Turning 30

*Disclaimer* This post is not meant to toot my own horn or anything else. This blog is in many ways a journal for me as well as a way for my family to stay connected with our daily ins and outs because we live so far away. If you're not interested in my life before China stop reading here.*

Turning 30 has not snuck up on me. In fact, I've been thinking about it all year. I am feeling strangely emotional about it and sense the need to reflect on my life thus far and what is to come in the next chapter. So here goes...

Experiences that have dramatically affected my life and made me who I am today:

-Growing up in a two parent, consistently loving, and God honoring Christian home

-Watching my brother struggle with the many diseases and health problems the Sovereign God allowed him to have

-Ballet

-fracturing my vertebrae in gymnastics at age 8

-spending every summer away from home at ballet camps around the country from the age of 13

-homeschooling

-leaving my family and moving to New York City to live in a dorm and train at the School of American Ballet at age 16

-living in NYC as a lone Christian teenager

-doing push ups on all the famous tourist sights in Paris during my senior trip with my dad

-Belize

-growing up in a house where we at one point had rabbits, cats, a dog, a ball python, and mice to feed the python

-fracturing my pelvis twice

-being in a movie

-being a professional dancer with New York City Ballet

-quitting dancing

-Going to Gordon College

-joining the cross country team

-becoming a runner

-backpacking around Europe with my best friend Kate at age 20

-spending the summer in India working at Mother Teresa's homes for disabled children and home for the dying, and working with lepers and gypsies

-majoring in social work

-interning at Germaine Lawrence home for girls

-spending a semester in China at Xiamen University

-marrying Chris Alford

-moving to China

-spending the majority of my twenties in China

-teaching English

-living in a country I call home, but calls me foreign

-dancing and teaching dance in China

-opening and closing a dance school in China

-learning a second language

-becoming a mother

-having two c-sections in Thailand

-raising my third culture kids

-living very very far away from my family

As I reflect on these life experiences God's plan is so clearly woven in the patterns and decisions of my life. It is calming just to think that God has already numbered my days. I just have to follow. I'm so grateful for my family and friends who have impacted my life and helped me on my journey. I am blessed. Here's to thirty more years Lord willing.