life. and everything in between

This year is coming to a close. It has been a crazy year that is for sure. I just wanted to give some highlights on the fam! I thought I would do an electronic Christmas Letter and then didn't finish before Christmas but here we are! Levi: Levi accepted a job at Lake City Church as their Middle School Pastor. He had been previously laying hardwood floors. When we began our adventure of moving to CDA Levi felt a calling in his life to become a youth pastor. He has always had a heart for youth but never felt called to it full time until recently. He finished his classes at Northwest University and is now an official "pastor". I asked Levi what is favorite part of youth ministry is and he said "Well, all of it." I then asked him to elaborate. He continued with "Being able to create an environment that allows students to be themselves. To help cultivate a team of leaders who also create safe places for students to ask the tough questions and to have fun. Fun ...

To some this may seem to be a "typical" Thanksgiving thankfulness post but to me it's much more. I was encouraged to reflect on things that I am thankful for. Gratitude and Thankfulness can be almost interchangeable. thankful is someone feeling or showing gratitude. gratitude the quality of being thankful Life is crazy. Life is sad. Life is happy. Life is confusing. Life is hard. In the midst of all these things I need to find thankfulness in my heart because I can't lose hope. Hope "that there is some good in this world and it's worth fighting for" (bonus points if you know this quote) So here is a list of things that I am THANKFUL for. Here is my good that I am fighting for 1. Addison Grace Ponczoch. This child is a major blessing in my life 2. Levi Samuel Ponczoch. (refer to last post in regards to why) 3. My family. My parents. My siblings. Their significant others. Their children. They bring me joy. They remind me to laugh. And that it...

Well it has been awhile...again. I have a list of posts I want to do but I also have a list of things that need done around the house, for youth group, oh and yeah, the baby! I recently read a blog that inspired me to write this. It is similar in nature but we all have our own stories and as Levi and I approach our 8th wedding anniversary I wanted to give him a huge shout out. As many of you know my birth story for Addison was less then ideal. But the only reason I got through it all was because of my husband. Let me explain... Aside from him coaching me through contractions and literally doing anything to help me reach my goals and not leaving my side expect to get my parents and let them know what was going on, he helped me through recovery. After the trauma that my body went through the doctors were surprised that my milk came in. I couldn't nurse Addison when she was born, shoot, I didn't even see her till 17 hours after she entered the world! I believe the only rea...

Baby Angel, a.k.a. Addison Grace, is 3 months old today! I seriously can't believe it. Last night Levi looked at me and said, "Em, we have a baby. She is ours. I can't believe it." Me neither babe, me neither. It has been hard adjusting to this mom life. Mostly because of Addison's health problems. I haven't had the ability to just be a mom. I know that caring for your baby is being a mom and that taking her to every doctors appointment and hospital visit falls under that "caring". I am referring more to feeling free to sit at home and just be. Getting to know each other in a more natural way of nursing and being up at night. Not because I hold her after the nurse has stuck her with an IV.  I never thought that I would be caring for a baby who was born with a disease. But here I am. We think that child birth is so natural and that if you don't smoke, drink, do drugs, etc that your baby will be fine. That is not true. I have always known ...

It's been awhile since I have had the mental ability to write anything. I had started to write about the joys of being pregnant but 12 hours later I was headed to the hospital to have Addison. Since then life has been crazy and unpredictable...you know, everything that I love in life...NOT. This is a long story. If you feel like reading it you better grab a cup of coffee.  So here I am trying to write out the birth story of our sweet precious girl.  I had so many expectations on what Addison's birth was going to be like. I wanted to do most of my laboring at home. I wanted to then go to the hospital and give birth naturally with no medication. I wanted to see the look on Levi's face when he met Addison for the first time. I wanted to hold my baby the moment she arrived. I wanted friends and family to be able to come into the room and celebrate with us. I wanted to only be in the hospital for a day. But sometimes in life you don't get what you want. Sometimes you hav...

On May 19th 2017 I completed my Bachelor's Degree in Psychology. On May 21st 2017 I graduated from Whitworth University. I am trying to reflect on the last 4 years of my education and the journey that I have been on. When I graduated high school I had no desire to go to college. I didn't know what I wanted to do in life. All I knew is that I didn't want to spend A LOT of money on a degree I might not use. I also had this believe that I was not smart enough for college. That I only got through high school on pure luck and that my sister helped me with all my homework. My mom and sister both spent countless hours going over my papers and math homework. You see, I have a learning disability called dysgraphia.  For more information  https://www.understood.org/en/learning-attention-issues/child-learning-disabilities/dysgraphia/understanding-dysgraphia That disability caused me to doubt myself and my ABILITY to succeed. To tell you the truth I don't think I would h...

Oh hi, it's been some time since I have had a chance to say hello.... Man, life has gotten out of control lately. Not in a bad way, just so busy. I have been trying to stay ahead of my school work and major projects because the next month I know that I will slowly lose motivations. I have had all these grand plans for blog posts, Middle School Retreat Baby Addison's Progress Future Graduate School Plans New Career Opportunities Thoughts On Graduating These post will happen. I am determined to write about all things.  I have finished some major projects so I am hoping to write about other stuff within the next month. So keep your eye out. Levi and I had an experience on Saturday that I just had to take some time to sit down and write about. Life has been crazy for us, many things are changing and we are going in a direction we didn't think we would. I am not trying to be mysterious we just can't talk about it right now. Soon though! Very soon. So anyways we ...

I am 19 weeks today. Woah. That just seems insane. October 19th is when we officially found out that we were expecting a baby. My heart knew I was pregnant long before that, though. I can't tell you what led me to believe this. I just felt different. I felt God told me I was pregnant. Not in an audible voice but just the knowledge that I was pregnant. Even after I took an early detection pregnancy test that turned up negative, I know that was wrong. I had no doubts. After confirming my pregnancy, Levi and I were ecstatic. He went into work late so that we could go to breakfast together. We cried (okay, I cried) and laughed. Just living in this moment that our lives had drastically changed for the better. (Baby at 8 weeks) It seemed like a long three weeks before we could go to the doctors (I was technically 5 weeks when we found out). The anticipation was unbearable. But we survived and November 7th finally came. Seeing the baby in the ultra sound was cool but at the point it...

I have been thinking about this post for awhile. I truly want to look back and reflect on 2016. It would be easy for me to say that 2016 was the year from hell. That nothing good came of it and that I wish it would disappear. I don't want to do what's easy. I want to honestly reflect on all the things that happened in 2016. This post will be a combination of what happen in 2016 and our first year in CDA (since chaos ensued around the time of our year anniversary here). Levi and I were driving and talking about life, literally one of our favorite things to do. We were trying to think of the good things that have happened this year. He had to remind me that I completed my first full year at Whitworth University. Whitworth has taught me more then I thought possible. I would not change my time there or the people I have had the pleasure of knowing.  He started his own journey back to school at Northwest University  We went on more camping trips this summer then we ever hav...