Anyway, to catch everyone up to speed in one summary: we again reside in Omaha and have added two to our family! There. All done, see you guys next time! Just kidding, let me get into the guts of this all...let's do this:
Not long after I returned from China (my last post) and Korea, Jared and I moved to Topeka, KS to serve at a wonderful church, Countryside Christian Church. The pastor, Nate, was a long time friend of my family and our initial connection to that particular place. So it was nice to start out that journey having some sort of personal connection. Topeka was really good for Jared and myself, not only because we had two amazing children while there, but I believe it was a season of rest and rejuvenation for us. For those of you meeting this blog for the first time: just before Topeka we had a pretty rough year and a half previous that I had written about a few posts before this one. We made quite the crippling and ripple effect of a decision to quit our jobs without much prayer and in *hopes* that finances would somehow come out of the sky and send us to Chicago then to Salt Lake City. To put it simply: that didn't happen. In fact, we were left crushed in many ways. Then to top it off, I had a miscarriage that same year with my first pregnancy. Needless to say, there was a lot of hurt we experienced. To be honest, some of those wounds are still healing to this day.
But all in all, God placed Topeka and Countryside Christian Church in our lives at the most perfect time. We were surrounded by a loving church family and I was able to begin the journey of doula-ing. If you'd like to know more about that, visit this link: http://ohbabybirthservices.webs.com/apps/blog/
Moving on! So, after almost 2 years in Topeka, God kind of came full-ish circle by placing an opportunity that had once almost been almost 3 years earlier: seminary for Jared! I mentioned Chicago a few paragraphs up; Chicago was almost the location for this seminary to take place, but that actually came crumbling down like the tower of Babel. Chicago was our reason for quitting our jobs in the first place. It was tough, but we found out years later that God was truly protecting us from that because of some other things that had gone down with that, which I won't go into here.
Seminary. Graduate school. In Omaha. Jared. Once this opportunity was presented I knew it'd be one that Jared couldn't refuse, but yet he was extremely prayerful about the whole idea. He knew with our track history of just jumping on the train and trying to move the boxcar ourselves never worked out. So being prayerful about every single angle of this was what we did. We committed to 40 days of prayer solely for this opportunity. One would think, knowing how much Jared and I absolutely love Omaha, that we'd be very excited about moving back and just up and do it. But having two very small children and loving the church we were at, we were hesitant. Myself more so. A lot of my hesitancy was rooted in my doula buisness as I had just become pretty well established and had gotten myself into many connections with great people in the birth world. My name was out there, I was getting quite a few emails and requests...all of which I ended up referring on to other doulas because after our 40 days of prayer, we felt God was telling us to move back to Omaha, NE. And so here we are! Back in Omaha.
We are so very glad to be back. However, it's not been world's easiest transition for us. Doula business has not quite panned out the way I had hoped, but it also doesn't help I was coming from a city where I was one of very few doulas practicing and very spoiled with having a great relationship with two of the more prominent midwives there. Whereas in Omaha, I'm one of MANY doulas. I've also been battling the process of what it would look like for me to go back to school one day to eventually become a midwife myself, and that decision has still not yet been decided. Jared has been so incredible in every way possible. He's worked his butt off to help provide for our family by working 2/3 jobs and now going to school with studies full-time. Seriously, this guy is incredible in every way possible. But now as we've been back for a little while we have realized that God may be changing things up yet again...
It has been laid on my heart to go back to work after 3+ years of not working, 2 of those being a stay-at-home mom with kids. This was no easy decision...in fact, there were quite a few tears shed the night I told Jared I was being called and wanted to go back to work. Yes, you read that right...I want to go back to work. I like being in the workplace. I thrive being among people in all facets. I enjoy just being in the simple presence of people. That's just how God has wired me and I don't know how else to explain it other in that way. This is not all to say I haven't enjoyed being home with our girls the past couple of years, because I have loved being able to help raise them each day! But as of now, I'm back on the job market. Well, hunting through the job market, that is. If you'd like to know more about this decision, shoot me an email or message and we can talk more extensively.
Well, folks. I think I've pretty much covered the life of us Landt's thus far. To sum up everything, we're still trucking through this valley of life, but I do believe that an uphill is coming soon for the Landt family. I'm not entirely sure what that looks like yet, but I trust God will be revealing that soon. So as we continue on this journey, I would like to ask you, dear reader, to pray for us as we are in the midst of some great and tough change. We would appreciate the prayers, and please know how much we love each and every one of you and the impact you have made on our lives thus far. Until the next post...
Grace and peace,
Anna
