Love Mercy. Seek Justice. Walk Humbly.

On the weekend we got to visit the church I called home for the years I lived in Seattle. Its an amazing church only a few years old. It seeks to meet the needs of this post modern generation as well as the community that surrounds them that seemingly have no where else to go. When Dave and I read their mission statement on the church bulletin it really struck us and we thought hey isn't this what its supposed to be about?
"Quest is the expression of a vision and dream of a church where truth is sought, mystery acknowledged, compassion and justice embodied, culture and arts engaged, creativity and innovation fostered, diversity and multiethnicity embraced, authenticity and community pursued, and sharing the love of Christ is the great cause."
Check out Quest

sigh

somehow this makes things lots better...

fRuStRaTiOn

i'm beginning to wonder what it all means. you know that feeling when you get so excited about something and you think oh thanks God you really are listening and then BAM - dissapointment. yeah that feeling. i know you all know it. lets be honest here it happens more than we would like.
so i had this groovy job interview set up for today - postpartum doula stuff. an awesome opportunity to get some training and work for the ministry of health here. i worked all day on a resume.... get home and listen to my messages....cancelled. yep the whole thing just like that. no more program, not enough interest. over just like that.
yeah yeah feed me the sappy christian line that it will all work out and i'll be ok. i know i know. but for now it really SUCKS!
its been tough lately trying to figure out what the future holds. dave wants to go to winkler, i want to stay here. we both want to see each other prosper in our dreams for our future but when they are happening in different places its hard. today i think i would give in to him if he asks me. ready to throw in the towel and i just kind of want to hang out with my mom and see lisa and hold william and maybe have my own baby.
i should probably go before i say more things i will regret later but hey this is what life is about keeping it real. i'm so tired of being fake and a happy shiny christian - the word of the day is vulnerability.

Sunny Seattle

Dave and I drove down to Seattle for the weekend and had a great time connecting with old friends. We spent time with Ben and Mel and Jaya the first night which was awesome. Sometimes you forget how much you love people until you are with them again and then you leave and you miss them even more.

We also got to see lots of other YWAMers which was tons of fun. Nic and Jana were out and it was great to see them. We got to meet Zara whom you saw pics of on my blog a few weeks ago. Sunday night all the girls went out for dinner to celebrate. I got to go lots of places I missed going too. It was fantastic.

We also got to hang out with my friend Zadok who is in this ridiculously good band called Mercir Check it out! It was awesome to see them play as I was there in the beginning when the band was just an idea. I felt so proud and they seriously rocked. Here are some pics from the show.
It was such a great weekend!

more cuties...

just thought it was time i posted another cutie... two actually. daves sister julia and our niece zoe joy!

we're off to seattle for the weekend to enjoy some time with friends. its nice to get away two weekends in a row! lucky us. hope everyone enjoys their weekend!!

second time just as good as the first....

Introducing Aiden Zachary Bryson. July 19th @ 3:31pm. 7lbs 8oz 51cm. Life - what a beautiful thing to be apart of. Oh the absolute breath taking experience of new life. It was an exhilarating time. Aiden's mum portrayed the essence of strength and beauty as she willed her baby to existance. I'm in awe of the honour I get every time I get to be with parents as they welcome their baby for the first time.

Seeing a new baby makes you sure that God is behind it all!

So go and be you and be a bearer of life today in whatever area that means for you! Live full!

Whistler

What a fabulous time we had in Whistler. It was so beautiful. Its amazing to be right in the mountains - magestic is the right word!
We did some walking, hanging out in the village, lots of enjoying the pool!
We had fun with friends and re-learned what it feels like to relax after being exhausted from the program.

It was such a good restful weekend but hey back to the grind!

Whistler

wow. my first time to whistler. its magnificent. the mountains and trees - everything is so lush. its been a great relaxing weekend so far. we came up here for the Mission Adventure staff retreat. people keep commenting on how wierd it is to just do nothing all day long. we are fore sure not used to that. anyways i hope to post more pictures when we get back to the city. i'll post more then.
enjoy your weekend!

