Tim and Ashley Wallace
My wife Ashley and I are followers of Jesus Christ who seek to use the gifts and knowledge God has given to make disciples. Over the last 13 years we have felt God calling us to be cross-cultural missionaries in Latin America. We were married in 2006 and have 4 daughters, Keira 9 and Alexandria 8 Serafina 3 and Graciela 1.
Tim's background
Early life
I grew up in a Christian home with two loving parents, an older sister and a younger sister. I came to know Christ when I was four or five years old. My older sister was very concerned that I would not be with her in heaven so she led/dragged me to Christ, but it stuck
In Junior high I started attending a private Christian school. I ended up staying there through my junior year of high school. But by the time I left I was pretty much done with God and His Christians. As I progressed through school the school changed head masters a couple of times and each time it became more and more legalistic while at the same time becoming more hypocritical. There were always more rules to follow but they weren’t enforced equally among the students.
The Eye Injury
The summer after my sophomore year I visited West Point academy and started to seriously consider attending there after I finished high school. It seemed like if I kept my grades up and did well on my SAT than there would be a good chance I would get accepted. Also that summer I went on a youth group mission’s trip to New York City for ten days and through absolutely no fault of my own, I assure you, was in trouble everyday along with my two best friends.
A few weeks after I got home from the trip I scratched my cornea before going to bed. The next morning my mom took me to the doctor and they gave me some ointment to put in the eye. The next day we went back to the doctor for a follow up visit. The nurse practitioner who saw me thought I had some ointment globed on the eye and was about to try and remove it with a q-tip when she decided to have a doctor check it out instead. She sent me down the hall to an eye doctor.
The eye doctor walked into the room and with out looking very closely at the eye with any equipment said two words you hope never to hear from a doctor. “Oh my!” He rushed me off to a cornea specialist across town. The specialist saw me immediately when we walked into his office. He too echoed the words of the other doctor and quickly put some drops in my eye. He informed me and my mom that I probably had a pseudomonas ulcer which is very painful and basically was eating away at my cornea. If we had waited any longer to see the specialist I would have lost the eye.
I knew that if God wanted to take my eye then He would take it and if He didn’t want it then I would come through alright. For the next three months I was on three different eye drops that had to be put in my eye every 15 minutes and they had to be spaced a few minutes apart. After those first 3 months I was able to do only 2 eye drops every 30 minutes spaced a few minutes apart.
My parents would take turns through the night putting in eye drops in the wee hours of the morning. I would stay up as long as I could at night then get one of my parents up around 2 am. I would go to sleep and my parents would open my eye and put in the drops. A few weeks into the process I was so exhausted from lack of uninterrupted sleep that I was “asleep” in bed for 12-16 hours a day or more. After 8 months the infection was finally gone but it had left my cornea so scared that I could not see out of the eye. My doctor put me on the transplant list and about 6 months later I received a cornea transplant. Going to West Point was now out of the question because you can’t enroll or enlist in the military if you have any kind of transplant.
Because of the interruption to my sleep cycle my mom suggested an early enrolment program at the local community college to finish my last year of high school. But my school would not agree to the program because the education would not be coming from a Christian perspective. So a few days before my senior year of high school started I dropped out and enrolled as a non-matriculated student at the community college.
Although I had made the commitment to follow God earlier in my junior year this was the start of a period of time when I would walk away from God. I began to head towards the other extreme to separate myself from the hypocritical Christians I saw.
Walking away
After two years of community college I transferred to UAlbany. My faith was extremely weak and failing fast. My two best friends had gone to the same high school I had, one had outright rejected God, and the other just kind of ignored him. From the time I had left high school till my fourth year of college I did not attend a church. In that time I did what your average college student dose most nights, party and drink.
Part way through my first semester at UAlbany I reinjured my eye. I had to have emergency surgery. Due to pressure in my eye caused by the anti-rejection medicine I was on when I injured the eye the area were the cornea had grafted broke. My doctor was able to salvage my cornea but I lost the lens in my eye.
John 10:27-29
I went out to a club one chilly fall night in my fourth year with some coworkers and my boss. My boss got a hold of some pills and took them. We eventually left and went to get some pizza. The drugs had started to finally kick in and my boss started to become uncontrollable. I left him in the car with two of my female friends and took my other female friend inside with me; I was the designated driver that night. I heard an argument outside but ignored it because Albany is a city with several thousand drunken college students roaming around it on any given night and fights and arguments happen all the time.
All of a sudden one of my friends yelled through the front door of the pizza place. My boss was the one in the argument. I ran outside. My boss had a cut on his face and he and another girl where screaming, threatening and swearing at each other. As I looked at the situation I quickly realized that the girl had friends, a lot of them. I jumped in and tried to pull my boss away. He wasn't in control at this point because of the drugs. I was scared. He was bigger than me. I didn't know if I would be able to hold him back. At the same time I had three of my female friends with me, two of whom where drunk. I looked around and yelled for my friends to get in the car. I realized there was only one way for this to end and that is badly.
Through the screaming I realized that my boss knew the girl and had bitten her finger. I saw her friends coming to her aid. If a fight broke out, which was inevitable it would end up me and my drugged out boss against 6 or 7 big guys. At that moment it was like time froze. The Holy Spirit said to me this is what you have chosen. I realized what a waste these college years had been. Turning from God had landed me on a street corner in Albany at 2:30 in the morning about to get the beating of a life time because my boss had bit a girl's finger. All at once I saw the foolishness of my lifestyle. God is a merciful God! Just when things had reached the boiling point a squad car pulled up. I hadn't talked to God in two years, but I thanked him then.
