Become a Member

If you're single, you've heard this phrase often... "Oh, you're single? Well, you better take advantage of that now before you get married and have kids...because then, life as you know it, will be OVER!!"

I used to scoff over that statement - "pfft, life won't end once I'm married! What are they thinking?!"

...but not anymore!

I've decided to embrace it and really take advantage of my life right now before I kick the "single bucket!" I’ve come up with a list of things that I want to accomplish before life as I know it is "over."

1) Become a Member

It has always been a desire of mine to find my own church family and become a member of a local congregation. I wasn't sure if I wanted to keep the denomination that I grew up with, so for the first 4 years of life on my own, I went to non-denominational churches. One I stayed at for three years and was in their choir and was even baptized on my birthday last year. I thought for sure that this would give me a sense of "family away from home" but something still didn't feel right. After that I made the decision to try out a church of the denomination that I grew up in. That's when I discovered Immanuel Lutheran Church! What a difference! I remember the first church service I went to brought me to tears because it reminded me of being home and took me back to my roots. That was May 2013 and I am proud to say that on June 1, 2014 I became an official member of the church! Becoming a member makes me feel a part of my city and helps me to build relationships and connections within the community. And of course, grow in my relationship with Jesus.

Along with finding my own church home, I decided to further my community connections and become a member of Frederik Meijer Gardens. What fun! With this membership I'm able to join classes, networking events, enjoy concert pre-sale access and entry into their fantastic sculpture park and gardens. This is where I will be seeing my favorite band, Nickel Creek perform! 

I really don't believe that life and all its joys will end once marriage enters my life. Most of my girlfriends are married and have children. It's true that it's harder for them to be footloose and fancy free but they haven't stopped living...quite the contrary! Two of my married friends have each gone to Israel with their husbands and one even did a tour of Europe! My point is that life is what you make it by what type of attitude and perspective you have and my friends have been great examples of that.

The Apostle Paul was probably one of the Bible's biggest advocates of remaining single to better serve the church for God. It took me awhile to grasp where Paul was coming from and how I can be content  with my life right now. What he is suggesting isn't for single people to sit idly by and wait to get married to serve God or for their lives to start. Paul encouraged the members of the church to live a life of fullness for the glory of God. Paul states that we can do this by serving the church and living with a contented spirit by appreciating the blessings that God gives us - even during the season of singleness.

I am excited to share the different goals that I have come up with for this season of my life. I would also like to hear some of your own “bucket list” goals single or in general! Please leave a comment below.

-A 

*Note: Speaking of "kicking the bucket" I looked up the reason behind it and it's really quite morbid. Here are some other strange phrases that I found that relate to "kicking the bucket"...  

"Dead as a doornail"

"Dead as a dodo"

"To count worms"

"At peace..."

#Blue4Ben

Dearest Mindy,

You do not know me. I do not know you...in person at least. But, I do know of your steadfast faith in Jesus. I know that you have such a deep and passionate love for your precious, sweet son...I won't even pretend to begin to understand such a loss. As I write this, my heart is filled with grief. Grief that should not be mine because I did not have the honor of knowing your son, but the grief is still there...grief because cancer is so unkind. He was not my little boy. I did not know him, but I strongly believe that being a part of the body of Christ can connect people through the Holy Spirit. I feel so much grief for your family as if each of you were a close friend of mine. Please allow me to share with you how you and your son affected my life.

I first heard about your son about two and a half months ago when my sister, Amber, told me of a family in New York that had a sick child. Amber would give me brief updates of the child's health progress and at that time I didn't even know his name... Ben.

What a darling little boy. Just a little over four weeks ago, Amber let me know that Ben's cancer had increased and that things were not looking good for him and asked me to pray with her. I was overwhelmed to pray with her for you and your family's behalf and did so for the next 48 hours. Because that's all I could do...pray.


On May 13, 2014, one month ago from today, little Ben Sauer passed away. I do not know of the exact time, all I remember from that day was that in the evening, my urge to pray for your family increased. It wasn't until the next day that I found out that Ben was now flying in heaven...something he longed to do.

You, his devout mother, have the gift of writing and I am so grateful that you have allowed your pain to bring hope to so many as you blogged about the entire journey of Ben's cancer struggle. Oh, Mindy. You are a pillar of strength and I know that the only reason for your strength is your deep faith in Jesus Christ. The first blog entry of yours that I read was when Ben was in his "eleventh hour" and the emotion that you portray through your words have penetrated many readers hearts.

With his passing, Mindy, you could have stopped writing. People would have understood. They would have known that you would have to deal with your grief and take care of your three (one who is on the way) other children (one who is Ben's identical twin brother), your husband and somehow make sense of all this heartache. Instead, you keep writing...and I keep reading.

