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Life with the Palmers, Pottersville, NY (2026)

03/13/2025

Hello friends,
We just celebrated sweet Abe's 2nd birthday so I decided to take a trip down memory lane and look through all the pics I have of Abe. How sweet, yet heartbreaking, it was. Why do little babies have to grow up?
I praise God that He has grown up our little Abe to be the strong, caring, observant, smart little boy he is. I can't believe how much he knows! I wouldn't trade a day of being his mom and watching him grow and change and become the boy he is.
I pray that God will save him as young as possible and shape him into the godly man he can be. I pray too that He will help Todd and I be the parents we need to be for him.
Will you pray with us for these things?
I could write so, so much and could share way too many pictures, but here are a few that show his changing and growing.
We love you, sweet Abe.

09/09/2024

Well, just like that, Abe is 18 months old! It's been so fast, so good, so hard and so fun.
Todd and I have absolutely loved the blessing of being his parents. Abe is so, so smart and so alert. He sees airplanes long before we do and, if we don't think he sees one, we have to keep looking because he always is right (about that).
He learns words and remembers them so quickly. I think he knows over 160 words, but I stopped counting at 130 because I got tired and forgot which ones I had already counted.
He loves to pick flowers, cook, sweep, and scrub dishes, but also loves splashing in mud, hitting balls, picking up bugs and yelling in his loud voice. He has some pipes for a good singing voice like his dad!
We thank God for Abe and pray so often for his salvation. We also pray for wisdom for how to teach and discipline him well. We'd appreciate your prayers too!
Thank you to everyone who is praying!

08/25/2023

Rachel and I are under contract to buy a house... in Tennessee! I accepted a job with an insurance agency that I originally applied to back in January that didn't work out at the time. Since then, we've been praying about where God would have us. It has been a great time of learning to be present where we currently are, and being good stewards of what God has given us in our current location. This past Friday the same agency offered me a new position before opening it up to the public. Housing was the biggest hurdle, but my childhood best friend Kevin found what we're considering to be a steal for us. On Tuesday, after doing a walkthrough, he offered the asking price on our behalf, and it was accepted on the spot! We have 30 days to complete the closing process from here in Michigan, so PLEASE be in prayer for the closing to go as smoothly as possible. We are unsure as of right now when the dates will be for moving, but I assure all of you who want to help that we will make it known as soon as we know! Thank you!

03/03/2023

Hello family and friends,
Todd and I are very excited to meet our baby soon. It's due date is in 8 days!
Jokingly we say we have that day planned out. We will sleep in until 9, make breakfast and just take the morning slow. Then, around 11:45 am, labor will start and it will be quick and painless and baby will be here before the end of the day. Of course, God has a perfect plan for us and we are just excited to meet our little one soon.
I have definitely felt my body preparing for labor more each day and can tell that we are getting closer. I know many of you will want updates when we go into labor and once baby is born. Todd will do his best to keep everyone up to date, but his first priority will be me and baby.
Thanks to everyone who has prayed for us through this journey even before pregnancy and through it. We have felt so much love and support. Thank you all. Please keep praying!
God bless!

09/06/2022

Hello friends, Todd and I celebrated 5 years of marriage the 21st. What a blessing to have 5 years of experience and growth together with so many more to come. I am convinced that God brought us together and I have never regretted saying yes.
We were very blessed to spend this anniversary with his mom and dad at Myrtle Beach. It was such a relaxing vacation with so many good conversations. I appreciate how any vacation helps to slow us down and helps us take the time to talk and be intentional about seeing each other and not just our busy schedules.
We had so many fun adventures together. We played putt putt, disc golf, we looked for shark teeth (after a 2 minute rundown from a local), and spent hours in the water or on the beach relaxing. We found 305 shark teeth!! I saw a few pods of dolphins in the early morning and saw a few jellyfish on the sand. I also felt one as it caught a wave with me while I was boogie boarding... Overall I am thankful for the moments that God gifts us with to slow down and appreciate the beauty in nature and the gift of solid friendships.
I am so blessed to be married into the family I am. I cannot thank God enough for the parents Todd has and now I have. They are so kind and patient and selfless. They show love in such tangible ways and care so much, I want to exemplify them. I am daily thankful for the man that Todd is too. He is everything I could have prayed for in a husband (here on earth) and I am thankful he chose me to be his wife. He is so kind and patient with me and, though he has seen me at my weakest and most broken point, he is able to point me back to God and love me through it. God knew I needed a friend like him and a leader to do life with. I am so excited for him to be a father and to pour all the love and passion he has into our baby. I am excited for someone else to see a glimpse of what I see in Todd, his passion for truth, his love of nature and animals, his desire for all to grow and try their best, and his kindness.
I know this post is a little all over the place, but this Saturday, I hit 13 weeks of pregnancy! It has been a journey of prayer and surrender. I know God is forming our baby expertly and there is nothing I can do but wait and trust Him to do what is best. We have had our scares and fears, but I know God will do what is best, so we keep praying a prayer of surrender. I pray that God will grow us into the parents we need to be for this little one.
We ask for prayers for this and for our little one to keep growing strong and healthy. We also ask for prayers that our marriage would keep growing and would keep being a light to others. We desire that God will get the glory in our marriage always.
Thank you to all who do pray for us and for our sweet baby! Those prayers are heard, I believe, and the bible says, "the effective fervent prayer of a righteous one accomplishes much". Please keep praying!
God bless!

