Traveling & Closed Borders

Travel is one of the greatest freedoms and privileges in our modern time. We have the ability to dream up a location, consider how we want to get there and then to head out towards the horizon. But what feelings arise whenever we can’t just go? How do we navigate restricted boarders and the red letter “no” travel?

In the past two years I have left the country to visit foreign countries. I felt free, I felt alive but did I feel grateful? Time and time again we find ourselves taking things for granted. I think in this year alone, we can all agree that we learned that taking things for granted turned out to be our secret talent, special language and or way of life.

Travel restriction goes one step further because not only can you not travel to surrounding countries but city to city travel is limited and not encouraged. I found myself frustrated and suffocated for not being able to explore, wander and feed my curiosity.

Frustration, anger, confusion, bitterness and even apathy are all normal things to be feeling in life and in 2020. But the big question that I want to ask you, are you ok with living life through these feelings? Or do you want to stop taking things for granted, putting off plans, staying in bad habits, choosing to put yourself last, delay that one thing another year, or anything else under the sun?

I think we all want to live lives that are well loved, cherished and free even when life throws a criss-crossing moment at you. Please know that at the end of the day, no matter what this year or the next looks like, that you have a choice to start living your ideal adventure today.

This is my challenge to you, find an area in your life that you want to love better, make a plan and walk into that plan today. And because our chances of reaching our goals increases whenever we tell someone else, comment your goal down below or share it with your bestie! Not only do you achieve more goals when you let someone else in on the journey but you can find yourself to be more motivated throughout the process.

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You are loved!

-Kriss

A Journey for Two

Today is the day before Jacob and I celebrate our second wedding anniversary and my thoughts currently are… how has it been two years already and, also, how has it only been two years?? Have you ever felt this about those things most precious to you?

These past two years have been the very definition of an adventure. We’ve traveled to two countries, ten states, woken up before the sun and crawled into bed long after the rise of the moon. We’ve danced barefooted on beaches, on top of mountains and in dirty kitchens. We’ve eaten both the finest cuisine and tasted our tears. We’ve shared in stresses, anxieties and fears.

I knew I loved you when I said “I do” but I never expected it to grow into something 10x more gorgeous, freeing, intimate, wild and true. My heart is bursting for the man who gave me his last name. It’s the greatest honor to carry this flame.

I cannot wait to see what the next year looks like for us in this journey and everyone it involves. We are incredibly thankful to our families, our friends and to you for supporting us, praying for us and being adventurous with us along this journey of lives well loved.

You are loved!

-Kriss

Traveling Berlin, Honeymoon Style

Here’s to the start of our Honeymoon story! A moment in our relationship that we have been planning for and have been swimming in excitement for during our 11 month engagement. And I can give you a spoiler right now, it was everything and more.

We left for Germany on a Tuesday afternoon. This leaving looked an awful lot like: millions of kisses on our dogs head, a 2.5 hour drive north to a friend’s house whom was taking us to O’Hare Airport, riding in her car for over an hour, sitting in the airport for 3 hours, 6.5 hour flight to Iceland and then a 3.5 hour flight to Berlin- all with a time zone change of 6 hours. *** and breathe***

But we got in Berlin around 6 p.m. on Wednesday. After finding our Airbnb we stretched, changed, hugged and set out to our new neighborhood streets of…

Wanting to keep our first night simple so we got dinner, grabbed a bottle of wine to celebrate and some mini German chocolates because why not!

The next morning we were ready to go! We laced up our shoes, threw on some jackets and grabbed our umbrellas before heading out on our only rainy day of the trip. This day was spent adjusting to the life lived in the city. And since you can’t live in the now without knowing the past, we joined a walking tour of Berlin. I have been on this tour twice before our trip but every time I go, I never regret it.

The tour itself begins at the Brandenburg Gate then heads out towards a Holocaust Memorial as you wander down the busy streets and end up in a massive courtyard of majestic cathedrals.

In the evening we walked around the gray streets of Berlin and through the lush woods of the Tiergarten, holding hands and talking about life. We tried food here and there as our stomachs saw fit but really just used the day to take in our surroundings and taking in our first trip as a married couple.

On Friday we made a huge decision. At the start of our honeymoon planning process we were going to do day trips to three other locations. Those locations being: Munich, Cologne and Amsterdam. We decided to scrap all of our previous plans and stay put in the beautiful city of Berlin. But with still wanting the castle and royalty feels that we had hoped to find in Munich we headed in the direction of Charlottenburg Palace.