The Call
After that night I decided to go back to church but I mostly slept through service because of late night partying. At the same time the church started up a small group for college students. I went to the first meeting because I figured I could meet some cool people. During the course of the study I gave all the answers I had been taught before. But I still remember how bitter I was at my high school so I also shared how I didn't follow any of it; I was tired of the fake Christian face.
I continued to go to the group and participate in it but I hadn’t decided to really get back on the road God wanted me on. That all changed in literally an instant. The leader of the group took me aside one day and said she saw leadership potential in me and wanted me to start being a student leader with the end result being that I would take over the group when she left for a job at a different university. It was like the Holy Spirit threw cold water in my face to wake me up. I knew God was telling me it was time to come back to him and to fully commit my life. I knew if I was going to do this I couldn’t do it hypocritically so I quit drinking underage (I was still 20) and decided to give up cigarettes also.
The spring semester of my fourth year passed with out incident. I went to class and stayed awake; I started to bring my GPA back up. God used that time to get me back in the word, I poured over my bible. I never developed good study habits but I still read every day and tried to understand what I read.
When I took over the group mid semester there were just two students left who actively participated and I was one of them. But when the semester ended the group grew tremendously. I had visions of leading a massive revival among college students. But this was not to be. I realized pretty quickly I didn’t actually know enough to lead a large group and I felt God telling me to go to seminary.
In my personal life I was struggling with my best friends. One of them had completely turned from God couldn't take me being a Christian. I had to decide early in the summer that when, not if, it came down to him or God I would chose God. The very thought made me weep. He was the closest thing that I would ever have to a brother here on earth but sure enough one night mid-summer he said to me it’s either him or God. I chose God and it still hurts me to this day that I had to choose between the two.
The Accident
That fall I started dating Ashley. She had started attending the college group the week I started in leadership. We had hung out together with the group and she says she didn’t like me…but we are married today so I have my doubts. We started dating in September and got engaged in December. We planned to get married in June. April 21st we went to Maryland for Ashley’s bridal shower and on April 23rd we drove back to New York. It was on a rural stretch of the New York State Thruway around 10:30pm that my life came to a crashing halt. Literally.
As Ashley was driving down the Thruway the F-150 she owned crossed the line and onto the rumble strips on the left shoulder. As she corrected back on to the highway the rear wheels kicked out and sent us off the opposite shoulder and off the side of the road. There were literally only seconds to react. The truck had a bench seat up front and I had been unbuckled and had my head resting in the middle of the seat. I realized I could do nothing to protect my fiancé and I couldn’t get the words I love you out. Then there was a loud noise and blackness.
The truck had launched air born and rolled so that we hit a bridge support roof first while airborne. We hit with enough force that the frame of the truck bent and the truck itself actually bounced back a couple of feet from the support and came to rest on its driver’s side.
I grew up in a Christian home with two loving parents, an older sister and a younger sister. I came to know Christ when I was four or five years old. My older sister was very concerned that I would not be with her in heaven so she led/dragged me to Christ, but it stuck
In Junior high I started attending a private Christian school. I ended up staying there through my junior year of high school. But by the time I left I was pretty much done with God and His Christians. As I progressed through school the school changed head masters a couple of times and each time it became more and more legalistic while at the same time becoming more hypocritical. There were always more rules to follow but they weren’t enforced equally among the students.
The Eye Injury
The summer after my sophomore year I visited West Point academy and started to seriously consider attending there after I finished high school. It seemed like if I kept my grades up and did well on my SAT than there would be a good chance I would get accepted. Also that summer I went on a youth group mission’s trip to New York City for ten days and through absolutely no fault of my own, I assure you, was in trouble everyday along with my two best friends.
A few weeks after I got home from the trip I scratched my cornea before going to bed. The next morning my mom took me to the doctor and they gave me some ointment to put in the eye. The next day we went back to the doctor for a follow up visit. The nurse practitioner who saw me thought I had some ointment globed on the eye and was about to try and remove it with a q-tip when she decided to have a doctor check it out instead. She sent me down the hall to an eye doctor.
The eye doctor walked into the room and with out looking very closely at the eye with any equipment said two words you hope never to hear from a doctor. “Oh my!” He rushed me off to a cornea specialist across town. The specialist saw me immediately when we walked into his office. He too echoed the words of the other doctor and quickly put some drops in my eye. He informed me and my mom that I probably had a pseudomonas ulcer which is very painful and basically was eating away at my cornea. If we had waited any longer to see the specialist I would have lost the eye.
I knew that if God wanted to take my eye then He would take it and if He didn’t want it then I would come through alright. For the next three months I was on three different eye drops that had to be put in my eye every 15 minutes and they had to be spaced a few minutes apart. After those first 3 months I was able to do only 2 eye drops every 30 minutes spaced a few minutes apart.
My parents would take turns through the night putting in eye drops in the wee hours of the morning. I would stay up as long as I could at night then get one of my parents up around 2 am. I would go to sleep and my parents would open my eye and put in the drops. A few weeks into the process I was so exhausted from lack of uninterrupted sleep that I was “asleep” in bed for 12-16 hours a day or more. After 8 months the infection was finally gone but it had left my cornea so scared that I could not see out of the eye. My doctor put me on the transplant list and about 6 months later I received a cornea transplant. Going to West Point was now out of the question because you can’t enroll or enlist in the military if you have any kind of transplant.