The Eve Project

The strong and beautiful symbol of LIFE in Japanese. This is for my amazing friends Audrey and Rachel who are embarking on a journey! They left for Japan today where they are going to spend two months just pursuing their passions. Japan is Audrey's destiny and its so exciting to see how they got to this point. They have named their trip Eve's Project. Eve means life and they surely will be bringers of life wherever they go. Very exciting. I will miss them but am sure that God has them right where He wants them.
Its mostly all about the journey anyways.
Love ya Girls!

Beautiful Babies

It seems I know the most beautiful babies (or in Zara's case her parents)
What a lovely thing to watch Sophia grow... Purely God's gift!
I love Babies!
(L) Zara Kate Rupp - April 05
(R) Sophia Joanna Jubilee - 1 year old on August 27/05!! Time Flies

Firsts.......

I wanted to share my lovely first birth which I attended last Wednesday evening. This was by far one of the coolest things I have ever done. I loved it. It happened during the worst part of my day – yes we all heard about it, the day; the hour the poop was gushing out of the toilet downstairs in the office. My pager went off and I responded to find the Doula Co-coordinator on the other line. She had a woman whose water broke and wanted a Doula at the hospital. “Can you go?” she asks me. “Ha” I laughed “hey I’m dealing with human bodily functions anyways why not!” Scary. I got there at about 7pm and she was 3 cm and progressing quickly. She’s young and this was her second baby (which means they usually go quicker). What struck me was this woman’s beauty – she was radiant. I felt drawn to her in a strange peaceful way. Her body knew what it was doing and all she had to do was let her body lead her. It was a bit more complicated as she had a past where her last baby died in labour of unknown complications so she was being monitored quite closely; which meant the baby was being monitored and she was not moving around much. She was so overwhelmed and I imagine a bit fearful. I found she liked her arm stroked a certain way and didn’t want to be asked questions – just do it! That’s what I felt like my job was. Try it and hey if it doesn’t work she’ll tell you to stop and probably forget about it the next contraction.
The doctor was concerned at her babies dipping heart rate (every contraction) so they did some tests on the babies blood which came back great. The doctor came in at 9:30 and she was 9cm – whoa for those of you unaware that is huge – like we are talking usually hours and hours of labour to get to that point. So they call in the doctor and we go through all the instructions. “don’t push” “just breathe”. We do this for awhile. She tried to get up to go to the bathroom but feels a lot of burning down there so we get her back on the bed and the doctor comes in for a look. “ok time to push” Can I step in here and say INTENSE but so beautiful. She was working so hard for this baby. No medication, she threw the gas tube at the nurse when she tried to make her use it. Tough girl. Good girl. I kept eye contact with her and we breathed through each painful contraction.
So she gets all the way to pushing and there is a pretty thick anterior lip of the cervix - the babies’ heart rate drops quite low and she is bleeding a lot - and then its panic mode. I felt so bad for her - there were like 8 people in the room; they are making her move from side to side to excite the baby. The anesthesiologist comes in and its kind of amusing now thinking back, he has to ask her all these questions right – any loose teeth? Any back problems? The poor girl is just trying to get through her contractions. She says “What teeth”.
It’s quick after this because they whisk her away to surgery. The heavy bleeding was a strong indicator that her placenta was already detaching and with her past complications no one was ready to take chances.
About 45 minutes later we got to lay eyes on a beautiful dark eyed screaming baby boy who weighed in at 6lbs10oz.
What a beautiful way to spend an evening.

As I drove home that night I smiled and felt such peace. I felt honoured that I was able to see the beauty on her face as she chose life for this baby. Her strength and courage are why I want to be at birth. In my lack of enthusiasm and joy lately it was nice and I even caught a glimpse of God – arms full of babies, tears running down His face. He was happy too.

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