A bit of time has elapsed since our last post. Aside from about one unpacked box & the fact that I have no idea where I put the rest of my purses (aka the ones that are not white), we are quite settled into our Nashville home. We have experienced bouts of loneliness from not having a large friend network here, but we have seen the benefit in this in that we are really getting to know one another very well. Jeff even comes to work several nights each week to have dinner with me on my meal break! Many wise people have shared with us the importance of intentional quality time with each other (especially in the first year of marriage) -- & we are thankful for that.
Great news! Jeff has landed a National Guard job here that we believe is an answer to prayer. Coming up next weekend is his first monthly drill with his new unit of Aircraft Petroleum Specialists. (In Georgia he was with a Combat Engineer unit.) AND his unit is now less than 30 minutes away from home (compared with ~4 hrs away from home in GA).
In other great, answer-to-prayers kinda news, we believe we have found our church home here. Journey Church is a church that is most certainly focused on the Kingdom of God as Jesus taught it & bringing it HERE through lives set on fire by the indwelling Holy Spirit. Today we began weekly meetings with a small group of people on an 8-week adventure of learning about Journey Church & also what it looks like to live in community there. In building relationships with one another, we are living as the Body of Christ. Jeff & I are exciting to plant some roots in this fellowship and begin operating as a part of the Body in this place.
Our biggest prayer request at present is that we would learn to work through our disagreements in a manner that pleases our Heavenly Father.
We cherish your prayers as you continue to labor with us. May the Gospel continue transforming lives here & everywhere! Grace and Peace be with you. In the name of Jesus Christ and to His glory. Amen.
Sunday, October 31, 2010
Sunday, August 1, 2010
New Beginnings in Nashville
July was a month of big changes for the Hanson's! We moved to Nashville on Saturday, July 10th, & then I (Chloe) started my first job as a pharmacist on Monday, July 12th. I am about to begin Week #4 of my 5-week training. It is so exciting to have a license to practice and a job in which to do so! Not to mention I have some really lovely co-workers--very welcoming and helpful. We praise the LORD for orchestrating this!
Now, ab
out the move: We are SO INCREDIBLY GRATEFUL to the awesome people who labored alongside us to make our move smooth. We not only had volunteers to help load up the truck in Atlanta, but also volunteers to trip with us to Nashville to assist in the unloading & settling in. And a few Nashville residents signed themselves up to help too, even a few that hardly knew us. THANK YOU to all of you!!
On another note, Jeff & I celebrated our 6-month wedding anniversary by going to the Grand Ole Opry to see Diamond Rio. Well, Diamond Rio did indeed open the show--& that was great and all -- but then Carrie Underwood decides to show up and close. Good gracious
what a blessing! Not only is she a remarkable live performer, but she took "Jesus Take the Wheel" straight into "How Great Thou Art." Awesome. We loved it!
Jeff & I have visited a couple of different churches and are searchingly prayerful about deciding on a church home here. We are not rushing this decision, but we are expectant and hopeful about joining the Body here. :-)
Jeff is busy taking care of all kinds of household matters that arise when moving to a new place, while also preparing to start this semester at Nashville State. On top of that, he is seeking out his next military training location and looking into some less combative jobs. Prayer for him in this arena is certainly desired & cherished.
Thank you for reading this far. And thank you for loving us.
Now, ab
out the move: We are SO INCREDIBLY GRATEFUL to the awesome people who labored alongside us to make our move smooth. We not only had volunteers to help load up the truck in Atlanta, but also volunteers to trip with us to Nashville to assist in the unloading & settling in. And a few Nashville residents signed themselves up to help too, even a few that hardly knew us. THANK YOU to all of you!!On another note, Jeff & I celebrated our 6-month wedding anniversary by going to the Grand Ole Opry to see Diamond Rio. Well, Diamond Rio did indeed open the show--& that was great and all -- but then Carrie Underwood decides to show up and close. Good gracious
what a blessing! Not only is she a remarkable live performer, but she took "Jesus Take the Wheel" straight into "How Great Thou Art." Awesome. We loved it!Jeff & I have visited a couple of different churches and are searchingly prayerful about deciding on a church home here. We are not rushing this decision, but we are expectant and hopeful about joining the Body here. :-)
Jeff is busy taking care of all kinds of household matters that arise when moving to a new place, while also preparing to start this semester at Nashville State. On top of that, he is seeking out his next military training location and looking into some less combative jobs. Prayer for him in this arena is certainly desired & cherished.
