A few words about The Shadow Lady…
I was born in 1978 in Western Washington. As the oldest of three girls, I was somewhat of a tomboy growing up. When I was younger, I enjoyed playing in the cow pastures, making forts, climbing trees in the woods, discovering wildlife in the ditches, and just remaining as long as possible outside until the sun went down.
God blessed me with an amazing family. I learned about Jesus from before I could remember (I’m sure Mom would sing to me from the wooden rocking chair while I was still in her womb), and from the day that my parents brought me home, I was showered with love.
Some might have called me precocious or bright when I was younger, but I didn’t think I was much different from anyone else. I was hungry for knowledge, and curious about things I didn’t know. I also liked being “right” about things. OK, I haven’t changed much in that area.
Well, the forest and fields gave way to the track and gym as I grew older. Soccer, volleyball, basketball, and track were fun team activities that allowed me to build character and friendships as well as muscle mass. Some of my favorite memories of playing sports usually involved my sister Monica. We had a lot of great times together that started back on the carport pavement playing two-square.
After private elementary school and public high school, I choose to attend Seattle Pacific University to study business. While at SPU, I had the opportunity to travel to Papua New Guinea with Wycliffe Bible Translators on a short-term mission trip. I was part of a team of college students curious about missions and wanting to serve using their God-given gifts and skills. Since my studies were in accounting, I signed up for the internal audit team. We had a great time performing an audit for the branch, and Wycliffe benefited from the free services.
After graduating from SPU with an accounting degree, I went into public accounting and became a CPA. Hundreds of tax returns and audits later, I switched hats as a full-time consultant. The clients I worked with varied from manufacturing to bio-tech to financial services.
I’m currently working at Symetra Financial and enjoying the challenging project work in the finance department. I met The Mountain Man while working on a system conversion (see below for details) and we’re both blessed to get to see each other every day on the 15th floor.
What I love about The Mountain Man
The Mountain Man and I met while working on a project at Symetra Financial. Actually, he wasn’t officially assigned to the project when I first met him. He was in the middle of a couple of other mammoth tasks, and he accidentally e-mailed me (and a bunch of other people that were supposed to get the e-mail) with some documentation to review. I read it (of course – remember the curiosity comment above?) and decided to ask him about it later. We then had an actual meeting that week where he had VOLUNTEERED to help us out since we were in serious trouble. I was amazed that he was so willing to serve others. “Something is different about this guy,” I pondered to myself.
One of the first things that really attracted me to The Mountain Man was his big “Bush-Cheney 2004” sign on his cubical wall. At first I thought he was poking fun – I mean, I’m working in a very BLUE city, and hadn’t really come across too many conservatives. But I asked him one day about his favorite talk show hosts (later to discover that we had IDENTICAL preset buttons on our car radios – for the AM stations!), and his responses assured me that he was indeed a card carrying member of the Republican Party (oh-la-la!).
If you talk to The Mountain Man or watch him in action, you quickly realize that he has a servant’s heart. He is swift to set aside his own desires to show someone else that he or she is more important. He enjoys learning about new things more than I do, and he’s an excellent teacher to boot!
There is something else that is amazing about this man – he loves the Lord and trusts Him with his life. I didn’t know it when I first met The Mountain Man, but months before he had prayed very specifically about what he desired for a wife – down to the hair-color! I think God enjoys it when we pray in detail. He knows our hearts better than we do and loves us more than anyone else…I’m convinced that He allowed The Mountain Man and me to meet to serve out His purposes in this world and the next.
"Delight yourself in the LORD, and he will give you the desires of your heart." - Psalm 37:4
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