There rest of the evening we viewed the East Side Gallery and kept our fingers crossed for other street art in the city. With not finding much on Friday night, my hunt continued into Saturday. We visited the Mall of Berlin where we stumbled across a huge fashion show with a live concert, Humboldt University where Einstein taught and finally victory finding a huge, beautiful wall mural.

Sunday was a day of highs and lows! None of it being negative but literal high points in the city and the low, watery moments offered in the city. We took a river cruise on the River Spree and then climbed to the highest point in the Berliner Dom.

One of the days that I was looking forward to the most was Monday. Before our honeymoon we decided that there would be one night that would be a dressy night for us. We’d wear something that made us feel good, find a good place to eat and celebrate our last night there. I chose a red velvet dress with strappy tan heels while Jacob chose straight tan pants, a polka dot dress shirt and the same suit jacket that we wore on our wedding day.

Thank you for joining with me today and hearing a snapshot of our trip. I cannot wait for next week and sharing more with you! Look forward to two of our favorite parts of the trip: Food and Drinks!

XOKriss

Our Story: How it all Started

I can’t believe that we are finally here at our wedding weekend! It feels like only yesterday that I met my sweet Jacob and now I will always know that he will be with me and I with him! And to better celebrate here on the Blog this week, here is our love story!

Around 2017’s new years weekend, Jacob moved from Colorado to Indiana while Kristen was currently living in Indiana. He was moving back to Indiana to start a new job while she was pretty settled into her life there. She just so happened to work at the same library where he worked security while he was at University.

It was an afternoon on a chilly January Monday, when Jacob and Kristen first saw each other. She was busy at work at the library when Jacob stopped by. He was only there to stay Hello to a few of his ex coworkers before going home for the day.

Whenever she first saw him, something in the air changed. She felt a pull to him and a spark that she had never felt before. He wasn’t what she expected but every piece of her was telling her that he needed to be in her life for whatever reason. The only way she could sum up that feeling was by remembering all of the past prayers in her lifetime for a sign of her “one”.

While he was in the library, he noticed her but was more so focused on why he had come to the library in the first place. He made his rounds, laughed and caught up with some of the old friends he knew and then was on his way.

What he didn’t realize was that while he was talking to patrons and employees of the library, she was at work learning more about him. Everyone who knew him from before had nothing but the best things to say about his character, spirit, heart and work ethic. These truths made her learn things about him that others didn’t realize. There was something about him that set him apart, that made him the sweet and genuine person that he is. And she knew right away that he loved the same unchangeable, never shifting Jesus Christ.

At this point in time he wasn’t fully moved back to Terre Haute. He was living about 35 minutes away. So on his drive back home from the haute, he gets a FaceBook message and it ends up being from the girl he saw working at the library. So what does he do? He writes back but still in complete confusion.

Before she sent the message to him, she had two questions to answer:

1. Did he love the Lord like she could feel on him?

2. Was he even single?

And the answers came back yes and yes. Sooner than she realized it, he messaged her back.

Two days later the two of them met for coffee. Both just trying this out to see what it would be like. She was dressed all in black with stoic body language while he was in athletic wear with bubbling energetic energy to match. They couldn’t be more opposite so no one could blame them for what came next- the friendzone.

They both friend-zoned each other but for whatever reason, maybe it was her first heart pull to him or his deep curiosity in what she was really about, they kept hanging out together.

Their time started with a couple of coffee shop hangouts, then grew to 4 hour long phone conversations, to long walks in parks, taking pictures together, holding hands, first kisses in parking lots, professions of love on marble bridges then like a turn of the page to a new chapter that starts with a man on his knee just wanting to love that girl with everything he has for as long as he breathes.

She may have made the first move and felt the first skip of heartbeat but he was the first to tell her how one day he would marry her. She knew and he knew somehow all along that they were meant to be. And as they say, the rest is history!

-XOKriss

Fierce Marriage: 31 Day Pursuit

This past Valentine’s day I decided to get Jacob some German chocolate truffles and a study that would not only cultivate his soul and deepen his relationship with Christ but it would serve as a tool to strengthen our understanding of each other, our special bond and our quickly approaching marriage.