Because of the interruption to my sleep cycle my mom suggested an early enrolment program at the local community college to finish my last year of high school. But my school would not agree to the program because the education would not be coming from a Christian perspective. So a few days before my senior year of high school started I dropped out and enrolled as a non-matriculated student at the community college.
Although I had made the commitment to follow God earlier in my junior year this was the start of a period of time when I would walk away from God. I began to head towards the other extreme to separate myself from the hypocritical Christians I saw.
Walking away
After two years of community college I transferred to UAlbany. My faith was extremely weak and failing fast. My two best friends had gone to the same high school I had, one had outright rejected God, and the other just kind of ignored him. From the time I had left high school till my fourth year of college I did not attend a church. In that time I did what your average college student dose most nights, party and drink.
Part way through my first semester at UAlbany I reinjured my eye. I had to have emergency surgery. Due to pressure in my eye caused by the anti-rejection medicine I was on when I injured the eye the area were the cornea had grafted broke. My doctor was able to salvage my cornea but I lost the lens in my eye.
John 10:27-29
I went out to a club one chilly fall night in my fourth year with some coworkers and my boss. My boss got a hold of some pills and took them. We eventually left and went to get some pizza. The drugs had started to finally kick in and my boss started to become uncontrollable. I left him in the car with two of my female friends and took my other female friend inside with me; I was the designated driver that night. I heard an argument outside but ignored it because Albany is a city with several thousand drunken college students roaming around it on any given night and fights and arguments happen all the time.
All of a sudden one of my friends yelled through the front door of the pizza place. My boss was the one in the argument. I ran outside. My boss had a cut on his face and he and another girl where screaming, threatening and swearing at each other. As I looked at the situation I quickly realized that the girl had friends, a lot of them. I jumped in and tried to pull my boss away. He wasn't in control at this point because of the drugs. I was scared. He was bigger than me. I didn't know if I would be able to hold him back. At the same time I had three of my female friends with me, two of whom where drunk. I looked around and yelled for my friends to get in the car. I realized there was only one way for this to end and that is badly.
Through the screaming I realized that my boss knew the girl and had bitten her finger. I saw her friends coming to her aid. If a fight broke out, which was inevitable it would end up me and my drugged out boss against 6 or 7 big guys. At that moment it was like time froze. The Holy Spirit said to me this is what you have chosen. I realized what a waste these college years had been. Turning from God had landed me on a street corner in Albany at 2:30 in the morning about to get the beating of a life time because my boss had bit a girl's finger. All at once I saw the foolishness of my lifestyle. God is a merciful God! Just when things had reached the boiling point a squad car pulled up. I hadn't talked to God in two years, but I thanked him then.
The Call
After that night I decided to go back to church but I mostly slept through service because of late night partying. At the same time the church started up a small group for college students. I went to the first meeting because I figured I could meet some cool people. During the course of the study I gave all the answers I had been taught before. But I still remember how bitter I was at my high school so I also shared how I didn't follow any of it; I was tired of the fake Christian face.
I continued to go to the group and participate in it but I hadn’t decided to really get back on the road God wanted me on. That all changed in literally an instant. The leader of the group took me aside one day and said she saw leadership potential in me and wanted me to start being a student leader with the end result being that I would take over the group when she left for a job at a different university. It was like the Holy Spirit threw cold water in my face to wake me up. I knew God was telling me it was time to come back to him and to fully commit my life. I knew if I was going to do this I couldn’t do it hypocritically so I quit drinking underage (I was still 20) and decided to give up cigarettes also.
The spring semester of my fourth year passed with out incident. I went to class and stayed awake; I started to bring my GPA back up. God used that time to get me back in the word, I poured over my bible. I never developed good study habits but I still read every day and tried to understand what I read.
When I took over the group mid semester there were just two students left who actively participated and I was one of them. But when the semester ended the group grew tremendously. I had visions of leading a massive revival among college students. But this was not to be. I realized pretty quickly I didn’t actually know enough to lead a large group and I felt God telling me to go to seminary.
In my personal life I was struggling with my best friends. One of them had completely turned from God couldn't take me being a Christian. I had to decide early in the summer that when, not if, it came down to him or God I would chose God. The very thought made me weep. He was the closest thing that I would ever have to a brother here on earth but sure enough one night mid-summer he said to me it’s either him or God. I chose God and it still hurts me to this day that I had to choose between the two.
The Accident
That fall I started dating Ashley. She had started attending the college group the week I started in leadership. We had hung out together with the group and she says she didn’t like me…but we are married today so I have my doubts. We started dating in September and got engaged in December. We planned to get married in June. April 21st we went to Maryland for Ashley’s bridal shower and on April 23rd we drove back to New York. It was on a rural stretch of the New York State Thruway around 10:30pm that my life came to a crashing halt. Literally.
As Ashley was driving down the Thruway the F-150 she owned crossed the line and onto the rumble strips on the left shoulder. As she corrected back on to the highway the rear wheels kicked out and sent us off the opposite shoulder and off the side of the road. There were literally only seconds to react. The truck had a bench seat up front and I had been unbuckled and had my head resting in the middle of the seat. I realized I could do nothing to protect my fiancé and I couldn’t get the words I love you out. Then there was a loud noise and blackness.
