About

This blog is really all about who I am.  I have so many words to say.  It seems they are endless.  The details of who I am will be/ are  scattered across the many posts on this blog (depending at what point in time you are reading this about me page).  I guess this page is a snap shot of who I am.

This is my second blog.  I wrote on www.searchingforaplacetobelong.blogspot.com for several years.  There are many posts, stories and chronicles of growth on it.  I had been thinking about making the change to WordPress for a long time, but didn’t want to part with the history of the old blog.  I finally made the jump when we decided to tie everything to the new company I wanted to start, Jagged Grace Creations.

Jagged Grace Creations has so many meanings to me.  We are His jagged creations of grace.  My creations are filled with grace, but have the definite jagged edge that, taste wise, is me.  His grace is jagged in that sometimes it wounds and tears to make us more like Him.

Who am I:

I am first and foremost a child of God redeemed from the shackles of sin by God’s infinite grace.  My identity as a child of God is who I am more than anything else I am and is the rhythm that rolls throughout every page on this blog. I was introduced to the Lord July 17, 1992 and my life was never the same.

I am, second, a wife to the love of my life and my best friend, Larry Hall.  He is the one person in the world I can never get enough of, I never grow tired of and the one person I would rather hang out with than anyone else.  He knows everything about me (I mean everything.  Some of it was really tough to share, b/c I always kept the darkness in me hidden from everyone.)  At this point in time we have been married almost 13 years.

I am the mother to 3 amazing children who have stretched me, grown me, challenged me, driven me many times desperately and tearfully to the Lord in prayer.  They are all different, but each have parts that are no doubt distinctly parts of each of their parents.  Ally Nicole is 19,  Stephen Isaac is 16, and Chloe Grace is 10.  The fill me up with awe and remind me of my desperate need for the Lord.  They make me laugh; they make me cry.  They pester me and run from me.  They are such an amazingly important part of my world.

I am the survivor of some pretty unspeakable child abuse who has seen the Lord over the last 20 years heal, redeem and restore what was stolen from me.

I am an addict who has been sober from drugs for 20 years who became an alcoholic 15 years after getting sober from the drugs and who now has 3 years clean from the alcohol.  I now serve in the Recovery Ministry at my church, The Village Church.

I am an artist who struggles everyday to quiet the voices in my head that tell me everything I make is ugly and worthless.  I have worked, learned and developed as an artist.  I love so much of what I make now, but I still struggle at times to go and meet the Lord in my studio.  I procrastinate and find other things to do, because the broken little artist in me is still afraid to come out and create.  Every year I become more comfortable calling myself an artist.   I continue practice more and allow myself to play and as I do that I get freer and freer from the negative voices.  I hope that I can help others find their artistic voice as I continue to find freedom and share with others.

I am  a student who LOVES  learning.  I have an insatiable thirst to know how things work and why.  I find that learning new things invigorates me and stirs my affections.  I am in the process of becoming an Nurse Practitioner.  I have about 8 years left to accomplish that goal, so it is good that I love learning and studying like I do.

I am a bit of an anomaly.  I am an introvert in that I prefer to be alone in my home, but I am very good with people.  Most people would peg me as an extrovert because I can talk to anyone and spend a lot of time with people, but I prefer to be alone.  I am also an artist who loves science and thinks very methodically, mathematically and analytically.  Sometimes it feels like God may have put two different people inside of me, but I know He created me exactly how He wanted me to be to do that work He has for me to do in this life.