Never fear, Brooklyn is here!

So the events of New York are piling up that we need to share with you, so I might as well start somewhere! I'll attempt a chronological update for you...

First, a little context for you... Part of Kam's seminary internship program with Lakeview includes spending time during the first summer with NAMB church planters in New York. We were blessed to be placed with the Tubbs family of Cornerstone Church at Bay Ridge in Brooklyn. Nathan Tubbs is actually a graduate from the same program Kam is going through, which makes it even sweeter to be paired with them. He and his wife, Lesley, moved from Auburn to Brooklyn after the program with the desire to plant a church in the area. They now have two children— Sophia (2) & Caleb (6ish? months).

So this is why we're in Brooklyn for 6 weeks. 

I'll begin by telling you a bit about our eventful journey here. We flew out on Friday, May 4th from Atlanta. We were thankful to get to the airport earlier than we expected, which ended up being even more of a blessing than we thought after our bag checking fiasco...

Packing for 6 weeks can be a bit of a challenge and staying up until 3:00am the night before doing it probably doesn't ease the pressure very much, but I was SO proud to have gotten everything into my one big suitcase. Well, that pride was quickly crushed when the lady checking our bags told me there was a weight limit and home girl's bag [that would be mine] was 25 pounds over that limit. Yes, my bag weighed 75 pounds. Yes, the size of an average 11 year old. We had two options— #1: Pay $125 dollars to be able to check my suitcase the size of a 5th grader or #2: check a second bag for $35 dollars [we had already paid $25 each for our first checked bags]. I'll let the logic of these numbers sink in. If they make sense to you, please let me know. We went with door #2.

This picture was definitely not taken in the moment,
but at a later date for posterity sake.

So where did you get a second bag to check, Olivia? Why that's a wonderful question, friend. Kam and I scurried around the Atlanta airport looking for a bag and I got this beauty for around $25 [it was even on sale]. Now if you know me, I'm not a zebra stripes and hot pink kind of gal [it's okay if you are]. Let's just say this fancy thing will be up for grabs when we return and I will not judge you if you want it.

Then we proceeded to open my suitcase in the middle of the airport in order to expel 25 lbs. of luggage from there and into my sassy new bag and both of our carry-ons. I'll save you the suspense, we were successful. At the second weigh-in, I was at 49 lbs. 6 oz. Thanks for the weight loss, kid. The Lord is so kind.  

Whew. Finally, our bags were checked and the KamPughs were headed to security. Spoiler alert: They weren't home free just yet. [Not sure why I just switched to third person. Just shaking it up a bit...]

Don't worry, we weren't patted down or violated
in any way—but this interesting little hand screen
thing did happen.

When my sweet husband walks through the metal detector, he is kindly notified that he has been chosen for a random TSA screening. His barefoot and pregnant [literally] wife walks through immediately behind him in the same line and is also notified that she has been chosen for a random TSA screening. Good times continue to roll for the KamPughs.

Isn't it grace that we can laugh at these things? Okay, so maybe we weren't laughing at the luggage debacle, but our security experience did get the chuckles going. All things for good, right? Let's be real, it could always be worse. And if you're concerned about the extra money we had to spend on our luggage, no worries—I had a sweet friend slip me $200 that morning. I say it again: the Lord is SO kind.

That concludes our airport festivities. We had a successful flight to Raleigh, NC where my husband had a very gospel-centered conversation with the Georgia Tech student sitting next to him, Lukas. He wasn't a believer, but was very engaged in the conversation. Pray the Lord would open his eyes so that he would see his sin and find salvation in Christ alone.

Riding in the cab with my cute husband. I'm so
glad I get to go places with him.

From Raleigh, we flew into good ole LaGuardia airport. Due to our time of arrival, it was recommended that we get a cab to our home away from home in Brooklyn as opposed to folks having to fight traffic to come get us and fight traffic on the way back. So we immediately embraced the big city culture and hopped into a cab. Kameron proceeded to engage our sweet cab driver, Taj Muhammad, [who happened to be a Muslim] in conversation. A few minutes into their conversation [after learning who we were and why we were here] Taj asks Kam, "So who is God?" How about that for a gospel, opportunity? Why is it so hard for me to trust that the Lord will provided these for us... Kameron proceeded to share with him and Taj had lots of questions, definitely coming from his Islamic upbringing. Please pray that Taj would truly see who Jesus was, and is, and is to come. Pray that the Lord would make him restless until he rests in Him—the one true God. 

Our first, somewhat foggy, glimpse of the NYC skyline from our cab window. 

Taj got us safely to our Bay Ridge destination around 7:45 [Eastern time, of course] where we were greeted by Nathan at the home we would be staying in during our time here. We are currently living in the basement of the Curtis family. Paul Curtis is a pastor of a local church here, and they rent out their basement to international students, as well as the occasional intern [like us!]. There are two bedrooms and one bathroom [Rachel, Nathan's sister is in the other bedroom until June. She has been interning at Cornerstone since January]. The basement also houses a pool table, foosball table, and large TV for video gaming. [The Curtis' have 2 boys, Jae (14) and Daniel (10), that come down and hang out here since it also functions as a playroom for them]. There is also a kitchen table for us, along with a full size fridge, microwave and toaster oven. We're very thankful for the opportunity to get to know the Curtis family and enjoy this cozy little abode!

A peek at the Pugh room—fully equipped with a desk, futon, closet and dresser. 

In closing, [don't worry, I still have MUCH more New York episodes for you, but I don't want to get too long winded on my posts] I'd like to give you a little insight on this post's title. I'm not sure how many Newsies fans we have out there, but it is one of Kameron's favorites, and a lot of quotes and songs have been coming out during our time here [Brooklyn plays a big part in this musical]. We actually just found out that they've made it into a Broadway show that is running during our time here. Too bad tickets are outrageous... It's okay, I get enough Newsie reenactments from my entertainer-husband. We don't need no stinkin' Broadway show...

So I thought I'd leave a little clip for your viewing pleasure. Enjoy a glimpse into our world of entertainment :) [The link will take you to an exact spot in this excerpt that I wanted you to see, feel free to watch the clip in full!]
P.S. It blew my mind that the character's name is Spot Conlon, not Spot Collins...