The truck had launched air born and rolled so that we hit a bridge support roof first while airborne. We hit with enough force that the frame of the truck bent and the truck itself actually bounced back a couple of feet from the support and came to rest on its driver’s side.
When it rains it pours…
This was six weeks before we were supposed to be married. I had fractured my right femur and right foot and had deep lacerations to my knees. Ashley had a brain injury and the doctors didn’t know if Ashley would live or not. Part of Ashley’s brain injury kept her from making new memories and this caused a lot of trouble in our relationship. Two weeks after the accident Ashley had to move into my parents house because she needed round the clock supervision because of the memory loss. Just a couple days after Ashley moved into my parent’s house my mom was rushed to the hospital. The arthritis medicine she had just been prescribed poisoned her lungs and caused her to suffer a heart attack and two mini strokes.
This was the hardest time in my life. I wasn’t sure Ashley would make it through the accident and be able to get married. A very close family friend committed suicide a week after the car accident, he had been like a second father to me growing up and it was a crushing blow to my family. My Mom had just gone into ICU a would be there for a total of three weeks. Ashley was in a new home and struggling with the loss of pretty much all her possessions, the injury to her fiancé and the frustration of not being able to retain memories. Ashley broke off our engagement 3 times in the week after she was released from the hospital.
God is gracious though and he sustained all of us through this incredibly trying time. By the grace of God we were able to keep our wedding date even though neither of us was healed yet and my mother was still in the hospital. June 17th 2006 I walked down the isle with my new bride on one arm and a crutch in the other. Six months after we were married we moved to Texas so I could attend Dallas Theological Seminary.
“Lots of people go to school for 7 years”
I completed my Masters in Cross-Cultural Ministry in 2013 and by the grace of God and working in management in the retail, restaurant and hospitality industries we did it without student loans.
In 2010 we had our first child, Keira and in 2011 we had our second child, Alexandria. Both girls have been such a blessing in our lives but the birth of Alexandria brought another crisis into our lives. We had a home birth with Keira and it went wonderful so we planned a home birth with the same mid-wife for Alexandria. After 26 hours of Labor we made the decision with our mid-wife to go to the hospital because Alexandria was in the wrong position and wasn’t dropping. As soon as we stepped into the hospital room Alexandria decided it was time and the resident doctor and nurses rushed to get gloves on and Ashley into the bed before Alexandria’s head came out, it was pretty close.
Unbeknownst to us without a supervising doctor present the resident doctor made the decision to pull Ashley’s placenta out rather than letting Ashley deliver it which is the normal practice. After 12 hours in the hospital they told us that they wanted to observe Ashley for 72 hours. Since we did not have health insurance and would have to pay out of pocket for the birth and stay we asked if anything was wrong that would require observation. The doctor told us no so we made the decision to come home.
Two weeks after the birth Ashley was still having a little bit of bleeding and seemed to always be exhausted. We called a friend of ours who was an OB nurse and after hearing the symptoms Ashley was displaying told us we had to go back to the hospital immediately. Ashley had to go into surgery. When the resident doctor pulled out the placenta it had ripped and left a significant piece still attached to the uterine wall. As a result Ashley had been slowly bleeding out over the last 2 weeks! She needed 5 units of blood to replace all that she had lost, but the last unit caused Ashley to have a violent allergic reaction. She was supposed to be in surgery for an hour and the doctors wouldn’t tell me anything for almost 6 hours!
These 2 1/2 weeks were as trying as the ones surrounding our car accident. Thankfully God gifted me with a wonderful family. My mother-in-law and sister-in-law had both planned to be there for the birth but only my mother-in-law had been able to make it. For the first week she was here helping us. My sister-in-law, planned to come 2 weeks after the birth. She flew in the day after we had to bring Ashley back to the hospital. She was such a huge blessing to me in this time! When we realized the danger Ashley was in my mother flew down after my sister-in-law left. I had to keep working and it was such a relief to have family to help out during the 4 weeks following Alexandria's birth.
God is Good!
God has brought me through many trials in my life. He has opened doors when he wanted me to go and he has closed doors when he didn’t want me to go. God has opened all the doors on our path to long term missions and continues to provide for me and my family.
I see the need for pastoral training in other parts of the world and I see most seminary graduates planning on doing ministry in the U.S., not looking out at the needs of the church around the world. I do not think everyone is called to go oversees and there are certainly lost people here in the U.S. and it is important to edify the body of Christ here as well as abroad. But I don’t think we do enough abroad. I encourage people I meet who are thinking about missions to pray for guidance from the Holy Spirit. If their reasons for hesitation revolve around money or safety I challenge them to really think about the God that they serve, is he not capable of providing for them anywhere or are his powers of provision limited to the continental U.S.? The safest place to be is firmly in the will of God no matter where that will sends you.
This was six weeks before we were supposed to be married. I had fractured my right femur and right foot and had deep lacerations to my knees. Ashley had a brain injury and the doctors didn’t know if Ashley would live or not. Part of Ashley’s brain injury kept her from making new memories and this caused a lot of trouble in our relationship. Two weeks after the accident Ashley had to move into my parents house because she needed round the clock supervision because of the memory loss. Just a couple days after Ashley moved into my parent’s house my mom was rushed to the hospital. The arthritis medicine she had just been prescribed poisoned her lungs and caused her to suffer a heart attack and two mini strokes.
