uniquely prepared for someTHING . . .

Ever have those moments where you look back at the past few months and can see God's incredible touches of grace and preparedness for what's to come? I don't know if it's because I'm 30, because I have two ridiculously amazing kids and a husband who lets me live out my dreams, because of the way I was raised, because of the way I'm choosing to do life, etc. but the only way I can get through day-to-day stuff is by recognizing this world is way bigger than just ME and only God's grace is amazing enough to carry me through each moment.

I'll catch you up to speed here since it's been a minute since we've last chatted. Once MOPS started (last blog post) and my work load piled up, it's been a wild ride with not much space in between. (I can't believe I never posted about MomCon either it was an AMAZING part of this "THING" I want to share with you.

If you aren't a detail person you can skip all of my jargon for the reveal of the THING down below. If you don't mind reading all the how to's this THING came into existence...I'll take you on a little journey.

A huge challenge I've been faced with lately (strongly in 2013) was trying to surround myself with people who don't think like, act like, or believe like me. You see, I grew up in the church. I went to private christian schools the majority of my education experience. I now work in a church. My friends all believe in God and we talk about Him often. But, what good am I doing, living in these safe environments? Don't get me wrong, I'm highly appreciative for all that I've been given, blessed with, even protected by growing up the way I did. But, I'm pretty sure "my story" (past and present) has uniquely prepared me for what's ahead.

The theme this year for MOPS is "embracing your story." I was super excited about it and a little nervous all at the same time because I don't really feel that I have a very interesting "story" (my friends would say otherwise) but I just felt it was really "safe" and kind of non-impressive. Another challenge to myself from last year was to figure out how to SHARE my story. To talk about what makes me who I am and believe the way I believe. So, I've been writing it out. I even went as far as sharing it at a MOPS meeting last semester (I guess I'm due to blog about that now too, huh?) Anyways, it's all led me to a place where I just feel extremely "called" (there's a churchy word for you) to reach moms. Like seriously passionate about it. Like it can keep me awake at night sometimes, and it can keep me loving my kids too when they are driving me crazy- ha! I guess you can kind of see it's impact on my choices too from the launch of Capital Moms and Capital MOPS. But, it doesn't stop there. If you notice before each of those words (moms and mops) came the word Capital. That's not a bad thing. But it's all a church THING. I now want to help our church moms reach our community moms in this new THING. Moms that have no clue what hope looks like. Moms that have addictions. Moms that need to be loved right along their life journey. Because, regardless of where we are all at along the path; we can all relate and find a common ground on the defining word "MOM."

So, (fast forward) we are in a fasting small group study (going to admit here I didn't take it as seriously as I probably should have) but God is way cooler than me - so He drops in a new couple to our group on 11/6/13 which has spurred a unique bond between us. Jen and I head to brunch to catch up on life and share where we are at. Low and behold, God connected me the "church mom" with an advocate for the "community mom." You see, Jen works in a program where she heads to a moms home before CPS comes in to take her kids away and rescues the mom as a last resort into various programs (detox, residential, etc). She works alongside the courts, the social workers and the moms to figure out a better way of life because they don't know any better. They have never seen anything different. Most are repeating life cycles from previous generations. So, we get a brilliant plan together to pair the "church mom" with the "community mom" in a partnership as a "mentor mom." (our THING)

What is a mentor mom? Glad you asked! We are kind of making it up as we go along, because each situation will be organic. But the gist of it is the "church mom" would be meeting up with the "community mom" for playdates, being available by phone to help give advice in times of need, a model if you will, an example for what life "could" look like. Being a friend. Most of these moms don't have a support system. They don't have family members to turn to for help. Most have never seen what a healthy lifestyle looks like, not even a glimpse. The mentor mom would also share her struggles and advice on how to deal with crazy kids in a healthy manner (not perfect, but healthy). We give a mom someone to stand next to her and hear the words "I believe in you, you can do this!"

I know it's a lot to swallow. It's been building and progressing quickly. We feel it's far bigger than anything we can do on our own, but we also know that God is walking before us. If your heart was stirred at all while reading this, I would love to connect with you! as Jen would say, "The suffering never stops. The need will always be there." That only means one thing, we need more mentor moms to jump on the journey with us. It's something that requires a little training. We will help provide the how to's and a life-line along the way. I'd be more than happy to share more details if this peeked your interest. Pray about it. God could be telling you to try it out. On my book list this year is "She Did What She Could" by Elisa Morgan (spoke at Mom Con and I just bought the book- you can read the first chapter by clicking the link)...Being a "mentor mom" is nothing more than offering friendship at this point. Saying you are available to meet the need of a hurting mom. Is that something you could do?

So, for those who didn't want to read all my other ramblings- here's the short version of my life since October:

SHORT BREAKDOWN & MORE HERE
1. Mom Con - Jen Hatmaker - this quote has haunted me since: "I'm sick of serving saved people and blessing blessed people. Are we obsessed with our neighbors? Are the hurt, lost, broken people around us welcome into our home?"
2. Small Group - Wednesday, November 6 Jennifer Turney and her husband stumbled into our group (only a God thing) which led to the two of us catching brunch together.
3. Brunch with Jen - we each share our stories (which are vastly different in a good way) and we share what we are passionate about.
4. Share my story at MOPS- and I believe "my story" has uniquely prepared me for things only God can get all the credit for leading to this "mentor mom" THING
5. Jen and I meet an amazing mom and daughter who've come out of addictions and much more for a playdate with our kids.
6. Jen, the director of a VOA residential program, and myself meet at Chipolte to talk about how we could potentially all work together.
7. I head on a tour of a residential and transitional home to get a feel for the moms I could be getting connected with.
8. A Mentor Mom program is birthed!
9. Maybe you are part of the rest of this story?
10. If you say you don't have enough time, read this blog over here, by Shauna Niequist (daughter of Bill Hybels, Willow Creek), my new favorite: What My Mother Taught Me

There you have it. (It's hard to put four months in one blog.) I hope it's not another 4 months till we chat next. Email me at laine.alves@capitalonline.cc if you want to get connected on this THING!

a little of this, a little of that

Realizing I'm far behind on my updates with my kids and my "everyday" self, I thought I could give a quick recap of the past couple of months surrounding some big highlights.

