Meet Shea Poe :)

hello ladies :)

i'm so excited to be a part of this challenge.  my husband, Derek and I have been married for the best year and a half of my life.  never have i ever been on a journey as exciting or impactful as marriage has been.  we dated for 3 years (almost to the day) before we got married.  honestly, marriage has been mostly what we expected-we definitely had well seasoned marriages pouring into ours long before we were Mr. and Mrs. Poe.  our life together has been a whirlwind from the very start.  we got married 5 months after Derek graduated college and 3 weeks after i graduated. we had been praying about where He wanted us after we started our new life together-and have recently made the decision to move to South Africa in January of 2010.  it's been a somewhat difficult change partly because we were so used to having separate everything: careers and groups of people we interact with on a daily basis, schedules, lunch breaks, cars etc...  however, we are both now sharing one car-working at kid zone within the Liberty school district doing before and after school care. we are continually learning what it looks like to do EVERYTHING together...working together from home each day-totally has it's perks, i love it...but this can also become wearing.  it's hard to remember that we are more than just business partners at times.  those small irritating things that used to bother us only 5 hours out of each day now occupy 17 hours of every day and begin to grate.  i look most forward to loving Derek for who God made HIM...i look forward to learning to love him in the smallest ways...put him before myself (even if it's just, who gets to heat up their lunch first, or who makes the coffee in the a.m.).  i want to learn to give myself fully to my husband, while only relying on Him.  i am so thankful to have this experience before we leave for africa.  while we are there derek will be the only person who can relate to where i come from, what i've seen, and share this experience with most of the time.  high expectations from this book and group huh? i trust He will do in me what is necessarily, i'm just so excited and honored to be able to walk along side each of you...  

P.S.

forgot to add...i have started writing Derek letters as i embark and continue on this challenge.  I want to be able to read through them together at the end-and experience everything that this brings. just wanted to throw it out there in case anyone else wanted to do it too...