allow me to introduce myself...

welcome to my new blog. please don't be offended by the lack of capital letters...or my random rants. i consider them part of my charm- and hope you will too! this is entry #1, and it corresponds with my first entry into the blogosphere. i hope this is fun for me, entertaining for you, and helpful to someone. anyone. or funny. i'll settle for funny! let me introduce myself. my name is karín (pronounced kuh-RIN). blame my mother- she was born and raised in belgium. as much as i love my name now, i hated it with a passion growing up. i was a kid long before you could custom order items with any freakish spelling you desire. soooooo, i went through childhood twirling around those little metal racks of bike license plate holders, and belt buckles, and pencils, just praying for a typo that said "karin" instead of "karen". never. not once. oh, how i envied lisa with her personalized notebook and pencil set. oh wow....i digress! i am karin, and i am on a mission. i hope to be, anyway. literally. my passion is mission work, and my heart is in africa. i am on a personal mission to get to the place in my life where i can do full-time, long-term field mission work abroad. this blog is going to be about my life transformation, and the steps i take to achieve my goal. i hope you choose to follow along with me and give me encouragement and guidance on this journey. i have a feeling i am going to need it! as you'll see, i have already taken some drastic steps forward, and it seems that with every giant step forward, i take an even bigger step backward socially. i am finding that the ways of god and the ways of the heart are often in direct opposition to the ways of "the world". it is one thing to know that, and another to live it. this is going to be a wild ride!