My Everyday Life (remember, I'm not that normal)

1. We got a new car. We traded in our Navigator and got a more "gas" friendly family car. So, I'm driving the Camry now and Joe upgraded to a Lexus. Enjoying life from a smaller vantage point and really enjoying my gas bill!

Not the best photo, but you get the point.

2. We booked a trip to Cabo! Celebrated our 5 year anniversary with an overnight in San Fran but going to really celebrate when we take to the skies for Cabo in May! Can't wait!!!

The all-inclusive resort we will be staying at

3. We got a new dining room table. Haven't eaten on it yet, but we LOVE it. We actually had it made by the Capital Kids Interns. We are slowly getting all the seating finished, but our dining room is finally coming together! I think we are going to invite those that helped us build it to eat on it first!

Thank you to ALL who helped make this happen!

4. MOPS is still in full swing. I love it! I just love helping moms not live life on their own when it's so easy in this crazy season of life to do. We are launching fundraisers and working together to get to MomCon in October too. Super excited to do life with some crazy women!

Mops Fundraiser- see raising money can be fun!

5. I just turned 30! AHH but really it felt like any other Easter day. I think post kids- birthdays just haven't really affected me much. Then again, I got completely spoiled by friends and family- and I'm just going to say it again because I can- we are going to Cabo! Celebrating it big in May!

Check out that Cabo view!

6. I've been on a semi-health kick. I say semi- because with the littles, it's kind of hard for me to commit completely. But I've been working out at least 3 times a week (which is better than nothing right?) and watching what I eat a little more cautiously . . . minus snacking off of my kids food- ha- that'll be the death of me.

Costco check out! 

7. Got to have a date night with all the adults in our fam! My parents are the best. They surprised us all and bought tickets to a show called Traces (super cool) and treated us to dinner. We just love hanging out with our fam sometimes without the kiddos. We are super spoiled. Love that our parents like hanging out with us still!

Love my fam!

8. Celebrated a few other family birthdays too (Ella, our niece, turned 2! Joe's dad & Mom also got just one year older, so did my Mom! Birthdays birthdays birthdays- love how they bring fam together)

Ella's Farm party

9. I've been spoiled by my husband just because. You see, his love language (primary- cause he scores almost even on all 5) is gift-giving. So in an attempt to help me look cute at the gym, I've been scoring Nike shoes and cute sweaters. I love that he loves to give- but I really need to get better at giving to him- cause just like he enjoys giving, he likes to receive too- ha! that's the only bummer about that love language (but it's really not a bummer) I'm just being weird. The real bummer is that he has expensive taste!

10. Work, Work and Work...I actually really LOVE going to work. We are on our 58th Issue of the Magazine (which I love!) Check out our pinterest board! I get to live life out with really cool people and try to solve the worlds problems with LOVE. No greater task than that.

I'm sure I'm leaving some fun things out, but really, my life is a crazy adventure! I love living it out with my little family of four! (and of course extended family and friends!) I do live it a little randomly. So my next goal is to actually create some goals and see how many I can accomplish through the rest of this year! I received these awesome Vision Cast questions to do with Joe from Jen Patin (our Threshold Young Married leaders). We will be going through them on our trip. But I was given permission to share with you all- cause I thought they were awesome starters for getting some goals.

Did I tell you I'm super excited about going to Cabo?

Anyways, just a little of this and a little of that. I could probably write an entire blog on each of the items above, but gotta move on to some new things...so just a quick update on my life.

LOVE!

MOMcon

So, I've never been one to travel across country for a convention. But, when getting a bunch of friends together, thinking about getting away from the "household" stuff for a few days, laughing, staying up too late, and learning a bunch of stuff that could make me a better wife, mom, friend, and just a better me- I couldn't resist.

The craziest part of the whole thing is, my husband didn't even seem to object. Seriously? Maybe it's because it's several months away, or maybe it's because he's just super supportive, or call it God prepared the way . . . but I'm super excited to jump on an airplane with old and new friends to explore what Mom Con is all about. That's what MOPS (Mothers of Preschoolers) titles it's convention. The craziest thing too is that this is our first year being introduced to MOPS and we are all in. I guess you can say we all have felt blessed, challenged and encouraged by what it offers.

Regardless, I'm packing my bags and going to start counting down the days (it's in October) for this life-changing experience. They have a great line up scheduled to celebrate 40 years of MOPS this year (Beth Moore, Lysa TerKeurst, Jen Hatmaker, etc). I love living real life out with other young moms. It's awesome to be able to share life's joys and struggles with each other! I know it's going to be life-changing for sure. We are taking "for sure" 5 moms from our leadership team, but the number is slowly going up.

If you want to learn more about what it's all about, check out their registration link here: MOPS.org. If you want to learn more about Capital MOPS and be apart of our amazing team, find us on facebook here: facebook.com/groups/capitalmops!

I've heard lots of excuses why people don't make it to events like this, but spend a day with some of my leaders (stay-at-home-moms & working-moms) and they will inspire you to find a way to get there. I'm using my birthday money this year to register because I know it's going to be a crazy fun experience.

Join us if you want to get away! The investment you make will make it all the more worth-while!