Seminary Wife Life: The Blessings and the Challenges

When Taylor and I packed up and moved to Charlotte last year, we knew we were in for an adventure. We had never moved away together. We had never lived in a city, and we only knew a handful of people. We were excited for our first big adventure as a married couple, but also completely unsure of what to expect.

Our naive little selves had no idea what we were getting ourselves into. We didn't know how bad the Charlotte traffic was (not really, anyway), we didn't know it would suddenly be harder than ever to make friends, and we didn't know it would take us months upon months to decide on a church.

We knew that we were entering uncharted territory, and we knew that it wouldn't be easy. We expected great things and hard things, and that's exactly what we've gotten.

Seminary Wife Life is hard stuff, you guys! It has more challenges than I anticipated, but it has also come with many blessings.

Challenge #1- We are learning a lot...

Seminary Wife Life comes with lots of lessons to learn.

Learning is hard, because learning means seeing our faults. Nuff' said.

Blessing #1- We are learning a lot!

I am learning to be more patient, kind, and helpful even when I want to be selfish. I am slowwwwwly learning to be more of the person that God has called me to be, even if it's taking a lot longer than I would like it to! Isn't it funny that one of our biggest challenges is also one of our greatest blessings?!

Challenge #2- "Being well-rested" is quite possibly a myth...

Seriously, what is it about this stage of life that turns me into a zombie? It doesn't matter if I get enough sleep, have a relaxed day at work, or anything else for that matter- I'm still exhausted all the time. And poor Taylor never gets a break. He has a better excuse than I do.

Blessing #2- We are Adulting more efficiently

Well, sometimes we are anyway. Adulting is hard and honestly we're not very good at it, but we are getting there. Being at least an hour away from both sets of families and having to rent a home, take care of our cars, and be responsible adults (HA!) has not been easy, but I feel like maybe me and Taylor are starting to see what we need to do to #adultsuccessfully. Baby-steps, my friends... baby steps.

Challenge #3 And speaking of Taylor, has anyone seen my husband?!

I knew I would see Taylor less. It comes with any sort of grad school situation. But good grief, Charlie Brown! Unless I stay up wayyyy past my bed time or go eat a hot dog multiple times a week at the restaurant Taylor works at, I barely see him. And we do our best to make it work. Taylor sometimes brings me lunch on his break or meets me for lunch. And me? I have never eaten so many flippin' hot dogs in my entire life. They are very good, but seriously, I'm so sick of hot dogs!

Blessing #3 We cherish our time together

Taylor and I know now that during this season, we are just going to see each other less. We have less time for dates, to hang out with friends, or to go on trips. So when we do have opportunities for such things, we usually take them. Sometimes our trips have to be solo. Taylor has gone back to the mountains without me a couple of times, and I've gone to the beach without him. It's not ideal, but we make it work. And when we have time together, I think we better-understand now that we need to cherish that time.

Honestly, there are more challenges than this, and there are more blessings. If you guys are interested, I could definitely do a second installment or something similar. If that's something you'd like to see, let me know in the comments.

God is teaching us so much. It can be obnoxious when we'd rather have a cushy life than be stretched and challenged, but God is faithful and it's a good thing He doesn't just do what we want Him to do, or base His plans, His will, or His timing on how we are feeling.

Be encouraged, wonderfuls! Things take time.