba while Kevin does some weight-training. We just recently purchased a Groupon deal for 15 classes for Crossfit and we enjoyed that so far too.
It is really fun and exciting to plan our future together. We talk about our past a lot, how God brought us together and how amazing these last few years have been since we've known each other...it only makes sense to wonder what our future will bring! Of course, it is all in God's hands, but we also need to be responsible and make plans for our future as a family. This is all tentative planning and is not guaranteed at all....but it's worth mentioning. I can't count the number of times I've read my journals and said, "Oh my goodness...I wanted to do that?? YAH RIGHT, LOOK WHERE I AM NOW!" While i was a big supporter of young marriage, I never actually thought I'd be engaged right after I graduated from college. I came back home from UCSB, then got pursued by Kevin a few months later, and was married a year after that! If anyone told me that would happen to me, I would have laughed. I planned on getting a Masters degree right after college! Oh how different life ends up...But of course, I am VERY happy with the way things turned out ;) It will be fun to look back and laugh with Kevin and say, "Hey remember when we planned so and so? Or how we really hoped this and that?" So, here goes, a little sneek peak into our hopes and plans for our future:
Kevin will be graduating the summer after this next summer! That's 1.5 years! And we are very much aware of how fast time really passes us by and a year really is not too long at all. He will be getting his Bachelors in Christian Ministries at Masters College (he currently works full-time & does school full-time for an adult program) & plans on getting a Masters degree shortly thereafter. So he will be 26 years-old when he graduates with his Bachelors! Yay! Then hopefully we can just start right away on his Masters degree by the time we are 26 or 27 years-old. It's also strange to think that all of our planning for Kevin's Bachelors degree all the way up to a PhD, if he does accomplish every degree, will be between the ages of 26-35 (1.5 years for a Bachelors + 2 or 3 years for a Masters + 2 or 3 years for another Masters + 4 or 6 years for a PhD) HOLY COW! I can't even imagine being 30 and we are already planning for past that. Also, somewhere in between all of that education for kevin, will hopefully be a baby Gausselin (or two..or three..or eight!) All of our decisions today do affect where we end up in the long run.We really hope he gets into his first choice school, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Deerfield, Illinois. That is his hope as well as mine. We love that it's near Chicago too! While we have never been to Chicago, we have only heard wonderful things about that city. Deerfield is like half an hour away from Chicago so we could spend some time just hanging around Chicago like we are locals or something. But I'm excited! After that, God only knows what will happen. For all we know, we may just have Kevin stop at a Bachelors degree & live in Orange County our entire lives. There are benefits as well as drawbacks to this plan. Being the sweetheart that he is, he says he would be satisfied with a Bachelors degree and that what really matters is providing for our family. And he means it. But I know he really wants to pursue more education and I don't want him to stop just because of me and our yet-to-exist Little Leigh's and Kevin Jr.'s.As a wife, I delight in my husband's plans and endeavors and just want to see him happy and fulfilled in his career & goals. I honestly believe that Kevin is meant to be a professor. I just think God hard-wired him to be the way that he is...And he doesn't want to be a professor just because it's cool or prestigious or anything. He wants to be a professor who can share Christ with those who are seeking and determining their worldviews! And that is a very personal thing for me, because I became Christian in college. It would have been SO helpful to have a professor who could have helped me! Why wasn't Kevin born before me and been my professor?!?! But then would he have been my husband still? Would I have married my professor??? ;) ooOolala...Are we afraid of moving out of California? Nope. Because it's meant to be temporary and we plan on coming back anyways. To move out also means that Kevin & I will experience being thrown of our comfort zone & we will have new opportunities to create new bonds & new ties with friends we haven't met yet... I just find the whole thing very exciting!
But all is up in the air for now...so many things can happen in such a short amount of time. In the meantime, it's nice to enjoy where we are now and have plans for our future, and just be aware that God is in control of it all...if our desires are the desires that God is planting within us, then those doors will be opened for us..if not, then doors will shut and we will still have a lot of peace! Either way, I'm just happy to be where we are & to think of all the new memories we will create in the future.
Life is just so full of surprises and while some are better than others, it's nice to know that everything happens for a reason. Often times if anybody asks about marriage, I can't help but praise this wonderful institution. Of course, things are not perfect, and we have our set of issues that God grants us grace daily to deal with, but I have SO much to be thankful for and I want to chronicle our happiness & struggles as much as I can.
