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

Eat & Drink Berlin

Jacob and I had tunnel vision for our trip to Germany and that vision was on the food and drinks. Jacob was excited for the traditional German food and beer while I was excited for fresh baked pastries, international food and mugs of strong coffee. Today on the blog I want to share some of our tasty stops along the journey.

— Food —

The beauty of Europe is that most people aren’t originally from the country that they currently live in, they travel often or they grew up in a household whose traditions differ compared to the society around them. So then you get this beautiful melting pot of languages, customs, ethnicities and foods. Jacob and I’s plan of action: eat a different cultures food for each meal.

Along the journey we experienced the following nationalities cuisines: Indian, German, American (tried to wiggle our way out of this one but it is what it is), Mexican, Australian, Turkish and Korean.

Some of my most favorite spots where found in the a.m. Because breakfast. These places also offered my favorite beverage, which is coffee and you can find all of those down below.

^ German Currywurst

Lunches consist of whatever we could find wherever we were at the time. Our overall relationship with food on our trip was adventurous but it was also one of our more stressful moments. I think this is because of all of the options around without fully knowing the extent of the things.

^Turkish Döner

One place we stumbled into eating at was at Potsdamer Platz. It is a glorified mall where the mentality is that its a place where you can live, work, eat and have fun all in one spot on the map. While here we saw their different choices of food but decided to go with the Australian restaurant. I had brunch, no surprise here, while Jacob expanded his love of meat. He ordered a meal that came with three different meats including tandoori chicken, Crocodile and Kangaroo.

Dinners were larger and were where we spent more money on food. The one that stands out the most to me now was our Korean BBQ night. It was Monday night, our dressy date night, and we just randomly picked this spot. We were sat inside in front of a grill and we, I, panicked. I had no clue what I was to do or how to do it. We quickly learned from our awesome waiter and went to cooking. I want to say that this was my favorite because of how interactive it was, how we were able to focus on each other and learn something new.

^Korean BBQ

— Coffee —

On our first morning of the trip we stopped in the Okay Café. We were the very first customers that morning so we got to really take in the beauty of the place, take our time to order, we talked about the day and enjoyed the sound of rain through the open windows.

^Okay Café

Coffee shops and cafes were my sweet spot but also the area where I struggled with German. A lot of the menus in restaurants and coffee shops had English under the German descriptions, but some were vague. I kept ordering the wrong kinds of coffee and kept chasing the craving for a strong cup of coffee. But the best part of this hunt was ending up in many different kinds of shops for coffee.

^Brick Coffee and more

In some I grabbed pastries, pretzels and full breakfasts while taking in the atmospheres and rest. Most of the shops we stopped in were just around the corner from our Airbnb, another amazing part of the experience. You don’t have to walk far before finding another coffee shop that has outdoor seating.

^Myxa Café Berlin

One of our mornings we went to the Brezel Company. We both grabbed a pretzel and a coffee for our breakfast. Americans, more than likely, are used to eating larger breakfasts but something about the simplicity of our breakfast that morning really made me feel good. It was salty from the pretzel and it was slightly sweet from the macchiato.

^Brezel Company Café Neukölln

— Beer —

Beer was the heart and soul of Jacobs drink cravings. He wanted to try as many historically traditional beers as he could but also wanted to learn more about the history and science of beer making in Germany.

In the previous Berlin post I shared how we went on a walking tour of Berlin on the first day of the trip. Towards the end of the tour they let the group know about a beer tour that the company offered. So on Saturday night we joined a 3 hour beer tour of Berlin.

While on the tour we tried 7 different beers, learned how to drink them to get the full flavor, learned about men and women’s roles in the making process and history, visited the oldest breweries in Berlin and got to meet other travelers from around the world.

My favorite part of the tour was… the pretzel, or brezel, with it’s sweet mustard sauce. Like I said before the beer lover in my relationship is definitely Jacob. I loved watching him learning so much, enjoying different brews with their different amount of hops and then scooting over my beer after I got my sip in.

If you are traveling around Europe anytime soon and want to check out this tour company you can find their website here.

In conclusion, Berlin is for food, coffee & beer

Lovers!

Next Week on the Blog! I will be sharing our honeymoon Airbnb home, its neighborhood and about the slow moments of our trip. Please stay tuned and eat a pretzel this month because its national pretzel month!!

-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