I am Amy, a believer saved by grace. I'm a pastors wife, married 13 years. I'm a stay at home mom to 6 kids and home-school 4 of them. I spend most of my days teaching, cleaning, driving the mom taxi, kissing boo-boo's and folding laundry.
If you want the long version:
I am first and foremost a child of God. I accepted Jesus as my personal Savior at the age of 5 and for the most part, have relied on Him ever since. I can't imagine where'd I'd be without the grace, mercy, protection, provision, and love of Christ in my life. I'm sure not perfect but I sure am loved.
In 1999 (age 16) I fell in love with my best friends' older brother, Jake Spencer. It was obvious from the beginning he was "the one" and three years later, at the ages of 19 and 21, we got married. I'm madly in love with this man. He makes me laugh like no else can. He knows what I look like in the morning and he loves me anyway. He knows I'm weird but he gets me. We're both firecrackers, we fight passionately and love passionately. When I yell at him he yells right back; but somehow it just makes me love him more. He loves and fears the Lord and I love watching his heart for God grow. He inspires me in my own walk with the Lord and keeps me from being complacent. We don't have a perfect marriage by any stretch. But we have love. And our love grows deeper with each passing year.
So, the plan when we got married was to wait five years to have kids. Six months later I got pregnant. :)
Ashley was born in August of 2003. She was the first grandbaby on both sides. She made aunts, uncles and grandparents out of a lot of people the days she was born. And she's the blond haired blue eyed little girl I'd always dreamed of having.
And just when I thought I could never love another baby girl as much as my sweet Ashley, the Lord expanded my heart as He does all moms with more than one baby. Emily was born in June of 2005, 22 months apart from Ashley.
After Emily, I got pregnant again quickly. But in November of 2006 came a twist we didn't quite expect, when our 3rd little girl, Abby, was born with an extra chromosome. Down Syndrome. If I'm honest, it threw me into a tailspin. Not really sure what Down Syndrome was or what it meant for my little girl. Our church and families were incredibly supportive and I cried out to the Lord for guidance in how to raise this little one. Of course now... I can't imagine life without our Abby. :)
On our journey to learn more about Down Syndrome, the Lord-- as only He could d0-- clearly spoke to us in 2008 that we were to adopt two little boys with DS from Ukraine. It was an overwhelming calling, but we knew it was the voice of the Lord, and so we began the process to adopt. Only to find out a few months later that one of the little boys had been transferred to a monastery and was no longer available for adoption. :( My heart was broken. And I was confused because I'd so clearly heard the Lord say "two". A couple of weeks later I found out I was pregnant. Oooohhh. Ok, Lord. He was still giving me two, just not the way I thought.
So in June of 2009, Micah came home, our first and only son. :) Three months later, I had Mabry, our fourth daughter.
We really
But God. :) Our last little (very unexpected) blessing, Avery "Kate" was born in June of 2011. News of her arrival is what caused us to move out of our rapidly shrinking house and into a larger one. So we moved into our new beautiful home in the spring of 2011 and had Kate a month later. And now we're definitely done. :)
Kate is 5 now and my oldest is 13. Which means my decade of diaper changing is over and I'm entering teenage zone. Pray for me. ;)
We've recently moved to the Knoxville area to plant a church here. You can read more about that here: Our Next Big Adventure!
So that's the story of my beautiful family. I'm blessed to stay at home to raise these kiddos, home-school three of them and give my support to my husband in ministry. Yes we "have our hands full" or so I'm told every time I'm at the grocery store, but we love this life the Lord has given us.
My hope for this blog is that it would be a place where I can shine the light of Jesus and share all that He's done for me and is doing daily in my life. I don't try to candy-coat the trials we walk through but want to be real. I want to show you that God doesn't use perfect people to be mommies and ministers. He uses everyday, imperfect people who offer their lives up to Him for His use.
Thanks for reading our story.
