before pictures...

Taylor tells people to "look for the potential" when looking at these pictures. If you ask me, you don't have to look very far to see the potential. We fell in love with the "nooks and crannies" of this house, along with its great charm and character. These pictures were all taken before the previous owner moved out, hence all of her stuff in our pictures! Here's a sampling...

yes, it really is plywood in our bathroom...

oh the character : )

4th bedroom - love that carpet!

2nd bedroom - nursery some day??

green bedroom

nice brick wall in the 4th bedroom

kitchen

can't wait to dig my hands into this!

view from the back

huge bay window w/ window seat in the master

built in chest of drawers

love our arch!

living room, sorta...i'm not the best at taking pics

stairs - between living room & dining room

hallway to the kitchen

butler's pantry in hall to kitchen - isn't this cool?

home sweet home

Every time I am reminded about updating my blog, I seem to groan and go, ugh! Only because I can't seem to keep up with this. And every time, I claim that I'll try to do better...but not this time. This time, I'm going to be content with whatever come out and whenever it happens. : ) Life happens.

Speaking of life, we bought a house! Yeah, that happened awhile ago too....June 30th to be exact! I can hardly believe it. While we worked hard and furious for the first 3-4 weeks, things have come screaching to a halt! Not because we want them to, but because we needed a break. Anyway, I want to post some pics and hopefully get some good "before and afters" going. But for now, this will have to do. : )

the next step

As some of you already know, Taylor and I will be moving back to Pennsylvania in the very near future. Less than 2 weeks, in fact! We are super excited to be moving back into Lancaster city. We believe that the Lord has brought us to South Carolina and that He has guided us while we have been here. It has been a good experience for both of us and I feel like it has really helped to grow us as individuals and as a couple. Our marriage has been strengthened and we've been able to grow in many different areas. The journey and the process has been well worth our time here in the South.



It is with great anticipation and excitement that we take the next step in our journey...coming back to Lancaster. We're so eager to see our friends and family and be able to connect with all of you in person! My heart is dreaming of what God has for me and for Taylor as we come back to the place we love. We can't wait to see all of you!



Another fun thing in my life is that I'm selling lia sophia jewelry! I started in December and it has been going really well for me. I'm excited for the possibilities and what lies ahead with this new venture. You can check out my website at www.liasophia.com/sarabrandt .



So our journey continues and a new phase is upon us. We ask that you keep us in your thoughts and prayers as we continue with our process. I hope to update this blog more often in the future. Who am I kidding, though!? : ) I seem to always say that!! Seriously, though, I will try.

hilton head island

This past weekend, I whisked Taylor away for a surprise birthday weekend on Hilton Head Island! His birthday is Jan 23 and mine is Jan 28. He was completely shocked and didn't have any ideas what we were doing until about an hour into the drive. He thought we were going out to a nice dinner. Little did he know, I had our bags packed and in the trunk (where he couldn't see) and we were off on a 4 hour drive to the beach! Friends of ours, Neil & Susan, have a condo that they let us use for free! It was such a blessing. Taylor and I were able to relax and just enjoy one another and the beautiful scenery on the island. It was definitely too chilly to go swimming, but we had a great view of the pool and it was a short walk to the beach, which was awesome! Saturday was a little cold & rainy, but Sunday was beautiful! We had a nice dinner at the Red Fish restaurant, checked out the shops at Sea Pines and Harbourtown, and walked on the beach. It was such a great time.

I really felt like this time was important for Taylor and I to be away together and dream. I felt like the Lord was really speaking to me about dreaming about our future - our home, our children, our future... It was a refreshing time and we are excited about dreaming...

Enjoy some pictures of our trip...

our new home

hey everyone! i promised to upload some pictures of our new home, so here goes...

pretty nice, don't ya say?

welcome!

living room looking into music/office room

music/office room

kitchen

2nd living room

really tall ceilings in here

2nd living room from above

our bedroom - it's pretty big

sitting area in our bedroom

bedroom looking into bathroom

our huge bathroom!

check out our garden tub

large walk-in closet (full of stuff!)

looking out into our backyard

back of our house

so, there you have it. that's the gist of our huge 4 bedroom house! i didn't add the pictures of jonathan & janelle, keziah and mia's rooms either. so, you can probably imagine...the house is big! we feel so blessed to be here. janelle and i were just talking today about how nice it is to have such a beautiful place to live in with lots of space to stretch our legs - and even be out of each other's hair! : ) in all seriousness, things have been going extremely well with all of us living together. there has been tons of grace and it's working out better than any of us ever thought it would. praise God!

that's all for now, but i hope to post more soon.

been a while...

I realize that it has been a while since I have last posted when some of my friends emailed and said that I haven't updated! So, here is a brief update of life for Taylor and I right now...

We just moved....again! This past Friday (Sept 28), Taylor and I moved into a very large 4 bedroom house with our good friends Jonathan & Janelle Jacobs and their two daughters Keziah and Mia. It has been quite a journey for us to come to this place - especially moving in together! But after much consideration and lots of conversations about it, we decided that it was the best thing to do. We now have a lot of space to stretch our legs! Taylor and I are blessed to have the master bedroom so that J&J can have the other 3 bedrooms. Our bedroom is HUGE! And the large bathroom with 2 person tub, stand-up shower and walk-in closet are more than we could have asked for. The downstairs has 2 living rooms, a kitchen large enough for both Janelle and my kitchen stuff and a separate office/music room for the boys! We have a nice back deck and a decent yard for Kezie to run around in. The boys even set up the garage for storage and their weights. I like to call this room their "man cave". We feel so blessed!

The World Outreach Center school has just recently been getting under way. We have meetings a few nights a week where we get together with the leadership, other team and sometimes the community. We have also been growing in relationship with the people here, especially our friends Neil and Susan. They have been wonderful to us since we have been here and we have a lot of fun hanging out with them.

Our team has been doing some fun stuff as well. You can check out our new website at: www.weare.cc . Unfortunately, Taylor and I don't have much on our pages yet, but we will soon. We're working on it! Thanks for your patience! : ) We hope to have our latest newsletter up soon, along with some pictures.

I guess that's all for now. I will try to add some pictures of our new house and us soon. Love to everyone!

hello from south carolina

Hello from South Carolina!

Our new place...the Walnut cabin!

What a view! This is what we see every day!

Wow, we've been here in South Carolina for almost a month now. Hard to believe. I just wanted to update a few pictures of us and where we are living. It's been an interesting journey so far and we are anxious for things to get started here. The WOC officially kicks off in mid-August and "classes" will start sometime in the beginning of September when everyone is finally here! Nate, Terah and the kids arrive this week! Yea!! We're so excited to have them here with us. Taylor has been trained in installing Granicrete countertops, floors and lots of other stuff it seems! : ) He is excited about the prospects that this job has and it seems like you can do a lot of cool stuff with the product. I'm still wondering what life looks like for me in all of this. You can pray for me that the Lord would make this clear in the midst of everything going on here.

How about some more pictures!

Our living room... check out our sweet fireplace!

The kitchen...not bad, eh?

I'll try to post some more pictures later, but this gives you a good idea of what our place looks like and how we are doing down here in South Carolina. Which, by the way, it's hot here! That definitely takes some getting used to. : )