To start off a blog about what love looks like and feels like, I must say that I’m thankful for Jacob and the kind of man he is and chooses to be. He was not only excited about doing the study with me but at times, he became more disciplined to get into the book which helped inspire me to keep trucking through the chapters and learning more about how God designed marriage to be.

This is praiseworthy to me because Jacob is praiseworthy to me. There are a lot of men in the world who would have just laughed at a book like this but because of both his excitment and serious understanding of its purpose, I was able to flourish and my heart grew more soft. That in itself helps me know, yet again, that he is the man I have been waiting for.

Because we live such busy lives and have a long engagement, Jacob and I have been slowly digging into our 31 Day Pursuit Challenge books. The books in of themselves were written to compliment each other with their corrsponding days but its a seperate read for both the husband and the wife.

After finally finishing the challenge, I can say with both hands down that I’m thankful for this time. I’m learning how to love Jacob in ways he best feels loved, it’s pushing me out of the mindset to treat my relationship with him as something commonplace and its uprooting places in my heart where my sense of “self” is so strong, stubborn and destructive. This book was both painful in dealing with my own truths and yet healing for the special relationship that’s in the bond of marriage.

One of my favorite ideas learned through this study and others is that when a man feels respect- the woman feels loved. It is a beautiful cycle and when it’s in action both feel life, love and contentment. Because when a woman doesn’t feel loved, she tends to not respect her man. And when a man doesn’t feel respected, he tends to close off love/affection for her. And vice versa, the two have to work together. However, those “rules” sound, its easy to overlook them but wow are they important when it comes to how a man and woman were specially created.

So I want to challenge you to pickup a copy of both the husband and the wife 31 Day Pursuit books! Yes, the books were desiged for those already married of which Jacob and I aren’t fully yet. But I did find that it was possible to tweak parts of the book that are strictly for marriage. So I do recommend this book to those who are engaged and are about to be married. I, however, would not recommend this book to you if you are either single or dating. But will say that the wait is worth it, press into God and look forward to my future blog post on the joys/struggles of singleness (I have a whole lot to say on that one).

Wishing you all well!

-XOKriss

Grand Rapids, MI

This past weekend I traveled up to the mitt and spent some much-needed time with my best friend Ashley.

On our first full day together I got some much-needed extra sleep, had brunch with Ashley and her husband Jake and then us ladies headed out to the Frederik Meijer Gardens and Sculpture Park. They were having a month-long butterfly exhibit in which hundreds of butterflies are free to fly around from flower to flower. Sadly none of them decided to land on us.

Ashley and I have been friends for a couple of years and our friendship has seen us through so many different seasons in each other’s lives. One thing I value about our connection is that I never have to fear to be me. I am far from perfect and I have my fair share of good days and bad days. But with Ashley, I can always count on open arms and the warmest of hearts. I definitely encourage you to find her on Insta @mrs.ashley.lewis and hint hint it’s a good time too because she is preggers!

After getting a dose of butterflies, plants for days and a little too warm for my bodies liking, we headed out to Madcap for coffee and conversation. Meeting up with someone over coffee will always be a favorite pastime for me. It warms my soul in ways that few things can and allows time with that one person, for a true connection to be had.  And goodness did we have fun talking!

^In this picture, I just really enjoyed seeing this man enjoying where he was and how peaceful that looked for him.

Our day ended up in some delicious Thai food at Bangkok Taste Cuisine in downtown. I ordered red curry with coconut milk, various vegetables and chicken (spoiler alert: I’m not vegan but I’ll blog about this topic later)! Best part was that the order was so large that I could take half home to eat for breakfast the next day.

And I sure did! Sunday morning dawned and we were all up to get ready for church. Ashley had taken Jake to church earlier that morning because he is in the praise band, then came back for some downtime at the house with me. I always miss my church and the family I have found there whenever I am away. It makes me think about ways in which I could go deeper and be more of the body of Christ. But with that said I still enjoyed my time at The Well that Sunday morning and the life that it spoke into my life.

After church, we indulged in donuts for lunch. A whole meal spent just eating donuts = the life! I think the best part about it was where we were at. We got our donuts from the shop Cindy’s Donuts and Ice Cream but when we got there the Sunday crowd was definitely gone and we got to enjoy the whole place to ourselves. This feeling of calm and peace would be exactly how I would sum up the whole trip. I feel like it gave me a break from my norm, gave me perspective and -my favorite- gave me some wonderful moments with great people!

Till Next Week!

XOKRISS!