the way we were.

As is the purpose of most blogs, my hope is to share with you some of ourselves, our thoughts on life, and our journey. Baxter and I find ourselves these days on the cusp of some new and exciting things, which finds me in particular sentimental and reflective.

Now I'm a big believer in the whole idea "you can't know where you're going until you know who you are", and thankfully, the Lord has allowed us some sweet but challenging years to really get to know who we are. I think back about when we got married, and first of all wonder who let kids like us make such a major decision . . . but I also love seeing and knowing how the Lord has been sovereignly present over our every step. Friends in denial, sweethearts to newlyweds, worn out seminarians to life with a 9-5 . . . its been a crazy journey that has quite literally taken us around the world and back, but I can't imagine doing it with anyone else. Baxter is absolutely my dearest friend and soul mate, and life with him is such a fun adventure.

But before I get you all misty eyed and play sweet eighties love ballads in the background, I thought I'd give you a glimpse of some of Team Bentley's earliest days. Brace yourself.




See on that little sidebar where it mentions "a big haired girl from Texas and a long side-burned boy from Alabama"? I wasn't lying was I?!! This lovely gem was taken one of our very first weekends at Samford University in August 2001, and my fellow Samfordites will recognize the glorious background of Vail lobby. What's that you say? A closer view of the carnage? Why of course . . .



I can't decide what's more astounding, how I managed to make my hair that big, or how Baxter's big hair makes his head look so tiny. This treasure of a photo happily makes its home on the side of our fridge, and we love remembering not only how we met, but also how ridiculous we looked. Thankfully God is on His throne, and I grew out my hair and Baxter trimmed his burns.

Now I promise that not all posts will be full of such flattering/self-deprecating photos of Team Bentley, but I thought go ahead and lay it all on the table. No pretenses or skeletons in our closets - bad hair decisions/running photos are OUT!

If you know us well, you know Baxter and I love a good laugh, particularly with or at one another. Hence why this photo stays on our fridge. God has been so good to gift us with the ability to laugh on the good and bad days, and I hope this goodness will be with us the rest of our lives. I love knowing that for all the times, things, and ways we are not, we serve a God who IS. My prayer would be that in this transparency of confessing the ways we are not, be it from poor hair style choices or on a much larger scale, you might more deeply see and love who our God who is. Because that my friends, is what we pray our life will be about. Big hair and bad sideburns to boot.