03/17/2021

Hey everyone, great news! We were finally able to get the therapy Rachel was recommended after being diagnosed with PNES scheduled. We are going tomorrow at 9:30 for the initial visit. We ask for prayers that it goes smoothly and that she is paired with someone who can challenge her and lead her through what steps are needed.
Thank you for your continual care and prayers!

01/27/2021

Hello friends,
God is so faithful to us all the time. What a journey life is as we wait on Him. For four years now, I have had "episodes" and have had no direction as far as what could be going on. Only within this past year we have begun to get some answers.
As many of you know, I had an EEG at home that showed some electrical activity in my brain the doctors believed to be seizure activity. They wanted to do another longer EEG at the hospital with video to piece together exactly what type of seizure, or non-seizure it may be.
This Monday I was admitted for a possible 5 day stay. We prayed it would be short and that I would have episodes early on. God answered those prayers and I had an episode the first night! They got the information they needed from it and it so I got out yesterday. Todd and I both are so thankful I didn't have to stay longer. But we are even more thankful to God for some solid answers!
The diagnosis we got is that I have Psychogenic Non-epileptic Seizures (PNES). PNES is an event that resembles an epileptic seizure, but does not have the sudden change in electrical activity that happens in the brain during a typical seizure. PNES in most cases come from a traumatic event or psychological disorder.
The treatment that the doctor recommended is called Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT). We are looking to schedule this as soon as we can. It is a few months of therapy, but it seems to have a very high success rate. We are very excited and looking forward to me starting the therapy, and hopefully becoming episode free!
Thank you for all of the love, prayers, and support from so many of you!! Thank you to everyone that provided meals and groceries as well.
We are SO thankful for our church family rallying around us.
God bless you all.

10/23/2020

Dear Family and Friends,
So many of you have been faithful to pray for Todd and me as we wait on God for answers to my health problems. Thank you for caring and asking us all the time how things are. You all have been an amazing support group for us.
Yesterday we received the results from the EEG test. The doctor said I have "seizure tendencies on the right side of my head". So, my episodes are seizures.
This journey for answers isn't over, but it's as if the door we needed to walk through was just revealed. This journey began 3 years and 10 months ago. We've seen 4 doctors and a cardiologist, seen 3 chiropractors, a nutritionist, and now a neurologist. I've had countless EKGs, so many blood tests, a couple CT scans, and have worn a heart monitor for 45 days. All of that to eliminate what I didn't have. But now we have a direction.
God has been so faithful through all of this. One passage that has been a lifeline for me is 2 Cor. 4:16-18, "Therefore we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, yet our inner self is being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary affliction is producing for us an eternal glory that is far beyond comparison. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal." Praise God that the bible always has truth for every situation.
Todd has been such a gift to me, staying with me and taking care of me. He's been through all but a handful of my numerous "episodes" as we call them. He's read Psalms and a few other passages to me quite often as I am laying there waiting for it to pass. I am so blessed to have someone like Todd to care for me and help me and do SO MUCH that I wish I could.
We are still waiting on God and still asking for continued prayers going forward. There's some more bloodwork to be done and we are still waiting on an MRI, and we don't have many answers after the initial diagnosis. But, we will wait on God.
Thank you again, and please pray for our next steps!!