Thank you for reading this far. And thank you for loving us.
Friday, June 25, 2010
the Hanson's are about to MOVE!
Chloe here! A lot has happened since I last wrote. On May 8th, I graduated from pharmacy school at Mercer University. For several months prior to that, I had been pouring time and energy into job searching. I had no idea how labor-intensive and difficult this process would be! Atlanta boasts quite a saturated market right now for pharmacists, but Jeff & I knew that our God could work in a saturated market.
It wasn't until a little later that we began to open our eyes to some other cities in the job search. We communicated with our landlords before expanding our search, since we had verbally told them we planned to stay in this house at least a year. Long story short, they had one person in mind. That one person looked at the house, and about one month later (at exactly the right time), we find out that she wants to move in on August 1st. This relieved us tremendously, as we were able to up and move without leaving our landlords out to dry.
Of all the places we discussed, Nashville stuck with Jeff. We had several loved ones praying for us and with us. One friend saw a vision while praying for us: we were being told to jump into a river-a fast moving river. We were confused since there was nothing there for us to land on, but the LORD kept saying "Jump." When we did, a rock appeared for us to land on. This happened time & time again until we became like little children jumping from rock to rock whenever God said to jump! Another friend (separate occasion entirely) saw us at the jumping off a waterfall. One large and beautiful flower behind the falls opened up to catch us. You get the idea -- it was looking like we were going to need to take a leap of faith to see what the LORD had for us! (Romans 8:24 reminds us that "hope that is seen is not hope," & the meaning of 'hope' there is "desire of some good with expectation of obtaining it")
In early May, Jeff announces that he is certain the LORD is saying "Nashville" & expresses that he desires I narrow my search to include only that city. I have some peace, but not as much as my husband; however, I know Jeff, and I know that Jeff knows the voice of his Heavenly Father. So I choose to be on page with my husband! After all, Jeff mentions, never once in the Bible did God leave someone out to dry for having too much faith!
I initially thought I wanted to go into independent community pharmacy, but over time, I liked more & more the thought of starting out in a hospital or institution. Of all the jobs I applied for and all the recruiters I talked with, the opportunity at Baptist Hospital left us most excited. My Mamaw Becky even had a dream that I got this job! But then weeks went by and I didn't hear back from them for a phone interview, which probably meant they weren't impressed with my application/resume. In retrospect, what it really meant was that the flood in Nashville had set them back a bit in the hiring process.
Two classmates of mine had a wedding up in Kentucky in mid-May, so Jeff & I decided to come back through Nashville and spend a few days there scoping things out. We ended up signing a lease for one side of a duplex in the the city, and arbitrarily chose a move-in date of July 10th!! BIG move for us -- signing a lease with no job for Chloe & no school for Jeff...
We chose faith. And the LORD our God proved himself faithful once again! Within a week, we had two job offers (after having NONE for 6 months of searching). And the one we chose -- Clinical Pharmacist at Baptist Hospital! My first day (orientation) is July 12th. Five weeks of training. Then off I go!! My first big job! Benefits start on Day #1 of training -- the only hospital system in middle TN that still does this! To sum-up: GOD IS GOOD! We praise Him!!!
Right now, we are trusting the LORD to open just the right door for Jeff's school. He feels called to study towards a degree in Occupational Therapy, and we are very excited about that! He has applied to a few schools and we are trusting our Father to open the right door(s). Please pray with us about this.
We do not fully understand yet why we are being called to Nashville, TN. But, we know it is God's desire for us in this season of our lives -- & we are THRILLED to find out all the reasons why!
Please keep us in your prayers as we navigate our way through all these changes. And please pray that we are always able to hear clearly & follow faithfully the loving words of our Heavenly Father.
With great love & gratitude,
Jeff & Chloe
It wasn't until a little later that we began to open our eyes to some other cities in the job search. We communicated with our landlords before expanding our search, since we had verbally told them we planned to stay in this house at least a year. Long story short, they had one person in mind. That one person looked at the house, and about one month later (at exactly the right time), we find out that she wants to move in on August 1st. This relieved us tremendously, as we were able to up and move without leaving our landlords out to dry.