This was the hardest time in my life. I wasn’t sure Ashley would make it through the accident and be able to get married. A very close family friend committed suicide a week after the car accident, he had been like a second father to me growing up and it was a crushing blow to my family. My Mom had just gone into ICU a would be there for a total of three weeks. Ashley was in a new home and struggling with the loss of pretty much all her possessions, the injury to her fiancé and the frustration of not being able to retain memories. Ashley broke off our engagement 3 times in the week after she was released from the hospital.
God is gracious though and he sustained all of us through this incredibly trying time. By the grace of God we were able to keep our wedding date even though neither of us was healed yet and my mother was still in the hospital. June 17th 2006 I walked down the isle with my new bride on one arm and a crutch in the other. Six months after we were married we moved to Texas so I could attend Dallas Theological Seminary.
“Lots of people go to school for 7 years”
I completed my Masters in Cross-Cultural Ministry in 2013 and by the grace of God and working in management in the retail, restaurant and hospitality industries we did it without student loans.
In 2010 we had our first child, Keira and in 2011 we had our second child, Alexandria. Both girls have been such a blessing in our lives but the birth of Alexandria brought another crisis into our lives. We had a home birth with Keira and it went wonderful so we planned a home birth with the same mid-wife for Alexandria. After 26 hours of Labor we made the decision with our mid-wife to go to the hospital because Alexandria was in the wrong position and wasn’t dropping. As soon as we stepped into the hospital room Alexandria decided it was time and the resident doctor and nurses rushed to get gloves on and Ashley into the bed before Alexandria’s head came out, it was pretty close.
Unbeknownst to us without a supervising doctor present the resident doctor made the decision to pull Ashley’s placenta out rather than letting Ashley deliver it which is the normal practice. After 12 hours in the hospital they told us that they wanted to observe Ashley for 72 hours. Since we did not have health insurance and would have to pay out of pocket for the birth and stay we asked if anything was wrong that would require observation. The doctor told us no so we made the decision to come home.
Two weeks after the birth Ashley was still having a little bit of bleeding and seemed to always be exhausted. We called a friend of ours who was an OB nurse and after hearing the symptoms Ashley was displaying told us we had to go back to the hospital immediately. Ashley had to go into surgery. When the resident doctor pulled out the placenta it had ripped and left a significant piece still attached to the uterine wall. As a result Ashley had been slowly bleeding out over the last 2 weeks! She needed 5 units of blood to replace all that she had lost, but the last unit caused Ashley to have a violent allergic reaction. She was supposed to be in surgery for an hour and the doctors wouldn’t tell me anything for almost 6 hours!
These 2 1/2 weeks were as trying as the ones surrounding our car accident. Thankfully God gifted me with a wonderful family. My mother-in-law and sister-in-law had both planned to be there for the birth but only my mother-in-law had been able to make it. For the first week she was here helping us. My sister-in-law, planned to come 2 weeks after the birth. She flew in the day after we had to bring Ashley back to the hospital. She was such a huge blessing to me in this time! When we realized the danger Ashley was in my mother flew down after my sister-in-law left. I had to keep working and it was such a relief to have family to help out during the 4 weeks following Alexandria's birth.
God is Good!
God has brought me through many trials in my life. He has opened doors when he wanted me to go and he has closed doors when he didn’t want me to go. God has opened all the doors on our path to long term missions and continues to provide for me and my family.
I see the need for pastoral training in other parts of the world and I see most seminary graduates planning on doing ministry in the U.S., not looking out at the needs of the church around the world. I do not think everyone is called to go oversees and there are certainly lost people here in the U.S. and it is important to edify the body of Christ here as well as abroad. But I don’t think we do enough abroad. I encourage people I meet who are thinking about missions to pray for guidance from the Holy Spirit. If their reasons for hesitation revolve around money or safety I challenge them to really think about the God that they serve, is he not capable of providing for them anywhere or are his powers of provision limited to the continental U.S.? The safest place to be is firmly in the will of God no matter where that will sends you.
Ashley's Background
My name is Ashley Wallace. I was born in Alexandria, Virginia. I have one sister who is about two years older than me and a brother who is two years younger than me. All three of us were born in Virginia. However, both of my parents are from Albany, New York. We always went to Albany for the holidays. That is where all of our extended family was, and we called Albany “home.”
My father worked for Marriott when I was young. He was a chef and did the grand openings for new Marriott hotels; this meant our family had to move often. My first move occurred when I was about two weeks old to Fort Lauderdale, Florida. I moved a couple more times; to New York, back to Virginia, before we settled in Maryland, where I was brought up. Moving from place to place was exciting for me as a child. I was eager to see new places and make new friends. After a couple of years of residing in Salisbury, MD I began to ask when the next move would take place and where we would be going. As a child I do not remember much of the packing and the hassle that moving was. I remember many road trips and losing things in the move, but other than that, it was no trouble to me at all. (It may sound like I moved a few times but to date I've moved 30 times.)
My father was the provider for our family. He worked very hard for us. He taught me and my siblings what good work ethic is and how to do hard work. I appreciate all that he endured now, even though at the time I didn’t fully understand why he was gone so much. My mother worked from home while we were little but once we were school aged she worked full time at a bank. My parents had a great relationship and were a great example of marriage for me. My sister, brother and I didn't always get along but we always supported each other. As adults we live in different parts of the country but are still good friends.
