A Little Background Knowledge

For those who may not know us personally, here is a brief version of our life stories focusing on how the Lord has led us to where we are today.  (If you would like a quick idea of where we are today click on Our Purpose above)

We both decided at a young age that the God who created us must have a greater plan for our lives than we could ever imagine. With this mindset and having decided to accept Jesus as our savior and to live our lives for Him, we each started pursuing His plan from a young age. We met at Milligan College in Tennessee where Craig earned a degree in Bible/Youth Ministry and Meghan a degree in Early Childhood Education. We got married and moved to Virginia a week after graduating Milligan. 
                               
We lived in Virginia, working in youth ministry and education, for 5 years. We were young when we got married so this was a beautiful time of growing up together. God provided a lovely church family and lots of wonderful mentors during this time. 

After about 4 years, God very clearly put a call to "Go" on our hearts. It took some convincing, and a little while to figure out the details, but God lead us to teach at a school for missionary families in Baguio City, Philippines. We moved across the world and quickly fell in love with the country and its people. While living there we made the most of our time: teaching on the weekdays and volunteering for both a local Christian orphanage and with a children's ministry on the weekends.

During this time, God planted seeds in our hearts for the future. We became accustomed to the many different ways of life in the Philippines. We learned about God's provision on a whole new level as we remained faithful to His call. Leaving the Philippines was the hardest thing either of us has ever done.

Upon returning from the Philippines, we moved to Charlotte, NC.  Here God provided greatly for us but we were also met with great emotional struggle. The last 3 years we have spent in the States have been an incredible time of healing. As God has healed these hearts He has put them back together as new creations. It has not been an easy 3 years, but we can look back now and see how God was at work in so many ways. One major thing God has worked on during this time is our hearts for children. We always thought we would adopt children (and maybe we will in the future) but, slowly and painfully, God has shown us that the heart for orphans He created in us has a bigger purpose.

We have been praying very specifically for 2 years for God to show us what He had next for us.  We've been praying that we would be ready for whatever it was. We've patiently waited. And waited. God has been faithful in that waiting. God has been molding and preparing us, speaking life into us, stirring yearnings and desires. He has gone before us and behind us. This time of healing and waiting has been incredibly productive.  When the opportunity for us to join the work of Helping Hands Healing Hearts Ministries came up, we were ready. When we heard that they would love to have us join them and began discussing the roles we would play we were completely and totally in "awestruck wonderment" at what God had done.  Let us always stand in awestruck wonder of our God. Even in the waiting times.