Of all the places we discussed, Nashville stuck with Jeff. We had several loved ones praying for us and with us. One friend saw a vision while praying for us: we were being told to jump into a river-a fast moving river. We were confused since there was nothing there for us to land on, but the LORD kept saying "Jump." When we did, a rock appeared for us to land on. This happened time & time again until we became like little children jumping from rock to rock whenever God said to jump! Another friend (separate occasion entirely) saw us at the jumping off a waterfall. One large and beautiful flower behind the falls opened up to catch us. You get the idea -- it was looking like we were going to need to take a leap of faith to see what the LORD had for us! (Romans 8:24 reminds us that "hope that is seen is not hope," & the meaning of 'hope' there is "desire of some good with expectation of obtaining it")
In early May, Jeff announces that he is certain the LORD is saying "Nashville" & expresses that he desires I narrow my search to include only that city. I have some peace, but not as much as my husband; however, I know Jeff, and I know that Jeff knows the voice of his Heavenly Father. So I choose to be on page with my husband! After all, Jeff mentions, never once in the Bible did God leave someone out to dry for having too much faith!
I initially thought I wanted to go into independent community pharmacy, but over time, I liked more & more the thought of starting out in a hospital or institution. Of all the jobs I applied for and all the recruiters I talked with, the opportunity at Baptist Hospital left us most excited. My Mamaw Becky even had a dream that I got this job! But then weeks went by and I didn't hear back from them for a phone interview, which probably meant they weren't impressed with my application/resume. In retrospect, what it really meant was that the flood in Nashville had set them back a bit in the hiring process.
Two classmates of mine had a wedding up in Kentucky in mid-May, so Jeff & I decided to come back through Nashville and spend a few days there scoping things out. We ended up signing a lease for one side of a duplex in the the city, and arbitrarily chose a move-in date of July 10th!! BIG move for us -- signing a lease with no job for Chloe & no school for Jeff...
We chose faith. And the LORD our God proved himself faithful once again! Within a week, we had two job offers (after having NONE for 6 months of searching). And the one we chose -- Clinical Pharmacist at Baptist Hospital! My first day (orientation) is July 12th. Five weeks of training. Then off I go!! My first big job! Benefits start on Day #1 of training -- the only hospital system in middle TN that still does this! To sum-up: GOD IS GOOD! We praise Him!!!
Right now, we are trusting the LORD to open just the right door for Jeff's school. He feels called to study towards a degree in Occupational Therapy, and we are very excited about that! He has applied to a few schools and we are trusting our Father to open the right door(s). Please pray with us about this.
We do not fully understand yet why we are being called to Nashville, TN. But, we know it is God's desire for us in this season of our lives -- & we are THRILLED to find out all the reasons why!
Please keep us in your prayers as we navigate our way through all these changes. And please pray that we are always able to hear clearly & follow faithfully the loving words of our Heavenly Father.
With great love & gratitude,
Jeff & Chloe
Thursday, May 13, 2010
Our First Home
We are so thankful for our first home & for our Jesus-loving landlords. :-) The house is located in Tucker, GA (the outskirts of Atlanta). On this particular day, Jeff had gone to Home Depot for mulch and found DOLLAR flowers that he just had to buy. And thankfully so, as the colorful array is a pleasure to see each day!
We have a fenced-in backyard, where Jeff chases birds, squirrels, & rabbits. And the garage, well, that's where he does his man projects, like building from scratch a guest bed for our guest
room/prayer room. (He did that on my birthday as a surprise -- all in one day!!) It's awesome! The LORD He is Good, and he has equipped my husband with so many good and precious gifts from above.For example, Jeff loves to cook...& he's good at it! And I love to eat. -haha- Well, we really love to cook together too. And our back porch provides an ideal spot for us to enjoy the Hanson culinary creations. :-) Sometimes our neighbor, Nate, comes over to occupy the third chair and join for food & friendship. We are very thankful for him.
We praise the LORD for He is Good! And His steadfast Love endures forever!!
Sunday, April 11, 2010
Hola! Hanson's here. :-) What would it be to begin our blog without our first (& so-far ONLY) appearance on YouTube!? So here we bring to you our debut...our ~Engagement Story~ in only 8 1/2 minutes:
Jeff & Chloe - Engagement Story
Jeff & Chloe - Engagement Story
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