My parents were both Catholic, so that is the church we attended. At one point I even attended a Catholic school. We attended CCD, which is what Catholics call their mid-week Bible Study, every week when I wasn't enrolled at the school and participated in all of the sacraments until it was time for my sister to get confirmed. She said that if partaking in that ceremony would make her viewed and an “adult” in the church then she should be the one who got to decide if she wanted to do that. She finally won her argument, so when it was my turn I said the same thing.
A turning point in my life happened the summer of 1999. I had just finished eighth grade. My sister invited me to attend a Young Life summer camp with her. Of course I went; I was finally able to be around her and her high school friends. This summer camp was life changing. Throughout my years at Catholic school, I would try to understand the religion and my faith. When I asked questions they would answer me with “Do not question God,” or something along those lines. However, at this camp they openly presented who Jesus is and were open to my questions. They could even answer my questions with the Bible! I was amazed. The last night at camp we had a very serious club and then were given twenty minutes where everyone at camp was to be completely silent and we had twenty minutes to reflect on what happened that week. I had chosen a spot under a huge tree on a hill, from this spot you could see right over the lake and the mountains were in the background. There was a storm on the other side of the mountain. I could see lightening but we had no rain. God was powerful. I knew I wanted to have what everyone else at camp had. They each had a joy about them and they knew where they were going when they died. I decided I wanted that while I was on the hill that evening. However, I still had my Catholic habits... So, I waited until that night when I was in the shower and there I could wash away the old and I came out new covered in Christ’s blood!
My Young Life leaders did not leave me there though. When we got home my leaders made sure I was plugged in to campaigners, which is a more in depth Bible study. I was also a student leader. Then in tenth grade, I became a Wyld Life leader which is the Young Life ministry for middle school aged children. Being a leader was very helpful in my growth. I had to know what I was talking about. I had to learn to defend my faith against those who questioned me. I had to live my life in the manner I was teaching the seventh and eighth graders whom I lead. Those children would mimic my every move. Being a leader with them also made me become confident in who I was and who God was to me.
The other things that mattered to me were sports; I always played at least one a season. I have played, coached and refereed something since I was in 4th grade until graduation from high school. Lacrosse was my passion!
I was going to attend the university that my father worked. I didn't want to go to college but I got free tuition and only had to pay fees and books to attend that university, and it didn't make sense to pass up a free education. He ended up leaving the university my first semester.
I did finish out that first year of college and then I studied abroad over the summer. My goal in college was to learn Spanish so I figured since I had invested a year of my life in college I should at least reach my goal. There was a study abroad program offered in the summer and I went to Malaga, Spain for 6 weeks and then I stayed and traveled with a friend for an extra week. By the second week of the program, I was finally able to carry on a conversation in Spanish!
Then I decided I was going to attend Bible college. I wanted to know how to read and understand the Bible. I didn't get to read all the Bible stories as a child or have “sword drills” and I thought that Bible school would help me learn how to read and understand God’s word better. I was out of money at this point. So I learned a lesson of humility and wrote letters to find work and raise support. In 4 weeks, just after coming back to the U.S. from Spain, I landscaped a yard, babysat often for 2 families and many other people who cared about me sent me enough money to attend Bible college for a semester.
I went to Portantorchas, a Torchbearers Ministries school in San Jose, Costa Rica. Some classes were taught in Spanish and some in English. So I was able to continue learning Spanish. This chapter of my life is a big turning point! God revealed to me what he wanted me to do with my life! I was going to be a missionary to Spanish speaking people! A huge light went off and I was so excited I didn't know what to do. I knew that this was a big deal, so I didn't want to start telling people and then find out that I misunderstood God, so I kept quiet and prayed for a whole weekend. At the end of that weekend I knew it was true. I had a very serious boyfriend my senior year of high school and was still dating him when I left for Costa Rica but he was not happy about the direction God was calling me to go in. The next couple of weeks were tough and finally we decided to end our relationship. However, he had already planned a trip to come down for my birthday that was in less than two weeks, so he came anyway. That visit confirmed that the relationship was over. For me, that wasn't sad, it was like a burden lifted off my shoulders and my fellow classmates noticed and even mentioned that I seemed happier.
After my semester at Bible college I went to live with my parents in upstate New York and began working at a daycare center. I eventually became the acting assistant director. I wasn't excited to move from Costa Rica to New York in the middle of winter. My mom met me at the airport with my first winter jacket. I didn't really know why I was in New York. I knew it was an act of obedience but I didn't like it there. After nine months of living there, it made sense. I started dating Tim. We had been working in leadership positions in a couple of different ministries together at church and one day we started dating. We knew that day that we’d get married. Three months after we started dating we got engaged and planned to marry 6 months after that. A few months later, while driving back to New York from my bridal shower that was held in Maryland, Tim and I were in a car accident.
I was driving and Tim was the only passenger aside from all of our shower gifts. Every earthly possession worth anything was in that truck. All of it was destroyed and I broke my fiancé’s leg! I had incurred a minor brain injury. For a short time I couldn't make new memories. I was in the hospital for almost a week and then a rehab hospital for a week, and then I had to move in with Tim’s family as his mom didn't work and I needed full time supervision. I don’t really know the details of this part of our relationship or my life. (Tim’s bio will give you a better understanding of this time frame)
Tim and I got married on June 17, 2006! We got married because we had fun hanging out together but more importantly we had the same goals in life. We both wanted to serve God and we both had an interest in serving in South America to Spanish speaking people. We've been intentional in being a part of ministries that we hope will help us be prepared for what is to come.
