Faith, Hope and Love

Everyone has their story. Mine starts about four years ago, when my life was turned upside down. The saying love clowds your judgement is an understatement. A quick synopsis: I went from actively pursing a dream I had since I was a little girl of becoming a corporate pilot to taking a 6 month break from school and ultimately spending two years of my life to put together a case to submit to the CO Mortgage Fraud Task Force. What happened??? Well, like many I fell madly in love at a young age put in high speed after two big events. One was a life changing car accident and the second was breaking the pledge I had once made to myself of waiting until marriage to experience the gift of sex with my husband. After breaking such a pledge, I made a subconscious commitment that this man would be my husband thus avoiding any red flags that may have been there. My world went from being on top to filing backruptcy and hitting rock bottom within a matter of months. Shortly after getting engaged my finance and I moved into our newly purchased home in October, by Superbowl weekend my parents came to stay with me to pick up the dog so that I could stay with my girlfriends and not worry about the dog. By the end of the weekend, I confirmed that my finance was not only cheating but uncovered some things I had been blinded by. The first clue was a bill on the kitchen counter my mom found, his car insurance under my name which had been looped into the home owner's insurance policy. The bills were always under my nose; however, as a young, naive, college student, I never questioned the finances especially by the healthy life tyle we were living. Long story short, I moved back home with my parents, four hours away from where I was going to school. So I took a 6 month break from school to sort things out. The house we purchased was previously owned by his brother and sister-in-law. When I say "We" the note was in my name only; however, a Quitclaim deed was exectued a week after the purchase date to add him to the title. Lucky for me this excluded any option for me to apply for a deed-in-lieu of forclosure or a short sale without my ex agreeing to put the house on the market for 90 days. Initally I got a market analysis done to get an idea of what the house was worth. Come to find that I had overpaid anywhere from $30-$40k. Initially I went the lawyer route just to get them to agree to sell and relinguish the damages. Only to find this was not their first rodeo, so ultimately had to decide do I drag this into a lengthy civil case or fix what is in my control first and then work backwards. My credit was tanking each month as house payments were not being met. He was living in the house receiving rent from a roomate and not paying the mortgage as originally agreed. I was backed into a corner and had to file bankruptcy at 21 years old, something no one should have to ever deal with let alone at such a young age. The love and support of my family and friends gave me the strength to pull myself together and transfer to CU-Boulder. Shortly after moving to the Boulder area, I found an amazing church community which grew my faith by leaps and bounds, there is no way I would have been able to pull through without the people God placed in my life to do community together through small group. I enrolled in a few real estate classes, in which I was blessed to get a professor who cared about his students. Over about a year time frame my professor helped me put together a case file to submit to the CO Mortage Fraud Task Force, which was started in CO as a way to combat against mortgage fraud due to mortage brokers being able to practice without a license. My case was submitted in 2007, I got a job right after graduation in business then transferred to our new office in May of 2008. After moving to Nashville, I went to about 12 different churches until the pastor from Grace Community Church in Clarksville told me about Cross Point. Shortly after attending Cross Point I was plugged into a small group, and my friendships have flourished ever since. This past May, I was telling my story in small group and afterwords found out my ex pleaded guilty to over 5 counts from a case submitted to the mortage fraud task force back in 07, which voluntarily gives up his right to practice real estate, or mortage brokerage. I have grown leaps and bounds as a person over the past four years and feel lucky to be apart of a community that cares so much about people and community groups to do life together. Between serving Saturdays with Preston Taylor, projects to clean up the surrounding community, and greeting at the North Campus, I have found great ways to have a small part in such a wonderful place as Cross Point. Current challenges Cross Point helps me battle is staying on the path of not being sexually active. As a single young adult, I'm 26, not married and for the longest time felt that since I fell once in this part of my life, what's the point. But now realize God gives me the gift of grace...why can't I give myself grace? The biggest battle I continually struggle with is the fear of falling in love and allowing myself to trust another man, my small group has been instrumental in this growth process. I know the day will soon arrive when I am able to give up my need for control and when God knows I'm ready, I will allow myself to stop fighting and just leap. Thanks for all that you do, Jill