Kevin & I just turned 25 years-old recently. My friends and I joke that this is the time for a "quarter-life crisis!" But I was like "Oh heck nooo!!! Time for a quarter-life REFORMATION!" Hahaha I love unnecessary capital letters & loudness. But really though, Kevin & I have been eating healthier and exercising more and it's been a really big change in our lives. Eating healthier has also changed a lot of our spending habits because eating organic is super expensive...I like to comfort myself with "It will pay off in the long run...we need to prioritize this..." as I walk out of Sprouts Farmers Market exclaiming to Kevin, "When we shopped at Winco, we could survive a whole week with just spending forty bucks a week! AARGH!!" We went from a lifestyle of no exercise and a lot of unhealthy eating to going to the gym and exercising at a few times a week & a strict diet...I did a lot of research and there is this diet called the Low-Amylose diet that is supposed to be really effective for weight loss & maintenance with people who have a similar health condition to mine (I have insulin resistance so my body stores a lot of carbs as fat and it's VERY hard if not impossible to lose weight) & it's been really interesting to be so...CLEAN in my eating. Surprisingly I have a new found love of fruits and veggies so I thank God for that! When we go to the gym, I usually do some Zumba while Kevin does some weight-training. We just recently purchased a Groupon deal for 15 classes for Crossfit and we enjoyed that so far too.
It is really fun and exciting to plan our future together. We talk about our past a lot, how God brought us together and how amazing these last few years have been since we've known each other...it only makes sense to wonder what our future will bring! Of course, it is all in God's hands, but we also need to be responsible and make plans for our future as a family. This is all tentative planning and is not guaranteed at all....but it's worth mentioning. I can't count the number of times I've read my journals and said, "Oh my goodness...I wanted to do that?? YAH RIGHT, LOOK WHERE I AM NOW!" While i was a big supporter of young marriage, I never actually thought I'd be engaged right after I graduated from college. I came back home from UCSB, then got pursued by Kevin a few months later, and was married a year after that! If anyone told me that would happen to me, I would have laughed. I planned on getting a Masters degree right after college! Oh how different life ends up...But of course, I am VERY happy with the way things turned out ;) It will be fun to look back and laugh with Kevin and say, "Hey remember when we planned so and so? Or how we really hoped this and that?" So, here goes, a little sneek peak into our hopes and plans for our future:
Kevin will be graduating the summer after this next summer! That's 1.5 years! And we are very much aware of how fast time really passes us by and a year really is not too long at all. He will be getting his Bachelors in Christian Ministries at Masters College (he currently works full-time & does school full-time for an adult program) & plans on getting a Masters degree shortly thereafter. So he will be 26 years-old when he graduates with his Bachelors! Yay! Then hopefully we can just start right away on his Masters degree by the time we are 26 or 27 years-old. It's also strange to think that all of our planning for Kevin's Bachelors degree all the way up to a PhD, if he does accomplish every degree, will be between the ages of 26-35 (1.5 years for a Bachelors + 2 or 3 years for a Masters + 2 or 3 years for another Masters + 4 or 6 years for a PhD) HOLY COW! I can't even imagine being 30 and we are already planning for past that. Also, somewhere in between all of that education for kevin, will hopefully be a baby Gausselin (or two..or three..or eight!) All of our decisions today do affect where we end up in the long run.We really hope he gets into his first choice school, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Deerfield, Illinois. That is his hope as well as mine. We love that it's near Chicago too! While we have never been to Chicago, we have only heard wonderful things about that city. Deerfield is like half an hour away from Chicago so we could spend some time just hanging around Chicago like we are locals or something. But I'm excited! After that, God only knows what will happen. For all we know, we may just have Kevin stop at a Bachelors degree & live in Orange County our entire lives. There are benefits as well as drawbacks to this plan. Being the sweetheart that he is, he says he would be satisfied with a Bachelors degree and that what really matters is providing for our family. And he means it. But I know he really wants to pursue more education and I don't want him to stop just because of me and our yet-to-exist Little Leigh's and Kevin Jr.'s.As a wife, I delight in my husband's plans and endeavors and just want to see him happy and fulfilled in his career & goals. I honestly believe that Kevin is meant to be a professor. I just think God hard-wired him to be the way that he is...And he doesn't want to be a professor just because it's cool or prestigious or anything. He wants to be a professor who can share Christ with those who are seeking and determining their worldviews! And that is a very personal thing for me, because I became Christian in college. It would have been SO helpful to have a professor who could have helped me! Why wasn't Kevin born before me and been my professor?!?! But then would he have been my husband still? Would I have married my professor??? ;) ooOolala...Are we afraid of moving out of California? Nope. Because it's meant to be temporary and we plan on coming back anyways. To move out also means that Kevin & I will experience being thrown of our comfort zone & we will have new opportunities to create new bonds & new ties with friends we haven't met yet... I just find the whole thing very exciting!
But all is up in the air for now...so many things can happen in such a short amount of time. In the meantime, it's nice to enjoy where we are now and have plans for our future, and just be aware that God is in control of it all...if our desires are the desires that God is planting within us, then those doors will be opened for us..if not, then doors will shut and we will still have a lot of peace! Either way, I'm just happy to be where we are & to think of all the new memories we will create in the future.
"The mind of man plans his way, But the LORD directs his steps..."-Proverbs 16:9
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