Mindy, thank you for sugar coating nothing and for keeping your ministry of this blog alive! I appreciate how brutally honest you are as you dictate you and your family's pain as you all try to adjust to life without Ben. But with each and every post, you never, ever renounce God. Yes, you get angry and confused as to why God would do this to your family, but you, above all else, trust God with your whole entire being. You are a great example of what I hope my faith will be and is in times of trials and tragedies.

Please know that I am still praying and thinking of you and your family. I heard this song below by Royal Tailor and thought you may be able to connect to it. Thank you for coming into my life via blogspot and being a great witness and mentor as to what the Christian faith should look like.

Forever Grateful,

-Alexandra

Note to Self...Exciting Announcement!

I am pleased to announce that on May 31st (his due date!) at 3:19 pm this little guy was born!

Albert Gregory - son of my best friends, Emily and Steven!

Oh, I am so excited to be an Aunt to him! I cannot wait to teach him to be a Tigers fan and not a Yankee's fan lol; and to see how he teaches Emily and Steven how to be the best first time parents.

 

Just watching the two of them with him tonight was a blessing. Albert is almost three days old and I can see how they've already adapted into parenthood. I am so thankful that I get to be a part of this special time in their lives and that I've been there since they first found out that they were expecting.

I still remember when my other dear friend, Rachel, revealed that she was pregnant to me before she told a lot of other people...even my friend Angie allowed me the honor of letting her first born daughter, Alayna (I helped with the spelling of her name) be the first baby that I've ever held.

 

And the big one - Albert will be the first baby that I'll change a diaper on. I know, I know, boys are the harder one's to change...but I'm up to the challenge! There will be a blog post on that experience for sure!

 

It means the world to me that my dear friends make me feel a part of their little families.

Albert's first FaceTime experience with Aunt Al

 

It feels just like last month, and not October, that I was visiting Emily and Steven in New York and found out that she was expecting him...and now here he is! And my best friend is a mommy. And I am an Aunt. Congrats, Emily and Steven! I thank God for this little bundle of joy that He has blessed you both with. 

-Aunt Al

Note to Self...I Love Living on the Sunset Side of the State

My parents and I went to Oval Beach this weekend and I took a few photos of the setting sun. It was the most stunning sunset ever! Enjoy! 

-A

 I love this shot of the children playing in the surf

 Tracks left behind from a seagull

Note To Self...Worth the Wait

When I originally started writing this blog post, it was still winter and snow was eclipsing much of my surroundings. Today, it's supposed to be close to 80 degrees and I couldn't be happier!

As the snow fell gently that winter day onto the ground outside, I was listening to the great Alison Krauss. Listening to her makes me remember when I first started getting into bluegrass music and how I was fortunate enough to see her and Union Station perform at Detroit's Fox Theater in 2011 with my dad.

The craze started back in 2008 when a guy that I was dating at the time introduced me to the band Nickel Creek, who was founded by Alison Krauss. No...not Nickel Back (my mom gets the two bands confused all the time ;o)
I love this next sentence because, at the time, I had to write it in past tense!
The band consisted of three members, Chris Thile (lead vocals), Sara & brother Sean Watkins. Unfortunately the year before I discovered Nickel Creek, they had broken up and went their separate ways creatively. 

Chris Thile formed his own band, Punch Brothers, and Sara & brother Sean Watkins launched their own group under Sara's name. Fortunately in 2009 while living in Washington, D.C. I was able to see Sara and Sean perform at the 930 Club.

Both Sara Watkins and Alison Krauss concerts were unlike any concert I had ever been to. There is a totally different atmosphere and respect for this genre of music. Before that, I had been to many country music concerts where the norm is to stand, dance and "yee-haw" my way through the concerts. This was not the case for these types of concerts...here it was required that you sit and listen quietly to the song and held your applause until the very last note faded away and became a memory...

I willingly followed these rules of the house and grasped to eat song knowing this would be as close as I'd ever get to actually hearing remnants of Nickel Creek. That was my thought of course, until early March of this year, that is.

Finding out that my all time favorite band had reunited after seven years of being on their own, thrilled me to no end!!! What was even more exciting was that they were putting out a new album on April 1st (which, btw is epic), just in time for my birthday month! Oh the joy!
Thinking that was all that would be of Nickel Creek reuniting, I was content. Then one day as I was reading Nickel Creek twitter updates (because Twitter is Awesome), I found out that they were going on tour for their new album and that they were coming to my city!!!

I'm reading a book by Max Lucado right now, and today he wrote about how when God blesses His children, He blesses them abundantly. He makes "their cup overflow" with blessings. I sure felt that way when all of this happened. July cannot come soon enough...but if history proves itself true, some things are worth the wait. Check out some of their music below and let me know what you think!

-A

Love of Mine

Hayloft