Nik and I met in the most traditional Christian Slavic way. If you grew up in the Christian Slavic community, you know one of the most popular ways to meet someone is at a youth conference.
Continue reading →Kotov Love Story
10 Red Flags in Christian Dating
As young women, we dream of one-day meeting “the one.” I know I did. As a teen and even a young adult, I couldn’t help but imagine,
“Who will my husband be?”
“How will we meet?”
“Have I already met him?”
“What will it be like to be in love, true love?”
Continue reading →A Letter to my Teenage Self
Dear Teenage Ksen,
I’ll bet you didn’t think you’d hear from me, your future self. I write to you from the year 2020 (and boy what a year it is) at the age of 25. I know you’ve thought about that age for a while now, wondering what your life turns out to be like, who your husband is, if you even have one, what your kids are like. I can tell you, it’s beautiful, but more on that later.
My COVID-19 Experience
COVID-19 has truly taken the world by storm this year. Since early March, the world news media outlets main stories had something to do with COVID. It was scary when I first heard about it. And even scarier when someone I knew died of it. These times are pretty crazy. To add to all of it, the media is constantly reporting new cases, death rates and new mandates. Also, lots of other people are sharing and posting news that are the complete opposite of what the media says. There is so much information out there. When all of this was starting back in March, people were sicker than ever and more people died than what we’re seeing now. My sister, who worked as a nurse extern on the COVID floor in a Colorado hospital, would tell me that people would enter the ICU and they wouldn’t come out. That’s pretty scary. As time went on, and people quarantined, we saw the curve flatten. As doctors and researchers learned more about this strand of Coronavirus, even more people were surviving, both old and young. Thank God that He gave us doctors and researchers!
Continue reading →30 Tips for the First 30 Days with a Newborn
Ahhh, babies! We love them, but between recovering from birth and taking care of them, we start to get so overwhelmed. It doesn’t matter if you’re a first-time mama or already have kids, that newborn stage is rough! When I was pregnant with my son, Daniel, I couldn’t wait for all those newborn snuggles. It didn’t take me long to realize that although snuggling a newborn is the best thing ever, the newborn stage is not my favorite. After going through it, I have prepared a list of 30 tips to survive the first 30 days with a newborn.
Marriage: Lessons Learned
My husband and I recently celebrated our 3 year anniversary. It doesn’t seem like 3 years is that long, but looking back we realized how much we have grown in the short period of time. Through a lot of trial and error, we were able to learn how to communicate effectively, how to grow our friendship, how to go above and beyond for the other person, but more importantly, how to love. These are some of the most valuable lessons that marriage has taught me.
Continue reading →Postpartum Reality
If you’ve never had a baby, you’ve probably never heard the term the 4th trimester before. It’s the first 3 months of your postpartum recovery and the first 3 months of your new baby’s life. I wanted to write a blog post about my own personal experience because after going through it, I wished people talked about it more.
DISCLAIMER: we’re discussing postpartum and after birth recovery here. Don’t read further if you don’t want to know 😉😅Continue reading →
Love
I became a mom for the first time about 7 weeks ago and my favorite part had been to really experience a mother’s love. Continue reading →
2020- Beginning Again
The beginning of the year has always been exciting for me because the day before a new year starts I normally finish another Bible plan. I always look forward to January 1st because it means that I get to try a new plan that I’ve never tried before. And so I trek on the journey of diving into God’s word, reading stories that I’ve read many times before; yet, learning something new.
Learning to Love the Bible
As someone who grew up in a Christian household, the Bible was an important part of my life from early on. I have many memories of my dad teaching me verses and psalms. I remember our bedtime stories were always Bible stories and you can bet that by the time I was teen, I felt like I knew the Bible inside and out.
I could not have been more wrong.