08/22/2020

It was our anniversary yesterday!! 3 years filled with so many things. We've lived in 3 states, moved 4 times, had numerous jobs, got a dog, two cats, 7 ducks, and got a niece! We've traveled to a few countries and states and have really experienced a lot together. Sometimes it seems like longer than 3 years that we've been married because of all that has happened. This has all been great, and difficult at times, but the amazing thing about God is that he doesn't waste any experience or trial.
As many of you know, I lost my mom October of 2018. Todd lost his papaw a month later. Along with these heartaches, our whole marriage had been a struggle to get answers about my health. God has grown and is growing us together through these trials. We have experienced what would be hopelessness without God.
When all the doctors fail and there are no answers...
When life seems to slow down to seconds, breathe in...breathe out...
When every plan that we made thus far failed...
When the whole world shuts down and every earthly thing we relied on to remain the same has changed...
GOD IS FAITHFUL! He has not let us down. His plans for us have been far better than our own and we are learning to rely on Him more each day. Our life is FAR different than we planned when getting engaged and married, but what an adventure and lesson it had been!
God is awesome to have made marriage and to have chosen to reveal Himself through it! I've learned so much about love through our marriage. I know neither of us can show it perfectly, but we can choose selflessness and see a glimpse of God's love.
I've never seen a better earthly love shown than in Todd's love for me. I didn't realize that I believed so many lies about love:
-Love will be there until it gets too hard
-No one means it when they say they love me
-No one would love me if they saw the deepest parts of me
By God's leading and grace, Todd has been a true example of love to me, however imperfect. Throught him, I see that God loves me deeper than I know. I am loved and I thank God for this. I pray I can show that same love back to Todd.
We have grown in our love and communication so much, yet we have so far (til death) to go in learning. Pray for us to continue to grow together til God comes back or calls us home.
Here's to 3 years and to the rest of our life. God lead.

06/23/2020

Dear Family and Friends,
Life sure hasn't slowed down since our last post, though so much has changed. We've been through a worldwide shutdown, so that sure changed things!!
My naïve world was given a shock when I saw all the evil and corruption and selfish gain all over the news and heard (and still hear about it) at work. It is easy to give into the seeming hopelessness of it when I don't check myself with truth. I have never felt so HEAVY and burdened until this year, and I even took care of my sisters when I was young. That was different, I suppose. God says, "cast all your cares on me for I care for you." I am learning to focus on what I can do and leave the rest to God in prayer.
I tend to be a little naïve at times, thinking that my safe little world will continue as it is. Also thinking that the world is mostly safe around me, that people aren't too bad, and that most people are fairly sane. Now that I write that, I realize how unbiblical my view is... The bible says that all people are sinners and have no good in them apart from God. Quick reality check!
Naivety can be a good thing, I believe, because I give people the benefit of the doubt. For example, someone is driving too fast, maybe their wife is in labor. Or, someone is rude when they take my order, maybe there's stress at home or they lost a loved one. I don't know.
My naive world was given a shock when I saw all the evil and corruption and selfish gain all over the news and heard (and still hear about it) at work. It is easy to give into the seeming hopelessness of it when I don't check myself with truth. I have never felt so heavy and burdened until this year, and I even took care of my sisters when I was young. That was different, I suppose. I know that God says, "cast all your cares on me for I care for you." I am learning to focus on what I can do and leave the rest to God in prayer.
Todd isn't naïve, he is a realist. He doesn't paint the world in lavender and pink for me, but he also doesn't dump all the bad news that he reads on me. He balances me, when my hopes in people and life seem dashed, by reminding me of truth. That has been a lot of what these last few months have been. I hear something in the news or struggle with family issues, and Todd reminds me of truth and why my joy can't be found in earthly things. God never intended us to be satisfied here, otherwise we wouldn't look for anything more, anything higher.
One thing that has been difficult this year is my work. I am still working at Centreville Schools packing meals. I truly enjoy working-there's something satisfying about a hard day's work done well, but there have been many situations that test my patience and make me check my heart. I am learning that there is definitely a time to speak up and a time to be silent. Silence is becoming a friend of mine while everyone around complains and the news gets worse and work is unpredictable. I cannot change my situation by complaining! My hope IS NOT in how bright the future here on earth looks or in my understanding of it because, if it was, I would have given up. Not on life, but on trying to work hard or even working at all. I do not ever want to be a quitter, and I believe that can be a testimony to others, sticking it through in the tough times.
I pray that God uses me at work to be a blessing and a witness.
Todd is working as a construction worker remodeling a home. His work didn't change at all because he only works with one other guy. He has been learning so many valuable skills that will come in handy if we ever do go to a mission's field. The skills will come in handy even if we don't, I suppose. This seems to be the job he has been most satisfied doing out of all the jobs he's had. I love to hear about the projects they have done when he gets home.
Another new thing is that we have ducks! They are called Khaki Campbells, supposed to be the best ducks for laying a lot of eggs so we got seven of them. We also planted a little garden out back too. We are slowly working towards self sustainability, hopefully.
It has been a year here in Michigan as of June 16th. I didn't expect to stay at this house for this long, and certainly didn't expect it to be our long term home. Todd and I have loved being close to my family. I have had so much time with my sisters that I truly could only wish for in North Carolina. I have gotten close to my dad and we have made so many good friends at church. I know we will miss it immensely if we move, but God always provides what we need. Only God knows what is next to come, so, for now, we are making this home: sewing curtains, planting flowers and gardens, making good friends with our neighbors.
We will see what God has next for us!
Until next post, God bless!