Although I wanted kids right away Tim decided it would be best to go through seminary before we had kids. We ended up having our daughters while in the middle of seminary. We got pregnant with our first child in 2009! We decided we weren't going to find out the sex of the baby. On mother’s day 2009 I had to call Tim out of a work meeting because I had a miscarriage. It was the hardest day of my life. For weeks I looked back over the pregnancy looking for what I had done wrong and blaming myself for the miscarriage.
I worked full-time to help pay for school so Tim could graduate without students loans. 6 months after our miscarriage we found out we were pregnant again and Keira was born in June of 2010! At the time I was working full time as an office manager for a very busy chiropractic office. I worked up until my due date and then began working again 3 weeks after Keira was born. It was tough but we managed to make it work. Tim was in school part time and waiting tables nights and weekends so he would have Keira during the day and bring Keira to the office so I could nurse her. Tim would drop Keira off at the end of my shift and take the bus or walk to work and then take the bus home.
After our second child, Alexandria, was born in August 2011 I stayed home from work and Tim took some time off from school and began working 2 full time jobs so I could stay at home and recover from the complications after Alexandria’s birth (see Tim’s background for the details). With Tim working so much he couldn't do school so when Alexandria was 18 months I began to work part-time for the American Pregnancy Association (APA) in Irving, TX. The APA is a national health organization committed to promoting reproductive and pregnancy wellness through education, support, advocacy, and community awareness. At the same time I began “Sanctity of Human Life” training through Life International.
The mission of LIFE International is to multiply Christ-centered, life-giving ministries wherever abortion exists or the sanctity of human life is diminished. Through the training I was equipped to train church leaders cross-culturally on the Sanctity of Human Life and equip them to develop local life-giving ministries, such as pregnancy centers, orphan care, abstinence education, post-abortion recovery programs, and more. I am so excited to put the training and experience God has given me through the daycare, American Pregnancy Association and the training with Life International to work alongside the Colombian church and establish the Crisis Pregnancy Center and daycare center in Colombia.
My father worked for Marriott when I was young. He was a chef and did the grand openings for new Marriott hotels; this meant our family had to move often. My first move occurred when I was about two weeks old to Fort Lauderdale, Florida. I moved a couple more times; to New York, back to Virginia, before we settled in Maryland, where I was brought up. Moving from place to place was exciting for me as a child. I was eager to see new places and make new friends. After a couple of years of residing in Salisbury, MD I began to ask when the next move would take place and where we would be going. As a child I do not remember much of the packing and the hassle that moving was. I remember many road trips and losing things in the move, but other than that, it was no trouble to me at all. (It may sound like I moved a few times but to date I've moved 30 times.)
My father was the provider for our family. He worked very hard for us. He taught me and my siblings what good work ethic is and how to do hard work. I appreciate all that he endured now, even though at the time I didn’t fully understand why he was gone so much. My mother worked from home while we were little but once we were school aged she worked full time at a bank. My parents had a great relationship and were a great example of marriage for me. My sister, brother and I didn't always get along but we always supported each other. As adults we live in different parts of the country but are still good friends.
My parents were both Catholic, so that is the church we attended. At one point I even attended a Catholic school. We attended CCD, which is what Catholics call their mid-week Bible Study, every week when I wasn't enrolled at the school and participated in all of the sacraments until it was time for my sister to get confirmed. She said that if partaking in that ceremony would make her viewed and an “adult” in the church then she should be the one who got to decide if she wanted to do that. She finally won her argument, so when it was my turn I said the same thing.
A turning point in my life happened the summer of 1999. I had just finished eighth grade. My sister invited me to attend a Young Life summer camp with her. Of course I went; I was finally able to be around her and her high school friends. This summer camp was life changing. Throughout my years at Catholic school, I would try to understand the religion and my faith. When I asked questions they would answer me with “Do not question God,” or something along those lines. However, at this camp they openly presented who Jesus is and were open to my questions. They could even answer my questions with the Bible! I was amazed. The last night at camp we had a very serious club and then were given twenty minutes where everyone at camp was to be completely silent and we had twenty minutes to reflect on what happened that week. I had chosen a spot under a huge tree on a hill, from this spot you could see right over the lake and the mountains were in the background. There was a storm on the other side of the mountain. I could see lightening but we had no rain. God was powerful. I knew I wanted to have what everyone else at camp had. They each had a joy about them and they knew where they were going when they died. I decided I wanted that while I was on the hill that evening. However, I still had my Catholic habits... So, I waited until that night when I was in the shower and there I could wash away the old and I came out new covered in Christ’s blood!
My Young Life leaders did not leave me there though. When we got home my leaders made sure I was plugged in to campaigners, which is a more in depth Bible study. I was also a student leader. Then in tenth grade, I became a Wyld Life leader which is the Young Life ministry for middle school aged children. Being a leader was very helpful in my growth. I had to know what I was talking about. I had to learn to defend my faith against those who questioned me. I had to live my life in the manner I was teaching the seventh and eighth graders whom I lead. Those children would mimic my every move. Being a leader with them also made me become confident in who I was and who God was to me.
The other things that mattered to me were sports; I always played at least one a season. I have played, coached and refereed something since I was in 4th grade until graduation from high school. Lacrosse was my passion!