10/23/2019

Dear family and friends,
It has been a bit since we've posted an update on our life.
We have both been working and busy with life. This past weekend made us realize we needed to post again to let everyone know how God's working in and through us.
Todd has been working with Pastor doing construction. He's learning many skills that he can use if we ever build a house. He is also continuing with his internship at the church. He is a leader for the Dock (teen youth group). He is also helping with planning outreach events and leading the WaveRunners (kids program on Wednesday nights).
This past weekend he got to go to Camp Barakel Men's Retreat. He went bow shooting and fishing, but even better than that, he got to hear the Word preached. He got to connect with some godly men and be encouraged and challenged. All around, it was a solid weekend for him. He came back and told me that God worked in his heart and challenged him on the way he had been living as a Christian toward God. God doesn't expect us to work our way to Him. We are "in Him" and we are forgiven. This doesn't excuse us from obeying God, but we will fail, and that failure doesn't make God's grace short. Amen to that!
I have been working at Centreville Elementary School kitchen as a lunch lady. I am very thankful for this job. It is a great job I have to rely on God. I do enjoy it because there's a lady that works with me (just one) who's not afraid of hard work. I also get to see all the elementary kids and be a friendly smile for them. Sometimes the kids come back and help with dishes (they want to!) and I get a chance to talk to them about life.
This weekend, I went away to St. Joe. I went with a team of about 20 people for a two-day training on evangelism. The second day, we went out and shared on the street using rope tricks, math tricks and sketch boards to break the ice. The gospel was shared fully with over 60 people. None accepted Christ while we were there, but God planted the seeds in their hearts for someone to water down the road. Pray for those future waterers and those who heard that God keeps working in them. Our team was only 5 people, but I got to connect with our teens who went (two were my sisters) and I truly enjoyed that. God answered many prayers while I was there. I specifically asked for Him to keep my sickness at bay. I had a cold and felt my voice going. I didn't lose it until I got home! God is good.
Now that we're both back, we are both praying for opportunities to share the gospel. This should be a daily part of our life and shouldn't just be an event. We both are praying for God to soften a few of our neighbor's hearts to the gospel. Two in particular we've had a chance to share some of our testimony or the gospel with aren't saved. Pray with us!

James 5:16b says, "The effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much."
God bless!!

Here's a pic of both of our groups over the weekend!

08/26/2019

Dear family and friends,
Todd and I have just celebrated two years of marriage on the 21st! We couldn't be more thankful for God bringing us together. We didn't have any plans of marriage anytime soon when we met each other, but God has a way of working unexpectedly, and always for our good.
This year has been one of growth, both together and towards God. We have grown in communication, even when it hurts to talk and be vulnerable and weak. We have grown in what love really is. Love is not just a feeling or a passionate desire. Love is seeing the person for the sinner they are and loving them deeper because they are loved by God. I love Todd more now than I knew I could because we have been broken together and imperfect. I am learning that love is a daily choice and action, no matter what I am feeling. It is seeking the other person's well-being and spiritual encouragement and helping them when they fall. I have loved learning to love Todd and pray that I continue to learn.
I know Todd has learned to love me more as well. I have never been so broken, yet so loved, and that points me to God. Todd loves me so deeply and forgives and gives grace when I am so undeserving. God was right when He said that marriage was a picture of Christ and the church. Todd shows me a glimpse of Christ's unconditional love and it makes me want to know God more because of this. Thank you, God, for marriage!
We both ask for prayers always as we grow together for the rest of our lives until eternity. We always have more to learn and learning takes time and struggles, but God is faithful and He promises to complete the works that He started. Praise God!
In the next couple weeks, Todd and I are job seeking and waiting to hear back from them. We'll also be starting up youth group planning and meetings. We covet prayers in these areas as well!
Thank you all who support us in prayers because that is where the power of God is!!
God bless.

Life with the Palmers

03/13/2025

09/09/2024

08/25/2023

03/03/2023

09/06/2022

03/17/2021

01/27/2021

10/23/2020

08/22/2020

06/23/2020

10/23/2019

08/26/2019

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