I was going to attend the university that my father worked. I didn't want to go to college but I got free tuition and only had to pay fees and books to attend that university, and it didn't make sense to pass up a free education. He ended up leaving the university my first semester.
I did finish out that first year of college and then I studied abroad over the summer. My goal in college was to learn Spanish so I figured since I had invested a year of my life in college I should at least reach my goal. There was a study abroad program offered in the summer and I went to Malaga, Spain for 6 weeks and then I stayed and traveled with a friend for an extra week. By the second week of the program, I was finally able to carry on a conversation in Spanish!
Then I decided I was going to attend Bible college. I wanted to know how to read and understand the Bible. I didn't get to read all the Bible stories as a child or have “sword drills” and I thought that Bible school would help me learn how to read and understand God’s word better. I was out of money at this point. So I learned a lesson of humility and wrote letters to find work and raise support. In 4 weeks, just after coming back to the U.S. from Spain, I landscaped a yard, babysat often for 2 families and many other people who cared about me sent me enough money to attend Bible college for a semester.
I went to Portantorchas, a Torchbearers Ministries school in San Jose, Costa Rica. Some classes were taught in Spanish and some in English. So I was able to continue learning Spanish. This chapter of my life is a big turning point! God revealed to me what he wanted me to do with my life! I was going to be a missionary to Spanish speaking people! A huge light went off and I was so excited I didn't know what to do. I knew that this was a big deal, so I didn't want to start telling people and then find out that I misunderstood God, so I kept quiet and prayed for a whole weekend. At the end of that weekend I knew it was true. I had a very serious boyfriend my senior year of high school and was still dating him when I left for Costa Rica but he was not happy about the direction God was calling me to go in. The next couple of weeks were tough and finally we decided to end our relationship. However, he had already planned a trip to come down for my birthday that was in less than two weeks, so he came anyway. That visit confirmed that the relationship was over. For me, that wasn't sad, it was like a burden lifted off my shoulders and my fellow classmates noticed and even mentioned that I seemed happier.
After my semester at Bible college I went to live with my parents in upstate New York and began working at a daycare center. I eventually became the acting assistant director. I wasn't excited to move from Costa Rica to New York in the middle of winter. My mom met me at the airport with my first winter jacket. I didn't really know why I was in New York. I knew it was an act of obedience but I didn't like it there. After nine months of living there, it made sense. I started dating Tim. We had been working in leadership positions in a couple of different ministries together at church and one day we started dating. We knew that day that we’d get married. Three months after we started dating we got engaged and planned to marry 6 months after that. A few months later, while driving back to New York from my bridal shower that was held in Maryland, Tim and I were in a car accident.
I was driving and Tim was the only passenger aside from all of our shower gifts. Every earthly possession worth anything was in that truck. All of it was destroyed and I broke my fiancé’s leg! I had incurred a minor brain injury. For a short time I couldn't make new memories. I was in the hospital for almost a week and then a rehab hospital for a week, and then I had to move in with Tim’s family as his mom didn't work and I needed full time supervision. I don’t really know the details of this part of our relationship or my life. (Tim’s bio will give you a better understanding of this time frame)
Tim and I got married on June 17, 2006! We got married because we had fun hanging out together but more importantly we had the same goals in life. We both wanted to serve God and we both had an interest in serving in South America to Spanish speaking people. We've been intentional in being a part of ministries that we hope will help us be prepared for what is to come.
Although I wanted kids right away Tim decided it would be best to go through seminary before we had kids. We ended up having our daughters while in the middle of seminary. We got pregnant with our first child in 2009! We decided we weren't going to find out the sex of the baby. On mother’s day 2009 I had to call Tim out of a work meeting because I had a miscarriage. It was the hardest day of my life. For weeks I looked back over the pregnancy looking for what I had done wrong and blaming myself for the miscarriage.
I worked full-time to help pay for school so Tim could graduate without students loans. 6 months after our miscarriage we found out we were pregnant again and Keira was born in June of 2010! At the time I was working full time as an office manager for a very busy chiropractic office. I worked up until my due date and then began working again 3 weeks after Keira was born. It was tough but we managed to make it work. Tim was in school part time and waiting tables nights and weekends so he would have Keira during the day and bring Keira to the office so I could nurse her. Tim would drop Keira off at the end of my shift and take the bus or walk to work and then take the bus home.
After our second child, Alexandria, was born in August 2011 I stayed home from work and Tim took some time off from school and began working 2 full time jobs so I could stay at home and recover from the complications after Alexandria’s birth (see Tim’s background for the details). With Tim working so much he couldn't do school so when Alexandria was 18 months I began to work part-time for the American Pregnancy Association (APA) in Irving, TX. The APA is a national health organization committed to promoting reproductive and pregnancy wellness through education, support, advocacy, and community awareness. At the same time I began “Sanctity of Human Life” training through Life International.
The mission of LIFE International is to multiply Christ-centered, life-giving ministries wherever abortion exists or the sanctity of human life is diminished. Through the training I was equipped to train church leaders cross-culturally on the Sanctity of Human Life and equip them to develop local life-giving ministries, such as pregnancy centers, orphan care, abstinence education, post-abortion recovery programs, and more. I am so excited to put the training and experience God has given me through the daycare, American Pregnancy Association and the training with Life International to work alongside the Colombian church and establish the Crisis Pregnancy Center and daycare center in Colombia.
